American Sign Language IV

Students will apply the language skills and vocabulary acquired in previous levels to increase their conversational abilities, focusing on specific fine-tuning strategies which will help them reach the next level with their ASL skills and prepare them for college-level ASL courses, as well as prepare them for possible careers involving ASL. Topics include literary works, deaf art, current events, and issues within the Deaf community. Students will deepen their understanding of the Deaf World through a storytelling lens with a brief taste of the ASL interpreting process. Through a more involved study of ASL roots and linguistics, notably classifiers and parameters, students will gain better understanding of the language while comparing it with their native language. Students will be encouraged to use ASL both within and beyond the school setting. In addition to this, they will collaborate with their ASL IV peers from another high school. For example, students might participate in a Deaf literature book club, reading outside of class. They will return to the classroom where they will share in ASL with each other their newfound knowledge.