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Lesson plan · Grades 6-12 · 40 minutes

Classifier Scenes

I can use ground and figure, classifier handshapes and the signer's perspective to describe where things are and how they move.

▶ Open the tool Download the tool
Standard
ACTFL.Intermediate Mid ACTFL
Shape
Model, then make
Grouping
Whole class, then pairs.
You need
The tool on the projector and on student devices. Real objects for the Share part (a cup, a book, a toy car).
Tool
curioclass.org/tools/classifier-scenes/
  1. Hook4 min
  2. Model10 min
  3. Make14 min
  4. Share8 min
  5. Exit check4 min

Before class

  • Open picture 1 (a cup on a table).
  • The tool practices the spatial grammar of classifiers. It does not show how full signs are made, and the hands are drawings. Check signs with your ASL teacher and with Deaf signers.
  • Classifier choices vary between signers and regions. Treat the tool's answers as one common way.
  • If you have one, cue up a short video of a Deaf signer describing a scene.

Hook 4 min

  1. Sign or show a scene with a cup on a table, without English. "Where is the cup? How did you know?"
  2. "ASL draws the picture in the air. Today you learn the rules for drawing it."

Model 10 min

  1. In picture 1, ask: "Which one stays still?" Tap The table. That's the ground.
  2. Choose the handshape for the table (B, a flat hand), then for the cup (C).
  3. Tap in the signing space to place the table, then the cup on top. Watch it play back.
  4. Press Viewer's view. "What changed? How does the viewer know where things really are?"
  5. Show the B, C, 1, 3 and bent V handshapes on your own hands and have the class copy.

Make 14 min

  1. Pairs work through pictures 2 to 8 with Next. For each, they decide the ground and figure, choose handshapes and place them.
  2. After each playback, one partner signs the scene and the other checks it against the tool.
  3. Move on to the moving pictures: things that pass, go up, down, onto and off. Left-handed students turn on Left-handed.
  4. Ask about picture 3: "The blue car is on the right. Why does the signer put it on their right too?"

Share 8 min

  1. Pairs set up a real scene with classroom objects and sign it to another pair, who arrange their own objects to match.
  2. If you have the video, watch the Deaf signer describe a scene. "What did they do the same? What was different?"

Exit check 4 min

Show a new scene: a person walking past a car. Each student signs it to you or a partner. Check: the car (3 handshape) goes first and stays, and the person (1 handshape) moves past.

Support and stretch

  • Support: stay with still scenes and the B and C handshapes first.
  • Support: use the steps along the top of the panel (What stays still, Handshapes, Place, Play) as a checklist.
  • Stretch: describe a scene with two figures that both move.
  • Stretch: write a gloss for a scene, then compare it with the tool's gloss.

Short on time

  • Picture 1 modeled together, with Viewer's view (6 min).
  • Pairs do pictures 2 to 4 (8 min), then the exit scene (3 min).

How each button works is in the teacher notes. From Curio Class, free under CC BY 4.0: change it, print it, share it.