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37 3 Profiles and Procedures A young girl with long brown hair and wide blue eyes saw me sitting in the back of her classroom as she and a friend entered the room. “Who are you?” she asked. I was at her residential school to observe and identify students for my research. I introduced myself to her, spelling out my first and last name and then telling her my name sign. (Name signs are the sign equivalents of spoken names.) I asked her name and she introduced herself to me in the same manner. A second girl arrived and we repeated the routine . While putting on their phonic ears (assistive-listening devices used in many classrooms for deaf children), the first girl asked curiously , “What are you doing here?” I explained that I was here to visit classes, to watch and learn about deaf children. As the rest of the class arrived, students began to cluster off in groups, signing with each other while their substitute teacher tried to get their attention . Valentine’s Day was near and a student approached and showed me the valentines she was making. Satisfied that she had made a connection, she put them down and walked over to join the other children as they formed a semicircle in front of their teacher. Still curious to learn more about this visitor, the first girl turned around and asked me, “Have a husband? A family? A sister?” I answered yes to each and alerted her to the fact that her teacher was trying to get her attention: “Teacher’s calling you.” She looked at her teacher with daring eyes and said, “I want to talk with her. You interrupted. That’s not polite.” As the teacher continued to attempt to call the class to order, a final student entered the room. She sat on the chair nearest to me and turned halfway around a couple of times out of curiosity to ask me questions. “Name?” she asked me. I told her my name and she asked “Deaf?” to which I responded yes. Prior to class the teacher and I had agreed it would be a good idea for the students and I to acquaint ourselves so I could get to know them and satisfy whatever curiosity they might have about their visitor. Once all the students were seated, the teacher allowed me to introduce myself to all of them. I went to the front of the group and told them my name. One of the three girls I had already met jumped in and said competitively, “I know!” “I know we’ve already met, but I have not met most of the other students yet,” I responded. Then I explained to the class that I was going to write a book about deaf children and that I was visiting their class to watch and to learn from them. Busily and competitively , they started asking for information about me, and they told me their names. Not only did they tell me their names and name signs, some of them added “nickname signs,” a concept that was new to me and that they explained as “false” names. Although I was unable to confirm where this concept had come from, I assumed they had been learning about names, nicknames, and name signs in school because one of them asked me how I got my name sign and another student gave the choice of two name signs to assign to him. While nicknames are common in spoken language, “nickname signs” are not a common cultural occurrence among people who use ASL. To an outsider, the class seemed to be a bit out of sync on this particular morning. Perhaps having a visitor was a distraction. The substitute teacher, who was hearing, seemed a bit self-conscious about her communication skills. She expressed to me before the students arrived that perhaps I could help her with her signs. She seemed to have difficulty getting the class in order. As she opened a book to read to them, the students instructed her as to where they had left off the day before. One student got up and turned on the teacher’s phonic ear transmitter, which she had not activated. As the teacher held a book in her hands, the students were eager to point to pictures, anxious to show what they knew and to gain a comfortable space physically where they could all see each other and participate. This physical struggle...

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