A sign of learning

Christine Carrillo

Getting a group of kindergartners to sing in unison isn’t the easiest

task, but for Carol Jewell, it wasn’t enough of a challenge.

She decided that, not only would she get them to sing together,

she’d get them to sign the words as they sang them.

“A told B, B told C, ‘I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut

tree,’” Jewell’s early bird class at Andersen Elementary School in

Newport Beach sang together as their hands signed right along.

The students, all 10 of them, sat in the front of Jewell’s

classroom on Thursday morning, singing, reading and playing games --

signing as they went.

“I love Mrs. Jewell’s class,” 6-year-old Kellen Ochi said. “I love

Mrs. Jewell’s signing. We are really responsible, and it’s fun

because we can see our names and we can sign our names.”

While learning sign language has increased the students’

excitement about being in the classroom and has given them a way to

re-direct their energy, its implementation holds a much more

significant purpose.

The students learn faster.

“I find that ... it’s another avenue to the brain,” Jewell said.

“By involving the kinesthetic learning, they learn faster.”

When they entered her classroom for the first time, many of her

students didn’t know how to read. Now, more than halfway through the

school year, her students have begun to read, write and dabble in

math.

With so much for her to teach and so much for her students to

learn, Jewell has found that using sign language as a teaching method

in nearly ever subject or lesson plan allows her to reach even more

students.

These students “amaze me everyday,” she said. “They are the joy of

my life -- the joy that brings meaning to my life.”

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Christine Carrillo visits a campus in the

Newport-Mesa area and writes about her experience.