ASL Version of Description

This resource is a series of activities designed to demonstrate how a novice interpreter can create an individual development plan with the principle of mixed practice, a strategy shown by cognitive science research to be a strategy for successful learning.  These activities focus on three skills that are common growth areas for novice interpreters:

  • fingerspelled word recognition,
  • use of classifiers in ASL, and
  • maintaining composure during interpreting.

This resource is available for use as an Independent Study or in a format for group facilitation. 

Are you a novice interpreter who struggles incorporating classifiers in your work? How about recognizing fingerspelled word?  When a deaf person starts to fingerspell something, does it make you a little (or a lot) nervous? If you answer yes to any or all of these questions, you are not alone. To support your professional development, the CATIE Center has developed a month-long plan with a series of activities that focus on these three competencies:  classifiers, fingerspelled word recognition and maintaining composure. This sample plan is an example of how you can create your own Individual Development Plan (IDP) process that is customized to your own needs.   The plan contains a series of activities from the GTC Resource Library that are varied and spaced out to take advantage of the principles from the book Make It Stick that are explained in the Effective Learning and Practice modules. Educational Objectives: Successful participants will be able to: describe the principle of interleaving and how it helps to make learning stick; practice a template approach for fingerspelled word recognition; use a structured approach to shadowing native signers using depiction and then incorporating it in their own signed discourse; use stimulated recall to reflect on interpreting work; and Identify strategies for maintaining composure during interpreting work.

Successful participants will be able to:

  • describe the principle of interleaving and how it helps to make learning stick
  • practice a template approach for fingerspelled word recognition
  • Use a structured approach to shadowing native signers using depiction and then incorporating it in their own signed discourse
  • Use stimulated recall to reflect on interpreting work.
  • Identify strategies for maintaining composure during interpreting work.