Performance Assessment for Career Enhancement A tool for interpreters and administration Click here to view a flyer to print and distribute in your area: Virtual WWWorkshops Educators & Students Interpreting Agencies Organizations Interpreters Are you searching for an avenue to worked in a structured and guided way on professional development? Preparing for a written or performance interpreting test? Is your access to qualified mentors and Deaf language models limited? Do your personal and professional obligations leave you little time to travel and seek out opportunities in other areas? Have you been attending every workshop available and either they do not meet your specific professional development needs or you just don’t seem to be seeing the level of improvement you had hoped from your investment of time and money to attend these? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, then the PACE Mentoring Program is for you!!! The PACE program (Performance Assessment for Career Enhancement) is a comprehensive and holistic approach to professional development including preparation for written interpreting tests, diagnostic assessments (Dx) and/or distance mentoring. The program is structured to meet your unique and specific needs. It can be as basic or entailed as you would like. There are two main options available. First, a diagnostic assessment (Dx) in isolation is available for those who would like to obtain in-depth feedback with respect to interpreting skills in preparation to obtain or upgrade certification. This Dx can be a one-time report which will include recommended activities to assist in closing skill gaps. You can also opt to obtain an initial Dx at the beginning of your work toward certification and a follow-up to ascertain progress toward your skill goals. Ideally, and if time permits, three Dx reports would be developed: the first one prior to your beginning your work to give you guidance in working toward skill gaps. A second, interim report, to ensure your work is effective and closing the gaps identified. And a third and final Dx to ascertain readiness for the certification process and successful completion of the targeted skill gaps. A second option can be to establish a mentoring program for you that is unique and individual meeting your needs in terms of time, availability, and a number of other factors. The mentoring program would include exchanging of samples of your work followed by periodic discussions, development of activities, and follow-up on activity work. It can be conducted via a number of formats including good ole US mail, e-mail, instant message chat, listserv, telephone, and even webcam if you have the capability. If you have this capability, Signs has a number of Deaf language mentors available to chat with you and provide ASL language exposure and feedback on a regular basis. Ideally, a well-rounded professional development plan would include both options: a Dx followed by structured mentoring. For this “combo” method, a Dx work-up would be done followed by a structured mentorship to include a 2nd or even 3rd Dx depending on the options selected. In this manner, you can be assured of a well-rounded approach to professional development.

For the combined program, you will receive a CD Rom WWWorkshop equivalent to 3 hours for every month of work in the combined program (above). This means that with a 3 month program, for example, you will receive 9 hours worth of WWWorkshops (worth $100) which can be used to facilitate your work AND for CEUs at a later time - just an additional bonus!!! As you identify skill gaps to work on, you can select from an array of CD WWWorkshops to complement your work and to assist you in closing those skill gaps! The program is designed to flexibly meet your needs. It really all depends on your own interests, goals, and personal situation. How much do you already pay for your CEUs and professional development? How much is your professional development worth? This method TARGETS your professional development work compared to attending a variety of workshops that may or may not target your skill gaps. ASL Language Mentoring by a trained Deaf language mentor can provide you with the feedback you need on your production and understanding of ASL. Language mentoring can be conducted via exchange of videotapes or by live Webchats (for those who have high speed connection and the capability.) It's simple, painless, and FUN. You videotape yourself signing a story that is unrehearsed and send it to your Deaf Language Mentor. He or She will videotape the feedback to you as well as provide you with a model of the story you have told to help elucidate the feedback. In this way, you are getting individualized and trained language feedback to assist you in developing language skills that will benefit your interpreting work and pass necessary credentialing processes. Signs also works with a number of educational institutions and accepts purchase orders for their employees. In many cases, school districts are willing to support the professional development work of the interpreters they employ. For this cost, you will also receive CEUs for your activity work upon request and it’s tax deductible!!! If you are interested in Signs' PACE Mentorship program or any other of Signs' products or services, please write to us or email us at wwworkshops@signs-of-development.org. Best of luck in all of your future professional development endeavors!!! Portfolio Segments Guidelines: In order to facilitate your mentorship program, you’ll need to develop a video (*see note on format of video samples) to start the work with your mentor. Portfolio segments should be developed for each of the skills you want assessed. There are several categories of skill development in which you may want to focus, including non-skills based work: ASL Language Production Signed English Production English Language Production Interpreting into ASL Transliterating into Signed English Interpreting into English Business & Professional Practices Ethical Decision-Making The following is a guide for development of portfolio segments: Portfolio Category Specific Segment Language English Signed English ASL Interpreting Into English Into ASL Transliterating Into English nto CASE Interactive Interpreting Non-Skills Business & Professional Ethical Decision-Making For transliterating-based assessment ~ Spoken English story (not interpreted) Signed English story (not interpreted and not the same story as the one you told in English) Sample of your work into English (so from signed English to spoken English) Sample of your work into Signed English or CASE (so need you to transliterate a sample from English into sign) Sample of an interactive piece (where there is a Deaf and hearing person having a conversation and you are transliterating for them) For interpreting-based assessment ~ Spoken English story (not interpreted) Signed English story (not interpreted and not the same story as the one you told in English) Sample of your work into English (so from signed ASL to spoken English) Sample of your work into ASL (so need you to interpret a sample from English into sign) Sample of an interactive piece (where there is a Deaf and hearing person having a conversation and you are interpreting for them) A few guidelines for the samples: Segments do not need to be longer than 5 minutes each. Please maintain a copy of the video prior to sending – you MUST have a copy to review and begin skill development work. Spoken English (your interpretation into English and English stories) need to be transcribed for future skill development work. The fist 2 segments are language samples and should not be interpreted. They should be different stories, just tell stories (of a vacation, of a funny moment, about your family, etc.) to get an idea of a language base. Make sure you don't rehearse any of this work or this will give a skewed sample and not render the results that you are wanting - to know if you are currently ready to take a test where you will be presented with new material and unable to practice/rehearse. It is best to use videotapes as your stimulus material if possible since the tests are all on videotape. Try to use videotaped stimuli that you have never seen. There are a number of suggestions for ASL videos online – do a web search for ASL Vlogs (Video logs similar to Blogs but are signed) Authentic samples are the best for any assessment. Authentic are not staged and it is live work which most closely mirrors your actual work. In some cases, authentic samples in a live environment are not possible, if not, unrehearsed staged samples can be used. Make sure that you have clear audio and video – The mentor needs to be able to see the Deaf person signing and hear the voicing – tape the screen so that the Deaf person signing can be seen while simultaneously being able to hear the voiced interpretation. Make sure on the work into Sign that you can be seen and the hearing person speaking (the source text) can be heard. The mentor does not need to see the hearing person talk if the video camera cannot be set up that way. It is more important to see the product (your signed interpretation) and hear the source (the hearing person speaking). If you are submitting samples for interpreting AND transliterating, do not use the same stories or materials for more than one sample. If you tell the same story for your spoken English sample and then use it for your signed ASL (language) sample, then it would be an interpretation so it's important to use two different stories for any segments developed. You are responsible for any authorizations if you are videotaping children or have included people in your sample so that they understand that you will be working with a mentor and that someone else will be seeing the contents of their communication. I prefer to receive CD or DVD forms of the portfolio segments. However, if you are unable to do this, only VHS copies of tapes. Mentors do not have access to numerous types of camera styles and the variety of tape sizes or adapters. To eliminate this risk, please send CD/DVD or a VHS tape if this is not a possibility. Please do NOT send original copies of your tapes - you MUST keep a copy since the PO has, on occasion, lost or mangled tapes. If you have sent the original and have not retained a copy, this would require your developing an entire set of segments again so please heed this caution... it is well worth the time and effort taken to keep a copy. Also, you'll need to develop written transcripts of the spoken English work so retaining the original and sending me the copy allows you to get your segments in the mail and then beginning work on the transcribing to expedite the process of our work together. Email the transcriptions to me once you have completed transcribing the spoken English segments of your work: your spoken English story and your interpreting and/or transliterating work into spoken English (there is no need unless you just want to for your own benefit) to transcribe all of the spoken English source material or to translate the signed work. Mail registration and tapes to: Lynne Wiesman PO Box 4850 Lago Vista, TX 78645

Signs of Development, LLC is a sponsor of RID CEU credit in accordance with the Certification Maintenance Program. Return to the previous page.