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April 25, 2007
Students help classmate with sign language spelling bee
Jesse Cobb didn’t have much to say about his classmates’ help Tuesday, except deciding that it was “cool.”
His buddy Kaleb Brown, though, was up to the “challenge” of spelling a different way to help Jesse get ready for a state spelling bee next week.
“Challenge” was one of the words Kaleb spelled correctly as he and other Jefferson Elementary School fifth graders used sign language to spell. It was all to help Jesse and another hearing-impaired student, Brandon Tingley, qualify for next week’s Statewide Deaf Fingerspelling Bee in Springfield.
Kaleb, one of 12 students who participated, said he knows sign language because Jesse is a friend. He said he was glad to take part in Tuesday’s bee.
“I think it will help him get ready so he’ll do well,” Kaleb said.
Like Jesse, Brandon didn’t say much when asked how he felt about his classmates’ help, though he did say he was “embarrassed” but “happy.” Jesse will advance to the state event on May 4, but Brandon probably won’t go because of a medical appointment.
Kim Janssen, who teaches hearing-impaired classes at Jefferson, said she wasn’t surprised at how readily the hearing students helped Jesse and Brandon.
“They don’t look at my students as anybody different,” Janssen said. “All the students are amazing in their acceptance.”
To qualify for the state event, the students had to have severe to profound hearing loss. Janssen said there aren’t enough hearing-impaired students in the area to have a regional qualifying bee, but the mock bee the school had Tuesday would let the students advance.
Students in fifth-grade classes taught by Marcia Easter and Mindy Pals, where Jesse and Brandon have their home rooms, had sign language spelling bees and the top six students from each class made it to Tuesday’s event.
After several rounds of spelling, Jesse and classmate Gina Liu were left as the two finalists, and ultimately, Gina prevailed. Janssen noted that Gina won the school’s Dennis Cougill Memorial Spelling Bee for fifth-graders earlier this year, so Jesse was up against a strong competitor.
When the event was over, Janssen said the students were accurate on the signs for the letters, even when they misspelled a word. She congratulated them all for spelling “a lot of difficult words” and praised the hearing-impaired students for recognizing the signs for the words and for knowing how to finger-spell each letter.
“There are several hundred words that do not have common signs,” she said. “It’s an amazing challenge for the students to compete.”
The other students in Tuesday’s bee were Alicia Carlson, Bailey Wallace, Gennifer Bridges, Nathaniel White, Amber Daniels, Breanne Pedigo, Alex Tryon, Jordan Montz, Allana Rodriguez and McKayla Martinez. The school’s other fifth-graders looked on during the event, which took place in the school’s gym.
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/04/25/news/doc462ecc53947dd894011671.txt
Posted by 4HL on April 25, 2007 5:25 AM
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