Week 8: ASL Student Projects

This week I am going to outline two projects that students can do to deepen their knowledge about ASL. These projects can be adapted to be easier or harder depending on the grade level being taught. Both of them will deepen students knowledge around ASL while allowing them to develop competence in other areas.

Visual Dictionary

In this project, students can work alone or in small groups to create a visual dictionary related to a topic of their choice. For example, students may choose to explore signs related to animals, sports, or school. Once they have chosen a topic, students will create a dictionary containing vocabulary related to their topic. Detailed steps to complete this project are listed below.

1. Provide students with a list of possible topics, brainstorm topics as a class, or have them choose their own in small groups.
2. Once they have chosen their topic, give students time to brainstorm and record vocabulary words in their topic they could include in their dictionary.
3. Provide students access to technology and and ASL resources. Students should have access to online ASL dictionaries as well as deaf community reference sites related to their topic.
4. Now, students will begin to create their visual dictionary. There are a few different options for this depending on the grade level:

a) Have one student sign a vocabulary word while another student take an image or video of them. All of the images/videos of their vocabulary words can be compiled and made into an online dictionary using an online content creator such as google slides or google docs. These dictionaries should be able to be shared with the class.

b) Give students a blank, printed dictionary with multiple pages. As they find the signs for their vocabulary words they can draw and describe them in their dictionaries. When students create their dictionaries this way you will end up with multiple physical ASL dictionaries that students can have access to in the classroom!

5. Once their dictionaries are finished, have students share their work with the class. They can teach their peers some of the signs from their dictionaries.

The Learn How To Sign YouTube channel has a lot of great video tutorials that students could use as starting points when creating visual dictionaries. I have linked a few examples below!

Story Telling

In this project, students will create their own story and tell it to their peers using ASL. This project gives students the chance to work on their writing, verbal, presentation, and listening skills. Detailed steps to complete this project are below.

1. Have students write, edit, and ‘publish’ a story. This story can be about a topic of their choosing or something the teacher wanted them to write about.
2. Once their stories are polished, have students draw out their story using a storyboard or graphic organizer.
3. Have students find a sign for each section of their storyboard or graphic organizer. The sign they choose should sum up the key point of that section of story. Students will record each sign they would like to use.
4. Have students practice telling their story verbally while signing.
5. Once they feel confident, have students present their stories and signs to the entire class or small groups.

Showing students examples of ASL storytelling could be very helpful while they are working on this project. I have linked an example of ASL storytelling from the Statewide Center Outreach Videos YouTube channel below.

So far I have found resources to teach the ASL alphabet and numbers to students as well as projects they can do to learn more about ASL. I am excited to continue exploring ASL and ways to teach it to students! If you are looking to learn more as well, come back next week! Thanks for reading 🙂