Teaching ASL

A few quick links for ASL teachers:
Level 1 practice sheets: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/curriculum/practice_cards_level_01.doc
Level 2 practice sheets: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/curriculum/practice_cards_level_02.doc
Powerpoints: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/curriculum/powerpoints/index.htm
Gallaudet Font Download: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/gallaudettruetypefont.htm
Where your students can learn to fingerspell:
Teaching advice: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/teachingasl/teachingasl.htm [That is "this" page.]

Hello ASL Heroes!!!
     As a teacher of ASL if you aren't also teaching fingerspelling, numbers, non-manual markers, various inflections, ASL grammar, cultural tidbits, and so forth, you can teach a huge number of "signs" per hour. If you ARE teaching all of the goodies, having regular review quizzes, incorporating history and culture, modeling variations of signs, providing guided practice opportunities, giving students small group interaction time, and letting them ask whatever questions they have, ("What's a video relay service?") then you are going to get through maybe 10 signs per hour (in a beginning level course). And that's okay! That's the way it should be! Thoroughly covering 300 signs and related skills during a course is much better than doing a slipshod job of covering 600 signs. For more on my philosophy regarding curriculum development and ASL instruction (pedagogy) click here.
     Below I'll put some of the most common questions I receive from other teachers of ASL and my answers. Plus below that I'll put some links to various additional advice and tips for teachers of ASL. As time goes on (between teaching my own classes) I'll post more ideas and refine the list. You might also want to check out the archives of my newsletter by visiting "ASL Pah!" at http://aslpah.com
Take care and best wishes for a successful semester.
          Cordially, - Dr. Bill

Question: You state that it takes around 60 to 75 hours to complete each level (ASL 1, ASL 2, etc.) of the ASL University curriculum. Does that include homework or just "in-class" time?

Answer: The "60 to 75" hours per course refers to the amount of time it is going to take a typical distance education student to work their way through the course. Thus the 75 hours can indeed be considered to include "homework" but then again a "distance education course" is "100%" homework in the sense that the student is at home doing the work. The amount of "review-type" homework is going to vary widely depending on individual student abilities. Some students can see a sign a few times and easily recall it later. Others may need five times the review. The "75" hour number is a baseline for students to schedule block out in their calendar at the beginning of their semester to work on this course.

At the college-level "in-class" time -- if you are teaching ASL in-person (actually standing in front of the students) you will find that it takes about 50 minutes to "fully teach*" and review 10 "vocabulary concepts." Thus 15 lessons of 20 signs each will involve 30 hours of active (interactive) instruction and supervised practice time. Then you need to factor in instructional "overhead" (roll call, testing, announcements, etc.).

For what it is worth, at my "day job" at Sacramento State I used to teach 25 lessons in 45 (in-person) contact hours. My students did great. I got excellent evaluations. However, when some colleagues tried to follow the same schedule they had a hard time teaching that many lessons in one semester. So I reduced each level to 20 lessons per semester. It was still too many lessons for most instructors to cover in a semester. Then finally I reduced it to 15 lessons to semester and it seemed to fit the needs of people teaching a three to four hour per week course meeting for 15-weeks (plus a finals week). Thus over time and through testing to see what worked -- "Lessons 1 - 15" became "ASL 1." According to most "state" laws regarding class time, one "college" semester is counted as one "high school" year. For more on this topic see: "Credit."

What I recommend though is "flipping your class." An amazing amount of material can be covered (taught / learned / understood / retained) if an instructor chooses to "flip" their class. Flipping a class is done by having the students do the bulk of their "learning" at home and then they come to class to PRACTICE and apply what they have learned. For an ASL class that means learning the vocabulary and related concepts at home and then coming to class and engaging in activities and games that involve signing. Using this approach I've successfully taught complete levels of ASL courses in as little as 3-weeks (meeting Monday through Thursday for 3-1/2 hours per day during "summer session") and the students ended up signing much better than usual due to the immersive nature of the course and the frequency of exposure.

Definitions:

Vocabulary concept: When I mention teaching a "Vocabulary concept" I'm referring to: "A sign, its variations, applications, and limitations."

Fully teach: When I use the term "fully teach" I mean that the process of "fully" or properly teaching "vocabulary concepts" means introducing the signs, pointing out culturally important aspects of the signs, modeling the signs, reviewing the signs, engaging the student with the signs, having the student engage you with the signs, correcting and adjusting student production of the signs, reviewing the signs, and having students engage each-other with the signs under supervision).

Instructional overhead: By "overhead" I mean the administrative processes (administrative overhead) and social aspects (social overhead) of class that do not directly teach vocabulary or model grammar but that are helpful for the smooth functioning of the class. This includes: greetings (Good morning, how are you?), explanation of rules ("no eating in the classroom"), roll call, social niceties (How was your weekend?), announcements and current events (There is a social this Saturday at the Deaf center. There is a test next Thursday!), warm ups (Go around in a circle each person show me the next letter of the alphabet, a, b, c, ...), administration (John, you are not on the official roster, check with the registration office to see if your tuition payment was accepted), academic information (the syllabus, grading, make-ups, etc.), technical information ("Go to this web address and click on this link, to access the video...,") discipline ("John, turn off your voice," or "John, put away your cell phone,") etc. An "online" class has much less "social overhead" but requires the student to spend much more time figuring out the course requirements and processes.

Homework: Homework can involve self-study. It can also consist of focusing on specified tasks such as taking online-quizzes, doing research papers, attending Deaf events, creating videos, completing worksheets, developing scripts, and practicing individually or with a partner outside of class.

Self-Study: Self-study refers to the act of independently learning material which has not been actively introduced by an instructor. If an instructor tells a student to "go home" and study material which has not been introduced in class then the student is doing self-study is a form of homework. If the material being studied has already been actively introduced by an instructor then the studying of that material is "review" (not "self-study").

Supervised practice time: Time during which the instructor is overseeing the process of students asking each other questions and responding. This includes providing scripts or guidance material, actively observing the students sign, providing corrective feedback when necessary, and responding to student requests for modeling of forgotten or partially forgotten signs.

Answer: There are indeed Powerpoints on the Superdisk. Open up the following folders: asl101/curriculum/powerpoints and you will see them there. Or for updated versions see the same folder at Lifeprint.com/asl101/curriculum/powerpoints/

Question: I have made a hard copy of your lessons to hand out to my students. I add my own comments. Plus sometimes I make adjustments to your punctuation and grammar. Would you like me to send those to you so you can see what I'm changing and adding?

Answer: Yes, certainly! Make sure to identify what page or lesson. For example:
Suggested Revision: Lesson 6:
Old sentence: Yadda yadda yadda.
New sentence: Bing, bang, boom!
Reason: [put a reason here]

Question: I teach three terms and term is 20 hours. How should I deal with 20-hour courses?

Answer: When I'm teaching using my "Responses Per Minute (RPM)" approach I tend to cover at least 2 practice sheets per hour -- which is to say 10 new sentences (at least).

If I'm teaching using a "flipped" classroom approach I could easily cover all 15 lessons of level 1 in a 20-contact-hour in-person class. Google "how to flip your classroom" for information on "flipped classrooms." What I do when teaching "flipped classroom" style is I send the students home to learn the vocabulary and then start each in-person class session with a receptive quiz wherein I sign and they write what I signed. (Daily quizzes insure that the students do their homework and study the vocabulary.) After collecting the quiz I throw the answers up on the overhead screen and provide feedback to the students. THEN we dive into activities and games USING the vocabulary they recently studied online at home. Thus my classroom becomes a place where the STUDENTS do most of the signing and I am the "guide on the side" -- providing feedback and corrective suggestions.

In your level 1 term invest any extra time teaching more fingerspelling, numbers, and conversational tools (such as: SLOW, AGAIN, what-MEAN, ALL AGAIN, SPELL IT, SPELL that letter by letter), plus fun greetings (GOOD-MORNING, etc.) and personally relevant introduction techniques (I/ME BILL. I LIVE SAC. I DEAF. I MARRIED. FOUR CHILDREN, etc.)

Any extra time would be used for review, practice, games, local vocabulary, or student-requested vocabulary.

So, how many lessons you cover is really going to depend on your local needs.

Seems to me that if you don't want to flip your classroom you might want to do 10 lessons per term. Thus you would cover level 1 and level 2 over a period of three terms.

Question:
Dr. Bill,
My problem is with the economy being so bad, my boss cancelled the "Keeping up ASL" class for about four to five years now. ah I might ask my boss to increase my class to three hours a week for 10 weeks (30 hours). That will help with this curriculum. I am going to try to build my numbers up so that I can carry the levels increasingly harder, so that people are happy in their learnin'! No easy task, that's for sure.
- Name on File

Answer/Response:
Dear Name on File,
Do not "rely" on a boss for your income. Go set up your own classes, do your own advertising, and keep the lion's share of the monetary rewards! On the Super-USB (available from my little online bookstore) in the root files of the disk you can find a file titled: "e-report." That file has over 60 pages of information regarding how to earn a decent living teaching sign language. When I was younger I used to feed my family and pay my bills as a freelance ASL instructor. You can too. ASL University easily provides enough lessons and curriculum to teach many levels of community education courses. (Five lessons per six-week course = enough for 9 community-education levels using lessons 1 - 45.)
- Dr. Bill