Bilingual MultiMedia Room

In the Bilingual MultiMedia Room (BMMR), deaf and hard-of-hearing students have the opportunity to become fluent in ASL through viewing and storysigning activities. Complete with a 25-inch or bigger, large-audience TV set and four individual viewing stations, students are able to view a variety of ASL works (i.e. poetry, handshape stories, fiction and non-fiction works, presentations, English short stories, poetry, and novels retold in ASL) using shared, guided, interactive and independent viewing strategies. This way, students develop a variety of ASL comprehension strategies, identify and understand the cultural values and information in ASL literature, identify and describe story elements, and identify and describe ASL grammatical aspects (e.g., classifiers, non-manual markers, and handshapes) that may or may not relate to English grammar.

In addition, the BMMR is complete with a digital camera, backdrop, and lights as well as a computer with editing capability. This provides students opportunities to participate in shared, interactive, guided and independent storysigning to develop their ASL stories, poetry and presentations. Final products may then be filmed in the studio. Storysigning allows students to apply what they have learned from viewing activities, such as using effective openings and closings, utilizing ASL discourse structure, appropriate non-manual markers, and natural rhythms.