Author:
Camille Daw, Amber Hoye, Mimi Fahnstrom
Subject:
Languages
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Level:
High School, Community College / Lower Division, College / Upper Division
Tags:
  • ASL
  • Classifiers
  • Conversation
  • Fingerspelling
  • Game
  • Language
  • Stories
  • Universal
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
    Language:
    English

    Universal Classifiers, ASL, Intermediate mid, ONLINE

    Universal Classifiers, ASL, Intermediate mid, ONLINE

    Overview

    Students will hold a conversation reflecting on their Thanksgiving Break in the target language. Students will focus on both active and receptive fingerspelling. 
     

    Description

    Description: Students will hold a conversation reflecting on their Thanksgiving Break in the target language. Students will focus on both active and receptive fingerspelling. 

    Keywords: Fingerspelling, Stories, Classifiers, Game 

    World Readiness Standards: 

    • Standard 1.1 - Students engage in conversations and correspondence in American Sign Language to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
    • Standard 1.3 - Students present information, concepts, and ideas in American Sign Language to an audience of viewers on a variety of topics
    • Standard 4.1 - Students demonstrate an understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of American Sign Language and their own languages.

    Idaho Content Standards for World Languages:

    • COMM 1: Interact with others in the target language and gain meaning from interactions in the target language.
    • COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.
    • COMP 2: Investigate, explain, and reflect on the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

    NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements:

    • I can topics that are interesting to me
    • I can describe facts about myself 
    • I can understand messages portrayed exclusively visually
       

    Materials Needed: 

    Warm Up and Main Activity

    Warm-up (2-3 minutes): Visual Vernacular! 
    Different sign languages have different signs and customs.  This makes it difficult for people to communicate with others of foreign countries via sign language. However, classifiers are universal. A story told exclusively using classifiers can be understood by Deaf around the world.

    Watch the two videos signed by Deaf people from different parts of the world

    Facilitate discussion with students: 

    • What was understood?
    • How did classifiers support your understanding?
    • What do you know about sign language in other countries?

    Main activity: Fingerspelling & Game
    Have students get into pairs 

    Each student will pick 5 words to fingerspell to their partners and then switch

    Be sure to emphasize that we need to fingerspell clearly 
     

    Two Truths and a Lie

    Each student will come up with two true facts about themselves and one lie 

    Each student will go around and share their facts 

    The rest of the group will guess which is the lie

    Once everyone has guessed, explain which is a lie and then have that student share some more details on the true facts 
    ***The goal of this game is to foster conversation in the target language**