ASL Literature Series : Bird of a Different Feather & For a Decent Living, Student Workbook and Videotext

Studying a community or a culture through its literature is a necessary and vital element of any foreign language curriculum. The ASL Literature Series can be used as a component of ASL, Deaf Studies, or bilingual curricula for hearing and deaf students.Ben Bahan's allegorical fable, Bird of a Different Feather, explores the experience of a bird living with a family of eagles. Rather than accepting the bird's differences, the eagle family tries to apply a pathological approach to raising the bird. It is an odyssey familiar to many Deaf people.Sam Supalla's For a Decent Living is a novella in which the protagonist is a deaf boy on a journey to find his Deaf identity. Escaping from his unsympathetic hearing family, he faces the continuing dilemma of proving himself to his family, the Deaf community, and society at large.Students' comprehension of ASL and appreciation of ASL literature are enhanced as they are introduced to the art of narrative expression. The student materials emphasize comprehension and literary analysis plus understanding of linguistic and cultural aspects of the two ASL narratives. Includes Comprehension Check, Language Notes, Background Information, Literary Questions, Retelling, and Anecdotes to help students check their comprehension of the stories.