Grade Level: 9-12 

Credit: 1.0 

American Sign Language I (ASL) introduces students to the language and culture of the Deaf Community in the United States. Students learn to negotiate the following social situations: greeting and meeting others, telling time, asking directions, responding to basic questions, talking about family and relationships, and giving and following basic commands. Students will be introduced to basic ASL grammatical and linguistic structures. In addition, students develop visual listening skills and respond in ASL, and understand ASL stories. Students will also learn about various aspects of American Deaf Culture, History & Community. Most of the course is conducted in ASL. 

Credit Status: Selective; OPU/NCAA approved 

Grade Level: 10-12 

Credit: 1.0 

In ASL II, students further develop communicative proficiency in American Sign Language and learn more about the culture of the Deaf community. Students will learn to negotiate the following situations: asking and responding to questions, discussing daily routines and vacation interests, and in the following areas: describing people and things in detail, travel abroad, finding housing, giving instructions, narrating past events, describing the past, and sports. Students develop improved accuracy in communication and increased awareness and knowledge of culture and history through discussion, film, YouTube videos selected by the instructor and reading cultural articles. Students learn to sign past and future tenses and write in ASL grammatical order. Students also begin to learn to sign in these types of discourse. Students develop signing, listening, reading using sentence length, discourse to respond to less predictable situations, and beginning to create with the language. Students prepare for instructions and activities to be inclusive in American Sign Language. 

Credit Status: Selective; OPU/NCAA approved 

Prerequisite: American Sign Language I 

Grade Level: 10-12 

Credit: 1.0 

In ASL III, students further develop communicative proficiency in American Sign Language and learn more about the culture of the Deaf community. The content includes the additional basic receptive and expressive sign skills and sign vocabulary required to communicate at an advanced beginner level of American Sign Language. Also included in the course content are more advanced ASL linguistic and grammatical principles as well as the ability to expressively and receptively use the manual alphabet. Course work incorporates additional concepts in the use of facial markers, body movement, classifiers, quantifiers, directional verbs, verb tenses, the use of eye and body gaze, use of space, ASL idioms and discourse features and experiences with the deaf community and culture. 

Credit Status: Selective; OPU/NCAA approved 

Prerequisite: American Sign Language II (B- grade or higher) and/or teacher recommendation 

Grade Level: 11-12 

Credit: 1.0 

ASL IV is an advanced course designed to further develop knowledge, skills and application in the outcome areas of signing, comprehending sign, composing unique sentences and questions using ASL grammar, comprehension of native signers on video, and culture. The ultimate goal is for students to be able to use the language to have conversations on a wider variety of topics, especially those that are meaningful to members of the Deaf community. This class is taught using the total immersion method. Spoken English will not be used to teach ASL and students will not be able to use their voices during instructional time. ASL IV students will perform more regularly in front of the entire class and on video to show their signing and grammatical application abilities. ASL IV students will be encouraged to make real-life connections outside of school by interacting with members of the local Deaf community. ASL IV students will begin expanding their real life interactions with Deaf people through technology (YouTube videos of Deaf people signing, etc.) ASL IV students will be more involved in analyzing their own abilities in applying grammatical features studied in ASL I and ASL II in order to improve their ASL skills. 

Credit Status: Selective; OPU/NCAA approved 

Prerequisite: American Sign Language III (B- grade or higher) and/or teacher recommendation 

Dual Credit Option: 3 PCC credits (ASL 201)