Hunter, Leeanne. “The Embodied Classroom: Deaf Gain in Multimodal Composition and Digital Studies.” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 17 Dec. 2015, https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-embodied-classroom-deaf-gain-in-multimodal-composition-and-digital-studies/.
In her essay, Leeanne Hunter discusses how drawing from Deaf culture and the concept Deaf Gain and implementing this into the classroom can have a positive affect on the learning environment for all students. Hunter begins by explaining that she has two deaf parents and she has already been immersed in the Deaf culture because of this. Hunter wanted to explore how sign language – and all the gestures involved with it – can be used for educational purposes in diverse classrooms. She talks about her personal experience from when her parents came to one of her classes and were not impressed by her students’ presentations in “deaf-friendly” formats. She learned from her parents that nonverbal communication is the art of storytelling through the human body, which her dad demonstrated when he performed a humorous skit involving a teacher and a student. Through practicing this nonverbal communication by using a skit of her own, Hunter realized that all of her students were totally engaged with her, as opposed to looking at their phone or laptop screens. Hunter took this concept and ran with it, including several multimodal assignments into her courses and found that students were able to both articulate through the written word, but also with visual and spatial metaphors shown through nonverbal modes. She goes on to talk about her own course and how she combines literature and digital technology, showing how the exposure to different modes and affordances allows her students to think and feel more deeply than before. By drawing from Deaf Gain, students are able to engage with the works and professor more than if they did not have these multimodal assignments and coursework. They are also learning about valuing all types of people, regardless of any disability or differences.