Fifth graders at St. Damian School in Oak Forest, Ill., rehearse Dec. 14, 2020, for their upcoming Nativity concert. Since the students could not sing in music class due to COVID-19, music director Lynn Kingsbury taught them American Sign Language to perform the songs. (Credit: Karen Callaway/Chicago Catholic via CNS.)
CHICAGO â When music teacher Lynn Kingsbury at St. Damian School in the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest learned that her students wouldnât be allowed to sing in class because of COVID-19 restrictions, she made a dream of hers into reality â teaching the students how to sing in American Sign Language.
This year, the fifth gradeâs annual Nativity play and concert featured the students in costume signing all of the songs, along with a fourth-grade angel choir. Students doing remote learning also were featured in the production. The school recorded the concert Dec. 18 and made it available through its Facebook page and website.
âAs Iâve been a teacher here teaching music, Iâve always wanted to incorporate American Sign Language with the lyrics of the songs. Iâve never really had time,â Kingsbury told the Chicago Catholic, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.
âSo when I was told I could not sing this year because of the pandemic because it would spread the virus, I was thinking that it would be a great idea now to incorporate American Sign Language with the school so the students could then sign the lyrics of the songs,â she explained.
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Music is still part of the classes, but the students donât vocalize the song lyrics.
âSigning is a very expressive, beautiful language, so it goes with the whole,â she said. âMusic is very performance-based and sign language is also. The students have just been catching on and loving it.â
Kingsbury is fluent in ASL thanks to her relationships with her three great-aunts who are deaf, including 92-year-old legendary aviator Jean Hauser, who became the first deaf pilot in the state of Wisconsin in 1965 and was Kingsburyâs confirmation sponsor.
âI would sign with her, so I fell in love with it as a child,â Kingsbury said. âIâve kind of always just had it in my life.â
Even though the students wear masks in class, Kingsbury has emphasized to them that part of ASL is also mouthing the words, so they have to do that too.
âI definitely want to follow the deaf community etiquette and Iâve told them all about it. Itâs a whole-body language,â she said. âWe have a nice vocabulary going right now. We could carry on a conversation.â
Learning ASL is something the students will carry with them for the rest of their lives, said Jennifer Miller, principal at St. Damian.
âThey have grasped every bit of this, from our youngest learners, our 3-year-olds, all the way through to our eighth graders,â Miller said. âAnd they are taking this home and they are teaching their parents and their siblings. Their eyes are open to a whole new language and a great communication skill.â
It is opening them up to a new group of people and expanding their faith too, she said.
As an unintended consequence of the classes, Miller said the faculty and staff should probably learn ASL âbecause the kids are going to start communicating and we wonât know what they are saying.â
The eighth graders have already caught on to that, Kingsbury said.
âThey are having fun with it,â she said. âI keep really emphasizing the fact that, âYou are doing something really special here and this is something youâre going to have for the rest of your life. If youâre in college and you have a friend who is hard of hearing or who is deaf you are going to be able to help them interpret or communicate with them.’â
Teaching ASL in her music classes has been beautiful, she said.
âIt just flows so well with music,â Kingsbury said. âAnd I feel good doing it. When youâre a teacher, you get that energy just from the students you teach. And I see that energy, I see that enthusiasm from the students.â
That enthusiasm came through before the pandemic with singing and itâs there now with ASL.
âWhen they say âhelloâ and they are saying âhelloâ in American Sign Language and then âI love youâ in sign language with the hand, how you do that, and in the hallway walking by, with not a word said, the âI love youâ sign with 3- and 4-year-olds, thatâs pretty cool.â
Duriga is editor of the Chicago Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago.