1. Visual Strategies for Supporting English Instruction
Presenters:
Lisa Holton
Pam Wright-Meinhardt 1

2. Consider:
I don’t like that pizza.
PAM 2

3. Introduction How is meaning conveyed in English? Verbal Language:
Pitch
Volume
Pace
Pauses
Emphasis
Breathing Pattern
PAM with Lisa voicing:
Pitch: Questions (ending higher), Surprise, Sarcasm
Volume: Anger, added pacing can be very scary
Pace: Pace determines emphasis, shows mood, emotion, opinion
Pauses: “Umm” space, added for dramatic effect
Emphasis: Really impacts meaning
Breathing Pattern: Adding “sigh” behind it 3

4. Introduction How is meaning conveyed in ASL? Location Pace
Speed
Distance
Sign Movement
Facial Expressions
Body Movement
PAM with Lisa voicing? 4

5. Never Lose “Why”
Don’t be content with ‘surface’ meaning. Look deeper for a more complete understanding
It’s tempting to give ‘for now’ or ‘in this case’ answers, but be cautious of teacher-dependency
Don’t be afraid to go on a journey of “why?” with your students
Look things up when you aren’t sure
Consider each specific situation and try to generalize when possible
There are ALWAYS exceptions, so be careful with rules 5

6. Parts of Speech Review Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs (Ad/Verbs)
Conjunctions
Coordinating FANBOYS
Subordinating (because, while, since, although, etc)
Correlative (not only…but also, either…or, etc)
Prepositions
Pronouns (Hand shape)
Interjections (Ouch, wow, oh, no)
Determiners (sometimes put with adjectives)
Websites at the end of the PP
Balance whole to part and part to whole 6

7. Excerpt from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
…He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! …
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Vorpal, manksome, tulgee, momey 7

8. Function in the “Real” World
Attend to function—don’t get stuck with a single meaning or even multiple meanings with the same function.
Strengthen vocabulary by teaching function, concepts, and forms
Light
Noun: Turn on the light. The light is broken. The lightening was bright.
Adjective: My shirt is light blue. The feather is light. I will add a lightening agent to the paint.
Verb: Come on baby light my fire. We will light out of town. We need to lighten the load.
Adverb: The cat tread lightly across the hot pavement. 8

9. Activity
Functions of the word RUN
Noun
Verb
Adjective 9

10. To
Meanings of TO:
Go Ahead
I want to eat
To a place (preposition)
I am going to the mall
Until (from-to)
I will be there from 4:00 to 7:00
Up to
He grew to six feet
It is important to note that signs may vary, but when teaching the concept, differentiate the signs
Go-ahead
To (preposition)
Until 10

11. To with Verbs Infinitive= To + Verb *NOT VERBS*
I never wanted to see the movie.
Jeremy told me to go home.
Carla and Kim aren’t planning to throw a birthday party.
Infinitives often lead to Noun phrases
Mom, I want to buy a new car.
I couldn’t believe she was planning to consider that hideous brown dress!
Some infinitives can be finished with prepositions or prepositional phrases
Tyler told me to look around the room. 11

12. In, On, At Selective Strategy Time Place It happened in 1970.
It happened on November 10th. It happened on Monday.
It happened at 10:37pm.
Place
I live in the United States. I live in MN. I live in Faribault.
I live on Main Street. I live on the east side.
I live at 2416 Main Street. I am at the mall. AT ON IN
In of “location” vs “inside”
At is a building 12

13. Determiners These words signal nouns
Placed before adjectives (before nouns) or before a noun (without an adjective)
Four general categories:
A/An/The
Possessive pronouns (Closed 5 Hand)
Quantifiers
Numbers
(how many) Some, all, none, a few, several, every, no, etc
Demonstrative Pronouns
This, That, These, Those
Spatial: This, These vs That, Those
Plurality: This, That vs These Those 13

14. Royal Order of Adjectives14

15. Much/Many
Both of these are quantifiers (determiners) used before nouns
Count and Non Count nouns
Count nouns: You can count them
Trees, snowflakes, hours, students, gallons of milk
Non-Count nouns (mass): Cannot be individually counted *or you would not WANT to count them individually*
Water, milk, money, time, hockey
Usually do not tolerate “S” “IES” or “ES” for pluralizing
Visual Strategy:
“Many” sign has countable fingers—COUNT nouns
“Much” sign had non-moving fingers—NON COUNT nouns 15

16. Less/Few Both of these are quantifiers (Determiners) used before nouns
Count and Non Count noun dependent
Visual Strategy:
“Few” sign has countable fingers—COUNT nouns
“Less” sign had non-moving fingers—NON COUNT nouns 16

17. Bridge Words
English words that when used together have a different meaning that needs to be signed differently
It helps students break away from word-by-word writing and recognition
Useful when a student asks “what’s the word for ___”
STRATEGY: Use a “bridge” when instructing
The people came together for the party.
Examples:
Fill up
Back and forth
Look like
Feel like
Don’t know
Don’t care
Roll up
Make Up 17

18. Bridge Verbs Verbs are rarely just one word
Example: We tend to teach: Walk, Walks, Walked
But what about:
Will walk
Could/Can walk
May/Might walk
Has/Had/Have walked
Do/Does/Did walk
Is/Am/Are walking
Was/Were walking
Has/Have/Had been walking
Would have been walking
May/Will be walking
Overall point: don’t teach verbs as one word 18

19. Adaptation from Fitz Key *Not for everyone*19

20. Subject/Verb Agreement— Find a tool that works
“S” Strategy: Only one “S”
Plural Subjects have an “S” so the verb does not
The girls like playing with dolls.
Singular Subjects do not have an “S” so the verb does
The girl likes playing with dolls.
Holds true for: Do/Does, Go/Goes, Have/Has, Are/Is
Is/Are:
Is: used with singular subjects, non counts, and collective nouns (has an ‘s’)
Are used with plural subjects and plural count nouns
Strategy: Which has more letters? (IS vs ARE)
IS only has 2 letters but ARE has 3—ARE Is used for plural
Strategy: little “i”: Use “i” as the #1 or as a lonely, singular concept 20

21. Block Visual Tool for Subject-Verb Agreement21

22. 22

23. Compound Sentence Structure Punctuation
For students struggling with punctuation
Compound sentence= Two complete sentences put together with either:
Comma + FANBOYS conjunction
The movie was great, but I think the first one was better.
Semicolon
She told me her big secret; I nearly fell off my chair.
Reminders:
A comma is not strong enough to hold two complete sentences together (Comma Splice)
A semicolon is! (‘super comma’) 23

24. Complex Sentence Structure Punctuation
Complex sentence = Dependent and Independent together
Study Subordinating Conjunctions (when, because, while, since, etc). Subordinating conjunctions make independent sentences dependent.
Teach “because” first to use the strategy:
When the dependent is first, you need a comma
When the independent is first, you don’t need a comma (brush off)
Because the fair is next week, I am going to request some days off work.
I am going to request some days off work because the fair is next week.
TOTALLY interchangeable with/without the comma 24

25. Never Lose “Why”
Don’t be afraid to go on a journey of “why?” with your students
Look things up when you aren’t sure
Consider each specific situation and try to generalize when possible
There are ALWAYS exceptions, so be careful with rules 25

26. Resources/Websites Grammar Overall (Great parts of speech too)
Very Good:
Parts of Speech:
htm
list.htm 26