GRADES & GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA)
GRADES & GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA)
You are only allowed one B- during your graduate studies. If you have other grades with a B- or below in a course required for this program, you may repeat the same course with permission of the program coordinator only one time. Receiving a B- or below automatically calls for the program coordinator to review the student's performance and may be grounds for a recommendation for academic probation or dismissal by the Graduate School dean.
You must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate. An average GPA of 3.0 is required as evidence of satisfactory work. A GPA below 3.0 is considered to be below the acceptable level of performance and automatically calls for the program coordinator to review your performance and may be grounds for a recommendation for academic probation or dismissal by the Graduate School dean.
Grading Distribution and Letter Grade Equivalent:
A+ = 97.6 - 100
A = 93.6 - 97.5
A- = 89.6 - 93.5
B+ = 87.6 - 89.5
B = 83.6 - 87.5
B- = 79.6 - 83.5 (B- grade is considered failing, however, you are allowed one in your entire program of study)
C+ = 77.6 - 79.5 (C+ grade or below indicates you have failed the course)
C = 73.6 - 77.5
C- = 69.6 - 73.5
F = 69.5 or below
All of this information can also be found in the Gallaudet Graduate Catalog.
Students in the Masters program in Sign Language Education are required to develop a professional website showcasing skills developed and honed in courses throughout the program. Required bilingual portfolio components include:
Students are also required to have on hand a professional cover letter, a language proficiency score as well as national certification prior to graduation. Contact program coordinator for the latest rubric measuring quality of portfolio content. The portfolio is a course requirement within ASL 762: Seminar in Sign Language Education course.
Students in the Master program in Sign Language Education specializing in teaching ASL are strongly encouraged to apply for and obtain national teaching certification. For more information about ASLTA certification, please visit this link and click on "certification": http://aslta.org/
While the Masters in Sign Language Education program is accredited along with all other degree offerings at Gallaudet, the MASLED program is not a state approved licensure program or part of the professional programs unit accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), now renamed as Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). If you are seeking employment in K-12 school settings, you would be best advised to contact your state office of licensure and certification to see if our program meets their requirements. We are happy to assist with this process.
All teacher preparation programs include a required practicum and internship experience. A unique facet of this program is that you pick your own practicum and internship experience! In order to do this, you want to start contacting potential educational institutions you are interested in working with to build your professional experience/resume; to lead to a potential full-time job; and/or to work with a highly acclaimed ASL teacher/mentor.
A practicum experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 observation/assisting hours. During this experience, the practicum student observes (and when appropriate, assists) an ASL teacher throughout the full semester/course. Many consider this role similar to a TA (Teacher Assistant). A TA may teach briefly, grade student work, sit and observe, work in small groups or develop activities. The ASL teacher of your course would decide the level of your participation in the course. Be sure to communicate your interest early with your ASL teacher.
An internship experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 teaching hours. During this experience, the intern teaches a full semester/course including developing lessons and grading student work.
There are two different types of internship opportunities:
Why 45 hours? Most college-level ASL courses run 3 hours per week for 15 weeks = 45 hours. If the numbers at your college's ASL course fall slightly below 45 hours, you can make up additional hours through after-class tutoring or hosting an optional activity night for ASL students to reach 45 hours.
On top of your practicum and internship course at the educational institution of your choice, you will be also participating in an online course at Gallaudet University devoted to your practicum and internship experience.
Your practicum course at Gallaudet will include seminars about current trends in teaching, method analysis, lesson plan writing and assessment tool analysis. This is a collaborative, interactive course where you will also learn about your classmates' practicum placements as well.
Your internship course at Gallaudet is more of an individual experience where your internship faculty will observe you teach live through videochat software three times during the semester, and giving feedback on your teaching strategies, lesson planning, assessment tools and self-assessment. The goal here is to catch your strengths, maximize them and identify your challenges early, and to work on those challenges with the goal of improving from the first observation to your second observation and becoming even better with your third observation.
Let's get started seeking potential practicum and internship sites early - do not delay! Here's a letter for your potential site that you can use... Click here to download the letter.
Are you an experienced ASL teacher? Interested in having your practicum and internship requirement waived? Please fill out this form and send the form along with all required materials to the program coordinator.
Waiver approved? Congratulations! Fill in this form for each course you are waived and send to program coordinator. Make sure you write down the full course name and number (e.g. ASL 752: Sign Language Practicum).
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PRACTICUM, GO TO: Practicum
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON INTERNSHIP, GO TO: Internship
1) Have you passed all of your courses with a B or above?
WARNING: You are only allowed one B- during your graduate studies. If you have other grades with a B- or below in a course required for this program, you may repeat the same course with permission of the program coordinator only one time. Receiving a B- or below automatically calls for the program coordinator to review the student's performance and may be grounds for a recommendation for academic probation or dismissal by the Graduate School dean.
2) Is your cumulative GPA 3.0 or above?
WARNING: You must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate. An average GPA of 3.0 is required as evidence of satisfactory work. A GPA below 3.0 is considered to be below the acceptable level of performance and automatically calls for the program coordinator to review your performance and may be grounds for a recommendation for academic probation or dismissal by the Graduate School dean.
3) Have you applied for graduation?
​WARNING: Deadline is first week of December for December, the following May or August graduation. Click here for instructions on how to complete the form. If you do not complete this form, you will not receive your diploma from the university!
4) Have only 1 or 2 courses to take during the summer? Want to apply for early graduation?
This is called a "Petition to March". You will need to have less than 6 credits remaining in your final summer in order to march early in the May commencement. By marching early, you forfeit your ability to qualify for University gold honors stole and medallion as well as MASLED program awards because your final, cumulative GPA will not be available until after the summer ends. For more details, check this link.
5) Want to be a part of Gallaudet Commencement the following year?
Now the itty bitty gritty details such as how to order your lovely cap and gown as well as your commencement tickets to distribute to family and friends, location, schedule and details, how to watch graduation online and... yes, graduating students can stay on campus for free from Wednesday through Saturday during commencement. For more details, check out this link.
If you are not registered for courses during the summer, fall or spring semesters, and you are not done with the MASLED program requirements, you must ask and pay for continuing enrollment status to keep your status with the university active. If you do not register for continuous enrollment, the university will assume you left the program and give you a "discontinued" status. This means you will have to reapply to be admitted back into the program.
A continuous enrollment status keeps your status active with the University) for the semester. Continuous enrollment is $100 per semester. If you forget to do this, you will be discontinued, and then you will have to reapply to be readmitted back into the program. To request continuous enrollment, please check this link for more details.