Grades 3–5
Meet Laurent Clerc
Read about the Deaf teacher who helped start the first permanent school for the deaf in America, then answer the questions.
ASL worksheet · Deaf history
Deaf History Timeline
Write each event from the box in the right place on the timeline.
- Grade level
- Grades 3–5
- Time
- About 20 minutes
- Topic
- Deaf history
- Answer key
- Yes, page 2 of the PDF
- Kids practice
- Reading informational text, Answering questions with details from a text, Putting events in time order, Learning about Deaf leaders
What kids do
Printed on the sheet:
- Events (not in order)
- Deaf President Now: Gallaudet University gets its first Deaf president (1988).
- The first lasting school for the deaf in America opens in Hartford, Connecticut (1817).
- The Americans with Disabilities Act becomes law, protecting the rights of deaf people and others with disabilities (1990).
- President Abraham Lincoln signs the law that starts a college for deaf students, now Gallaudet
- William Stokoe publishes a study showing that ASL is a real language with its own grammar (1960).
- At a meeting in Milan, Italy, teachers vote that deaf schools should teach speech instead of sign language (1880).
- Write each event next to its year.
Teacher tip
Have kids underline the year in each event before placing it. The page also works as a review after the other Deaf history sheets.
How to use it
- Find Hartford, Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. on a map.
- Read each passage twice: once for the story and once to find answers.
- Make every handshape with your own hand as kids work. Your hand is the best model in the room.
Watch for
Copying whole paragraphs. Ask for the answer in a few words.
Talk about it
- What did the Deaf President Now students want, and why?
- Why do you think ASL is its own language and not English on the hands?
Take it further
Make a class timeline and add each person or event as you read about it.
US Letter, prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use: print as many copies as you need.
More deaf history worksheets
Grades 3–5
Meet Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell
Read about a hearing minister, a Deaf girl named Alice and the school they helped start, then answer the questions.
Grades 3–5
Martha’s Vineyard: An Island That Signed
Read about an island where deaf and hearing people both signed, then answer the questions.
Grades 3–5
Deaf President Now
Read about the week in 1988 when Gallaudet University students won a Deaf president, then answer the questions.
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