American Sign Language (ASL) Storytelling - King Midas

In this class students will get an introduction to ASL storytelling through watching Gallaudet University's production of King Midas. We will scratch the surface of the complexities of ASL storytelling including the use of the five parameters: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and non-manual markers. Students will also learn about the basics of ASL storytelling such as role shifting and the use of classifiers. This class is designed for beginner and intermediate ASL learners, so don't worry if your learner is new to ASL. Students will get to communicate about a similar interest and share their personal insights and expertise on ASL and the art of storytelling with one another through weekly discussions and are encouraged to call upon prior knowledge of ASL or personal experience with storytelling. Students will utilize our Outschool classroom to view weekly activities and assignments and comment on what they note in the King Midas story and how they see the use of the parameters and other story telling techniques they'll learn throughout the class used in the ASL portrayal of King Midas. Participation in written discussions is a main aspect of this course and students are highly encouraged to be engaged and respectful when communicating their thoughts and reflections with their peers. Towards the end of the course, students will have the opportunity to recreate a scene from the short, signed film. 


Below is a run-down of how each week will go:

Week 1
- Introduce yourself and tell us why you are interested in this class with a video or a written post in our classroom.
- Watch a quick history of ASL video - https://youtu.be/betAZeKRpR8?si=Ro-BqRW4JUmZjGRo
- Watch my video about how deaf history has influenced the expression of deaf artists and story tellers and how technology has changed the face of deaf communication and ASL. 
- Write a primary discussion about what you learned and something you would like to learn more about by Wednesday. Reply to someone else's primary post by Saturday.


Week 2
- Watch my video about the uses of ASL storytelling
- Students will learn about the various facets of ASL storytelling: regular ASL stories, ABC stories, Number stories, and one-handshape stories.
     - Read about ASL stories https://www.handspeak.com/study/47/
     - ABC stories https://youtu.be/rJWUedN8Pgc?si=PH1kDrkOCmt-agiz
- Watch the King Midas video up to the first 5 minutes (4:25 precisely)
- Write a primary discussion post telling which ASL storytelling technique you like the best and why. Reply to someone else's primary post by Saturday (preferably someone who has not yet had someone comment on their post)
- (Optional) Submit a video of yourself signing the vocabulary introduced in King Midas. 


Week 3
- Watch the next 5 minutes of King Midas (from 4:25 up to 10:10 precisely)
- Watch my video about the importance of facial expressions in the deaf community. 
- Write a discussion post about how you can relate your personal experiences of gauging facial expressions to using facial expressions in ASL by Wednesday. Reply to someone else's primary post by Saturday (preferably someone who has not yet had someone comment on their post)
- (Optional) Submit a video of yourself signing the sentences shown in King Midas.

Week 4
- Watch the next 5 minutes of King Midas (from 10:10 to 15:30 precisely)
- Watch my video about facial expressions for WH-questions and Yes/No questions.
- Read about ASL Sentence Order compared to that of English.
- Write a primary discussion post about your thoughts concerning ASL word order and grammar. Do you like it? Why or why not? What are the similarities and differences between English grammar and ASL? If you are familiar with other spoken languages, can you find similarities and differences between those languages and ASL?
- (Optional) Submit a video of yourself signing the sentences shown in King Midas.

Week 5
- Watch the last 15 minutes of King Midas starting from 15:30.
-  Write a discussion post about how you can see the ASL storytelling and signing techniques you've learned utilized in the King Midas story. Reply to someone else's primary post by Saturday (preferably someone who has not yet had someone comment on their post)
- (Optional) Submit a video of yourself signing your favorite portion of the King Midas story. Feel free to jazz up your video through editing, dressing up, and anything else creative you can come up with!