It’s Been a Minute.

Hi everyone. It’s been a minute since my last post.

About a year and a half, but yeah… a minute. And I’m sure you can’t at all guess the reason why…

So let’s catch up! Since my last post in March 2019, I have switched school districts, adopted a dog, gotten married, moved into a house, finished my sixth year teaching, and now I am preparing to teach ASL 3 for the first time. And dreading it.

After the absolute hell that was all of 2020 and the 20-21 school year, I should be more thankful than ever for summer and enjoying time to myself to relax, but unfortunately that’s not happening for me. I’m finishing my Masters of Library and Information Sciences program, preparing for what we’re calling “Wedding 2.0” (aka our wedding reception we had to postpone from last summer until now), figuring out how to go on our honeymoon (with a passport that still hasn’t arrived and might not arrive in time for us to leave), and on top of it all, processing how to teach a class I have no idea how to teach.

In my school, world languages are electives, but most students take them in order to get into college, which, as I’m sure you all know, mostly require either three years of one language or two years of two languages. A lot of my students switched to ASL from Spanish or French or Chinese, so many students only needed two years of ASL and are done. But there are also several who want to take ASL 3, and I have broken those students into two categories: those who need a third language credit and those who love being in my class.

I’m not worried at all about those who love being in my class. I could stand at the front of the room and do the chicken dance all period and they would be thrilled. But for the ones who need a third language credit (and, let’s be honest, the other group too), I need to come up with something exciting! Something intriguing! Something that will make them go, “Ah, I knew I took this class for a reason!” So I’m sitting here, literally 50 days before the first day of school, going Think, Jenna, think! and stressing myself out about the school year before it’s even reasonable to think about it.

Probably the biggest benefit of teaching ASL 3 is that there’s no ASL 4. I can teach literally anything I want, and I don’t have to worry about who will teach them next year or what I have to save for later. Unfortunately for me, I’m about the world’s worst decision maker, so when there’s an unlimited amount of things I could teach… where do I begin? What do they “need to know”? What do they WANT to know? It’s very hard to plan such things 50 days before the school year starts.

Therefore, I’ve decided to go back to my roots. Full C.I. it is. I’m going to focus on conversations, authentic experiences, and real-world knowledge and topics. I found a couple posts about what people wish they had left high school knowing, and what I realized was that I could help my students learn these very valuable lessons through the medium of ASL! That’s what Comprehensible Input is all about, and I’m ready to get back into that world.

So join me (again) as we venture through the World of C.I. and pretend like the majority of 2020 and 2021 didn’t happen at all. Throughout the summer, I’ll try to post some of my ideas about ASL 1, 2, & 3 as they come to me, then once the school year hits, I’m hoping to post more to my YouTube channel again.

Hope to talk to you guys again soon!

xoxo
Jenna

Story Asking in an ASL Classroom

Need a three day filler lesson?? I got you. This week’s lesson can only be described as amazing, and I had to share it with you all literally as soon as possible.

Just to be as transparent as possible, especially since the internet can make it seem all rainbows and butterflies: I want everyone to know that CI hasn’t ALWAYS worked for me. One of very first lessons I tried with CI back last November was with my ASL 2 class, and it was story asking. Our stories turned out CRAZY… and not necessarily in a good way.

An Alien in Search of his Rocket Ship

Felicia and the Magic Turtle

These stories were creative, but not necessarily *good*.

It took the entire period and it stayed (for the most part) comprehensible, but they were long and drawn out and complicated and once we created the stories, we never looked at them again. There was no reason to — everything that we used in this story was an old concept for my classes. There weren’t any new structures, hardly any new vocabulary, and they just didn’t really care about what happened in them. No one (myself included) was invested in what we had just created. I felt somewhat accomplished, because they had created these huge stories all in ASL, and it WAS super creative and even kinda fun, but the stories weren’t what I would call “good.”

Flash forward to Wednesday. I’ve been successfully doing CI basically every day since we got back from Winter Break and my kids have been growing in leaps and bounds. My ASL 2s are a little upset from time to time that we’re doing the same lessons in ASL 1 and 2, but I just remind them that ASL 2 focuses a little more on harder grammar/vocabulary, and it’s better than the boring crap we were doing before! So today’s foray into story-asking was taught to both ASL 1 and 2, and everyone enjoyed it!

Here’s what I did.

Dicteé in an ASL Classroom

This week, I did my second Dicteé of the year, and I’m seeing GREAT things happen here. I first read about how to do a Dicteé in A Natural Approach to the Year, which I purchased for myself for Christmas. (If you don’t own ANATTY, I highly recommend it, but you can also read about Dicteé from Ben Slavic’s blog here.) For languages with a written component, it’s a good way to teach spelling and grammar. In my class, I see Dicteé as an easy, low-prep, low-stress way to show students major differences between English and ASL. My version of Dicteé also introduces students to the world of glossing!

My classes spent the first week back to school learning about the weather and the calendar. Therefore, our first Dicteé of the year was just about that! Here’s what we did:

1. Grammar Moment: Before we even get to the Dicteé, I spend a little bit of time going over time/topic/comment structure. (For ASL 2, I added in negation as well.) Now, when I say “a little bit of time,” I mean a little bit. We don’t spend more than 10 minutes discussing it and practicing it as a class. Before the first Dicteé, I had students do a few easy practice sentences with a partner (like “I went to the doctor last week;” “Next year, Carlos is going to China;” etc.), then we went over it. They corrected their answers and turned it in for 5 points in the grade book. For the second Dicteé, I began by reviewing time/topic/comment, but also taught how sentences with multiple time words goes from general to specific. We did a few practice sentences as a class, this time just verbally. (“I went to the doctor last week on Tuesday” and “The football game is tonight at 5 PM.”)
2. Dicteé Set-up: All students get out a sheet of notebook paper and split it into six boxes. Label the first box EXAMPLE, then number the others 1-5. (The second Dicteé, I just had them label it 1-6 because I didn’t do an example sentence.)
3. Explain: This is an activity for students to try their best to use the grammar we’ve just gone over and translate English to ASL. There are essentially four parts to a Dicteé: I read a sentence out loud in English. Students take that sentence and gloss it into ASL sentence structure on their paper. They record a video of them signing it as best as they can. Then I show them how to properly gloss it, which they rewrite on their piece of paper. Finally, I show them how to properly sign it, which they re-record and submit. I only grade the copied glossing and the copied signing. This is what makes this assignment so low-stress — I’m literally grading students’ copying abilities. They’re showing me what they already know, and then they’re showing me that they can take the input I’m giving them to fix the misconceptions they had.
4. And… go!: I did an example sentence the first time we did Dicteé so students could see what this looked like. (The second time, I didn’t do an example sentence, but I did a “review sentence” of the date.) For the actual Dicteé, I read all 5 sentences and students just listened. Then I broke them down one sentence at a time, and students glossed as I repeated the sentence 2 or 3 times each. Once we had done all 5 sentences, the students recorded their best guess at the whole paragraph. Then I wrote the correct glossing on the board and showed them how to sign it. We reviewed a few vocab words. Students corrected it on their papers, then recorded a second video showing that they could sign it properly with my help. The updated paper copy and updated video get graded (5 pts each).

This activity literally takes the entire period, which I love. Very low prep for me! I only have to come up with 5-6 sentences that my students should be able to sign. The kids stay super focused, because it’s hard work to listen to an English sentence and process how to switch that into ASL! They do a great job, too. They get so excited when I write the correct glossing on the board and they realize they got it right! (I make them rewrite it, even if what they had is exactly what I had.)

Here’s a picture of a student’s before and after paper from my second Dicteé. They circle the differences between their first and second attempts to visually mark what was different.

Need an activity to fill a whole class period? Want to get some grammar practice in? Dicteé is for you, my friend.

xoxo
Jenna

Food Week!

I don’t know about you guys, but my ASL students have been asking since literally the second week of school if we were going to have a “Food Day” this year.

“All the other classes get Food Day!” they say.
“All the other classes are eating cultural food,” I tell them. “A Deaf person’s culture is still American. It would be the same food you eat everyday.”
“SO?!”

After much thinking, I decided there was an aspect of Deaf culture and food I hadn’t necessarily thought about: the Deaf Gain of talking and eating at the same time. So when I switched to CI at the beginning of this semester, I decided that at some point, I wanted to give Food Day a try. It naturally came up during this Cycle (AKA “Unit” from A Natural Approach to the Year) which I’ve focused on Health and Lifestyle. To see my incomplete and rough draft of my targeted CI for a year schedule (for ASL 1-3), feel free to click here.

My food week plans got a little wonky because we had three Polar Vortex snow days thrown in the middle, but here’s the gist of how I taught food to my ASL 1 and 2 classes.

• Day 1: Food Introduction
  • Check Grades/Calendar Talk
  • Four Corners Activity: Think of your favorite food. Then go to the corner that represents the meal you would most likely eat that food — breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack. Share with the other people in your group what your favorite food is (in English). After a minute or two, compile a class list of favorite foods separated into B/L/D/S categories on the board, and teach the signs for students’ favorite foods/meals.
  • Picture Talk: I projected breakfast/lunch/dinner foods on the board and we discussed. I gave some vocab and asked a BUNCH of comprehension questions to ensure everyone was following along.
• Day 2: Food Vocab Review
  • Review vocabulary using picture talk from yesterday.
  • Brain Break: Pass It On
  • Card Talk: Favorite family foods. Students draw a picture of a family recipe, or a recipe they only get to eat once or twice a year — something that is special to them or their family. I gave my example on the board of “Mom’s Breakfast Casserole.” I labeled four main ingredients in this recipe: eggs, sausage, bread, and cheese. I asked students to do the same, so I would know more about what their food was. Students turned these card talks into me so we could talk about them tomorrow.
• Day 3: Card Talk
  • (This is where the Snow Days happened, so I did another calendar talk when we had this day about what everyone did over their five-day weekend.)
  • I pulled out three cards that were clearly drawn from Day 2’s activity and projected them to the board, and we had a Card Talk discussion about the students’ favorite family foods, and how often they eat them (we just finished talking about routines last week).
  • Brain Break: 1-3-2 (Partner up. Tap right feet together 1 time, then left feet 3 times, then right feet 2 times, and repeat.)
  • Write and Discuss: I asked questions in ASL and students signed answers, which I wrote on the board in gloss. I think showing them the gloss helps visually separate ASL grammar from English grammar, or at least makes it more clear than signing it sometimes can.
• Day 4: One Word Image
  • This deserves its own post, but oh my gosh you guys, WHY HAVEN’T I DONE ONE OF THESE BEFORE?! This was one of my favorite things I’ve done so far this year, and the kids loved loved loved it.
  • We spent all period doing a OWI character based off a food item.
  • Video and Discuss: I asked questions and video taped the correct information about our creations, which I edited together on ClipChamp after school.
• Day 5: One Word Image Reveal
  • Students paired up and discussed/wrote down everything they could remember about our creation from the day before.
  • The big reveal!
  • In ASL, I went over our drawing, asking plenty of questions to keep everyone engaged. Then we went over it a second time in English, allowing students who didn’t have all the important information written down to add it to their notes.
  • Brain Break: Guardian Angel/Secret Assassin (quick game to get them up and moving: one person in the room is your guardian angel, the other is a secret assassin trying to kill you. Everyone get up and move around for 30 seconds and keep your angel in between you and your assassin. I would change this for next time to make each of my students the “angel” and they have to “protect” a random citizen from a secret assassin…) Then we played Double-Double-This-That for a few minutes. Google it.
  • Watch Video & Discuss: We watched my video from yesterday once through silently. Then I slowed it down and we chorally translated all my signs out loud, almost like auditory glossing. Then I went over a few signs where the students hesitated, and we watched the video a third time and chorally translated again.
  • OWI Retell: Students at this point should have a detailed list of information about our character. They recorded a video of themselves retelling some of the information and uploaded it to Canvas for a grade.
• Day 6: Dicteé
  • This is another activity that deserves its own post, so I wrote one!
  • Students have already done one dicteé for me, so I reminded them how that worked, then we did a dicteé about food and how frequently I get to eat them. I do my dicteés as an English to ASL translation activity, so I say sentences in English, and students gloss in ASL, then sign. You can also do dicteé from ASL to ASL, where students watch what you sign, then write it down in English and/or gloss, then sign it themselves. Whatever works best for your classroom!
  • Time at the end of the period was used to finish recording the OWI retell or complete any other missing work, since our test is coming up next week!
• Day 7: FOOD DAY!!!
  • Students brought in food!
  • I played the first five minutes of this video, and we discussed some food signs we saw, plus anything they noticed about eating in a Deaf friendly environment (DFE).
  • Students moved tables into little family groups and all went through the line to get a plate of noms. I put some discussion topics up on the board and set a timer for ~8 minutes. Students asked each other questions and answered in ASL while eating simultaneously. I told them they got “extra fake bonus points” if they asked someone a question just as they were going to take a bite of their food!
  • We de-briefed. What was it like to eat in a DFE? Do you think you could do it all the time? What was easier about it? What was harder about it? How did you do two-handed signs?
  • We had about 15 minutes left for them to finish eating and clean everything up and put the tables back, so I just let them enjoy their food the rest of that time. 🙂

All in all, I would call food week a success! I incorporated a bunch of activities I hadn’t used before, and got to have a big party! It is possible!

xoxo
Jenna

65+ Verbs Your ASL Students Need To Know

I once read a post about the best verbs to teach your students so that they can say more of what they want in the target language. Here they are, slightly modified for ASL students. Directional verbs have been labeled with (D). A quick grammar moment about what a directional verb is can make these doubly useful in your classroom!

Long lists below:

My First CI Lesson: Maps

One evening in early November, I was 100% fed. up. with the way I was teaching ASL. My kids hated it. I hated it. Everyone was bored. No one was engaging. I felt like I had lost control of my classrooms. I was D-O-N-E done. That’s when I somehow (through a miracle or something, seriously), stumbled upon this video by the amazing Tina Hargaden. In it, she is showing a group of world language teachers how to teach a lesson about geography and culture while speaking nearly 100% French (except for those super-convenient comprehension questions I can’t get enough of!). I have never in my entire life taken a French class, and Paris is the only French location I could come up with, yet I literally understood every word this lady was saying. How was this possible?! It blew my mind! This was the fateful night I learned what CI was, and decided it would be implemented into my classroom the very next day.

Tina being awesome and teaching everyone cool stuff about France.

Coincidentally, the unit my ASL 1 students and I were working through at the moment was Unit 3 of Signing Naturally. Part of that unit includes talking about Where You Live, including the names of several cities local to us. This video could not have come at a better time. I started doodling.

 

My map doodles of Ohio’s major cities and a closer look at Columbus.

I decided that this was my plan for the next day. I wasn’t going to create a vocab list. I wasn’t going to create powerpoint slides. I was going to start in space (literally, with a photo of the milky way galaxy) and work my way down to our city.

I vowed to do it 100% voice off except for comprehension questions, just like Tina. Amazingly, I did it. The kids did it. And we went an entire period with me just signing away and drawing pictures and labeling things and asking kids what they understood. (This was also the moment I learned how much they didn’t understand. I learned to go slower and ask more questions. Tons of questions. Because of this first CI lesson, I now ask so many questions.)

So here’s basically step by step what I did. Feel free to implement in your own classroom.

1. Bell Work: I used to do these mini formative assessments called SNAPs (Sudden Non-threatening Assessments of Progress) where I would ask a question for students to answer or list a few words for students to use in creating a sentence. I haven’t done them recently, but they were quick and easy to grade. I gave 2 points per SNAP: 2/2 if it was correct, 1/2 if they tried, and 0/2 if they didn’t do it. Students uploaded their responses to FlipGrid (which is a free resource!).
2. Check In/Chit-Chat: I spend a few minutes just talking to kids and listening to them (in English). Sometimes this turns into a five+ minute voices-on conversation. Sometimes they’re tired and we only talk for 30 seconds. Regardless, let them talk to you. Get to know them. It helps classroom rapport so much if the kids feel like they can talk openly in your class about what’s on their mind.
3. Lesson: I literally started in outer space. I projected a picture of the Milky Way Galaxy and taught signs like SUN, PLANET, UNIVERSE, etc. Then I asked which planet we lived on, EARTH, and I projected a new map to the board. Now we could talk about CONTINENTS and COUNTRY, and the students could tell me which country they lived in. Showing this map of the US, we learned signs for AMERICA, STATE, CAPITAL, as well as signs for NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST. I asked either/or questions: STATE YOU LIVE NORTH, SOUTH, WHICH? (*Class signs NORTH*) STATE YOU LIVE EAST, WEST, WHICH? (*Class signs EAST*) STATE NAME WHAT? (*Class fingerspells OHIO*) — Tina does this exact same thing in her video (above) around the 7:30 mark.
   1. Keep in mind, you MUST ask comprehension questions like every few new signs to make sure no one is lost. I found quickly that only my faster processors understood signs like CONTINENT and COUNTRY, so I had to explain these and circle around the word many many many many times before the class was able to automatically respond to my comprehension questions.
4. Input Chart: Now I started drawing. I drew the outline of Ohio and its surrounding states (basically based off of my sketch I included above), and we talked about the three C cities in Ohio (Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati) and where N/S/E/W they were located. One thing Tina does so well in her video above is she gets away from the things she’s talking about to learn more about her students. In my class, we briefly talked about the states surrounding Ohio and who had been to which state and which state was the best. (Discussing Michigan was a great time to teach the signs for FRIEND and ENEMY!) Then we focused in more on Columbus and I drew the second map from my sketches above, which finally allowed us to discuss the different cities around us, as well as the signs for HIGHWAY, DRIVE, NEAR, FAR, and more. Keep asking comprehension questions. Make sure no one is lost in conversation.
5. Wrap Up: At the end of the class, especially if you spent all that time voices-off and the students stayed engaged, praise the kids for following along. “YOU DID IT! You stayed voices off! That was awesome! Did you mostly follow me? Where did you get confused? Do you already forget some of the signs? That’s totally fine, you still DID IT yayyyyyy!!!”

One HUGE IMPORTANT NOTE: Just because you taught all these signs today does not mean your kids will remember any of them tomorrow. The whole point of CI is to give the kids as much input as humanly possible so that there is no way the student will ever forget that sign. We continued talking about these signs (or at least the ones I definitely wanted kids to know like AMERICA, STATE, CITY, and all the local signs for our towns) for days. Even once we moved on to a different subject, I would sometimes start a new vocabulary list and throw these words in as a “pop-up” review. You gotta keep using them, or they will all fade away VERY quickly.

If you haven’t taught local town name signs yet, maybe this is a lesson idea for you! Or just watch Tina and be in awe like I was. That’s cool, too.

xoxo
Jenna

 

Doodle Notes for the Top 10 Things You Need to Know About CI

The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about Comprehensible Input

Blogger’s Note: Like most of what I write about on this blog, I’m sure I got this information from either Tina Hargaden or Bryce Hedstrom (I forget which), but I have made it quick and easy to read in a Late Night Talk Show Top 10 List for you all to enjoy! So… Enjoy!

10. Comprehensible Input (CI) teaching is NOT 100% immersion!

Most of the class time (90% or more) should be conducted in the target language (in my case, ASL) by both teacher and students. Don’t be afraid to switch back and forth as needed, especially to establish meaning of unknown words. I personally use English for the first 5% of class time to check in with students and build a positive relationship with my kids. This has helped my classroom rapport improve dramatically and I highly recommend it. The other 5% of available English, I use while teaching new Brain Breaks or explaining new signs that might have complex parameters (like MONTH, for example).

9. Aim for the “sweet spot”: i+1.

Having never been a world language teacher until this year, I started out having never heard of a thing called Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, but it has become the cornerstone of what I do as an ASL teacher. You can read the handy-dandy Wikipedia article I linked, or just keep this in mind: speaking English in an ASL class will not help anyone learn ASL. Using ASL students can’t comprehend yet will also not help anyone learn ASL. If we only ever use simple ASL phrases, students will never learn any MORE ASL than that. Therefore, you’ve always got to try to make things just a tad more complex than the day before so students are constantly acquiring more unique language skills.

8. Students should not have to guess in your class.

Students should be free to say they don’t understand and as a teacher, you can explain it again or simply translate it to English for them. However, if you ask comprehension questions frequently enough and go slowly enough while you teach, your students should rarely feel like they don’t understand what is going on in class.

7. If students don’t understand, instructors are wasting time.

One of my favorite things I ever wrote down during my initial research into CI is “If students don’t understand you, you’re just making noises.” Of course, in ASL, it’s more like “you’re just flapping your hands around.”

6. The input you give must be compelling.

Your class should be so dang interesting that you can stand at the front of the room for fifty minutes and can’t be ignored. Students should be so engaged that they forget you’re not speaking English. Don’t give them the boring crap from the textbook. Talk about things that your students ACTUALLY want to talk about. Just do it in sign language.

5. No Forced Signing!

(This one is still the hardest for me to accept, so feel free to not be on board with this particular one quite yet. I get it.) Basically, the thought is that when students have acquired enough language, they will sign. When they are comfortable enough in your class, they will sign. They shouldn’t be doing a forced “watch and repeat after me” or performing cheesy pre-determined dialogues with a partner. (Many of my students repeat after me anytime I show a new sign, simply because they want to try it themselves.) Students are encouraged to sign through constant questioning, but are still allowed to answer in English if that’s what they prefer. Regardless, the teacher should be using the target language (ASL) almost all of the time.

4. No one likes grammar but you.

Grammar explanations are used to make our messages to each other clear. No one cares about grammar except for the one or two budding linguists in your class… and maybe you. Only spend time discussing grammar if the meaning of your sentence RIGHT NOW needs to be clear. (For example, explaining eyebrows for WH and YN questions at the very beginning of the year would be useful.) Everything else, the kids will simply pick up naturally.

3. Sign ssssssllllllloooooooowwwwwwww and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat…

I thought I signed slow in my ASL classes, but then I learned that in Tina’s classes, she does this thing where she takes a few steps and a deep breath and counts to six in her head between like every three words. She goes slowwwwwwww and it just makes it so much easier for kids to understand what’s happening. It gives them processing time to take it all in. Then when you stop and check for comprehension again and again and again, you know all your students are still with you.

2. Aim for automaticity.

The goal for everything you do in your class is for your kids to use L2 (ASL) without even thinking about it. They should react to you in ASL and not even realize that they’re doing it. They should be able to respond and it should just “feel right” to do it in ASL. When students can reply confidently, accurately, and without hesitation, they have mastered the concept you are teaching and you can move on. If they can’t? REPEAT.

And the number one thing you need to know about Comprehensible Input?

1. We all get better when we work together.

Find CI teacher friends in real life or on Twitter. Join Facebook groups. Watch YouTube videos. Read blogs (like this one!). Go to conferences. Host PD sessions. Spread the news. Ask questions. And above all else: keep learning.

xoxo
Jenna

 

Doodle Notes for Comprehension Questioning

Comprehension Questioning

I began to talk about this some in my last blog post, about how vitally important it is that we as language teachers ask constant comprehension questions. And by “comprehension questions,” I mean more than UNDERSTAND? (Lesson #1: Students are really good at pretending they understand when they don’t. Nodding their heads is very easy.)

If you don’t ask, you won’t know!

So then what exactly do these questions look like, and who do you ask them to? Great questions, imaginary readers!

According to the CI material I found from Bryce Hedstrom’s article on “Different Questions for Different Students,” there are three levels of questioning that you can throw out to your students. Different levels of comprehension questions should be asked at least five times per class. Differentiating questions five times a class seemed like a lot to remember, coming from a place where all I honestly used to ask was “UNDERSTAND? DON’T-UNDERSTAND? WHICH?” But honestly, it’s been incredibly easy to incorporate these questions into my everyday routine.

Before I get to the questions to ask, however, a quick note: You can ask these questions in English or ASL. English can help signal to the students that this information is different from all the other random stuff they might pick up in your voices-off time. Asking in English might give student a clue that this is information that needs to be learned.

*QUICK NOTE ABOUT THE QUICK NOTE* — As a hearing ASL teacher who learned from almost all Deaf ASL teachers, I am aware of my hearing privilege in my ability to ask my hearing students questions in English and obtain a response in English. In no way, shape, or form, am I saying that anything you do in your room MUST be in English, and in fact, I get a lot of amazing responses from my students when I ask in ASL, too. But I have noticed that my particular hearing students have responded well to me asking them comprehension questions in English. You do you, boo boo.

Now, there are two ways to ask the questions:

1. Ask many many many MANY quick, “pop-up,” whole-class comprehension questions during your class period. These answers should take literally seconds, and the goal is automaticity, meaning the students should know the answers without having to even think about it. They can respond in English or ASL, depending on the question.
2. Ask some questions individually, but when you ask individually, do not ask someone with their hand up. Originally, I wasn’t on board with calling on students at random. It seemed like I was going to lose what little trust I had earned from my students. However, as long as you differentiate the questions to be ones they can answer, it actually makes them feel more confident in themselves. And if they still can’t answer it? It means you’re not being comprehensible to everyone so you should thank that kid for being honest and try explaining again. 

Differentiation is key for individual questions. Everyone in the history of teaching has had three groups of students in their classroom: slower processors, average processors, and faster processors. With differentiated questioning to each of these groups of students, the teacher will know that:

• Slower processors are understanding the MEANING behind your signs.
• Average processors are understanding the GRAMMAR of your sentences.
• Faster processors are STRETCHING themselves beyond the course material.

Here are some of the questions I ask to each group of students. For each group, I’ll give an example of a question I asked during my recent calendar unit.

SLOWER PROCESSORS: The goal is for these students to understand the meaning of your signs. You will ask more of these questions than the questions for the other two groups. These can be asked individually or whole class and everyone should be able to respond. If they can’t, you’re not being comprehensible to everyone, so you should try explaining again.

• What does [this sign] mean in English?
• How do you sign [this English word]?
• • EX) How do you sign “week”?
• What did you see me sign? (This is helpful if you sign a whole sentence or a couple sentences, and you want to see if the student comprehends the gist of what you said, even if they didn’t necessarily understand word-for-word.)

AVERAGE PROCESSORS: The goal is for these students to understand the difference in meanings of related words, which starts touching on grammar. You should ask more than one of these to a few different average processing students. Generally, if you ask these questions to the whole class, most students will be able to respond, but your slower processors probably will not and will feel “dumb” for not understanding. Make sure those students are asked one of the questions above FIRST, then move on to these.

• What is the difference (in parameters and/or English meaning) between [this sign] and [this sign]?
• • EX) What is the difference between NEXT-YEAR and LAST-YEAR?
• How are [this English word] and [this English word] signed differently?
• What does [this sign] mean in the phrase [signed sentence]?
• How do you know?

FASTER PROCESSORS: The goal for these students is to understand or produce new signs in ASL that may have been shown to them during class, but not explicitly discussed. This will show us as teachers that they understand grammar principles beyond the course level. DO NOT ask these questions whole class unless you are trying to determine your faster processors. You will only get a few responses, and the students who can’t respond then feel like this should be something that they should know, but don’t. It makes them feel “dumb,” and that is the last thing we want in a CI classroom!

• What if I wanted to sign [this English phrase]. How do you think we would you sign that?
• • EX) We’ve talked about how to sign WEDNESDAY and EVERY-WEEK. What if I wanted to sign “every Wednesday.” How do you think we would you sign that?
• Why did I sign [this sign] instead of [this sign] in that phrase?

*IMPORTANT NOTE* — Do NOT turn comprehension questioning into a grammar lesson. 95% of the class does not care about grammar, and they will quickly forget whatever grammar you teach them. They will pick up on it naturally, I promise you.

I hope you start incorporating some of these into your daily routine in class!

xoxo
Jenna