[ASL]ASL 1 class this fall

[Kaitlyn Millen]

Sorry to anyone who already got this info!
Kaitlyn

Fall '04: Hampshire College
American Sign Language 1 (EPEC- student taught)
Every Thursday night
6:15-9:15pm
Books will be about $50 but it is a workbook/ videotape that can also be used for ASL 2. 
It will be taught by myself (Kaitlyn) and Michelle Berstein

Will it be for credit? 
It really depends on your committee. Because this is Hampshire and we don't have "credit" it is possible to use many things toward division requirements with the agreement of your committee. It will be difficult for students to use this as a Div. 1 requirement but Div. 2 credit is more likely. Although this is a student taught course, it will be structured as an academic course, so you could use this to your advantage when discussing it with your committee. 

How do you sign up?
We are not sure of a lot of details yet like where it will meet, how you sign up, etc. but we will be sure to inform whoever is interested as soon as we know. 

How rigorous will it be?
The main idea I want everyone to understand is that we are going to try to make this as close to taking an ASL 1 course as possible. It will be just like an academic course, meeting for the same amount of time and will have homework. 
Why? We don't want to leave you guys with enough knowledge so that you'd be bored in an ASL 1 course but not ready for an ASL 2 course. We want to do it justice!

If you are interested in this course, please email me back to let me know!
Keep in mind, we will have official sign up in the fall. This is so I can get an idea of who probably will take it and who probably won't. 

If this is something you will not be able to take but are still interested in learning a little sign and want to get involved, here is more info:

Silent Lunches are finished for this semester but I will be running Silent Lunches in the fall. When I know when it will be, I'll probably send out an all community email and one to the ASL email list (in the fall). There also might be silent lunches at UMASS (more info to come).

ASL-related courses NOT at Hampshire:
Holyoke Community College offers MANY ASL and Deaf Studies courses consistently. This is where I have been taking ASL. If you're willing to commute and pay for the courses there, it's a good resource. 
Smith has a graduate-level program in Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It focuses on the approach that Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton uses (strictly oral- no sign). They do however, occasionally offer 200-level courses that are really interesting. I took one this semster on the approach that Clarke uses, why people are deaf, who is deaf, what happens in the ear, cochlear implants, etc. and it was really interesting. They also offered an ASL course that some Hampshire students tried to take but were denied. It still doesn't hurt to try taking their graduate classes- especially if you are Div 3 or close to it.

Possibility of professionally taught ASL at Hampshire:
Lastly, I am working at writing a proposal to have ASL professionally taught at Hampshire. Ideally, a professor would teach next spring so the students we teach ASL 1 to can follow up w/ ASL 2 and that professor could also teach ASL 1. I don't know if this can happen, but the more people who sign up, saying that they want to take an ASL course, the better. Please respond and let me know if you would be interested in taking an ASL course in the future. Just judging by the response to this email, there is an interest! I am going to try to push for 5-college funding, as a little from each school could help to offer a valuable resource. 

I think that's about it. If you have any questions or would like to help draft a proposal for professionally taught ASL (or would at least be willing to put your name on a list for "probably would take a course"), don't hesitate to contact me!

Have a great day :).

Kaitlyn
x4620
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