Course Syllabus
American Sign Language 1A

Description

This is the first course in a two-course sequence and focuses on everyday communication in American Sign Language for the Deaf. It introduces students to the basic signs, techniques, and cultural knowledge, which will support the students to start signing beginning level conversational ASL. Each lesson is built upon a familiar topic such as family, self and friends so that students will find meaningful connection to the lessons. Students will be asked to use various media tools including online resources, online dictionaries, a web cam, and the web-based Video Notes tool in Brightspace in order to record their performance in assignment submissions throughout the course. Students will be producing their own signing videos to demonstrate their learning. The goal of this course is to help develop fundamental ASL skills, and to understand Deafness, knowledge, and interest that students will need to advance to the higher levels of ASL courses.

The learning objectives target Mid-Novice-High Level of MI World Language Standards and Benchmarks.

ASL is a sign language that is different from Signed Exact English (SEE). Prerequisites: None

Course Objectives: By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Greet appropriately in ASL in everyday situations
• Initiate and maintain a short ASL conversation
• Explain Deaf perspectives and general myths regarding Deaf culture

Course Outline:

Getting Started – Introduction to the course, tools and media

Unit 1 Introduction to ASL – Basics of ASL handshapes, fingerspelling, and Simple Sentence technique

Unit 2 My Family – Simple Yes/No Question and Information Seeking techniques, and family related signs

Unit 3 My Favorites – Introduction to Topic/Comment Sentence technique, and signs to express one’s preferences

Midterm Exam

Unit 4 Welcome to My Life – Introduction to ASL Directional Verb signs, and signs to express one’s daily activities

Unit 5 My Friends – Importance of Facial Expression, and signs to express one’s invitation, plan-making, and help-offering

Final Exam

Resources Included: Michigan Virtual provides students enrolled in this course a video submission tool within the Brightspace learning management system and access to Lifeprint.com online lesson resources.

Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.

Additional Costs: None

Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue transcripts or diplomas. A final score reported as a percentage of total points earned will be sent to students upon completion of a course. Your school mentor is also able to access this score within the Student Learning Portal. Schools may use this score for conversion to their own letter grading system.

Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.

Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube. NOTE: Students are required to have access to a webcam or other means of submitting video recordings of their performance of American Sign Language as a primary component of their required assessments.

Ensure that your school or district network and device administrator whitelists online resources relevant to the course in which you are choosing to enroll. Ref., Michigan Virtual Course Whitelist

Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/

Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at CustomerCare@mivu.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.

Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at customercare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments, including recording your performance of sign language.

Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:

• Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
• Download and install software
• Use a messaging service similar to email
• Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
• Open attachments shared in messages
• Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
• Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Save a file as a .pdf
• Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
• Insert images or links into a file or html editor
• Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
• Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
• Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
• Use presentation and graphics programs
• Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
• Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
• Create and maintain usernames and passwords

Additional Information: None