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.
ASL worksheet · Deaf history
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.
- 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:
- Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a hearing minister in Hartford, Connecticut. His neighbors had a daughter named Alice Cogswell. Alice was deaf, and at that time there was no school in the
- United States where she could learn.
- Gallaudet saw that Alice was bright and eager to learn. A famous story says he taught her her first word, hat, by pointing to his hat and writing the letters in the dirt.
- Alice’s father, Dr. Mason Cogswell, and other families raised money to send Gallaudet to Europe in 1815 to learn how deaf children were taught. There he met Laurent Clerc, a Deaf teacher at the school for the deaf in Paris, and brought him back to America.
- In 1817 they opened the school now called the American School for the Deaf, and Alice was one of its first students. In 1864 a college for deaf students was started in Washington, D.C. Today it is Gallaudet University, named for Thomas, and his son Edward was its first leader.
- Who was Alice Cogswell?
- Why did Gallaudet go to Europe?
- Whom did he bring back to America?
Teacher tip
Pair this page with Meet Laurent Clerc. Have kids list what each person brought to the school: Gallaudet’s planning and Clerc’s teaching and signs.
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
Mixing up Gallaudet the man and Gallaudet the university. One is named after the other.
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
Research another Deaf leader, artist or athlete and share one fact.
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
Deaf President Now
Read about the week in 1988 when Gallaudet University students won a Deaf president, then answer the questions.
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.
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