Grades 3–5
Deaf President Now
Read about the week in 1988 when Gallaudet University students won a Deaf president, then answer the questions.
ASL worksheet · Deaf history
Martha’s Vineyard: An Island That Signed
Read about an island where deaf and hearing people both signed, then answer the questions.
- 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:
- Martha’s Vineyard is an island off the coast of Massachusetts. For more than 200 years, starting in the 1700s, many people there were born deaf. In the town of Chilmark, about 1 out of every 25 people was deaf.
- Because deafness was so common, almost everyone on the island learned to sign, hearing people too. Deaf and hearing neighbors fished, farmed and went to town meetings together.
- Hearing people sometimes signed to each other even with no deaf person around, like across a field or a boat.
- Their language is called Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language. Deaf children from the island went to the school in Hartford, Connecticut, where their signs mixed with others. Many experts think it was one of the languages that helped form ASL.
- Over time, people moved away and fewer deaf children were born on the island. The last deaf person who grew up using the island’s sign language died in 1952.
- Where is Martha’s Vineyard?
- Who on the island learned to sign?
- What was the island’s language called?
Teacher tip
Ask kids to imagine a town where everyone signs. What would school, the store or a town meeting be like? Then read the passage.
How to use it
- Underline the answer in the passage before writing it.
- Find Hartford, Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. on a map.
- 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
- Which person from Deaf history would you like to meet?
- Which letters look almost the same? How do you tell them apart?
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 Laurent Clerc
Read about the Deaf teacher who helped start the first permanent school for the deaf in America, then answer the questions.
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.
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