Bridge Phrases

My students that have mastered the first two or three Adapted Dolch word lists also visit the Bridge Phrase rotation. An interpreter sits with the students and works on a phrase a day. Bridge Phrases are English phrases requiring American Sign Language (ASL) translation for understanding.

 

 

The students learn the phrase (and multiple signs/meanings) and practice them in sentences. I wish our wireless at school was more reliable and faster so we could run the online tool on the iPad or laptop. For now, the students come over to the desktop and review their Bridge phrase for the day using the online tool. (The online tool is fabulous because you can just click on the phrase you need rather than fast forwarding the DVD.)

After practicing the multiple meanings/signs they develop their own sentences for their Bridging Dictionary.  They write a sentence and illustrate their photo.

 

My students really struggle with reading comprehension. Mastering these English phrases will increase their reading  comprehension and word choice when writing. I'm already seeing incredible progress since using all 5 components since August. My students are 'seeing' Bridge Phrases everywhere. They are quick to point them out during other content learning time. During Guided Reading I ask the students to 'bridge' whatever they can on their own first after reading the passage once. It's amazing how quickly they have picked this up and now their signs are more conceptually accurate when reading. I love to see progress!