I’ve got some exciting news, I feel like I am finally getting the hang of the alphabet. I watched a few more videos this week and found one that really practiced the alphabet in a way that cemented my learning. I’ve embedded it below if anyone is interested. Basically, the instructor goes through the alphabet nice and slowly, and after introducing each new letter, they go through the entire alphabet again until that next point. This method of revision really helped me to practice each letter and get more comfortable transitioning between them with my hands.
Something else that I did this week was explore some online resources for learning ASL outside of the realm of Youtube. I was blown away at the amount that I found. I’ve listed the main ones I explored below:
An online subscription resource for teaching children ASL that contains multiple modalities for learning ASL in a digital learning environment. This resource was created by a couple whose first child was born deaf and wanted to support her and families like theirs. On this website you can use their resources for a free trial, and progress to investing in monthly subscriptions where you receive new lessons and content each month.
This one is my favorite one I found. It is an online dictionary resource where you can type in any word, and it will give you the definition as well as the ASL sign for it. As well, it has a list of the 100 most popular terms used when first learning ASL, which was really cool for me to explore. Each word in the list is linked to its own video(s) to show its sign. This website was a very simple and straightforward resource to use and could be very useful in teaching and learning ASL for beginners. It could even be a great replacement for activities in younger grades that require students to use Dictionary.com. They would still get to learn the definition/meaning of the word, while getting the added experience of learning the sign.
I attached a screen recording of me demonstrating how it works below!
ASL Forum: ASL Fingerspelling Word Search Generator:
I believe in one of my last posts I mentioned how one of my learning pod members had shown me an ASL word search activity she found. I decided to find a free resource to generate my own word search and try it out. I found this word search generator on a website called ASL Forum, which allows you to add several words of your choosing and develop activity sheets to use. Not only is this a great resource for teachers to use when teaching ASL and incorporating it into the classroom, but I was able to try it out and found it incredibly helpful. I created a puzzle full of names to mimic a potential team-building/icebreaker activity that could be done at the start of a school year to learn classmates’ names. It took me a lot longer than I thought to recognize each letter, but eventually I got it. Check out the word search below!
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