Erich Tucker

TASL 501
Assignment 4C
December 6, 2015
In this paper, I will describe my lesson plan suited for community college level 1
students using the Master ASL curriculum series. The lesson is based on the topic of
colors and animals combined using the Input Theory as it involves entirely the use of
visual aids. The lesson incorporates a childrens story that most students should be
familiar with in, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you hear.
In the lesson, I use a series of scaffolding methods to re-emphasize the material
and to ensure competency through repetition. For example, the lesson starts with a series
of color tiles in a PowerPoint in which the instructor points to the color and demonstrates
the sign for it, etc. Once all the colors are established with their signs, the instructor
provides each student with a colored strip of paper to practice with their partner. There
are two parts to the partner activity: the first is to hold up the color strip and have the
partner sign it, the second part is to sign the color and have the partner point to the correct
color strip. The instructor needs to ensure they walk the room to catch mistakes and
correct them on the spot. Once the colors and their respective signs are established, the
lesson moves on to the next part, animals.
The same scenario applies for the animals, the instructor points to each animal
and demonstrates the signs for them. The students then are provided printouts of the
animals and conduct the partner activity the same way as they did with the colors. Once
the students have grasped the colors and animals, the strips and animal pictures are
combined into a third activity in which students sign a color and animal and their partner

shows the picture and color strip corresponding with the requests. This builds both
receptive and expressive skills simultaneously.
The lesson is easy enough that it can be adapted slightly for use in high school
classrooms if needed. One way in which to decrease the overwhelming stimulation of
information for high school students would be to break the lesson up into three separate
days in which only colors are taught one day, animals the next day with a bingo activity
at the end. Students are then to prepare their presentations of the Brown Bear story.
My lessons rely heavily on the Total Physical Response method, as I believe that
students should remain active in classrooms instead of wasting full class time watching
me lecture. When students are engaged with each other, they are playing the role of both
teacher and student as they peer assess each other for mistakes and misunderstandings. I
have used this lesson in the past and students have given positive feedback towards it
because of its high reliance on visual cues and the re-emphasis of the material
throughout the lesson.