The American Sign Language Alphabet
I chose to teach the American Sign Language alphabet because it means a lot to me. When I was five years old and waiting to start school, my dad brought home a piece of paper that showed the signs spelling out the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet. I carried that paper around every day until I had mastered each letter. For years, my mom and I would sign words to each other when we wanted to speak in private. We actually still do that today.
Other than signing to my mom, I did not use the alphabet again until eighth grade when a deaf girl transferred into my school. We were all intimidated to talk to her because she always had an older woman around translating. One day I approached her alone and tried to sign a sentence. She could respond to me by talking and she began teaching myself, and my friends, how to sign.
Because of this one girl, I became even more interested in this culture. In high school I dual enrolled at the community college where I took American Sign Language as my second language. I met so many different people from so many unique backgrounds. I am still in close contact with many of the people I have met along the way, including the girl from my middle school.
Children learn languages much easier than adults. This is why I wanted to share a bit of this one with you. I thought that if other people wanted to learn more about this language and culture, and then teach it to others, then we could open up our classrooms to more cultures and give our students tools that may help them interact with others later on.
Love, love, love the video. It turned out great!!
ReplyDeleteDear Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tutorial. I was able to follow all your letters. I also liked that you talked slowly and explained all the letters. My mom also knows the alphabet in sign language.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I really liked your comment.
From,
Miriam (Mrs Yollis's class)
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog. I am glad that you found my video helpful and maybe you and your mom can use American Sign Language like me and my mom have. Keep up the great work blogging!
Sincerely,
Jessica Brown
You are going to LOVE Danneker's SPE class. She teaches the Total Communication method where the teacher leads the class orally and visually with ASL. It is so cool! I started using signs in my class to communicate with them during silent lunches, or when they are shouting out. I have them show me the letter of the answer instead of shouting it out so that all of their peers have a chance to think about it. GREAT video. I am liking this on youtube so that I can use it in my future classroom to open up the year with!
ReplyDelete