Bilingual Literacy: [Put the days/weeks this module covers here]

[Note: This video is a brief introduction to the module - I put actual lecture videos down later in the materials.]

Objective

Objective: To identify the common strategies used with Deaf children for bilingual literacy (American Sign Language and English).
TExES Domain I - Competency 2.

Learning Tasks

Watch module introduction and do devotional (½ hour)
Watch videos on late language & storytelling and visit related websites (½ hour)
Read Chapters 9 - 11 & Key Article "Unlucking the Curriculum" (4 hours)
Review Lecture notes (ppts on literacy and Bi-Bi) (1 hour)
Participate in the discussion (1 hour)
Explore resources for ASL storytelling best practices (1 hour)
Create and Share your ebook project (5 hours)

Assignments

Interaction

We will be participating in a traditional discussion this time. It will be over your reading titled "Unlocking the Curriculum". This document was the most transformational one that I read during my whole Deaf Ed program and is also probably one of the most famous pieces in the field. Although you are only required to post once, I highly encourage you to make it a conversation with your peers and I by replying and reading responses throughout the module.

Project

The goal of this assignment is embrace the Bi-Bi approach to language acquisition by creating your own e-book that incorporates the reading principles we learn in this module. I want you to end up with a project that can be used in a real classroom or organization. You will first need to decide on the topic for your e-book. Perhaps you will pick a popular children's book or perhaps you will choose a Bible story or perhaps you will write your own. You will then need to create the ASL videos to incorporate into your project. If you don't know ASL, find someone who does and ask them to sign the story for you ... if need be, that person can be me though it would be a much better experience and end-product if you ask a Deaf person. As a hint - don't sign the whole story in one long video clip! Make separate videos for each page of the storybook. You can get images by taking photos of book pages, searching the internet, drawing your own, or whatever makes sense. You are certainly welcome to dress in character and use backdrops to make your ebook even more engaging though it is not required.

You will use the Book Creator authoring tool to create the book. It is an easy tool and builds on our instructional technology module. You basically add all the media components and then "publish" the book. You will end up with a link to submit. You will be submitting in a discussion forum so that your classmates can all view your book (and perhaps ask you for persmission to keep it to use in their own classrooms). Please see the rubric for more detailed grading criteria. Below is a quick screen shot showing you the middle bottom button is the "share" one. There are 2 options - choose "publish online". After you do that once, then when you click that same button, you will get a link to share (i.e. post in the discussion forum).

Although we are not going to do anything officially with the second option - it is really neat so I wanted to make you aware of it. You can press that download button and you will get a ".epub" file. You can then put the file in your dropbox account (if you don't have one - you can get one for free). Then you open dropbox on your iphone and select that file then click "export" and choose "copy to Books". Then, presto, when you open your Books, your little book sits right there on the shelf with ones you have bought. I think that is cool and a good way to encourage your own young students to be 'real authors'! (You can share your dropbox link in an email so that others can use it as well to put the book on their own shelf.)

Level Up Assignments [I used a gameful learning approach w/ optional point projects.]

Post peer reviews for the e-books that your classmates create. There is an unlock requirement in place in that you need to post your own e-book before reviewing others. You may review as many as you like, but a max of 3 will count for credit. You will do the review directly inside the discussion forum. Please be positive and keep your constructive criticism balanced with your points of praise. (5 points each - max of 3)
Create an assessment piece for your own e-book. Imagine that you, as a Deaf ed teacher, have just spent a week focusing on this book. You have read/signed it in a group setting, ask the students to sign it to each other, and perhaps even had the parents use it in the home. Now you want to see how much of the story they remember and understand - that is the assessment. It should NOT be all in English but the format is up to you. For my LAMBERT Colors book, I might create a word document that has a link to a You Tube video question in ASL that says "Look at pictures - find blue" then have 3 blocks of various colors listed below (with one being blue) for them to circle. That would demonstrate knowledge of the concepts. Or maybe I want them to recognize the written word and I put blue and other names and ask them in the ASL video to choose the correct English word. That would demonstrate knowledge of the two languages. You could also have both questions and answers in ASL or have open ended questions where you sign the prompt but then make a note that the child will respond to the open-ended question (i.e. 'Which character was your favorite and why?') You decide and create at least 3 questions for your assessment. It is probably easiest to make a word document and have links / text / images all embeded, but you are not limited to that. If, for example, you want to use a tech tool or website to make the assessment interactive, you certainly may do so - be creative! (50 points)
Make a video to persuade others to use Bi-Bi. Using your knowledge of this module, you want to come up with logical and compelling reasons why Deaf children should be educated with a Bilingual-Bicultural approach (as opposed to the oral approach or the Total Communication approach). You should aim for around 5 minutes and it should be a rehearsed speech. In other words, don't just informally make some remarks - plan out your speech with your argument points like you were going to be in front of an audience (perhaps a school board). We will be trying out a brand new tool in Canvas to accomplish this task so I'm hoping at least one, if not more, of you will give it a try. The tool is called Bongo and when you click on the assignment submission, it should automatically launch and let you record your video. (25 points)