What's included
1 live meeting
55 mins in-class hoursClass Experience
I love teaching American Sign Language! This is the perfect class for beginning learners of ASL. We will take this one time class to learn the finger spelled alphabet and practice spelling our first names. We will also learn how to sign an animal for each letter. The letter A goes with Alligator. The letter B goes with Bat or Butterfly. Once we have learned and practiced the entire alphabet and animals, we will sign along with a special alphabet song ("A is for Alex and Alligator" by Rachel Coleman, Signing Time with permission) to help us remember the signs we learned. Signing along to music is one of my favorite ways to enhance learning American Sign Language. As I teach each sign, I will say the word, demonstrate the sign and ask each learner to sign it back to me. It will be important that everyone keep their cameras on so that I can evaluate if a learner is understanding the material correctly and also correct a mistake before it becomes a habit. It is also part of what makes the class so much fun since we can all learn from each other.
Learning Goals
By the end of the class, each learner will have learned to fingerspell the alphabet, a sign for an animal for each letter and sign along with an alphabet song. Learners will also practice fingerspelling words (names, places, etc) to improve their fingerspelling technique. As we learn to fingerspell, we are using muscles that are not typically used to such an extent. So if a learner begins to experience muscle fatigue, I will give exercises to relieve any tiredness.
The song "A is for Alex and Alligator" by Rachel Coleman is from Signing Time and can be found on most music streaming services or by going to www.signing-time.com.
For help remembering the signs learned or to learn additional signs, my favorite website is www.lifeprint.com. It is a free video dictionary of American Sign Language.
Other Details
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Teacher expertise and credentials
Hello! My name is Sarah Bush and I love to teach American Sign Language. I have been studying and teaching ASL for over 17 years. I attended Union County College Deaf Interpreter Program in New Jersey (#1 in the state) and got 75% of the way through before life interrupted. So I started a company called Chatty Hands where I taught children, parents, teachers and therapists how to use ASL as a bridge to communication. I developed my own curriculum modifying it according to the group I was teaching. I have been teaching ASL to children as young as 6 months all the way up to adults. It is such a great feeling to watch a 6 month old baby understand and use a sign to communicate. It is also so rewarding to share this beautiful language with children of all ages and abilities. In my classes, we use many different tools to learn how to sign....books, music, games....its called a multi-sensory approach to learning. But that's part of what makes it so much fun to learn. In my experience, when kids are having fun while learning, they will retain that information much longer. Sign Language is a wonderful language to use for all sorts of reasons from communicating with Deaf or Hard of Hearing people to bridging the gap of communication during a speech delay in a child. I hope you will join me in a class and at least learn the universal sign for "I love you" to share with all of your loved ones. ** I teach both group classes and private lessons.
Reviews
Live One-Time Class
$15
per classMeets once
55 min
Completed by 37 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 7-11
2-6 learners per class