In 1817, the first American school for deaf children was created. Almost a half century later in 1965, ASL, or American Sign Language was officially recognized as its own language. Since then ASL has been taugh

t in many schools across the nation. Being able to understand and communicate with others is essential in order to live our lives. And with ASL, deaf people have a way to do just that. Whether you know someone in your life who is deaf or want to be able to talk with them in their own language or you just think it would be fun to learn.

Well Castle View has these options, Mr.Berman’sASL 1 class is a great way to get started learning basic signs.

The first thing students do in the class is practice signs with a partner for Ten to Thirty minutes. This can be done on asl.ms or on Edpuzzle. After that Mr.Berman will put on Gimkit and the students will all participate in a game where you identify the signs being shown and label them as what they are. These games can last for quite some time depending on if Mr.Berman wants to do more than one round. After the game is over, we do a class review of the signs we are currently learning, this can include numbers, letters, places in the world, and just basic communication signs. Finally if there is still time in

class after all those activities, we will usually play an ASL game either with the whole class or with the person sitting next to you. “It’s easy to pick up, you don’t have to learn how to annunciate things, and you can use it across America.” stated Elizabeth Garlock when asked why she liked the class and why she would recommend it to other students.

With all these options we are so grateful for the classes given at Castle View and are options to learn to communicate in so many different ways.