American Sign Language I & II

Instructor: Michaela Palka

Room: 320

michaela.palka@psd150.org

Course Description: This course introduces the basics of American Sign Language (ASL). It is designed for students with no or minimal sign language skills to develop basic skills of ASL and knowledge of Deaf Culture. Both expressive and receptive skills will be the focus of the course, with an emphasis on acquisition of comprehension, production and interactional skills using basic grammatical features. Students will participate extensively in interactive classroom activities using a “Voices Off” policy.

Textbook:

Signing Naturally Workbook 1-12

American Sign Language Dictionary (Suggested, but optional)

Standards: ATCFL 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.2

Themes:

Basics/Introducing Oneself

Exchanging Personal Information

Food/Restaurants

Discussing Living Situations

Talking about Family

Deaf History Month

Personal Storytelling

Grading Scale:

A: 100-90

B: 89-80

C: 79-70

D: 69-60

F: 59-50

0: 40

Voice - Off Policy: Research shows that the best way to learn a language is to be fully immersed. This class will be utilizing a voice-off policy for certain portions of the class. Students will be required to use signs and fingerspelling to communicate during these given times. By Quarter 4, it is expected that all students will be abiding to the voice-off policy to the best of their ability at all times.

Homework: Assignments will be given regularly for both expressive and receptive practice of the new vocabulary. These assignments may consist of watching videos, reading articles, or creating videos of their own signing. We will utilize the course website, FlipGrid, and email for these assignments. These assignments are opportunities for the students to practice and master signs prior to the assessments.

Quizzes/Tests: Each week, there will be a quiz/test to assess the students’ knowledge of the new sign vocabulary both expressive and receptive. Each unit will be completed with a unit assessment or project.

Final Project: In Quarter 4, each student will be assigned a Personal Storytelling final project. The final project will be a summative grade and each individual part of the project will be given a formative grade. The student will be graded on vocabulary, concepts, grammar, production of the sign, and glossing of the story. Rubric and specific requirements will be shared with students at a later date.

Classroom Expectations: It is expected that students will bring required supplies to class each day, arrive on time, and complete work in and out of class. Students will be respectful of their peers and instructor, follow schoolwide expectations, and most importantly, have FUN!

A core component of being respectful to peers and instructors is engaging in learning from the start of class till the end of class. Students who do not follow this expectation (ie. showing up to class late, leaving class early, ect) will have individualized consequences at the teacher's descrection.

Absences: If you are absent or miss class for another reason, it is the student’s responsibility to discuss with the instructor about missing work. Any assessment that is missed will need to be made up with the instructor at a time agreed upon by both parties. Grades and missing assignments will be marked in Skyward.

Peoria High School

Teacher's Name

Syllabi

E-Learning Days

Assignments: MS Teams or Paper handed out in class

Additional Resources