ASL Resources?

[BusyMom5]

My DD has chosen ASL as her FL requirement.  I have double checked with the colleges that we are near, and it will count.  I need to find some good curriculum to use to teach it!  I would prefer something that has a book or workbook portion, and I do not want an on-line class.  I would prefer video instruction, DVD format if possible.  We do have access to the internet, but we live rural and have limited data access.  We do not have enough data for her to watch a video daily- especially if we are using it for other classes.  If the videos are just af ew times a week, that might work.  

[...................]

hmmm, I was going to recommend Signing Naturally, and it does have a DVD but it's still REALLY hard to learn it without a teacher...no other ideas for you. Most online classes only meet once per week anyway- would that work?

[mazakaal]

My ds wants to do ASL for his high school foreign language as well, so I'm in the research phase. I have no experience with any of the following, but this is what I've found so far:

- Start ASL - they have online and offline options - this it the one I'm leaning toward at the moment and might work for you as you can just download the whole thing

- SigningOnline.com - this is an online course, but not live. I think you stream the lessons (designed to do one per week) and it seems to have online quizzes and things from what I can tell.

- Don't Just Sign - Communicate is a book of ASL grammar that looks good

- Lifeprint.com - might be good for supplements

[Lori D.]

Agreeing with Calming Tea -- it's tough to learn ASL without an instructor unless you, the parent/teacher, are already fluent in the language. Self-teaching, it's not too hard to pick up some vocubulary words. But what's hard about solo-learning ASL are the aspects that are not common with the English language -- the grammar, syntax, classifiers, and expression aspects.

DS#2 took ASL at the community college as dual enrollment and that worked very well. Perhaps that might be an option?

The nice things about doing ASL as dual enrollment were:
- knowledgeable instructor
- fellow students for practicing conversation
- counts as both the for. lang. requirement for high school student admission to college admission AND as the college degree foreign language requirement

Edited March 4, 2019 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

I know NOTHING about these, but here are:

DVD courses:
Learn and Master Sign Language
Sign Language 101
Common Expressions in Sign Language
Idioms and Phrases in Sign Language
ASL Interpreter Training: Receptive and Expressive Skills Training
(or the 13 DVD set that includes the last 3 on this list)

or software + books program:
Start ASL Offline Course

[Garga]

Lifeprint.com comes highly recommended by anyone I could find who knew about it.  I found a few threads here about it and everyone loved it.  We’ve been using it now for ASL I and ASL II this school year and we are also very pleased with it.

It’s self-paced online, but the teacher offers a computer DVD with all the lessons on it if you don’t want to use it online, like if you don’t trust your internet at all.  It’s $19.95 to buy the disc.

If you can use your internet at all, then ASL on lifeprint.com is free.  The videos are on the website and are also on youtube.com (videos 16-30 are on youtube only.).  On youtube you type “lifeprint lesson #” and you can see the lessons.

Lifeprint.com is full ASL I and ASL II college level classes (but my 8th grader is learning just fine.).  You can assign two credits to your high schooler if you do both ASL I and II, since they’re college level.  (Lessons 1-15 are ASL I and 16-20 are ASL II.)  Each lesson has a video (silent—with a screen the instructor can type on to explain things to you), and then links to important topics about ASL.  You’ve got to read the links in the objectives to properly learn ASL.  Each lesson also has all of the vocabulary listed with that lesson.  If you click on the listed vocabulary word, it shows you how to do that sign, plus important information about the sign (so if you’re learning, be sure to click on every vocab word.)  There are also practice sentences so you can practice signs together.  I click on EVERYTHING for each lesson because each item is important to read so you can do the signs properly.

There are three different quizzes for each lesson if you want to do those (graded on the computer), and the teacher writes a “story” for you to record yourself signing for practice.  

The teacher does not grade you or work with you directly.  See on his website that he doesn’t really want to be involved in grading you (he already has a full time job teaching ASL in a college.)  If you require him to grade you, then it’s expensive, but he’d rather not.  He created the website for hearing parents to learn ASL for their deaf children.

We do one lesson a week and do a review week every 5 lessons.  My sons love this class and have learned a ton.  My DH learned ASL about 25 years ago and is brushing up on it himself along with us.

Again...I scoured the WTM boards for posts about ASL last year, and lifeprint.com came up over and over and over all with glowing reviews. Since it’s free, you can always try out the first couple of lessons for yourself and see what you think.  Everything you need to learn ASL I and II is on that website.  

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask me.  It took me about an hour to really wrap my head around how to use the website, because there is SO MUCH on it. The instructor is reachable.  I ordered a download for ASL II and he wrote back to me, so if you have questions and want to ask him directly, you can.

 

NOTE:  my boys are learning ASL much better than I am.  I keep forgetting the signs, but they remember them and sign back and forth all the time so it’s nice if you can teach two students.  I think kids retain these things better than adults, perhaps.

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Garga

[mazakaal]

20 hours ago, Garga said:

Lifeprint.com comes highly recommended by anyone I could find who knew about it.  I found a few threads here about it and everyone loved it.  We’ve been using it now for ASL I and ASL II this school year and we are also very pleased with it.

It’s self-paced online, but the teacher offers a computer DVD with all the lessons on it if you don’t want to use it online, like if you don’t trust your internet at all.  It’s $19.95 to buy the disc.

If you can use your internet at all, then ASL on lifeprint.com is free.  The videos are on the website and are also on youtube.com (videos 16-30 are on youtube only.).  On youtube you type “lifeprint lesson #” and you can see the lessons.

Lifeprint.com is full ASL I and ASL II college level classes (but my 8th grader is learning just fine.).  You can assign two credits to your high schooler if you do both ASL I and II, since they’re college level.  (Lessons 1-15 are ASL I and 16-20 are ASL II.)  Each lesson has a video (silent—with a screen the instructor can type on to explain things to you), and then links to important topics about ASL.  You’ve got to read the links in the objectives to properly learn ASL.  Each lesson also has all of the vocabulary listed with that lesson.  If you click on the listed vocabulary word, it shows you how to do that sign, plus important information about the sign (so if you’re learning, be sure to click on every vocab word.)  There are also practice sentences so you can practice signs together.  I click on EVERYTHING for each lesson because each item is important to read so you can do the signs properly.

There are three different quizzes for each lesson if you want to do those (graded on the computer), and the teacher writes a “story” for you to record yourself signing for practice.  

The teacher does not grade you or work with you directly.  See on his website that he doesn’t really want to be involved in grading you (he already has a full time job teaching ASL in a college.)  If you require him to grade you, then it’s expensive, but he’d rather not.  He created the website for hearing parents to learn ASL for their deaf children.

We do one lesson a week and do a review week every 5 lessons.  My sons love this class and have learned a ton.  My DH learned ASL about 25 years ago and is brushing up on it himself along with us.

Again...I scoured the WTM boards for posts about ASL last year, and lifeprint.com came up over and over and over all with glowing reviews. Since it’s free, you can always try out the first couple of lessons for yourself and see what you think.  Everything you need to learn ASL I and II is on that website.  

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask me.  It took me about an hour to really wrap my head around how to use the website, because there is SO MUCH on it. The instructor is reachable.  I ordered a download for ASL II and he wrote back to me, so if you have questions and want to ask him directly, you can.

 

NOTE:  my boys are learning ASL much better than I am.  I keep forgetting the signs, but they remember them and sign back and forth all the time so it’s nice if you can teach two students.  I think kids retain these things better than adults, perhaps.

 

 

I didn't realise that there was so much on Lifeprint. I'm going to have to spend some more time on there. Thanks!

[Garga]

1 hour ago, MEPinUK said:

 

I didn't realise that there was so much on Lifeprint. I'm going to have to spend some more time on there. Thanks!

 

Click on lesson #1.  Once there, click on *everything* that has a link and check it out.  

Also, if you use Lifeprint, I’d recommend taking a couple of days before lesson 1 to focus on learning the ASL alphabet.  It doesn’t take too long at all to learn.  

Also note: the first few lessons have a LOT of things to click on.  I think the instructor is getting you up to speed reallyfast on ASL.  By the 8th or so lesson, there were fewer things in the objectives to click on.

Here’s how we do it: (We do ASL for 50 minutes a day.)

Monday:

Watch the video.  They’re each about 45 minutes and I have to admit, I’m pretty exhausted by the end of them.  It’s a takes lot of brainpower to learn it.  My boys don’t seem as exhausted as I do, so maybe I’m just getting too old to learn things easily.  😞  My boys also remember the signs much more than I do.

Tues:

Start the day by seeing how many of the vocabulary words we remember.

Click on every single vocabulary word and read all the information about each word.  

If there’s time, start reading the objective links

Wed/Thurs

See how many vocab words we remember, then sign the “practice cards” (sentences using the vocab words) to each other.

Read everything in the objectives that we can click on. 

Scroll under the list of vocab.  Sometimes (especially in the early lessons) there is important information there about ASL.  

Friday:

Read anything left to read.

Take practice tests/quizzes. 

Sign the story and record ourselves signing it.  (We don’t memorize the story.  We just prop up the story in front of us and sign it.)

 

After 5 lessons, have a review week.  We’re about to start lesson 21, so let me know if you have any questions.

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by Garga

[mazakaal]

3 hours ago, Garga said:

 

Click on lesson #1.  Once there, click on *everything* that has a link and check it out.  

Also, if you use Lifeprint, I’d recommend taking a couple of days before lesson 1 to focus on learning the ASL alphabet.  It doesn’t take too long at all to learn.  

Also note: the first few lessons have a LOT of things to click on.  I think the instructor is getting you up to speed reallyfast on ASL.  By the 8th or so lesson, there were fewer things in the objectives to click on.

Here’s how we do it: (We do ASL for 50 minutes a day.)

Monday:

Watch the video.  They’re each about 45 minutes and I have to admit, I’m pretty exhausted by the end of them.  It’s a takes lot of brainpower to learn it.  My boys don’t seem as exhausted as I do, so maybe I’m just getting too old to learn things easily.  😞  My boys also remember the signs much more than I do.

Tues:

Start the day by seeing how many of the vocabulary words we remember.

Click on every single vocabulary word and read all the information about each word.  

If there’s time, start reading the objective links

Wed/Thurs

See how many vocab words we remember, then sign the “practice cards” (sentences using the vocab words) to each other.

Read everything in the objectives that we can click on. 

Scroll under the list of vocab.  Sometimes (especially in the early lessons) there is important information there about ASL.  

Friday:

Read anything left to read.

Take practice tests/quizzes. 

Sign the story and record ourselves signing it.  (We don’t memorize the story.  We just prop up the story in front of us and sign it.)

 

After 5 lessons, have a review week.  We’re about to start lesson 21, so let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

This is so helpful, thanks! So do you do each lesson in one week? I thought with there being 15 lessons in each unit, that one would take two weeks with each lesson. Also, do you use a grammar book to supplement, or is there sufficient grammar instruction in the videos?

[Garga]

7 hours ago, MEPinUK said:

 

This is so helpful, thanks! So do you do each lesson in one week? I thought with there being 15 lessons in each unit, that one would take two weeks with each lesson. Also, do you use a grammar book to supplement, or is there sufficient grammar instruction in the videos?

We do one lesson a week and it’s plenty of time.  I was doubtful when I began, though all the reviews I’d read from homeschoolers said that they could do both ASL I and ASL II in a single school year (one lesson/week.).  But those homeschoolers were right.  I even have a son who just got accommodations for the SAT for longer time for the test, and I was sure we would never be able to get through the lessons at a pace of one a week, but we do, relatively easily, even with his slow processing.

To reiterate: the first few lessons, the instructor does throw a lot of reading at you.  Since you know that, you can always read as much as you can in the time you allot for school, and if you don’t get to the readings in the first few weeks, then wait for when the readings get to be fewer and read them then.  Read what you can in the time you have, and eventually, you’ll hit lessons that have very little reading, and you can catch up then.

We do not have a grammar book to supplement.  All the grammar instruction is in the lessons.  It might not be explicitly in the videos, but is in the readings in the objectives or if you scroll down past the vocabulary words for each lesson.  I worried about grammar at the beginning, too, and wondered how we’d figure it out.  But it is slowly revealed over time during the lessons and you don’t have to worry about scrambling to understand all of the grammar right from the get-go.  It will unfold over time.  If you’re thinking, “I’m not sure I understand this TOPIC-COMMENT thing he keeps talking about...” don’t worry.  You will understand it over time.  Just let the time pass and it’ll sink in as you keep getting exposed to it.

[mazakaal]

Thanks!