DEAR Week, Day 3: Get Visual!

Youth and Family Connections

Welcome to DEAR Week 2024!

Day 3: Get Visual!

Our Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing readers tend to be more visually oriented and benefit from texts that connect visuals with language and literacy. Today's resources use dance, television, and the beauty of ASL to celebrate visual perspectives and help make reading more accessible for DDBHH students.

"The Color Monster"

Read by: Pineapple and Cheese

Pineapple and Cheese

Pineapple and Cheese is a great resource for ASL storytelling at a language level and pace that is accessible to students. Exaggerated facial expressions and role shifting also help viewers with understanding! Now with titles in English and Spanish.

Check out all their videos here!

Monster Hands (2024):

K. Kane & J. McMillan

Picture Book

Milo has a big problem. There's a monster under his bed! Fortunately, his friend Mel lives across the street and they can use ASL through their windows to communicate. Can Mel and Milo find their courage and banish the monster using the power of sign language?

Deaf Author

Butterfly on the Wind (2024):

Adam Pottle

Picture Book

Butterfly on the Wind is a celebration of the global Deaf community as Aurora sends her hand butterfly across the world. By imagining her butterfly meeting diverse Deaf individuals around the globe, Aurora builds her confidence just in time for the school talent show!

Deaf Author

Visual Stories in Sign Language (2024):

Brittany Castle

Elementary

Brittany Castle, owner of 58 Creativity, has created a wonderful book that captures the beauty of visual vernacular on the page. Brittany uses a combination of clearly drawn signs and engaging illustrations to share classifiers and visual vernaculars with readers everywhere.

Support Deaf artists and get your copy here!

Deaf Author

The Deaf Girl (2024):

Abigail Heringer

Teen Read

Calling all reality TV fans! Abigail Heringer shares her experience as the first Deaf Bachelor contestant and delves into the upbringing and background that brought her to that point. Abigail's memoir is hopeful, inspirational, and plenty dramatic. What's more real than that?

Deaf Author

Want more recommendations? Check out last year's DEAR newsletters!

Visualizing While Reading

Visualization is a strategy of creating pictures in your mind as you read to increase understanding. Check out some strategies, tips, and tricks about teaching visualization provided by the Pride Reading Program.

Visualize literacy here!

Teaching-Visualizing-Blog-Word-Press image

Want YFC to read with you?

Youth and Family Connections partners with schools and families to provide READ Days. A Deaf, DeafBlind, or Hard of Hearing adult goes into classrooms to read with students, foster a love for reading, and connect with students as a DDBHH role model. Children also receive free books through a CHS/American Library Association partnership!

Request a READ Day!

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Disclaimer: CHS does not necessarily endorse the content of the recommended books. It is the responsibility of teachers and family members to ascertain the appropriateness of the texts for their readers.

CHSYouth@anixter.org