Course Description: Students will develop beginning level ASL receptive and expressive communication skills using the appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Deaf culture, history, and poetry will be integrated into the instruction.  Classifiers and non-manual grammatical markers, which are specifically found in American Sign Language, will be taught.  The course instruction and activities are primarily in ASL.

Level 1

Focuses on developing language proficiency, cultural competency, and the use of language skills within the three modes of communication.

1) Interpersonal Communication - Engaging in conversations, expressing ideas, and exchanging opinions using both expressive and receptive communication.

2) Interpretive Communication - Understanding and interpreting recorded and live language.

3) Presentational Communication - Presenting information and ideas to an audience with a variety of words, phrases, and sentences

Prerequisite - Students must have had a 75% or higher yearly average in the previous year's English class.

Level 2

Focuses on developing language proficiency, cultural competency, and the use of language skills within the three modes of communication. Additional grammatical aspects are added.

1) Interpersonal Communication - Engaging in conversations, expressing ideas, and exchanging opinions using both expressive and receptive communication.

2) Interpretive Communication - Understanding and interpreting recorded and live language.

3) Presentational Communication - Presenting information and ideas to an audience with a variety of words, phrases, and sentences

Prerequisite - Students must have had a 75% or higher yearly average in Level 1 and pass an end-of-year conversational assessment with a 75% or higher score.

Level 3

Focuses on developing language proficiency, cultural competency, and the use of language skills within the three modes of communication. Additional grammatical aspects are added along with independent conversational skills.  

1) Interpersonal Communication - Engaging in conversations, expressing ideas, and exchanging opinions using both expressive and receptive communication.

2) Interpretive Communication - Understanding and interpreting recorded and live language.

3) Presentational Communication - Presenting information and ideas to an audience with a variety of words, phrases, and sentences

Prerequisite - Students must have a 75% or higher yearly average in Level 2 and pass an end-of-year conversational assessment with a 75% or higher score.