Silent numbers

Marisa O’Neil

As far as third-grade classes go, Jill Hennessy’s has to be one of

the quietest.

And even when they’re talking, the students in the class at

Lincoln Elementary School sometimes don’t make a sound.

She used to get teased for talking with her hands, so Hennessy

decided to learn American Sign Language. Now she teaches math to her

students using simple -- if you know the language -- signs.

The casual observer may pick up the occasional flash of familiar

signs in her class, such as a single extended finger for “one.” But

on Monday, the students followed instructions and answered addition,

subtraction, multiplication and division problems in sign language

alone.

Once Hennessy got the students’ attention at the beginning of the

lesson, all eyes were on her. A hush fell over the class, and the

students watched intently as she made a series of motions with her

hands.

Suddenly, hands shot up all over the class, eager to answer her

signed question. She pointed at Caileigh Tuma, 8, who signed her

response.

Hennessey made a fist and nodded it up and down in a “yes” to

confirm Caileigh’s correct answer.

“This is how we say ‘divided by,’” Hennessey told her class as she

pointed her two index fingers and swept them downward.

She signed another problem using the new sign and then called on

9-year-old Lucas Brandom.

Lucas held up four fingers and got a nod.

“I’m going to go big,” Hennessey warned her class. She pointed one

finger up, then rounded her hand into a “C.” “If I do that, what does

that mean?”

“A hundred,” the class replied in a rare, talky moment.

Using the sign for 100 and the division sign, she asked another

problem and got another correct answer. In the back of the room, Levi

Swoger, 9, brought his hands up next his face and shook them in a

silent cheer.

Next, Hennessy called Ryan Udkoff, 8, to the front of the room. He

signed a division problem to the class and then called on 9-year-old

Beau Goulding to answer.

Beau held up two fingers and Ryan nodded his hand.

“Good job you guys. Wow!” Hennessy said aloud, and then she

stopped herself short and shook both hands by her face.

The class followed suit.

“You can be as loud as you want with your hands,” she said.

They waved away as loudly as they could.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Marisa O’Neil visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa

area and writes about her experience.