58-In-Mind: Multilingual Teaching Strategies for Diverse Deaf Students

A highly practical and engaging resource for current and future teachers, 58-IN-MIND describes and demonstrates theoretically-driven, research-based, and classroom-tested best practices for using American Sign Language and English in instruction across the curriculum. The multilingual and multimodal instructional strategies presented here are embedded in approaches that aid learning and foster well-being. This book will support teachers in creating meaningful educational experiences for Deaf students in all grades, from early childhood education through high school.

Each chapter is written by a team of researchers and P–12 teachers with at least one Deaf coauthor. With seventy-five percent of the authors being Deaf, this is the first teaching methods book to harness the expertise of Deaf professionals at this level, highlighting their vital role in Deaf education and in shaping inclusive and effective learning environments. This book meets the need for a resource that recognizes the diversity of Deaf students by creating space in the classroom to honor their home/heritage languages, cultures, races, genders, abilities, hearing levels, and other multiple and intersecting identities. Written in a conversational tone, the book includes core recommendations for instruction of the targeted subject area, examples of key strategies, lessons and real stories from those working in the field, suggestions for practice, and recommended resources.

“58-IN-MIND” in the title refers to the version of the ASL sign "stick" that is made on the forehead, which is equivalent to the English idiom “to stick in one's mind.” As in, when students learn in a culturally responsive manner, the learning is likely to stick. The title also alludes indirectly to the collective aspirations of the chapter authors that the practices discussed in the book will also stick in the readers’ minds, and thus have a transformative impact on the way Deaf students are taught.

Debbie Golos is an associate professor of Deaf Education and lead of the Deaf Education teacher preparation program in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. Her research and development projects focus on mitigating language deprivation in early childhood by fostering language, literacy, and identity development for Deaf children through American Sign Language and through the creation and evaluation of educational media and children’s literature.

Marlon Kuntze is a retired professor from Gallaudet University. He is currently at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, CA as an on-site researcher on student outcomes and is also working with different schools to build a database to help better understand how Deaf students are performing academically.

Kimberly Wolbers is a professor and coordinator of the Deaf Education program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Through various grant projects, she has engaged with and provided professional development to teachers of Deaf students throughout the US, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Morocco, and South Africa.

Chris Kurz is a professor in the Master of Science in Secondary Education (MSSE) program and director of the Mathematics and Science Language and Learning Lab at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. His research interests include signed and written content language and literacy in mathematics and science, Deaf experience with math and science learning, and international Deaf literacy and sign language documentation.