American Sign Language Poetry



Project Page   Spoken Poetry What have you learned? Parts of a Sign Visual Poetry

wordART

To begin to understand ASL poetry, you must first understand that American Sign Language IS a language.

ASL is not the English language in signs.
ASL originated from French Sign Language

ASL poetry is an artistic expression of the language utilizing movement, location, nonmanual features, palm orientation, and handshapes

One example of ASL poetry is demonstrated at the beginning of this video.
  Gallaudet, The Film

Listen to the recording before viewing the video clip.
If you are not a native signer, what visual cues are provided to help in your understanding of the poem?
 



This video can be found by going to http://movie.gallaudet.edu/