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ASL Poetry

In the School for the Deaf, it’s giggles and laughs as students in high school English classes have started learning about poetry.  Our ASL poets are replicating work of well-known ASL poets and story tellers to combine handshapes, facial expressions, and body movements, to tell stories in fun and creative ways.  Unlike traditional English-spoken verse, ASL poetry transforms "phonetic nuances into visual ones and one-dimensional words into three-dimensional shape[s]."In these pictures, students are copying "Rooster", a poem by deaf poet and artist, Ian Sanborn.  Through the ASL poetry lessons, students learn about alliteration, rhyme, personification, and metaphors.

Eight high school students use ASL to sign "Rooster" to imitate the presenter on their screen