🫵ASL Level 6, Activity 09-Debate (Online)

ASL interpreter interpreting a debatePicture by Sign1News

Description:

Students will begin with reviewing and learning some new vocabulary words, they will then take part in a group debate on different controversial topics.

Semantic Topics: Review, Debate, Topics, Controversial, Challenge
Grammatical Structures: Vocabulary, Questions, Sentence Structure

Products: Debate, Questions

Practices: Debate controversial topics and craft questions

Perspectives: Why is it easier to get directly to a point in ASL than it is in English?

Standards

NCSSFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards:

  • Standard 1.3 Students present information, concepts, and ideas in American Sign Language to an audience of viewers on a variety of topics.
  • Standard 3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through American Sign Language.

Idaho Content Standards for World Languages:

  • Objective: COMM 3.1 Present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of
    topics using appropriate media in the target language.
  • Objective: CLTR 2.3 Justify the underlying beliefs or values of the target culture that resulted in the creation of the product.
  • Objective: CONN 1.2 Relate information studied in other subjects to the target language and culture.
  • Objective: COMP 1.1 Observe formal and informal forms of language.

Can-Do Statements

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements:

  • I can apply my knowledge and intuition to a wide range of controversial topics in a debate setting.
  • I can participate in a debate on topics that are atypical in standard discourse.

Warm-up

Materials Needed for Warm-up

  1. Ask them to type ID # for attendance
      • “YOU LIST 2- NAME, ID NUMBER TYPE”
  2. Begin with 5-7 minutes of conversation
      • “START BREAKOUT ROOMS TIME 5-7 MINUTE CONVERSATION DISCUSS WHATEVER”
  3. Vocabulary/FS Practice
    1. MARS – “PLANET FS: Mars”
    2. BAN- “ILLEGAL”
    3. TRUST
    4. ENCOURAGE- “TO MOTIVATE”
    5. HOROSCOPE – “STAR SEE-FUTURE”
      1. ARIES – horns with ‘R’ handshape
      2. TAURUS – Y on the forehead
      3. GEMINI – FS
      4. CANCER – CRAB
      5. LEO – FS
      6. VIRGO –  WOMAN
      7. LIBRA – FS
      8. SCORPIO – SCORPION
      9. SAGITTARIUS – FS: SAG or ARROW
      10. CAPRICORN – GOAT
      11. AQUARIUS – FS: AQ
      12. PISCES – FS or FISH
      13. ZOMBIE – FS or act out
      14. SLAVE – Vocabulary

Main Activity

Materials Needed for Main Activity

Debate

Note: The lab assistant should model the Moderator role before choosing a student to lead the discussion.

  1. The lab assistant will randomly choose one student to be the Moderator and send them the “I am the Moderator” card so everyone can see it in the chat
    • “START ME PICK ONE PERSON fs-MODERATOR MESSAGE SEND ALL SEE”
  2. The lab assistant will separate the class into two breakout rooms and assign each group the “I am team yes!”, or the “I am team no!” cards so each group knows what side they will be supporting.
    • “NOW BREAKOUT ROOMS 2 GROUPS. ME SEND GROUP TEAM YES TEAM NO” 
  3. The Moderator will pick a topic from the sheet of “Controversial topics” cards they will then lead the debate with students.
    • “fs-MODERATOR TOPIC PICK DEBATE LEAD”
  4. The Yes and No teams will work together to support their side of the debate, providing at least three points to contribute. The groups will collaborate to come up with these points in breakout rooms.
    • “BREAKOUT ROOMS YES NO TEAMS WORK TOGETHER 3 POINTS THINK SUPPORT THEIR SIDE”
  5. Once the breakout rooms have had about 5 minutes to come up with an argument the breakout rooms will close and the group will debate as a whole.
    • “BREAKOUT ROOMS FINISH GROUP DEBATE” 
  6. Once the group is done with their debate, the lab assistant will assign a new Moderator and they will choose a new topic to debate.
    • At this point, the groups can be switched around or you can simply switch which team is team yes and which team is team no.
    • Continue debating until time runs out and make sure everyone gets to be the moderator at least once.
    • “FINISH fs-MODERATOR SWITCH NEW TOPIC PICK YES NO TEAMS SWITCH DEBATE CONTINUE”

Wrap-up

  1. How do you feel about your signing ability when it comes to having a debate?
    • “YOUR SIGNING STRENGTH YOU FEEL CONFIDENT [SHIFT] NOT CONFIDENT WHEN HAVING DEBATE?”
  2. Do you feel that the simplicity of sign language limits in-depth conversation?
    • “YOU THINK SIMPLICITY SIGN LANGUAGE LIMITS DEPTH CONVERSATION?”

Deaf Culture

Native signers tend to make points a lot quicker when it comes to explaining and discussing different topics. This is because there are not several words with the same meaning as there are in English. In a way, this simplifies the language overall but it also makes for efficient debates!

End of Lab:

  • Sign or show Can-Do statements once more and have students evaluate their confidence
    • (Use thumbs up/ thumbs down or have them rate 1-5 on how they feel after the activity)
  • Encourage students to be honest in their self-evaluation
  • Pay attention, and try to use feedback for future labs!

Can-Do Statements

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements:

  • I can apply my knowledge and intuition to a wide range of controversial topics in a debate setting.
  • I can participate in a debate on topics that are atypical in standard discourse.

License

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Let's Chat! American Sign Language (ASL) Copyright © 2023 by Armilene Cabreros; Audra Dooley; Claire Oberg; Collin Dauenhauer; Delaney Obaldia; Emily Harrison; Emma Wilkinson; Gabi Jones; Izabelle Finner; Jacob Steele; Kate Maryon; Madison Mackey; Megan McAllister; Monica Potts; Rebecca Mulgrew; Robyn Holland; Samantha Showers; Sarra Foerster; Serena Krause; Sophia Orm; Tiana Gratiot; and Tori Fisher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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