Description

American Sign Language Course 1:
Develop Your ASL Skills | Beginners
Nairobi Oliver

Summary
Week 1: Introduction & Family 
           Introduce oneself & discus family & pets
Week 2: Numbers & Colors
           Discuss how many pets and their colors
Week 3: Hobbies & Food
          Sign about what we like and don’t like
Week 4: Places/people & transportation
          Sign about going places; who and how
Week 5: Calendar/time & Past/Future Tense
          Days of week, week, month, year, clock time, etc & tense.
Week 6: Refinement & Review
           Practice: Correct any mistakes and revise signing skills
Week 7: Refinement & Review
          Practice: Correct any mistakes and revise signing skills
Week 8: Evaluation & Reflection
          Students will be evaluated on their skills and will make a short signing video about their favorite things. Class will share and discuss their ASL journey thus far.

----Implementation Learning in Context----

Teaching Method: Dialogues are often helpful for providing a context for the use of language. They can also be a source of important grammar and vocabulary, providing valuable language input for students. American Sign Language is a language heavily reliant on context. Learning a language in traditional schools often ends up with teaching vocab and grammar comparatively more than the pragmatics(learning to use the language in context or real scenarios). Dialogue practice requires relevant vocab, grammar and pragmatics to be learned simultaneously - so the learner does not practice extensive vocab or grammar that is not needed for that current time.  

----Procedures for each class----
> Review previous topics and homework at the beginning of every class
> Introduce new vocab with mnemonics (memory strategies)
> Form sentences with vocab & practice dialogue 
> We will take turns practicing together one - one and as a group.
> Refine:  corrections/ guidance
> Check for Understanding give homework.

         *Student Tip: Ask lots of questions throughout the lesson(raise hand) to make sure that you are feeling comfortable with all of this new information.