Overall, this project has taught me a lot! I knew going into it that I wasn't going to learn a ton of language in just a short amount of 12 hours, but I surprised myself I learned more than I thought I would.
I think the biggest thing that this project taught me is empathy. I really learned how to empathize with others who are learning a new language because I know how frustrating it is when I was struggling to learn ASL over this past semester. I couldn't even imagine being in school for eight hours a day and struggling to comprehend that language all day. I can definitely feel more my students more now than I ever would have been able to in the past!
I will be interested to see how much of this I remember in the next coming weeks! I am hoping to stay involved in my church in the sign language department to help me continue to learn :)
FUN OPPORTUNITY! Complete!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Post #11--Let's have some fun!
For my last week of learning sign language I wanted to branch out a little bit and work towards modernizing this if I would ever have to relate to my students. I just went to youtube and googled american sign language to see what we would come up and much to my surprise, I found a lot of great and FUN things that would help liven up any classroom!
Here are some examples, then I will reflect!
Wrecking Ball-Miley Cyrus in ASL (much more appropriate :) )
Call Me Maybe in ASL
Love Story in ASL
To learn more from this videos, I broke down what I knew from the lessons I have learned previously. I found words that I knew and practiced signing them in real life situations. This really puts your signing into perspective because obviously this is really fast and I can only pick out one or two words out of each line of a song because I am trying to listen to the words and watch the signs at the same time.
I think this is an eye opening situation for us as teachers because we may have a student that is learning sign language and we need to realize how hard and difficult it is and show them that we are learning together! This would also be a great activity for your class if you had someone that was deaf or signed to help them learn more about them!
Here are some examples, then I will reflect!
Wrecking Ball-Miley Cyrus in ASL (much more appropriate :) )
To learn more from this videos, I broke down what I knew from the lessons I have learned previously. I found words that I knew and practiced signing them in real life situations. This really puts your signing into perspective because obviously this is really fast and I can only pick out one or two words out of each line of a song because I am trying to listen to the words and watch the signs at the same time.
I think this is an eye opening situation for us as teachers because we may have a student that is learning sign language and we need to realize how hard and difficult it is and show them that we are learning together! This would also be a great activity for your class if you had someone that was deaf or signed to help them learn more about them!
Post #10--Ch.15: The Study of Language
For this post I decided to dive right into our class and learn a lesson from the book to help me understand the basic knowledge behind sign language and dive deeper into the text.
Two types of sign language:
Two types of sign language:
- Alternate Sign Language: System of hand signals developed by speakers for a limited communication in a specific context where speech cannot be used.
- Primary Sign Language: The first language of a group of people who do not use a spoken language with each other.
Origins of ASL:
- Developed from the French sign language.
- Two teachers brought it to America and began training teachers.
- This shows us why the British do not have the same language as ASL because it evolved over time.
The structure of signs include:
- Shape and orientation
- Location and movement
- Primes, faces, and finger-spelling
As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I have learned how difficult the structure of signs is because I am not used to this in English so my hand position has been one difficult topic for me.
Post #9--Lifeprint Lesson 3
This lesson works a lot on facial expressions, which I have learned is SO IMPORTANT in sign language. Since you are not able to speak and give inflection in your voice it is important to be able to communicate those with others.
I worked on learning the numbers 11-20 and began to understand how complicated each finger placement was and how important each finger placement is as well! It is crazy to think that the position of your thumb is important in a sign, but it truly is! I struggled with the numbers because of the different finger placements, but I worked hard and will keep working hard to continue to get better! I think this is a hard thing to do in sign language for me because I am so used to the American number system and we used our hands to do the same thing, but it is different.
Next we worked on tense which WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. For sign language you don't sign every word that you say so the word order is messed up as well, which doesn't help the tense problem because it is different than English. I struggled to understand this topic and I think I will for a long time.
We also worked on adding endings to words like -s, -ed, -ing, etc. I feel like this is the first topic that he didn't explain very well at all. I felt like I was not able to really take anything away from this part of the lesson and this was very frustrating to me.
The video below is what I learned in this lesson!
I worked on learning the numbers 11-20 and began to understand how complicated each finger placement was and how important each finger placement is as well! It is crazy to think that the position of your thumb is important in a sign, but it truly is! I struggled with the numbers because of the different finger placements, but I worked hard and will keep working hard to continue to get better! I think this is a hard thing to do in sign language for me because I am so used to the American number system and we used our hands to do the same thing, but it is different.
Next we worked on tense which WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. For sign language you don't sign every word that you say so the word order is messed up as well, which doesn't help the tense problem because it is different than English. I struggled to understand this topic and I think I will for a long time.
We also worked on adding endings to words like -s, -ed, -ing, etc. I feel like this is the first topic that he didn't explain very well at all. I felt like I was not able to really take anything away from this part of the lesson and this was very frustrating to me.
The video below is what I learned in this lesson!
Post #8--Lifeprint Lesson 2 Part 2
See the video of the last time. I am continuing the last half of the last lesson. For this last half, there are so pretty complicated topics!
The first topic that I worked with was conversation maintenance which is basically saying "huh?!" in an English conversation and telling the speaker to hold on because you are not catching exactly what they are saying. There is no point in continuing the conversation if you aren't understanding them. That is wasting too much energy!
I also learned that any of the words that are blue on the objectives, you can click on and it will explain more than just in the video so if you are just struggling with one particular topic you can go over that topic instead of getting frustrated. Pretty cool that this website is FREE!
I reviewed the vocabulary for this lesson to make sure I was able to identify each word and be able to sign it!
GIRL-[woman, lady]
BOY-[male, man]
BROTHER
CHILD-[also see variation: CHILDREN]
DAD-[parents] [grandpa]
DIVORCE
HAVE
HEY
HOW
HOW-MANY-[also see variation: MANY]
LIVE-[life, address]
MARRIAGE-[husband, wife, marry, married, spouse]
MOM [grandma]
SINGLE-[alone, someone, JUST, ONLY, SOMETHING]
SISTER
SLOW
SPELL-[fingerspell]
WORK
Possession: [his/her/its, my, our, their, yours]
That is the basic lesson! Next we move on to Lesson 3! I am learning A LOT each week and progressing a lot faster than I thought I would!
The first topic that I worked with was conversation maintenance which is basically saying "huh?!" in an English conversation and telling the speaker to hold on because you are not catching exactly what they are saying. There is no point in continuing the conversation if you aren't understanding them. That is wasting too much energy!
I also learned that any of the words that are blue on the objectives, you can click on and it will explain more than just in the video so if you are just struggling with one particular topic you can go over that topic instead of getting frustrated. Pretty cool that this website is FREE!
I reviewed the vocabulary for this lesson to make sure I was able to identify each word and be able to sign it!
GIRL-[woman, lady]
BOY-[male, man]
BROTHER
CHILD-[also see variation: CHILDREN]
DAD-[parents] [grandpa]
DIVORCE
HAVE
HEY
HOW
HOW-MANY-[also see variation: MANY]
LIVE-[life, address]
MARRIAGE-[husband, wife, marry, married, spouse]
MOM [grandma]
SINGLE-[alone, someone, JUST, ONLY, SOMETHING]
SISTER
SLOW
SPELL-[fingerspell]
WORK
Possession: [his/her/its, my, our, their, yours]
That is the basic lesson! Next we move on to Lesson 3! I am learning A LOT each week and progressing a lot faster than I thought I would!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Post #7--Lesson 2 Lifeprint
I am moving on to Lesson 2 and just looking at the objectives, I can tell this is going to be WAY more difficult than the last lesson so I am going to break this down into two lessons for me.
These are the objectives I am going to be covering this lesson:
Lesson Objectives:
___ I am able to recognize and use the yes/no facial expression
___ I am able to recognize and use the wh question facial expression
___ I am able to recognize and produce each letter of the fingerspelled alphabet
___ I am able to use indexing to sign personal pronouns
___ I am able to name several (3 or more) methods of pluralizing concepts
___ I am able to show possession and I know the sign for have.
In this lesson, I worked a lot with family members and asking if I was married, had children, what my mother's name was etc. This was actually a lot easier than I thought! I was extremely impressed! It had a lot of repetition and I had actually retained a lot from the previous week.
I learned to ask, "where you live?" and respond with my address with fingerspelling. Live and address are very similar signs and that's helps a lot! I already knew how to say where and you from the previous lesson so I just had to live to my vocabulary and I added another phrase!
We learned how to ask if you have a job and say "have none". I wish I could say that!
I learned that something and someone are the same sign so that you have to rely on context to distinguish between them. This is the first word that has come up with this problem.
We also started to add prefixes so I know how to add re- onto a word to get remarried for example.
This was an easier lesson than I thought it would be, which means I am progressing! That is GOOD! Sign language is definitely not easy by any means, but all the repetition is definitely helping! I will finish lesson two next week!
These are the objectives I am going to be covering this lesson:
Lesson Objectives:
___ I am able to recognize and use the yes/no facial expression
___ I am able to recognize and use the wh question facial expression
___ I am able to recognize and produce each letter of the fingerspelled alphabet
___ I am able to use indexing to sign personal pronouns
___ I am able to name several (3 or more) methods of pluralizing concepts
___ I am able to show possession and I know the sign for have.
In this lesson, I worked a lot with family members and asking if I was married, had children, what my mother's name was etc. This was actually a lot easier than I thought! I was extremely impressed! It had a lot of repetition and I had actually retained a lot from the previous week.
I learned to ask, "where you live?" and respond with my address with fingerspelling. Live and address are very similar signs and that's helps a lot! I already knew how to say where and you from the previous lesson so I just had to live to my vocabulary and I added another phrase!
We learned how to ask if you have a job and say "have none". I wish I could say that!
I learned that something and someone are the same sign so that you have to rely on context to distinguish between them. This is the first word that has come up with this problem.
We also started to add prefixes so I know how to add re- onto a word to get remarried for example.
This was an easier lesson than I thought it would be, which means I am progressing! That is GOOD! Sign language is definitely not easy by any means, but all the repetition is definitely helping! I will finish lesson two next week!
Post #6--Lesson 1--Lifeprint
For this week, I began with Lesson 1 on Lifeprint, which is a great website to help you begin learning sign language! It breaks the steps down and states the objectives that you are supposed to learn at the beginning of the lesson. It also has a video you watch to make sure you are learning everything that they are teaching you!
The objectives for this lesson are as follows:
Lesson Objectives:
___ I am able to define the term ASL___ I know the common handshapes used in ASL.
___ I am able to fingerspell my name in ASL
___ I am able to count to five in ASL (numbers)
___ I am able to briefly describe the history of ASL
___ I am able to briefly state the gist of Deaf Culture___ I have a basic idea of the meaning of thedifference between ASL and Signed English___ I have a basic idea of the meaning of Pidgin(contact signing)
___ I am able to recognize and sign the vocabulary for this lesson (see below)
___ I am able to recognize and sign the practicesentences for this lesson (see below)
___ I have done a practice quiz
___ I have checked with my instructor regarding how and where to take any graded quizzes.
Bill really does a great job of breaking everything down the video. I learn one word and then we work on phrases for that word. He also really emphasizes facial expressions as well, which I think it great because that is really crucial for us to make sure they sign language speaker is understanding what point we have tried to get across. I have noticed that a lot in the sign language I have observed is how important facial expressions are. This lesson really focused on asking someone what their name was and fingerspelling that back to them. He will sign this to us without us knowing what he is saying and then we will have to sign back without seeing it on the screen. This is definitely an interesting experience that I normally have a look of "huh?" too!
This lesson also focused a lot on question words so I know how to sign what, why, who, etc. This is a crucial part of learning because you most likely will have to ask questions a lot!!
We worked on short phrases and then the answers to those questions so that we could begin to communicate!
This was a great lesson! Feel free to see the video below of the lesson I completed!
The objectives for this lesson are as follows:
Lesson Objectives:
___ I am able to define the term ASL___ I know the common handshapes used in ASL.
___ I am able to fingerspell my name in ASL
___ I am able to count to five in ASL (numbers)
___ I am able to briefly describe the history of ASL
___ I am able to briefly state the gist of Deaf Culture___ I have a basic idea of the meaning of thedifference between ASL and Signed English___ I have a basic idea of the meaning of Pidgin(contact signing)
___ I am able to recognize and sign the vocabulary for this lesson (see below)
___ I am able to recognize and sign the practicesentences for this lesson (see below)
___ I have done a practice quiz
___ I have checked with my instructor regarding how and where to take any graded quizzes.
Bill really does a great job of breaking everything down the video. I learn one word and then we work on phrases for that word. He also really emphasizes facial expressions as well, which I think it great because that is really crucial for us to make sure they sign language speaker is understanding what point we have tried to get across. I have noticed that a lot in the sign language I have observed is how important facial expressions are. This lesson really focused on asking someone what their name was and fingerspelling that back to them. He will sign this to us without us knowing what he is saying and then we will have to sign back without seeing it on the screen. This is definitely an interesting experience that I normally have a look of "huh?" too!
This lesson also focused a lot on question words so I know how to sign what, why, who, etc. This is a crucial part of learning because you most likely will have to ask questions a lot!!
We worked on short phrases and then the answers to those questions so that we could begin to communicate!
This was a great lesson! Feel free to see the video below of the lesson I completed!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Post #5--Basic Words!
http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/m/momdad.htm
I used the above link to work through the 100 basic signs lesson on LifePrint. I really enjoyed working through this website because it broke down every word into a video that I could see someone doing the sign the way it should be done so I was doing it correctly!
I worked through all of the signs and repeated them twice, but 100 signs is A LOT! I worked through those, but I knew I would need to be tested more than that to make sure I really recalled information. I found the video below to be a good example because it quizzed me on the words I just learned, but it broke it down even more into about groups of 10-20 so that I could really remember and work through the information and it did it twice! I got the information about 4 times through this lesson, which was great!
One thing I noticed within this lesson is that many of the words relate to each other especially with genders. Girl and sister were similar, mom and grandma were similar, etc. This helped me remember those words especially when they were grouped close together! This was a smart by this company and I would definitely do this as a teacher too because this helps your students a lot!
I used the above link to work through the 100 basic signs lesson on LifePrint. I really enjoyed working through this website because it broke down every word into a video that I could see someone doing the sign the way it should be done so I was doing it correctly!
I worked through all of the signs and repeated them twice, but 100 signs is A LOT! I worked through those, but I knew I would need to be tested more than that to make sure I really recalled information. I found the video below to be a good example because it quizzed me on the words I just learned, but it broke it down even more into about groups of 10-20 so that I could really remember and work through the information and it did it twice! I got the information about 4 times through this lesson, which was great!
One thing I noticed within this lesson is that many of the words relate to each other especially with genders. Girl and sister were similar, mom and grandma were similar, etc. This helped me remember those words especially when they were grouped close together! This was a smart by this company and I would definitely do this as a teacher too because this helps your students a lot!
Post #4--Back to the Beginning!
I was going to go and move on to begin learning the language, but I had this feeling that I needed to try to understand the deaf community before I fully began immersing myself in the language so I went back to my church. I just decided that I wanted to be more involved in the experience. I moved up to the front of my church (where the deaf community sits, close to the interpreter) so that I could fully understand what the experience was. I was able to then focus solely on the interpreter and not get distracted by anybody us surrounding me. I watched her complete the signs to connect it to what I was hearing. I felt like I was learning more words tonight than I was in the past, but I knew I probably wouldn't remember them in a couple hours. Sure enough, I was right!
I need to find a way to remember the signs after that particular night. Granted, it isn't going to happen that I learned the language in about three hours because that is impossible, but I need to find a way to retain the information. It will absolutely take a lot of time because this is completely different than what I am used to!
Now next week, we will move on to the basics! Beginning with basic words!
I need to find a way to remember the signs after that particular night. Granted, it isn't going to happen that I learned the language in about three hours because that is impossible, but I need to find a way to retain the information. It will absolutely take a lot of time because this is completely different than what I am used to!
Now next week, we will move on to the basics! Beginning with basic words!
Post #3--Alphabet Learning!
This week I used an alphabet chart to work on learning my letters as well as remembering how to spell my name! I knew I was probably able to still spell my name pretty quickly once I looked at this chart, but I wanted to be able to do the whole alphabet.
I first went through the alphabet to learn each letter. I repeated this alphabet a couple of times so I would feel more comfortable with each letter. After that I started with my name. I completed my first name very successfully to memorization after practice. I tried to then put my last name together with my first name and that was definitely more complicated to remember.
If you think about not knowing any of the signs and have the finger spell out all of the words that would be pretty crazy! Thankfully, we have a lot of signs in sign language to help simplify the language!
Post #2--Learning here we come!
For the first week of my ASL learning, I decided to observe the interpreter at my church because that is where I found the original inspiration to complete this project!
When the songs were being displayed on the screen, it was a lot easier to me to follow along, but when it was announcements or the sermon and I was just focusing on listening and not being able to see the words too because I was struggling to complete both. Of course, I learned the word, God and Lord and prayer, but it was overwhelming for the first time of exposure to sign language. I think that if I was learning this language again, I would start off with more of the basics and transition to that experience because I was so overwhelmed with the idea of different words that I didn't know what I was doing.
Reflecting a little--This experience does make you understand how difficult it is because the only way I was keeping up with the interpreter was because I could hear as well. How would it feel like if you couldn't hear and you were trying to keep up? Interesting thought to be able to have. It would be extremely difficult!
I am going to switch to the basics next week!
When the songs were being displayed on the screen, it was a lot easier to me to follow along, but when it was announcements or the sermon and I was just focusing on listening and not being able to see the words too because I was struggling to complete both. Of course, I learned the word, God and Lord and prayer, but it was overwhelming for the first time of exposure to sign language. I think that if I was learning this language again, I would start off with more of the basics and transition to that experience because I was so overwhelmed with the idea of different words that I didn't know what I was doing.
Reflecting a little--This experience does make you understand how difficult it is because the only way I was keeping up with the interpreter was because I could hear as well. How would it feel like if you couldn't hear and you were trying to keep up? Interesting thought to be able to have. It would be extremely difficult!
I am going to switch to the basics next week!
Why did I chose Sign Language?
When I began this journal, I originally thought I was going to do Spanish because I helped chaperone a trip to Costa Rica and I didn't know any Spanish. I originally learned German in high school. I have wanted to minor in Spanish so that I would be better prepared as a new teacher. One day I was sitting in church though and watching the sign language interpreter and remembered how much of a passion I have had for that language and how universal this language is--so that was my decision.
Over this blog, you will see my journey learning a new language (American Sign Language) over a semester. This will teach me not only a new language, but also help me understand how difficult it would be for my ELL students to learn a new language. I will study the language for an hour once a week and we will see how much I can learn in a semester!
Thanks for following along in my journey! Here we go!
Over this blog, you will see my journey learning a new language (American Sign Language) over a semester. This will teach me not only a new language, but also help me understand how difficult it would be for my ELL students to learn a new language. I will study the language for an hour once a week and we will see how much I can learn in a semester!
Thanks for following along in my journey! Here we go!
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