Week Summary

We learned more about classifiers through children's books. I find the books to be a helpful tool to put a picture to what we are learning. It is also something I can practice at home to test my skills. I feel like learning classifiers is a really important aspect of American Sign Language therefore I am excited to learn more about them.

VIdeo

Week Summary

I got 3 videos to upload but that is it. I was also unable to make it to the Monday class and class on Wednesday was cancelled. I did go to an elementary school on Friday and I taught them a couple if signs. They say the best way to learn is by teaching, right? I hope that I am ready for class on Monday and I hope that I can upload more videos.

Videos

ASL Videos

For some odd reason my videos will not upload to Blogger.com. I made them and tried to upload them twice but it failed.
Weekly Summary:
This week we learned a lot about Copysigning and Freesigning. I feel that the hesitation and speed of both exercises are related. I find myself in the same pace for both activities. I know that overtime this will become easier as my learning develops.
Copysigning and Freesigning do differ though. During Copysigning it is up to your mind to keep going for the three minuets. It is more of a challenge not to pause or stop. During Freesigning you have to keep the pace of the one you are copying and your brain is also trying to make the connection of the meaning of the sign at the same time.
I felt that I learned a lot this week in American Sign Language. I hope I figure out how to upload my videos.

Mid-Term Essay

Anna Winslow

ASL 101

Mid-Term Take-Home Essay Exam

        

Trying to decipher such a thing as progress in a class with no limitations brings me to think of how the criteria has been covered. Brainstorming, I saw myself always feeling excited to learn more and that I noticed that I have never turned back to look at what has been learned.

         This American Sign Language class sets my mind in a whole other state. I pass the doorframe and enter a world with no physical voice. I honestly did not think that I was going to be able to go one hundred and ten minuets without speaking. I am known for being a loud and sometimes over verbal person. I was taken aback when “ABSOLUTLEY NO VOICE” was written on the blackboard. No voice. My voice is something I use so often. On Tuesdays I have singing lessons but on Wednesdays I am brought to physical silence.

         This does not mean that I cannot have my voice be heard. In fact, I have learned that through an American Sign Language class I can hear more of my own voice rather than just listening to others around me. In a room where no one can speak, the only person I listen to is myself. I can analyze my thought process of what is being infused into my brain.

         I remember the first class I was always waiting for you to speak, almost as if I was waiting for an actor on stage to break character.  When a word never left you the only way I could understand you was to listen with my eyes. I was given the privilege to acquire a new perspective of thought. A singer will sometimes close their eyes to listen to the sound they are producing. I have to turn off my ears and move all attention to the corneas. I watched your hands move and felt mine moving along. After five minuets I forgot what my body had just done. Was it my right hand that was moving? Left? Where should my palm be? I walked out of class terrified that I was not going to be able to continue a class that needed complete involvement of the eyes. I went to church the next night and found my hands were moving while the pastor was speaking. I was focusing on his hand gestures and repeating them closely to myself. A recurrence rang through me that hopefully I would find the right mind set to learn in a completely different direction.

         I was not recanting to go to the next class but intrigued by what was to come next. Not only was I sitting in a room absorbing a new learning environment, I also didn’t know how to ask questions. I thought people had to test an internal hypothesis: If I do this, then the relevant reaction will be this.

         It was not until the second class that I took a deep breath. You signed, patient. You joked and laughed. I was much more comfortable. All of my worries of being the high school student in a college course class vanished. A new way to look at things was brought to the surface.

         The curriculum was then in attention. I understood where everything was coming from and how to develop a learning pattern. But, with those two gems I was not magically given a fast paced and strategic memory. That problem was solved. You topped of patients with no rush to memorize signs. Memorization was objected.

         With all worries behind, I was able to comprehend a learning pattern. Reaction cards are helpful to the class. I can tell that within each card there is an opinion that will get us to degree or disagree. Heads nod in agreement and the mood is lifted with jokes in a light-hearted fashion.

         Sentiments are shared over the worksheet. Some find them helpful and others view them just as busy work. I find that filling out the worksheets is a wonderful way to have something to refer back to later in the week. I can easily distinguish where my palm is facing. A worksheet that breaks a sign down brings a great amount of clarification. The only frustration with the worksheets was when we first began learning with them and I did not understand how to use this as a learning tool. I soon found out how to take a sign step by step in order of correction.

         Peter Elbow’s fashion seems to be a hard one. I didn’t think of it as a complication but more as a challenge. NO PAUSES. I continually have to remind myself to keep going just as if I was writing with Peter Elbow’s theory. To not stop signing for three solid minuets felt awkward in the beginning. At first, everyone was looking around at one another trying to distinguish a comfortable Signing Space.

         I really just had to let go. Maybe even sign first and think after. Repetition was used simultaneously during Free Sign. I had to repeat signs such as, “Practice,” “Sign,” and, “Pause,” in order to not over think the exercise.

         The difference between speaking in English and using American Sign Language came in more immense amounts then I thought it would before actually starting the class. I had no idea that such a language would have to be broken down with classifiers following nouns, palms facing the right direction, and facial expression. None of those things followed my train of thought when imagining what I was going to be taught in Sign Language class. I didn’t even know that there was a large variance between “word” and “sign.” Just by doing Reaction Cards throughout a lesson I learned something about the culture of American Sign Language. This only pushed me to want to learn more.

         My learning progress has been mainly though the changing of teaching styles. Every time the teaching style is changed I am pushed to learn in a different way.

         I am quizzed throughout the day when I hear a word that I think I know the sign for. My brain wants to make the connection of word to sign. Throughout a regular day I am tossed into different environments and situations, and I feel that American Sign Language has the same feel to it. A new sign is a new situation and a new learning style is a new environment.

For me, to learn more Sign Language is me becoming closer and closer to my goal of being an Interpreter when I am older. With that profession, I will be given fresh conditions and new atmospheres. This class is a perfect way to prepare myself for not only the curricular art of Sign Language but also the culture.