Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Ohio Standards
Connection:
Foreign Language
Communication
Benchmark A
Interact using extended
spoken, signed or written
communication by
providing and obtaining
information.
Indicator 2
Create, explain and
participate in a group
activity that requires
multiple steps (e.g., game,
scavenger hunt, making a
craft).
Benchmark C
Use a wide range of
strategies to negotiate
meaning.
Indicator 4
Clarify meaning (e.g.,
elaboration, questioning).
Communities
Bechmark C
Sustain communication
with people locally and
around the world.
Indicator 4
Establish and maintain
personal communication
links with speakers of the
target language to obtain
perspective on world
events.
Lesson Summary: Novice Level Proficiency
In this novice American Sign Language (ASL) lesson,
students will be introduced to family vocabulary and
contrastive structure, a grammatical way of comparing two
things or people. Students create a short narrative about
two people (e.g., mom/dad, aunt/uncle, sister/brother). The
Post-Assessment narratives will be performed for class
members and with native speakers within the community.
These presentations will be archived digitally and may be
viewed worldwide through the Internet.
Estimated Duration: Eight hours and 30 minutes
The foreign language academic content standards were
written with the assumption that elementary programs meet
for 90 minutes per week and that secondary programs meet
the equivalent of 50 minutes each day throughout the year.
Time and intensity do matter, and programs that meet for
fewer minutes/less often will need more time to review
previously introduced material before moving forward.
Commentary:
From the writer: American Sign Language is a growing
field and almost all beginning classes teach family relations.
In American Sign Language, family vocabulary and the
grammatical structure, contrastive structure, complement
each other. Teaching the two in unison makes for a fun and
academically rigorous lesson. It is also important for
language learners to experience authentic assessment as
often as possible.
Pre-Assessment:
Part One
Students will speak in ASL in small groups for about 30
minutes on the topic of shopping: Where do you shop?
What do you buy? With whom do you shop? Where does
your family shop?
 Observe students and record vocabulary that relates to
family (there should not be many words as this is the
focus of the current lesson) and shopping.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Pre-Assessment: (Continued)
 In addition, observe and record grammatical structures that are used by the students
during conversations so you will know what to review prior to introduction of new
grammatical principles. (See Attachment A, Pre-Assessment Summary Sheet.)
Part Two
Tell a short story about shopping using a limited amount of family vocabulary and simple
grammatical structures. Students will listen to your story and translate as much as possible
into written English. (See Attachment B, Sample Teacher Story.) Most students will
understand only a few family signs "picked up" from other class activities or Deaf speakers.
Instructional Tip:
Often times at the high school level, student's language strengths and weaknesses become
evident quickly. When forming groups, it is advantageous to put the weaker
linguistic/outgoing students with the linguistically stronger/shy students.
Scoring Guidelines:
 The Pre-Assessment will be graded for completion only. Compile a list of vocabulary and
grammar forms used by students during the discussion. Summarize and distribute this
data to the class or make an overhead that lists the vocabulary and grammar used
throughout the discussion.
 The translation will be graded for completion only. Have an overhead with the English
translation of your short story available for students to look at.
Post-Assessment:
 Assign students to groups of two to four. Have them create, practice and perform a short
narrative based on the theme of consumerism where they compare two people. Students
are required to ask questions of each other to clarify what they will include in their
narrative. These questions should focus on who, what, when, where, why and how much.
The use of turn taking will be mandatory. Each student will list at least seven different
kinds of information about each person in the narrative. Each turn will function as a way
to gain product clarification, description and size, as well as talking about who is doing
the purchasing. These interactions should be visually descriptive in nature.
 Finally, students will present their short comparative narratives to the class with native
ASL users from the community present ready to ask questions for clarification.
 Each student will digitally record another student’s narrative. In groups of four, have
students format and upload these narratives to an Internet Web site, school Web site or
burn DVDs. This portion will not be graded.
Instructional Tip:
If possible, invite a Deaf community member to the classroom for the gathering information
portion of the assessment to participate in the questioning portion, as well as to view student
presentations of the narratives.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Scoring Guidelines:
Use Attachment C, Speaking Skills Rubric for ASL, to score student narratives.
Instructional Tip:
Hand out the narrative guidelines and the grading rubric at the same time. This allows students
time to incorporate and check everything that will be evaluated and to “think with the end in
mind.”
Instructional Procedures:
Day One
1. Conduct Part One of the Pre-Assessment. Lead a discussion to determine students’ prior
knowledge and retention of vocabulary and ASL grammatical structures. See
Attachment A, Pre-Assessment Summary Sheet.
2. Conduct Part Two of the Pre-Assessment. See Attachment B, Sample Teacher Story..
Collect the papers and summarize results.
3. Copy and distribute this summary to the class and discuss class goals for the next eight
days.
Day Two
4. Welcome students in ASL. Ask how they are doing for about ten minutes. For example,
 Directly ask students questions about how they are doing. How are you? or What’s
up?
 Make sure students are responding appropriately.
 After each student’s response, ask another student, What did she say? and have him
or her repeat what the original student answered.
 Then ask the second student a question directly, and so on.
5. Introduce family vocabulary by showing an overhead with various family interactions
and modeling for students. For example,
 Show a picture of sisters and model the sign sister in ASL.
 Continue modeling new family vocabulary in this fashion while students look at
pictures on the overhead.
 Continually reinforce the new vocabulary and relate this previously learned
vocabulary by questioning students, such as, Who’s the mother? or How many
brothers do you have?
Instructional Tip:
You may choose to prepare posters, overheads or multimedia presentations showing family
relationships for reinforcement of newly learned vocabulary.
Day Three
6. Bring up two students and begin to create an imaginary family in front of the class. Give
each student a napkin. The one for the young man will become his bow tie and the one
for the gal will become a bow in her hair. At this point, stand next to the girl and
pantomime that she is "interested" in the young man. Then stand next to the young man
and show his response to her "interest" (he likes it). In the target language state, He likes
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
her and she likes him. In a similar fashion, show the two participants on a date, and
getting married. Simulate a short wedding by "throwing rice" and "going on a
honeymoon". Represent "one year later" by having the two students turn around and
"reappear" with a baby doll.
Instructional Tip:
You can purchase lots of clothes for very little money at a second-hand clothing store if you
want to provide costumes.
7.
Call up another student to represent the child. Show other siblings being born and the
oldest child getting older.
8. Now call up another student and have "the adult son" go out on a date, go steady and
marry. Do the same thing for their siblings. Continue to call up students and have them
be the offspring of each sibling. Show various stages of adult life such as death and
divorce.
9. Throughout each addition to the family, ask all students questions, such as:
 Who is their mother/father?
 Is this their grandpa/grandma? Who is his/her brother?
 Is he/she married?
 Show me his grandma.
 Is this her aunt?
Point to the various family members as you lead this activity.
10. Have students write out a simple family tree for homework. This can be a personal
family tree or a fictitious one. Encourage students to include as many family members as
possible
Instructional Tips
 For optimum vocabulary acquisition, have students include three generations and
divorced, single and married people on their (fictitious) trees.
 If students are motivated, have them cut out pictures from magazines and create a visual
family tree.
Day Four
11. Bring in a native ASL speaker and model the family vocabulary introduced. Have
students ask the speaker questions about his or her family. Create a family tree from the
native speaker's family. Make sure there are names under each person.
12. Model for a student and ask a question about the tree. Ask questions like,
 Who is Lisa’s mother?
 Are Jim and Janis married?
Then, call up a student and have him or her pose questions to the rest of the class.
For example,
 Is Jeremy’s mother-in-law Doris?
 Who is Sarah’s cousin?
Then have the student pick a different student to come up and ask some questions.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
13. Have students take out their family trees. Arrange students in pairs or groups of three.
Have each student share his or her family tree with a fellow student as the partner writes
it down. Have students compare what they wrote down with the original. Record a grade
for completion as well as content. (Did the family tree contain family vocabulary? Was
the vocabulary used in the sentences varied?) Next, have the native speaker model for
students a story using contrastive structure. An example might be:
 Jim is my brother. Jess is my sister.
 They both graduated from college.
 Jim went to OSU and Jess graduated from Michigan
 Jim has a girlfriend and Jess is single.
 Jess likes to eat at Wendy’s and Jim likes to cook.
 Neither one likes to shop.
 Jess has lots of clothes and Jim wears jeans all the time.
14. After answering questions for clarification in the native language, tell the story a second
time and ask students to write the story on a sheet of paper. Collect stories and scan the
stories to make sure all students are following the narrative.
15. Have students create a story using contrastive structure for homework. If time allows,
the native speaker can help students come up with ideas. Each person in the story must
have at least seven sentences about him or her. If a student wants to write about three
people, then five sentences for each one should suffice. These will be videotaped for a
speaking grade. Inform students that a quiz over the vocabulary will also take place on
Day Six.
Day Five
16. Start class by having the students share their stories. Have partners write down the
other’s story. Staying in the target language, students clarify information and fill in
information that is missing based on the guiding questions in Step 17. Students switch
roles and repeat the process.
17. Write on the board:
 Was the story clear?
 Did he or she use contrastive structure?
 Did he or she use a variety of family vocabulary?
 Did he or she use a variety of vocabulary learned from the previous part of the year?
 Did he or she use both styles of questions (yes/no and who/what/where/when)
 Did the story flow?
18. Have students watch their partners’ story twice and respond to the questions in writing.
This paper will be turned in when they videotape their stories. Remind students of the
quiz tomorrow.
Day Six
19. Distribute Attachment E, Quiz, and administer.
20. Allow students to break into groups for creating narratives with no more than four in
each group.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
21. Distribute Attachment D, Directions for Narrative. Announce that students will be
videotaped in two days.
22. Have each group list the names of those in the group and if they plan on bringing in a
community member.
Day Seven
23. Pass back the quiz and discuss any remaining questions over contrastive structure and
family vocabulary.
24. After getting into groups, have students begin to work on their narratives. Circulate and
answer questions. Tell students that they will be showing their rough drafts of their
narratives to the class toward the end of the period.
25. Pick two or three groups that are ready to show their rough drafts. Ask students to
determine the strengths and weakness of each narrative.
26. To determine the order of taping for the next day, have students write their names in two
columns, one for videotaping and one for running the camera.
Instructional Tip:
Remind students of appropriate and expected behavior during group presentations and video
recording.
Day Eight
27. Videotape the narratives.
Instructional Tip:
Depending on class size, the narrative presentations may take longer than one day. Plan
accordingly.
Day Nine
28. Watch the videotapes as a class and record student comments on an overhead.
Day Ten
29. Take students to the computer lab to review uploading procedures and have them upload
their narratives to the computer. If a technology resource person is available, have him
or her show students how to edit the film using a movie-editing program. Next, have
students compress the film using appropriate software programs, if available. Burn a CD
or upload to the school or class Web site.
Differentiated Instructional Support:
Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs, to help all learners either meet the
intent of the specified indicators(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the
specific indicators.
 "Every student can learn, just not in the same way on the same day" (George Evans).
 This lesson plan is inherently student friendly. It is designed to be creative. Therefore,
individuality is expected and welcomed.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10




When students work with other students in a team situation and this has been taught and
reinforced throughout the entire year, students should be grouped heterogeneously. Be
careful when pairing students that there is not a severe discrepancy in knowledge and
skills. When a student who learns quickly needs a dose of competition and needs to move
more quickly through the material, let that happen.
This lesson can be adapted in breadth and length. Learning and assessment can be
flexible and tied to students’ needs and interests.
The table format of the scoring guidelines is flexible and lends itself to modifications.
Challenge students to illustrate or close caption the ASL narrative using constrastive
structure.
Extensions:
For students to begin to understand the usage of contrastive structure in American Sign
Language there must be plenty of opportunities for interactions with native speakers outside
the classroom. Because ASL is spoken in our backyards, motivated parents, students or
teachers can arrange such neighborhood experiences. Possible outings include:
 Events organized by local deaf clubs.
 Activities initiated by students, parents or ASL teachers outside the ASL classroom
where the deaf club members and deaf community members are invited.
 Depending on the size of the city in which you are teaching, state and county agencies
that work with deaf and hard of hearing students may offer events or activities open to the
public. One example may be the state residential schools Parent-Teacher Fun Fair.
Another would be a local mental health agency Deaf Fair, a gathering of local vendors
that provide services to the deaf and hard of hearing.
 Programs with an emphasis on deafness are a good place to look for volunteer
opportunities. Possible programs:
 Residential schools for the deaf
 Senior citizen centers with a large deaf or hard of hearing population
 Mental health agencies that serve deaf students
 City school systems that educate deaf students of all ages
Home Connections:
 Have students take their families to one of the sports activities at a local residential or day
school for the deaf. They will see contrastive structure usage as well as how the language
is used in a natural setting.
 Have students sit down with their families and search sites such as OhioLINK for ASL
stories and related themes.
Materials and Resources:
The inclusion of specific resources in any lesson should not be interpreted as an endorsement
of that particular resource, or its content by the Ohio Department of Education. Please note
that information published on the Internet changes over time and that links may no longer
contain the specific information related to a given lesson. Therefore, teachers are advised to
preview all sites before using them with students.
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Note: Some Web sites contain material that is protected by copyright. Teachers should
ensure that any use of material from the Web does not infringe upon the content owner's
copyright.
For the teacher:
overhead transparencies, colored overhead markers, clipboard,
Attachments A-E, video recorders, computers with multimedia
capabilities
For the student:
paper and pencil
Vocabulary and Structures:
Vocabulary may be adjusted to match the relative and relationship terms students in each
classroom will need.
Nouns
 aunt
 boyfriend
 brother
 cousin (female and male)
 daughter
 dead
 family
 father
 girlfriend
 grandfather
 grandmother
 living
 mother
 niece
 nephew
 sister
 son
 uncle
 wedding
Verbs
 to adopt
 to date
 to be married/divorced/single
Contrastive structure is a grammatical structure used in American Sign Language to compare
and contrast two or more people, places or things. Each person, place or thing that is going to
be in the discussion is given a location within the sign space. The first referent is always
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
placed opposite the dominant hand, approximately 45 degrees. The second is placed
approximately 90 degrees opposite the first. If there is a third referent, it is directly in the
middle of the sign space.
Technology Connections:
 Students can digitally record the skits or live stories by native speakers that have visited
the classroom.
 Students can edit these stories, upload them and send them to fellow classmates across
the Internet or to ASL students across the country.
 Innovative students can reformat these stories so digital access is not limited to highspeed access only.
Research Connections:
Emmorey, Karen. Language, Cognition and the Brain. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, 2002.
The difference in iconicity between signed and spoken languages can be argued to be
one of degree, rather than one of substance. Spoken language also has iconic forms
words that resemble the sounds associated with their referents (e.g., onomatopoetic
words). For example, the English word ding resembles the sound of a bell and sizzle and
pop mimic the sounds associated with these actions (note also that the articulation of the
word pop also (the rapid opening and closing of the mouth) iconically resembles a
popping action). (p.17)
General Tips:
 General shopping vocabulary should be taught prior to this lesson.
 The ASL classroom chairs should be placed in a U so that all students can see you and
each other when they are talking.
 All ASL classroom interactions, from the Pre-Assessment to the Post-Assessment, should
take place in the target language, reinforcing extended spoken language when in groups
and dialogue situations.
 For optimum success with this lesson, establish a strong teacher presence through
participation and direction and theatrical and interactive moments.
Attachments:
Attachment A, Pre-Assessment Summary Sheet
Attachment B, Sample Teacher Story
Attachment C, Speaking Skills Rubric for ASL
Attachment D, Directions for Narrative
Attachment E, Quiz
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Assessment A
Pre-Assessment Summary Sheet
Name of Student__________
Date of Observation_______
Group #_________________
Vocabulary Used
Family_________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Shopping_______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
ASL Grammatical Structures Used
Contrastive Structure____
Referencing ____
Verb Agreement/Eye Gaze____
Non-manual Grammatical Signals___
Role Shift ____
Negatives ____
Classifiers ____
Whole Entity ____
Handling ____
Limb ____
Motion ____
Extension/Surface ____
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Attachment B
Sample Teacher Story
Wow, did I have fun last weekend! My aunt, mother and I went shopping at Easton.
Originally we thought about staying for the morning, but when we went in search of the car,
the sun was down and we had begun to think about dinner. Our arms were so tired from
carrying around clothes bags, I thought I would have to hire a porter. My mom was the only
one who wasn't tired. She bought only two candles for my sister-in-law for the holidays. My
aunt, however, a body builder by profession, carried her own four sacks and two of mine and
kept a record pace, almost jogging to the car! Despite the bags-o-plenty, I truly held back. I
had seen books, coats, kitchen utensils and furniture that I wanted and turned a blind eye. It
was hard, but I did. When you go shopping next, what will you buy for yourself? Your
grandpa? Your girl or boy friend?
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Attachment C
Speaking Skills Rubric for ASL
Name_____________________
Date______________________
ASL Level and Class Time____
This rubric is not inclusive of the comprehensive speaking language skills that you will need
to gain fluency in American Sign Language, but serves as a general framework for classroom
assessment.
Formation:
 Hand shape
 Palm Orientation
 Movement
 Location
Space Referents:
 Motion/Location of
Verbs (includes eye
gaze, body shifting,
pausing)
Story Grammar-Use
of Non-Manual
Markers (NMGS):
 Yes/No Questions
 Wh- Questions
 Location
 Negation
 Contrastive
Structure (referents,
time, intensity)
Clarifies Meaning
4
Excellent
 Consistent use of
correct signs
 Clear, easily
understood
3
Very Good
 Self-corrects: few
mistakes made
 Easily understood
 Extensive use of
setting up points
in space to refer
to objects and
people
 Good eye
contact
 Lively,
enthusiastic,
expressive
 Frequently sets up
points in space to
refer to objects and
people, with some
errors
 Maintains some
eye contact
 Some use of
expressive
behaviors

 Correctly and
consistently uses
appropriate
NMGS
 Uses intensifiers
(dramatic use of
facial
expressions and
signs) to match
information
conveyed
 Uses all nonmanual markers
appropriately
 Uses a variety of
strategies for
clarifying
meaning
 Most of the time,
appropriate use of
NMGS
 Inconsistent use of
intensifiers
 Inconsistent use of
non-manual
markers

 Uses a few
techniques
consistently when
clarifying meaning
 Uses the same
techniques
inconsistently to
clarify meaning






2
Satisfactory
Some errors, but is
understandable
Errors don’t
impede
comprehension
Limited use of
setting up points in
space to refer to
objects and people;
sometimes makes
mistakes
Limited eye
contact
Limited use of
expressive
behaviors
Some appropriate
use of NMGS
Limited use of
intensifiers
Limited use of
non-manual
markers
1
In Progress
 Frequent incorrect
formation of signs
 Very difficult to
understand signs
 Difficulty with
setting up points in
space to refer to
objects and people
 Difficulty with
maintaining eye
contact
 Lacks expressive
behaviors when
signing
 No NMGS when
signing
 Difficulty using
intensifiers
 Difficulty using
non-manual
markers
 Struggles when
clarifying meaning
in the target
language
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Attachment D
Directions for Narrative
Grammatical Structure: Contrastive Structure
Checklist
____ Are there visuals you want to include in your narrative? For example, a family
picture, a fictitious family from a magazine, a drawing of the perfect family.
____ Have all of your language materials learned to date with you when preparing your
narrative. Your narrative should reflect all of your linguistic efforts from the
beginning of ASL study to now.
____ The vocabulary used should emphasize family.
____ Narrative format is contrastive structure
____ Narrative length should be two to three minutes. For each person, place or thing in the
narrative, seven pieces of information should be included.
____ Memorized!
____ Create a first draft of your narrative.
____ Submit your work to a fellow student for peer response. This is not a written work.
You actually SIGN this to your classmate.
____ Make revisions based on feedback from your classmate.
____ Create your final narrative.
____ Digitally videotape your narrative
____ Videotape classmate’s narrative
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Attachment E
Quiz
Name___________________________
Date____________________________
ASL Level and Class Time__________
Contrastive Structure: Write down the narrative given by the teacher.
____
___________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
_______________________
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Comparing My Family Members – Grade 10
Attachment E
Quiz- Teacher Script
Teacher Script for Quiz:
I have two sisters. Their names are Betty and Beth. Betty is married and attends college. Beth
is divorced, works part-time and has three kids. They both graduated from Smith High
School and live in Boston. Beth enjoys shopping for clothes while Betty doesn't like to.
Watching football games is something Betty enjoys, but Beth likes to cook.
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