In this video, Ana discusses her decision to move to the United States while growing up in El Salvador.  This video was originally created by the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers and can be found in the ASL narratives collection at:  http://www.interpretereducation.org/tim/asl-narratives/

Objectives:

  • to identify the main ideas in an ASL text;
  • to create an accurate English summary of an ASL text.

Time:

This activity will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Directions for Practice:

Follow the steps below for the activity.  You will first:

  1. Predict
  2. Watch
  3. Summarize
  4. Compare your summary with given text

Prediction:

Spend a minute thinking about what Ana might talk about knowing that she grew up in El Salvador and eventually moved to the United States.

This is an important step in using the priming effect to prepare yourself for the learning to stick, so please be sure to spend the time to do this.  It will make the following work more effective.  

Watch the Video

This video is 1:28 long. Your next step will be creating a summary of the text in English.

Summarize the ASL Text

Write down an English summary of the video.  Alternately, you could record yourself via video – creating a summary in spoken English.  The goal is for you to capture the main ideas of the ASL text and create a cohesive English summary that achieves semantic equivalence.

 

Check Your Work

Use the following summary to check your own work and ensure that your practice is on track.

Immigrating from El Salvador

I’m from El Salvador. When I was young – growing up – the war was still going on in El Salvador. Through the years, my dad was the one who was taking care of me. My mother had moved to the United States. As the war heated up and guerilla activity increased, my dad was trying to decide what to do. When I turned 10, my mom flew back to El Salvador to try to talk the rest of us into moving to America. But I didn’t want to go because I wanted to stay with my father.

So, my mom went back to America. When I turned 18, my grandmother was extremely concerned about the war in El Salvador as well as the challenges of being deaf there. She talked my mother into coming to try to get us again. I finally decided to go ahead with the move.

When I first got to the U.S., I really missed El Salvador. I missed being in the familiar culture, but I have stuck with living in the U.S. I now have a son and daughter and am married, so it has all worked out.

Re-Watch the Video

Use spacing to strengthen your learning.  Wait one day.  Without looking at them, do your best to recall your summary as compared to the supplied summary.  This retrieval activity helps prime your brain to make connections with the text.  Then watch the text again and reflect on your difference in comprehension between the first and second time.