Principal Heather Gibson
taking pride and making strides in ASL culture and curriculum
by Leanne Miller
“All children deserve to learn the history of their language
and its people, the richness of its expression, the beauty of its
poetry. And they deserve to learn it in their native language, be
it English, French or ASL.”
That’s the philosophy that has inspired Heather Gibson to lead
the development and implementation of North America’s first curriculum
based on American Sign Language (ASL).
Gibson is currently principal of ASL Curriculum and Bilingual-Bicultural
Projects for Ontario’s three provincial schools for the Deaf,
in Milton, Belleville and London. She is based at the Ernest C. Drury
Provincial School for the Deaf (ECD) in Milton, where she was previously
principal of the elementary school.
Gibson is one of three recipients of a 2007–08 Premier’s
Award for Excellence in Leadership. The award honours her own commitment
to lead as well as her active encouragement of teachers and staff to
take strong leadership roles and collective responsibility for student
success and achievement.
Gibson has been an advocate and mentor for students and parents in
Deaf communities in Ontario and throughout North America. In the last
decade, Gibson has led a transformation in the way ASL-Deaf children
are educated – lobbying for, helping develop and then leading
implementation of the first language-arts curriculum in North America
that has ASL as its primary language.
The curriculum is fully aligned with Ontario’s standard curriculum,
having the same learning expectations, rubrics, and assessment and
evaluation philosophy. ASL-Deaf children take home the same provincial
report card and write the same EQAO math and literacy tests as other
children.
Using ASL-English interpreter Brenda Kristensen, Gibson expresses
herself with passion and conviction. Gibson sees her work as being
about equity and strongly advocates that the ASL-Deaf community be
treated as a cultural-linguistic minority.
“People using ASL have a culture, as do people using LSQ (Langue
des Signes Québécoises),” she explains. “There
is a distinct language. There’s history, culture and literature.”
Gibson points out that ASL-Deaf children need the same rich experiences
in their first language, ASL, as children whose first language is English
or French.
She asserts that ASL literature – like any literature – is
an important building block that enables ASL-Deaf children to learn
the language, knowledge, values, morals and experiences of the world
around them. It also provides a bridge to English and other languages.
But, she proposes, literary works are intimately tied to the culture
from which they spring and have their deepest meaning and strongest
impact when the storyteller and audience share a common cultural ground.
“Original ASL stories and poetry convey
the experiences and emotions of ASL culture.”
Gibson has worked with colleagues to develop a curriculum that gives
Deaf children these kinds of authentic and meaningful learning experiences.
Previously, poetry, songs and stories were translated from English
to ASL. Deaf Cinderella is a classic example.
This translated curriculum never fully resonated with ASL-Deaf children
because it came from an experience foreign to them. It would be like
an anglophone learning English only through translations of French
literature.
The proof is in the classroom.
“Original ASL stories and poetry convey the experiences and
emotions of ASL culture,” explains Linda Wall, a veteran Grade
5 to 8 teacher at ECD. “They have always been enjoyed in social
circles, but previously never in academic settings.”
The ASL curriculum allows students to finally study these stories
and poems in an academic setting and provides additional perspectives
on their language and culture.
“Students analyze ASL story and poetry formats, as well as the
semantics and conventions, to gain deeper understanding of how our
language works,” Wall explains. “Then they apply this understanding
to create and synthesize their own ASL stories and poems.”
In Wall’s Grade 8 class, students study a classic ASL poem,
I’m Sorry by Clayton Valli, a renowned ASL poet whose PhD dissertation
outlined the features of an ASL poem. They analyze the poem’s
rhythm and rhyme and come to recognize the internal parts and specific
structures of ASL rhymes.
To wrap up the ASL poetry unit, the students write their own poems.
“This activity is a historic first,” Gibson proudly signs.
Gibson has argued that students with strong ASL literacy skills are
able to convey academic knowledge in other content areas more effectively.
We know this is true with English and French literacy, but it just
had not been applied to the ASL context before.
Gibson’s program is completely bilingual and bicultural. ASL
and written English are the languages of instruction, and students
study both in great detail.
“Our curriculum is about enabling our children to build a wider
knowledge of the world at an academic level,” Gibson asserts, “and
written English is a vital component.”
Gibson gives a tour of ECD’s Success Display in the elementary
school’s main hallway, featuring pictures and bios of successful
Deaf people. Among them is graduate Gary Malkowski, who sat in the
Ontario Legislature as a New Democrat MPP from 1990 to 1995 representing
the Toronto riding of York East.
Malkowski’s native language, the one in which he earned his
BA in social work and psychology and his MA in rehabilitation counselling
and the one in which he ran for and won his Queen’s Park seat,
is ASL-bilingual.
Gibson also points out Samuel Thomas Greene. Educated in the US, Greene
came to Belleville in 1870 and became Ontario’s first Deaf teacher
at what is known today as the Sir James Whitney Provincial School for
the Deaf. Greene developed a bilingual approach to teaching his students,
using sign language and written English. Co-founder and first president
of the Ontario Association of the Deaf, he was renowned for his eloquent
public addresses and poetry recitations in sign language.
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Gibson (centre) chats with ASL curriculum-support
teachers Robyn Sandford (left) and Linda Wall at Ernest C. Drury
School for the Deaf in Milton.
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Gibson’s admiration of Greene’s legacy is clearly evident.
She also points enthusiastically to a picture of George Veditz accompanied
by a quotation from 1913: “As long as we have deaf people on
earth we will have signs … the noblest gift God has given to
deaf people.”
Gibson believes in inspiring and empowering students – providing
opportunities for them to develop leadership skills and a sense of
ownership of their school. She tells how students took over assemblies
at her elementary school. They planned, organized and ran the show
while Gibson and the teachers sat on the gym floor with other students,
watching and enjoying.
But Gibson sees the need for education to reach beyond the walls of
the school itself. She has developed ASL classes for the parents and
siblings of students, both hearing and ASL-Deaf, to promote closer
family ties through better communication. She works with other organizations – such
as the Ontario Association of the Deaf, which promotes and protects
the rights, equity and access of Deaf Ontarians, and the Ontario Cultural
Society of the Deaf – to provide resources for parents.
She has also provided workshops for school-bus drivers so they too
would have a better rapport with the students they transport every
day.
“I ran training sessions with help from a few students. The
drivers came and learned some basic ASL vocabulary.”
In 1999 Gibson wrote, “If we want ASL-bilingual children to
be prepared for the 21st century, we need to provide a curriculum that
will equip them with high ASL literacy to access deep knowledge and
understanding of the world around them. The ASL curriculum is this
golden key.”
Fewer than 10 years later, that key has opened a door for many Ontario
students. The Premier’s Award for Excellence in Leadership has
acknowledged Heather Gibson’s contribution to this change and
its impact on children, teachers and parents throughout the province’s
Deaf community.
Premier’s Awards for Teaching Excellence
The Premier’s Awards recognize educators and staff who excel
at unlocking the potential of Ontario’s young people. The awards
are open to everyone working in Ontario’s publicly funded schools,
boards and authorities, including teachers, support staff, principals,
vice-principals, supervisory officers, directors of education and many
others.
Awards are given in the following categories:
- Teacher of the Year
- New Teacher of the Year
- Excellent Support Staff
- Excellence in Leadership
- Team of the Year
- Lifetime Achievement
For more information visit www.edu.gov.on.ca/teachingawards.
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