Pen pal project connects deaf and hearing students

On Tuesdays, students at the North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) get a little antsy. Not because of a holiday, not because of a class party, but because they are excited to read and write in what’s often a second language for deaf students: English.

On Tuesdays, Coach Collyn Gaffney, the faculty adviser for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) pen pal club, or NCSSM senior Ariel Taylor, who leads the club, delivers a collection of handwritten journals to NCSD filled with letter correspondence between pen pals at the two schools.

About a week and a half later, on a Friday, the NCSSM representatives collect them from NCSD and Ariel spends several hours in the library while other students come to read and write responses. Many students have more than one person to write to.

“I think this has been a very good experience for our campus to theirs, and hopefully for them to us, of getting to know how other people see the world and being confident to ask those questions that you might be like, ‘Ooh, am I allowed to ask that thing?’” Ariel said.

It all began last year, when a senior at NCSSM led a deaf language history and culture forum in the first semester before getting Ariel and a few other students on board to write letters to NCSD in the second semester.

Ariel loved the experience of writing with, and eventually meeting, the NCSD students, and asked Gaffney to facilitate the club again this year.

At NCSSM, a forum is a student-led and created course, while a club is a more relaxed environment where students gather around a common interest.

“The idea was that our students will serve as the model for their students to mimic,” Gaffney said. “It benefits our students because they’re so used to electronics and spellcheck and having Grammarly do it for them, that the idea of having to write and think and put down those complete sentences —”

“You have to slow down,” Ariel finished.

For NCSD, the journal project allows students to get out of their comfort zone and build confidence in communicating with people outside of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

NCSD middle schooler, and first-year pen pal, Daniel Faust pointed out the similarities between him and his NCSSM counterpart, “We both enjoy music. We both enjoy drawing. We both like traveling and going to different states.”

Miles Castillo, a NCSD middle schooler in his second year of pen pal correspondence, said, “When we’re writing, you get to know that person, and you get to know different people. What they like, what color they like — just a variety of different things. Every year it’s a new person.”

NCSD middle school teacher Taylor Hughes explained that one of the biggest surprises many of her students found was the difference in writing skill levels of hearing students.

“They really think anybody who’s hearing is the best writer out of all of us,” Hughes said. “It’s really cool to see the kids figure out there’s all kinds of different ability levels and being able to meet each other where they’re at.”

While the project began last year as a correspondence between NCSSM students and NCSD fourth and fifth graders, it expanded to encompass students all the way through the seniors.

This includes deaf plus students — those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and have additional challenges, such as autism or other cognitive and physical disabilities.

According to Ashley Schlichting, the fourth and fifth grade teacher who pioneered the project with her students at NCSD last year, and Hughes, NCSSM students adapted to their individual pen pals, swapping standard writing for yes-or-no questions and picture attachments to accommodate deaf plus learning and response capabilities.

“Not everybody perceives the world the same way,” Ariel said. “Even though (NCSSM) is very good at being inclusive and encompassing all of that, sometimes you can still get caught in your own little bubble and not realize that there are very different perspectives on the world that can be based on just physically not having the same experiences.”

Ariel graduates at the end of the year, but she said she’s confident some of the juniors will take leadership and continue the journals. Especially after students from both schools meet on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, for Taco Tuesday.