Division of Business, Languages and Cultures Course Syllabus

Seattle Central Community College

Division of Business, Languages and Cultures Course Syllabus

Course:ITP 132 Fingerspelling & Numbers

Credits: 4

Class hours:T/Th 5:15-8:00 PM

Instructor:Tamara Moxham, MEdIP, CI, CT, NIC-Master

Contact Info:; 206-344-4353, office BE1125

Office hours: M/W 11-12, 3-4:14, and by appointment
Course Description

Students will learn and/or review the roles of fingerspelling and numbers in ASL, the grammatical rules, and participate in activities to strengthen both productive and receptive skills. They will also produce an action plan for further learning after the course is finished.

Student Outcomes

By the end of the quarter, students will:

• Be able to describe the roles of fingerspelling and numbers in ASL
• Be able to detail the grammatical rules surrounding fingerspelling and numbers in ASL
• Be able to produce fingerspelling and numbers correctly in a wide variety of contexts displaying proper grammar
• Be able to produce fingerspelling and numbers correctly in a wide variety of contexts displaying proper physical production in order to stay physically safe and avoid soft tissue damage to hands, wrists, arms, etc.
• Have action plan for continuing practice of receptive fingerspelling and numbers
• Have resources for techniques and activities to help strengthen receptive fingerspelling and numbers

Instructor Philosophy “Excellence not perfection”

Learning is a many-faceted jewel.Some of these include a safe place to receive, discuss, and practice new information and skills, highly motivated students who are willing and able to do work, research, practice and applications outside of the classroom environment, and who are also committed to balancing their studies, work and personal life, and an instructor who is flexible and dedicated to student learning and his or her own life-long learning. The interpreting field in particular cannot be learned in a classroom alone; however, classroom work is an essential starting place.Instructors also need to be up-to-date in the field.To this end I as your instructor pledge to foster a safe and effective learning environment in and out of the classroom to the best of my ability, and to continue to work as an interpreter myself to stay fresh in the field.

Required Materials

• Access to email and the internet at all times
• DVD set Fingerspelling 1 Signs For IntelligenceFingerspelling 2 Signs For Intelligence
• Flash drive used for this class only

Not Required but Highly Recommended

• Video recorder

Methods of Instruction

Fingerspelling and numbers cannot be learned in isolation. Rules of grammar will be presented in lecture and web form. Practice will take the form of a wide variety of classroom activities including games.

In the world of interpreting there is no one right answer. As your ASL studies have already shown there is very rarely one ASL sign for one English word and vice-versa. In learning interpreting you are learning how to analyze a message for meaning, and find the linguistic and cultural equivalent as well as the appropriate level of formality and other factors affecting each unique environment. This requires critical thinking skills. You will not be able to stop an interpreting situation indefinitely and ask a teacher, team, or mentor what "the answer"™ is. In truth there is no one right answer for any situation (although there are a lot more inadvised ones). We will be discussing this at length.

How does this affect our classes? Part of the ITP faculty's responsibility is to teach you how to think critically. This means we will not simply answer your questions; tell you what we've done in the past, or what our instincts tell us until we have brought you through the thought process. This can be a frustrating experience for students used to learning a method, memorizing answers, and being tested on them. Interpreting is much more slippery than that. Please feel free to come to me, e-mail, and use my office hours to discuss any frustrations you may have over these methods.

No hand-written homework accepted unless specially directed by instructor.Use customary collegiate standards – 12 pt. serif-font, double-spaced. All citations must be done in Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

Participation / Attendance Policy

This is an elective class. I will not be taking attendance nor will absences themselves count or take away from your grade. I will not however take special steps to “catch-up” students who choose to miss classes. Everything will be on the 132 Syllabus page and it is kept updated. If you have a medical or legal emergency please let me know as soon as possible and we will take appropriate steps together.

Assignments and Tests

Please see “Schedule” tab from main syllabus page. I highly recommend that you do not print out the schedule as it may change slightly depending on students’ needs. Any changes will appear on the website as they are made, and announced through e-mail and/or during class.

Final Grade

Item / Points
Quizzes – 6 at 15 points each / 90
Homework / 100
Project / 100
Participation / 90
Final Exam / 120
Total / 500 points

Grading

Your final grade will be reported as a decimal grade e.g. 3.7. Below is a conversion table, which shows how the points and percentage grades relate to decimal grades.

Points / Percentage / Decimal Points
450-500 / 90%+ / 3.6 - 4.0
400-449 / 80%+ / 3.2 – 3.5
350-399 / 70%+ / 2.8 - 3.1
300-349 / 60%+ / 2.4 – 2.7
0-299 / 50%+ / 2.0 – 2.3

Turning in Assignments

You are allowed to turn in homework before the due date. Please remember – no work is accepted late except in case of emergency. Please note that the instructor's definition of "emergency" and the students' may differ and that the teacher gets to decide.

A large portion of the work in ITP is done on recordable devices. This means that you will be dealing with computer equipment. Both the ASL and the ITP lab have video cameras and audio equipment for you to do your homework on. You can pass in DVDs, flash drives, send the instructor links to You Tube and Flip videos, and other ways as they become available.

It is important to remember that even though technology is changing fast and you may not be familiar with everything we offer here at SCCC that your assignments are your responsibility. Problems with computers, recording devices, internet sites, long loading times, full thumb drives etc. are not acceptable reasons for late work or "do-overs". If you do not know how to use equipment ask someone. If you do not have access to a computer full time please make use of SCCC's student Computer Center in room BE3148.

The instructor has a PC, but has access to a Mac, and has Windows Media Player, Realtime Player, QuickTime, and VideoLan (VLC) Player. There should be no problem playing any recording a student hands in.

Your grade must remain 2.5 or above to Graduate from the ITP program.If the grade falls below a 2.5 you are placed on probation.If you receive 2.4 or below a second time you may be asked to leave the program.

Academic Honesty and Integrity Statement

Academic dishonesty is one of the most serious offenses that a student can commit while in college.Here are some examples of academic dishonesty. While this is not an all-inclusive list, we hope this will help you to understand some of the things instructors look for.

Cheating – intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in an academic exercise. This may include use of unauthorized aids (notes, texts) or copying from another student’s exam, paper, computer disk, etc.

Fabrication – intentional and unauthorized falsification, misrepresentation, or invention of any data, or citation in an academic exercise. Examples may include making up data for a research paper, altering the results of a lab experiment or survey, listing a citation for a source not used, or stating an opinion as a scientifically proven fact.

Plagiarism – intentionally representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise without providing proper documentation by source by way of a footnote, endnote or intertextual note. If you plan to use someone else’s words, use quotation marks and cite properly.Also cite if you paraphrase someone else’s words or re-explain someone else’s work.

Unauthorized collaboration – Students - each claiming sole authorship - submit separate reports, which are substantially similar to one another. While several students may have the same source material, the analysis, interpretation and reporting of the data must be each individual’s.

Participation in academically dishonest activities – Examples include stealing an exam, using a pre-written paper through online or other services, selling, loaning or otherwise distributing materials for the purpose of cheating, plagiarism, or other academically dishonest acts; alternation, theft, forgery, or destruction of the academic work of others.

Facilitating academic dishonesty – Examples may include inaccurately listing someone as co-author of paper who did not contribute, sharing a take home exam, taking an exam or writing a paper for another student.

Please see SCCC Student Handbook for the official college policy

ADA Accommodations

At SCCC, the Disability Support Services Office is set up to provide physical and programmatic accommodations to persons with documented disabilities. This is carried out within the overall goals and mission Seattle Central Community College and Seattle Community College District’s Policy and Procedure 387 Reasonable Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.The Disability Support Services (DSS) Office offers consultation to faculty, staff, and classified employees of the college for the purpose of designing accommodations that provide equal access to otherwise qualified students regardless of age, gender, race, or sexual orientation.Please contact them at or visit them in room # BE1112.Please note that the instructor must be made aware of this disability at the beginning of the term in order to have enough time to adjust materials accordingly.Last minute accommodations cannot be made unless diagnosis is made after the quarter begins.