AY Honors/Sign Language - Advanced/Answer Key

1. Have the Sign Language Honor.

For tips and instruction see Sign Language.

2. Have a minimum of 5 hours of instruction in signing.

Continue the classes started in the Sign Language honor. If you earned the Sign Language honor a long time ago and cannot continue the classes you already started, you will have to find another class and sign up again.

3. Send and receive finger spelling at a rate of 12 words per minute using a minimum of 50 letters.

In the standard version of this honor, you were required to sign five words per minute. Hopefully you did not find that too difficult to do, but unless you put in some serious practice, you are unlikely to achieve 12 words per minute. But rest assured, you can do it!

4. Learn at least 350 signs.

We refer you to the books recommended in the standard version of this honor. The best way to learn 350 signs is to practice, practice, practice. You could even practice during the sermon at church as you sit in your pew. If you think people might think you are strange signing to yourself during the sermon, see if you can find an out-of-the-way place where you can hear the sermon without being seen (in the balcony, AV room, or even in a hallway if your church has speakers there). Not only will you get valuable practice signing, you will also be assured of staying awake for the whole sermon!

As you are looking for 350 signs to learn, turn your attention to requirement 5 below, which requires you to sign six songs. Choose some songs with signs you do not know and learn them.

Keep an alphabetic list of the signs you know so you can keep track of how many you have learned. We recommend that you alphabetize the list so that you can avoid repeating a sign and accidentally counting it twice. The easiest way to keep such a list is on a computer because you can insert new signs you learn into the list. If you do not have access to a computer, you can also keep track in a notebook, but we recommend that you roughly alphabetize by keeping all the signs that start with the letter A on the first page, B on the second, etc. When you add new words, you can quickly scan the page to make sure you did not already add it.

5. Sign at least 6 songs to a hearing impaired friend.

Once you have learned 350 signs, finding six songs you know most of the signs for should not be too difficult. Choose a song you really love and fill in any gaps in your knowledge. If you are learning to sign with a group or have several friends who sign, why not present the song as special music during your church service?

6. Be able to sign to a hearing impaired friend:

a. The Lord's Prayer - Matthew 6:9-13.

This Youtube video shows how to sign The Lord's Prayer. Another good source is the ASLbible by Deafmissions http://www.deafmissions.com/?PageID=65

b. Beatitudes - Matthew 5:3-12.

This video from Deafmissions shows the Beatitudes, but only verse 1-7. This Youtube video shows all the verses, but it is not done as well.

c. Ten Commandments - Exodus 20:6-17.

Hand Commands: The Ten Commandments for Little Ones is a book you can purchase that illustrates the Ten Commandments in ASL.

Deafmissions has translated the book of Exodus into a two part DVD set, it can be ordered from http://www.deafmissionsstore.com/v-btexod.html