An image of heart and blood vessles; veins are blue and arteries are redCardiovascular Foundations


Preparations for Interpreting about the Cardiovascular System


Activity 2.6

Sample Re-Telling and Analysis

This page contains samples of re-telling the lecture in both English and ASL.  Note that Doug is a native speaker of English.

What is represented here is an example of how this can be done, not the one right way to do it.

My Preparation

I watched the Khan Academy video in preparation as well as reviewing the written text of the English version of the video.  From that, I drew this map which described both the structures of the heart and vessels, as well as the flow of the blood.

A hand drawing of the circulation of blood through the cardiovascular system

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Example In English

Reflections by Doug

As an approach, I felt that following the flow of blood was a good way to approach describing the lecture. I felt it was important to stress that it is a closed loop system – that efficiently reuses the small amount of blood in our system.

That said, I am not sure about how effective it was to throw in the description of cardiac muscle as well as the role of the pacemaker in regulating the rhythm of the heart beat.  I think that i might have been helpful to be a little more descriptive about how the cells get electrically stimulated and contract.

I also tried to give some mnemonic devices to help remember how arteries and veins work.. A for away.  V for visit.  But I’m not sure how effective that way.  (I also noticed that I misspoke and said that it was a vein that carried the blood away from the left ventricle – and didn’t clarify that the aorta is actually an artery.)

I think that is an indication of speaking without much practice – and that if I tried it again, I think I could be more conscious of ensuring that I use the correct vocabulary.  (Though I noticed that for the Khan Academy lecture, the person talking makes that same error.)

Another thing I found myself doing was making up a statistic.  I knew that there is a large amount of blood that cycles throughout the body everyday, but I didn’t include that detail on my map.  So, I had the general sense of it, but I think I was way off on the actual statistic.  I think that if I did it again, I would either stick with the broad principle of it, or make sure that I had the actual statistic included in my map.

In terms of my own learning, I think that going through this process of mapping and re-telling really helped to cement my understanding of the movement of blood – particularly the difference between pulmonary loop and the body loop.  So, even if there some small slip-ups in my re-telling here, I think that I am much stronger in my understanding than before this activity.

Example In ASL

Sample of Re-Telling ASL Lecture

Reflections by Doug


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