Fieldwork Time Log

Students Name: ______Allie Selsberg________

Fieldwork Project: _Sign language_____

Mentors Name: _________Marianne Molinari___________

Date

Correspondence: Provide a record of each time you correspond with

your mentor (phone & email) and the topic of your conversation.

9/1210/21

Emailed with my Mentor about having her be my mentor and about starting
sign language classes.

10/26

Emailed my mentor about deaf culture. I asked her if she had any suggestions
as to where I should look for more information about deaf culture. She gave
me the name of a book that I will get and read and add to my notes.

Date

Fieldwork with your Mentor: Provide a

description of all work completed under the direct guidance of your
mentor.

10/7

My first sign language class in Bridgewater, where my mentor

teaches. We discussed some deaf culture and learned some simple
signs. Some things I learned how to sign in this class: coconut,
football, taxes, gullible, pay, like, dont like, and want.

10/14

My second sign language class. We, once again started off with a bit
of deaf culture and then learned some more signs. Some of the
signs I learned: zebra, tiger, movie, potato, salad, drink, dont,

Number of
Hours

1
hours
1 hour

French, lobster, grey.

10/21

My third class. We started with some more deaf culture. I learned

that the term hearing impaired is not a good term to address the
deaf or hard of hearing. We then learned more signs for an activity
for the next class. Some signs I learned: summer, octopus, fly,
magazine, pizza, travel, and coffee.

1
hours

10/28

This was my fourth sign language class. We did an activity in which

we had a piece of paper with the title Find Someone Who,
followed by a bunch of statements such as favorite color is yellow.
We learned how to sign each statement and how to ask them as a
question. Then we went around to different people and asked them
a question then moved on to a different person until we filled up the
whole sheet. From this activity I learned that I am really improving
my understanding of the language. Some words I learned were: red
sox, hurricane, yellow, car, summer, and spring.

1
hours

11/4

The last class for this session. I signed up for the next 5 week
session starting next Wednesday. We spent most of class learning
holidays, months, and seasons. My mentor did a lot of signing
without talking along with it to test our understanding so far. After
she would finish a topic, she would ask us what we understood from
it. I was very proud of myself because I was able to understand most
of the things she was signing even though we did not necessarily
learn it. Some things I learned were: the months, Hanukkah,
Valentines Day, Veterans Day, Easter, Fathers Day...etc.

1
hours

11/11

This was the first day of class in the next set of classes I signed up
for. In class my mentor introduced herself to all of the new students
and we went on with our talk about deaf culture. The sign theme for
the class was holidays. Some of the signs I learned were: Mothers
Day, Christmas, party, flag...etc.

1
hours

12/2

In this class, we had a fun lesson where we were taught how to sign
the song Santa Claus is Comin to Town. When we finished learning
the song, Marianne taught us some more ASL words and phrases.
Some words I learned were: oil, yoyo, and imagination.

1
hours

12/9

In this class, Marianne was absent, so we had a substitute. The

substitute was completely deaf. This was a whole new experience
for some of us in class. It was very different than usual because we
had to rely much more on our ASL skills than with Marianne. It was
still very good and we did a lot of signing with others in pairs.

1
hours

1/6

This class was the first in my third course of ASL classes. Marianne
started off by introducing herself and explaining a little bit about the
class and some simple concepts of ASL, such as the fact that in
ASL, one signs the topic of the sentence before the person doing or
receiving the action. For example, in signed english one would sign
the sentence: I like the color yellow. But in ASL, one would sign:
yellow, I like.

1
hours

1/13

In this class, we started off, like usual, talking about deaf culture.
Marianne was telling us about things that the hearing do sometimes
that seems to have good intentions, but is actually rude or
demeaning. She told us that it is very wrong to give a deaf child
mittens. This is because that child can probably sign and mittens will
restrict his or her form of communication.

1
hours

2/3

This was the last class of my third ASL course. In this class, we
seemed to get of topic a lot and, instead of going through a list of
words and phrases on a sheet like we usually do, we started talking
about animals. Marianne stopped voicing along with her signing and
would sign different animals and we tried to guess what animal it
was. It was a good experience to have her stop voicing along with
her signing because I found out that I was able to comprehend most
of what she was signing even with my minimal experience.

1
hours

3/2

This was the first class in my fourth ASL course. In this class we
spent the first 10 minutes going over the differences between
fingerspelling and signing words that use the shape of a letter. Some
signs I learned were: dolphin, cat, and rainbow.

1
hours

3/16

In this class, we spent the majority of the time learning about a big
part of ASL grammar called modifiers. Modifiers are a way to
express something without signing every individual word. We were
shown many new ways to express ideas. It was very interesting to
see how many different ways one can sign.

1
hours

3/23

In this class, I had the unique experience of watching an interpreter

at work with a student in my class. Marianne taught as normal,
signing while talking to the class. But one of her friends visited class
and helped out a deaf student by sitting in front of her and
interpreting just for her. It was interesting to see how a real
interpreter would do his or her job. We spent almost the entire class
learning without having Marianne voice as she taught.

1
hours

Date

Independent Fieldwork: Provide a description of

all fieldwork you complete independently.

Number of
Hours

9/7

I researched online for sign language classes around here. I also

looked around to find any online classes for me to possibly take later
in the year once my classes are all over.

1 hour

10/18

Practiced the sign language that I learned from my first two classes.

hour

11/18

I was unable to go to class on this day due to another conflict, so I

spent time reviewing the signs that I have learned from my previous
6 classes.

1 hour

2/5

Spent time practicing the signs that I have learned in preparation for
my video showing what I have learned in my third ASL course.

hour