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Charles J. Rock
TASL 501 Dr. Carlson
Application Activity #4c
5 December 2015
My previous lesson was for college/university level ASL 2. If I am going to teach postsecondary level ASL 2 class, Id modify my lesson plan based on 1. age of learners 2. extended
lesson plan because of approximately 200 days/year (September-June) academic year.

Since I will have more time in teaching high school students, I would make my lesson plan
simpler and stretch the lesson (from college/university level to post-secondary) from 50 minutes
(1 day) class time into maybe 3 days (3 days of 50 minutes/day class). Each of my lesson plans
is not considered a final because it will require me to write down my notes about the
effectiveness of my teaching, what does work and what doesnt work, then I will have to modify
or add something to the lesson plan and use that again for the next academic year.

The age of post-secondary students is 15-16-17 years old. They are learning ASL as a second
language. The students are either going through puberty or already went through it, they are
likely to develop the sense self-identify and have developed inhibitions. Inhibitions is defined as
ego boundaries they are building in order to protect his/her ego. Since they are protecting their
egos, they will keep their security of their native language.

Another factor, it is known as a second affective factor. It is formed by the cognitive

development which can make second language acquisition difficult for an adult (including

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minors beyond puberty) is attitude. They have attitude toward learning second language. Some
will view second language as positive; some will view it as negative.

The language researcher, Stephen Krashen, believes that there is another factor called the
affective filter hypothesis. When the learner is not motivated and/or lacks confidence in
learning a second language, the affective filter goes up, creating a mental block. Adolescences
often set their affective filter up high.

It is important for the post-secondary teacher to understand these factors as described above. It
will aid teachers to design the syllabus, finding the best method and guide the students in the
language learning process. Also, its important to understand the similarities and differences
between first and second language acquisition, related to developmental sequences. It is also
important in understanding the role of the cognitive development of learners.

ASL teachers are the main source of input; they can use many activities such as having the
students to interact with each other and with the teacher. Several examples of activities are pair
work, information gap activities and classroom discussions. The students should feel more
comfortable and build their own confidence after the first several activities. I would start with an
ice-breaking activity, to help the students get know each other. Its essential not to overwhelm
students with my teaching input. Like Krashen suggested, I can teach them a slight above their
level, it will help them to learn. It might be challenging for them, but they will learn.

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My objective for the students is to work on their expressive skills and receptive skills, but I
would emphasize heavily on expressive skills. Id use the approaches such as the Just listen
and Read and Lets talk as explained in Lightbown and Spadas book How Languages are
Learned. I would like for my students to get together in pairs and have a dialogue to practice
signing in sentences and asking questions using month, day, hour, week and year. As the
students are practicing sentences in ASL, I will walk around and monitor them. I will also give
them my feedback to help them improve their signing ASL and to help their clarification. Ill
make sure that they are not signing English grammar. The in-class activities will also help them
to be motivated and at the same time, having fun. My goal is to keep the classroom environment
comfortable and fun. I would teach post-secondary students new sign vocabulary related to their
trends such as SKATEBOARD, TWITTER, etc. They would be thrilled to learn these signs.
They will look forward to coming to my class every day. That way, they will be able to acquire
ASL with less difficulty.

Rubric is an excellent tool, I use it to assess my students expressive skills and write simple notes
suggesting some areas needed to improve. Students receive a copy of written, completed rubric
(feedback).

I have used this sign language book, A Basic Course in American Sign Language by Humphries,
Padden and ORourke, numerous of times for my ASL class. It is probably old but Ive always
find it very useful because it contains ASL sentences along with English sentences. This feature
helps my students to understand the differences between the two grammars. Some of these
features will make the students to do their critical-thinking before they will sign in ASL. Its one

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of the best tools for the students, to be able to communicate more independently. I have tried
several different sign language books, but I have noticed that my students acquired more
smoothly from A Basic Course book.

I use PowerPoint slides to teach my students in ASL, I felt that it is very useful because it
breaks down the communication barriers between me as a Deaf instructor and the students,
especially in the first several weeks of ASL Level 1 semester. PowerPoint is one of my favorite
media tools. I will also require my students to submit their expressive assignment video to me
using their iPads, iPhones or any digital camera technology.

At the end of the class, I write short notes on my lesson plan about what I have learned from
teaching the class, what area needs to be improved and establish new goals for the next lesson.