Our standard lesson structure is as follows. We review vocabulary. I practice signing sentences that use this and previous vocab privately before presenting it to her. She has me sign a short story, then we discuss a new grammar concept in ASL. Last week, for example, I watched a video on noun-verb pairs which is how to differentiate the noun form of a verb from its verb form (ex. A rake vs to rake). Nouns use a smaller, quicker movement whereas verbs use longer and slower moves.
I have made two playlists on Youtube of videos by Chris Gorges, Signed with the Heart, Take Lessons, and ASL Meridith to study vocabulary for food, animals, nationalities, school supplies, and body parts. This helps me build my skills independently and quicker than just doing vocab on calls with my instructor.
One thing that I am still struggling with is my facial expressions. I am an expressive person, generally speaking. However, there are specific movements that you have to make with your eyebrows when asking questions. Yes/No questions have eyebrows up while more open ended questions have eyebrows down. When speaking to one person in a group, it is also recommended to keep your eyebrows up to denote specificity.
I need to get better about scheduling times outside of class to study. Last year, during my in person classes, I watched a lot of vocabulary videos on Youtube to pick up more ASL. It is a very easy task since I’m just sitting down with my computer to essentially watch tv for 20 minutes. Still, I cannot bring myself to do it. I think that this has to do with ASL being my only online class now that we are finally getting off Zoom. None of my classes this semester or last semester were virtual which is very different to how things were set up a year ago. This makes me think of the larger context with pandemic era learning environments. I feel that they need to be all or nothing when it comes to virtual education. Either all classes should be online or they should all be in person masking. If you have a mix, then it deprioritizes the class in the setting that you dislike.
Comments
Hi Rosa~
I know you mentioned your experience with Reba so I’m excited to read your journals because I also took a course with her a couple years back as part of this program through Zoom. I was a newbie so I didn’t even get to the proper grammar section so I found the importance of eyebrow movements interesting!