The course is designed to expand conversational skills using the ASL Literature in ASL to ASL approach. The goals are to further refine competence in and performance of all grammatical features. Language activities and cross-cultural discussions may be part of the course. Further activities may include, but are not limited to, linguistic aspects of ASL, storytelling specifically the use of role-shifts and classifiers, stories on current events and strategic interactions. ASL Literature will include ASL literature genre, ASL poetry, Fictional, Non-Fiction, Video - group discussion, Open discussions may be encouraged to explore issues and how best to conduct oneself in given situations. Panel discussions may be administered on given topics, such as Culture (Deaf vs. Hearing), Perspective (ASL, Sign Contact, Literature genres) and History (Deaf President Now, Tent City, Past and Present history). We will cover some genres that our Deaf community value and use often in their daily lives throughout the past several decades! This means the class will focus mostly on visual ASL literature in contrast to English literature, which is a heavily textually based literature.
Requirements:Over the course of the semester students will complete: ASL Literature video-analysis assignments and group discussion, video projects of Genres of ASL Literature (Poetry, Storytelling, Fictional, Non-fiction) and Deaf Studies Presentation. The video analysis assignments will require the viewing and analysis of films that represent ASL literature, and this aspect of the course is designed to support the acquisition of in-depth knowledge about ASL, Deaf culture, and the Deaf community.
Materials: Bird of Different Feather & For Decent, ETC ST WKBK, Once Upon a Sign: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears