2016 ASL Immersion Weekend

“Four Workshops With David A. Martin”David A. Martin

David decided four workshops were better than one! He’s come up with several areas of sign language and Deaf culture from which participants could benefit!  They are:  “Incorporating ASL and Sports”, “Bridging the gap between Academic ASL and Social ASL”, “ASL Humor and A-Z Stories”, and “Use more (and more!) Non-Manual Markers”.  

Incorporating ASL With Sports:

This workshop will include a presentation on “How Deaf Sports Influenced Modern Day Sports”.  Participants will learn the historic aspect of how sports have impacted the Deaf community, and vice versa. Participants will learn basic and advanced sports signing including numbers, team signs, and sports in action.  Participants will watch several videos and incorporate the above into ASL by describing specific sports actions. Participants will read an English commentary and be able to translate it into ASL. There will also be hands-on and group activity to apply the learning objectives of this workshop.

Bridging the gap between Academic ASL & Social ASL:

This workshop will take an in depth look at Academic and Social ASL and their definitions.  We will discuss, analyze, and compare the differences of those two venues of ASL (including discussing ASL Registers). Participants will discuss the gap between the two and develop ideas and opportunities for easier transferring between “self-directed” learning to “on your own” learning.

ASL Humor/A-Z Handshape stories and other fun spatial discourse:

In this workshop participants will expand their knowledge, experience and skills of ASL humor and A-Z Handshape activities.  Participants will learn how to judge A-Z competitions by discussing principles as shown in the “A to Z ABC Stories in ASL” by Bahan and Jarashow.  Participants will create their own handshape stories using specific handshapes that will expand their creativity.

Why you should use more (& more!) Non-Manual Markers:

In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to refresh and practice various non-manual signals and visual gestural communication. This workshop will help participants see the importance of using their face, arms, hands and bodies more in their everyday ASL communication.  There will be hands-on individual and group activities.