Curriculum
Twelve lessons. One grammar.
The course follows the 2011 textbook's twelve-lesson structure. Each lesson covers a specific fingerspelling or initialization pattern, with a lecture video, structured notes, and a ten- to twenty-question quiz drawn from Gary's original DVD video-texts.
The twelve lessons
Common and Proper Nouns
When nouns are fingerspelled vs. signed. The twelve months as proper nouns.
Verbs and Abstract Nouns
Fingerspelled verbs. Fingerspelled abstract concepts.
Superordinate Nouns
Category words that come out fingerspelled.
Compound Words
Single-word, two-word, and hyphenated compounds.
Abbreviations
Letter-by-letter abbreviations. Common acronyms.
Acronyms and Mixed Forms
When an acronym is fingerspelled, signed, or both.
States and Cities
Which states have signs, which are fingerspelled, which abbreviate.
Adjectives
Fingerspelled adjectives by domain.
Lexicalized Fingerspelled Signs
#JOB, #OK, #BACK and friends — the words that started as fingerspelling and ossified into a single sign.
Initialized Signs
Initialized handshapes that carry meaning — the conventions and the limits.
Mixed-Form Identifications
Pulling everything together with real video-texts.
Specialized Vocabulary
Medical, legal, technology, and brand-name fingerspelling.
Five comprehensive practices
Cumulative blocks of video-text exercises with multiple questions per clip, scored against the patterns from the lessons before them. These are the sustained, multi-question passages from Gary's original DVD.
Practice 1
Covers Lessons 1–2. Nouns, verbs, abstract nouns.
Practice 2
Covers Lessons 3–5. Superordinate nouns, compounds, abbreviations.
Practice 3
Covers Lessons 6–7. Mixed-form acronyms, states and cities.
Practice 4
Covers Lessons 8–10. Adjectives, lexicalized signs, initialized signs.
Practice 5
Covers Lessons 11–12. Mixed-form identifications, specialized vocabulary.
How mastery works
Every quiz allows unlimited attempts; we keep your highest grade. Pass at 80% to unlock the next lesson. Pass at 90% for certificate-eligible attempts on the comprehensive practices. There is no time limit, and you can slow any quiz video to half-speed.
Camera-eligible questions can be answered by fingerspelling at the camera (sixteen-letter set: A B C D E F G I L O R S U V W Y, plus the ten digits and three gestures). Questions whose answers contain other letters fall back to typed input automatically — same credit, same mastery.