American Sign Language has been a commonly undervalued language in society. Most schools don’t even offer it–and if they do–not many students take it. Here at Lakota West, this beautiful language has taken off and is now offered at all 4 levels of high school.
Co-teachers of ASL IV, Jessica Frye and Katie Nicol, are very passionate about this language and want Lakota West to become more involved with this language. In the past, ASL was only taught at the main campus building, meaning there was no way to have ASL IV. Once ASL I was finally pushed to the freshman building, Mrs. Frye and Mrs. Nicol already started thinking about adding ASL IV.
“Graduating here at Lakota West, I didn’t have the choice to take ASL IV and I wish I did ” Mrs. Nicol said.
Since ASL III was the highest level of ASL a student could take, it was offered as a CCP course, meaning students could get college credit for it. ASL I & II introduces and teaches the vocabulary and understanding of sign language, and ASL III acts as the building block of putting sentences together and learning the grammatical structure of ASL. Instead of taking that away, ASL IV is also a CCP course. ASL IV would be considered college courses advanced 1 & 2 of ASL. The teachers focus on teaching their students how to be more fluid with signing and being able to convert English sentences into ASL more fluently.
“It’s really about learning to become of a more visual language” Mrs. Frye said.
ASL IV is also required to have community outreach hours as a part of their course, which means this class has had many opportunities to help others connect with this language inside and outside of the Lakota Schools. Recently the students went on a school field trip to St. Rita’s School for the Deaf and got to work with the high school students and use sign language only. Next semester, the students will go back to St. Rita’s and work with their elementary students. Another thing these students have started is Signing With Lakota. The ASL IV class also goes to many elementary schools and teaches kids the basic signs to help them engage with some of the deaf kids that are at Lakota West.
Lakota West’s American Sign Language program is helping bridge the gap between the hearing and Deaf communities in our Lakota Community.
