Beginning a teaching practicum

On Thursday, I Skyped from my home office to a classroom at Western Oregon University to begin a teaching practicum. As a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies program with a concentration in teaching interpreting, I will be observing and participating in a Linguistics of ASL course in the Bachelor of Arts in Interpreting program. It is as important for me to audit this course as it is for me to observe and help teach it, because we did not have an ASL linguistics course in my ITP in the early nineties. We did learn about ASL linguistics from the green books (Baker & Cokely, 1980), and my Deaf Culture teacher, Freda Norman, shared with me articles on ASL linguistics studies from Salk Institute; still, this is my first actual ASL linguistics class. I am excited to work with professor Elisa Maroney, student teacher Halene “Hal” Anderson, and the students in this class.

Have you ever done a teaching practicum or had someone doing a teaching practicum in one of your classes? If so, what is one thing you would tell a person starting one?

Books used in this course

• Baker-Shenk, C. & Cokely, D. (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher’s resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: T.J. Publishers.
• Humphrey, J. & Alcorn, B. (2007). So you want to be an interpreter? An introduction to sign language interpreting, fourth edition. Renton, WA: H&H Publishing Co, Inc.
• Lucas, C. & Valli, C., Mulrooney, K.J. & Villanueva, M. (2011). Linguistics of American Sign Language: An introduction. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.