Song Performance, ASL Literature, and a Curriculum Challenge
Mr. Whitfield, who is Deaf, teaches ASL Level 3 to 26 hearing high school students, and the course satisfies the world language requirement. In February, three students ask to perform a translated pop song in ASL at the multicultural assembly, citing a viral video; another teacher signed a song at a previous assembly. The next unit covers ASL literature: ABC stories, number stories, classifier stories, and works by Deaf storytellers. Mr. Whitfield also receives an email from a parent arguing that ASL should not count as a world language because 'it is just gestures' and that class time should instead go to spoken English grammar. Two students are heritage signers, one a CODA and one with a Deaf grandmother who signs at family gatherings. Another student's signing shows frequent English word order and initialized signs.
1. How would you decide on the assembly request? Give your reasoning in terms of course goals and Deaf cultural perspectives, and describe any compromise you would offer.
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Separate the genre from the pedagogy. Translated songs are a real practice in some Deaf performance communities, so a blanket 'no' is hard to defend on cultural grounds and would read as arbitrary to students. The pedagogical problem is narrower: in most school versions the English lyrics are the source text, the music carries the emotional weight, and ASL functions as decoration for a hearing audience. That is the definition of an audist frame, and it is the opposite of the unit's objective, which is ASL-internal composition authored by Deaf people.
Apply a relevance test. Does the performance arise from what the course teaches, and can the students explain their choices in ASL terms? A student who translated a song without analyzing handshape, referent set-up, or the beat-driven phrasing is performing, not demonstrating ASL competence.
Offer a constructive alternative. Invite the students to present ASL-authored material from the unit, their own classifier story or number story, or a piece they composed, with a short introduction in ASL explaining the form and its conventions, spoken interpretation optionally provided by the school, or captioned on a screen. If they still want the song, attach conditions: they analyze the source, justify their ASL choices in writing or in ASL, credit any Deaf creator whose work they use, and present it as a translation study rather than as an ASL exemplar.
Consider the assembly audience. A hearing audience will read whatever is on stage as representative of ASL and Deaf culture. That argues for framing, not censorship, and for including Deaf students and staff in the decision.
Heritage signers. Loop them in deliberately: they may have strong views, and their knowledge should be treated as a resource rather than as a performance prop.
2. Design a compact rubric for assessing a classifier story, and explain why it measures the right construct rather than 'fluency' or 'expressiveness.'
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Rubric dimensions (4-point scale each, weighted equally).
- Narrative structure. Clear orientation, complication, and resolution; the audience can follow without spoken scaffolding.
- Classifier selection and use. Handshapes chosen match the referent's category and size (vehicle, person, thin object); movement and orientation are consistent with how that entity moves; classifiers are used for the entities they represent rather than as generic acting-out.
- Signing space and reference. Referents are located, kept distinct, and maintained consistently; shifts between them are motivated; the use of space supports the story rather than resetting by accident.
- Non-manual structure and role shift. Facial affect and mouth morphemes match the action; body shifting marks speaker and character; grammatical marking (topic, conditionals) is present.
- Composition and risk. The student attempts something beyond a memorized gloss, including deliberate use of rhythm, repetition, or a number or handshape constraint.
Why this is the right construct. The unit's objective is ASL literary composition, so the criteria are drawn from ASL structure. 'Fluency' and 'expressiveness' are rater impressions, easily inflated by a student who is animated and confident, and easily depressed for a heritage signer who is quiet but grammatical. Scoring English-to-ASL accuracy on an ASL-authored task would measure the wrong language.
Rater conditions. Rate from video, with the student's permission, using two raters who are ASL-fluent, and moderate a sample together. Include a comprehension check: show the story to a Deaf audience member or to peers who then retell it. If the story cannot be retold, the composition has not succeeded, whatever the rubric says.
3. Draft the core of a reply to the parent's email. What claims do you make, what evidence do you cite, and what do you deliberately avoid?
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Claims, in order.
- ASL is a natural human language with its own grammar. It has a phonological system built on handshape, location, movement, orientation, and non-manual features; morphology, including classifier constructions and verb agreement; and syntax, including topic-comment structures that English does not use. Calling it gestures is like calling English a set of noises.
- It is recognized academically and for credit. ASL is taught and researched at universities, and it is accepted for world language credit by many states and postsecondary institutions; most students in this course take it precisely to satisfy that requirement.
- World language study is not a competitor to English. Research on bilingual development finds that a strong first or additional language supports literacy in the other; time spent on ASL does not displace English grammar instruction, and for deaf students ASL access is associated with better language and academic outcomes, not worse.
- Here is what the course actually does. Concrete: students analyze ASL phonology, produce and respond to narratives, study Deaf literature, and learn about a linguistic community. Invite her to observe a class.
What to avoid. Do not challenge her competence or imply she is prejudiced; do not argue about the grade or the individual student; do not overstate evidence with citations you cannot produce; and do not concede the point to keep the peace. Keep it to one page, reference the district's world language policy as the decision-maker, and close with an invitation to meet rather than a link dump.