ASL Texts for Consecutive Interpreting Practice

Learning to Smoke

In this text, Debbie talks about her days at the School for Deaf when she learned to smoke and got in all sorts of trouble.

Step 1:  Complete Text

Step 2:  Text in Parts

The video below has been separated into sections. Watch the entire section. Then, when the movie is done, produce an interpretation. When you are finished with your interpretation, click the arrow on the right of the video screen to go on to the next section.

This video has 11 sections.

Step 3:  Work with Complete Text Again

Now that you have gone through this process and worked with the sections edited for consecutive practice, try interpreting the complete text again.    If you wish, you can also review the English summary of the text to support your comprehension.  It is below.

The complete video is at the top of this page.  Click here to return there.

English Summary

 Learning to Smoke

Debbie explains a little bit about her learning to smoke during her school days. During gym time, they would sneak into the boys’ bathroom to smoke while others were changing clothes. It was doing this that she first found out what a urinal is. This went on for a while, and would work fine if there were only a few girls. If there were more, someone always told and they got in trouble. The supervisors would look for where they hid their cigarettes, going through their room. They never did discover the hiding place which was in the bottom part of the venetian blind. It was thick enough to be able to take the cap off and insert cigarettes— and worked as a hiding place. Debbie would still get in trouble, and one of her punishments was to go out and sweep the long sidewalks of the school after leaves had been stuck to them—a task that took an entire Saturday. Debbie wonders if kids still use the blinds as a hiding place, but remembers it as part of the fun she had getting in trouble when she was in school. Today, she’s thankful she never really learned how to smoke, since her joining in with the other girls was really all about fun.


These summaries are offered for support in comprehension.  They are written in third person to provide the information contained in the text, rather than a model interpretation.  Use them only as a stepping stone for your own analysis and interpretation.