Using American Sign Language as Creative Expression!
Help me give my students technology to create and film, edit, and interpret/voice their own ASL works of art using professional devices such as an iPad Pro equipped with iMovie and high quality microphones.
Teaching American Sign Language is unlike any other subject. Not only do we learn a new language, but we learn about new people and a new culture. What's lucky for my students and I is that we are located in Southern California close to California State University, Northridge where many Deaf families/people reside. My students have daily opportunities to interact with Deaf people on campus and off! My students are a part of a diverse campus and adding ASL to their repertoire makes them more conscious and worldy, which makes for well-rounded citizens of our community!
I try to instill the passion of American Sign Language in all of my students, because it truly is a life skill that they can take with them even after high school!
Working with my students, I see their drive and their willingness to learn about others and I want to make sure they learn all that they can! I want them to be comfortable using the skills we've practiced in class and use them to make new friends with Deaf people and consider being a part of a the community as a Deaf Community Ally!
My Project
I teach my students that ASL (or really any language) is supposed to be used with other people and seen by other people. We can't learn a language without showing what we know and sharing our skills with those within certain language communities! With this project, I wanted to work on a performance task with my American Sign Language students that not only show off their ASL skills, but their creativity.
ASL is a visual language that has many layers and I hope to not only foster expressive skills with my students, but start to develop interpreting skills as well!
With my requested materials, the goal is for my students to create cinematic projects where their signing is featured. But, since we want many audiences to enjoy our skill and creativity, we want to include those people who don't know sign language. Students not only will sign in their "movies", but they will also work on voicing their work so even the hearing/non-signing audience can enjoy and understand their work. I hope to use these materials to produce professional works of art that we can show our classmates and school, and to any Deaf/Hard of Hearing and hearing people alike!
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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