ASL interpreters benefiting entire classrooms

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Making sure everyone has equal opportunities to learn is a main focus of the Eau Claire Area School District, and for some that may mean extra resources. Interpreters for students who are deaf or hard of hearing help students in the classroom, but they aren’t the only ones benefiting.

There are five interpreters in the Eau Claire Area School District, each helping students who are either deaf or hard of hearing in the classroom. However, through those resources, other students are introduced to American Sign Language (ASL) and may even be inspired by it.

For each lesson, Ave Stefonek watches two people to make sure she captures everything that’s said.

“I always need to be in a good spot so I can see the interpreter and the board,” Stefonek, a 4th-grade student at Putnam Heights Elementary who uses ASL, said. “It really helps me because if I didn’t hear my teacher or I missed a part or I can’t hear, I could just look at the interpreter and I could see.”

These resources aren’t just for Stefonek.

“For our students who are deaf or hard of hearing, we always look at access,” Kylie Winegarden, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing at ECASD, said. “How can we make the classroom, the school, accessible to them given their differences in hearing?”

“It’s really important for that communication to be there for everyone,” Tracy Wirth, an educational interpreter for the deaf at ECASD, said. “We teach sign class every Wednesday right there in the classroom. We take time out of our normal classroom time to teach a sign class and play games.”

These opportunities make a difference for Stefonek.

“I feel happy and I also feel included so I’m not the only one,” Stefonek said.

But the presence of the interpreter also makes a difference in the rest of the classroom.

“Other students can access them too,” Winegarden said.

“I have seen some of our lower language learners pick it up very quickly and be able to use it with friends,” Wirth said. “I’ve seen it with our non-readers using it to help decode. It’s just all-encompassing.”

So while Stefonek is learning each day, other students are also able to experience ASL.

“I think it’s really cool that there’s a whole language through sign and I think it’s really cool that people can communicate through that even though they can’t necessarily hear,” Madeline Lee, a 4th grade student said.

The presence of those interpreters may even spark the next generation of interpreters.

“I want to do something with a sign,” Lee said. “It’d be really cool to be a part of that.”

There is some proof having interpreters in the classroom inspires others to go into the field. Wirth said she was in a classroom with an interpreter when she was in second grade, which made her want to follow this career.

Each week, Wirth holds an ASL lesson for their entire class, sharing words that are relevant to that week’s lesson. The school also shows weekly ASL sign-of-the-week videos in each classroom.