Sign Language Curriculum

[Crista]

Several high school students are interested in taking a sign language course as a high school elective.  The students have access to community resources for the class, but we need a core curriculum for the class.  Does anyone have recommendations for curriculum (books or an online class) or any experience in offering this class as an elective?

[Carolyn Martin]

I asked a co-teacher, who has taken some informal ASL classes, what books she would have used. This is what she gave me:

Signing Illustrated by Mickey Flodin

ISBN-13: 978-0399530418.

She also said Signing Made Easy by the same author may be helpful.

[Delmar Oberholtzer]

My school offered an ASL elective for a few years using http://www.asl.tc, a website that has a rough curriculum. It costs about $60 per year for a student account, but it offers lessons, quizzes, and tests.

Pros: All of the material is accessible online, there is a built-in gradebook that contains all of a student’s records, the material is clearly divided with a school setting in mind, supposedly you can get a certificate of completion, a teacher doesn’t really need to know ASL.

Cons: Most of the materials are what the owner of the website uses in his classes (he teaches ASL at a college level), so they sometimes make little sense out of context. it costs money, every once in a while the website mysteriously goes down, students get no experience actually making the signs themselves..

We supplemented it with requiring students to write dialogues using new vocabulary which they then demonstrated to a teacher. Second year students were required to research the signs necessary to demonstrate the weekly Bible memory passage.

[Author]

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