DEAF-CHILDREN READING FABLES - USING ASL SUMMARIES TO IMPROVE READING-COMPREHENSION

his study was a cooperative effort of two university-based reading edu cators and a reading teacher-librarian who is deaf. An intervention te chnique was designed based on studies emphasizing the importance of us ing American Sign Language (ASL) to build deaf children's background k nowledge before they read materials that support the learning of Engli sh. The teacher used the ASL summary technique; that is, she signed a summary of a fable in ASL without giving the moral lesson before havin g the students read the fable in printed English. ''Retelling scores'' were computed for seven deaf elementary school students who read some fables with the ASL intervention and read other fables without the in tervention. The students' responses in telling the moral lesson of eac h fable were also scored. The data showed that the ASL summary techniq ue increased the quantity and quality of the retelling scores; it also improved deaf readers' comprehension of the moral lessons of the fabl es. A description of the ASL summary technique and a discussion of its implications for teachers are provided.