Hexagonal Thinking in the ASL Classroom: Making Cultural Connections

Ask students to compare Deaf culture and hearing culture, and you often get the same answer: “They’re different.” Then the conversation stops. Students know the facts, like tapping a shoulder or flashing the lights to get attention, but they have trouble explaining why those facts matter or how they connect.

Hexagonal thinking fixes that. It’s one of the easiest ways I’ve found to get students talking, signing, and thinking about culture at a deeper level, and it takes almost no prep.

What is hexagonal thinking?

Hexagonal thinking is a discussion and critical thinking strategy. Each hexagon holds one idea, like Greetings or Eye Contact. Students arrange the hexagons so that every edge that touches is a connection they can explain.

The shape is the secret. A hexagon has six sides, so one idea can connect to as many as six others. Students can’t just make a list. They have to build a web, and every time two edges touch, they have to say why.

There is no single right answer. Two groups can build completely different maps from the same set of hexagons, and both can be correct. The learning is in the explaining.

Why it works so well for culture

Most culture activities hand students two boxes, Deaf culture and hearing culture, and ask them to sort facts into each one. That’s a good start, but it keeps students comparing one pair of facts at a time.

With hexagonal thinking, I flip it. The hexagons hold big ideas, not facts, and they aren’t labeled or sorted by culture. Greetings is just Greetings. Students have to decide for themselves how each idea looks in Deaf culture and in hearing culture, then find where the ideas overlap.

That’s when the good conversations happen. A student puts Getting Attention next to Touching and realizes that a tap on the shoulder is polite in Deaf culture but can feel rude to a hearing stranger. Now they aren’t memorizing a fact. They’re explaining a value.

How to run it in your classroom

1. Model it first. Show students a few sample connections and talk through how each one compares Deaf and hearing culture. Students need to see what a strong explanation looks like before they try.
2. Choose your hexagons. Use a ready-made set of big ideas, or fill a blank set with ideas from your own unit. Students can also fill in a blank set themselves.
3. Decide: individual or group. Individually, each student builds their own map. In groups of 2–3, students share one set and have to agree on every connection, which means a lot more signing.
4. Cut and connect. Students cut out the hexagons and arrange them so every touching edge is a connection they can defend. Clusters of three hexagons that all touch are the goal.
5. Reflect. Each student picks their three strongest connections and explains them in writing.
6. Sign and share. Students record a short ASL video explaining their strongest connection, then share it in a gallery walk.

Big ideas to put on your hexagons

Keep the ideas broad enough that students can see them in both cultures. Here are the 19 I use:

Greetings · Goodbyes · Introductions · Eye Contact · Touching · Personal Space · Getting Attention · Facial Expressions · Communication · Small Talk · Directness · Interpreters · Technology · Socializing · Family · Community · Independence · Being on Time · Driving

What strong connections look like

Here are three clusters a student might build, and how they might explain them.

Greetings + Touching + Introductions: Many hearing Americans greet with a quick handshake and just a first name. In Deaf culture, hugs are common, and introductions often include where you went to school and who you know in the Deaf community. Touch and introductions both show how close a culture expects people to be.

Getting Attention + Eye Contact + Communication: Deaf people tap a shoulder, wave, or flash the lights to get attention. Hearing people usually say “excuse me,” and touching a stranger can feel rude. In ASL, steady eye contact shows you’re listening, so looking away ends the conversation.

Interpreters + Technology + Communication: Deaf people use interpreters, video relay, and captions to get access in a hearing world. Most hearing people never have to think about access, because everyday communication is built around hearing. These ideas show who has to work for access.

Tips that make it work

• Give them a sentence frame. “___ connects to ___ because… In Deaf culture, ___. In hearing culture, ___.” It keeps students from stopping at “they’re different.”
• Push for the why. When a student makes a connection, ask what each culture values and how they know. That one question takes the discussion deeper.
• Keep the colors random. If you print in color, don’t color-code by category. When the colors don’t mean anything, students have to do the sorting themselves.
• Laminate a class set. Print the ready-made set once, laminate it, and you have it ready all year.
• End with ASL. Have students record a 30–60 second video explaining their strongest connection. Turn each video link into a QR code and post it beside a photo of their hexagon map. During the gallery walk, classmates scan, watch, and leave a sticky note with one new idea and one question.

When to use it

• To wrap up a Deaf culture unit, VLOG, or presentation project
• After a reading, like American Ways or a Deaf culture article
• As a review before a test or culture assessment
• For small-group ASL discussion, a station rotation, or a sub day
• To preview a new unit with a blank set: what do students already know?
• As a quick check: students sign one connection as an exit ticket

Ready to try it?

If you want to skip the prep, my Hexagonal Thinking: Culture Connections resource has everything ready to print:

• A ready-to-use set of 19 big ideas, plus a Sample Connections page
• A blank hexagon set for your own ideas
• Student directions for every activity
• A Making Connections reflection sheet
• A Gallery Walk sheet with space for a photo and a QR code
• Every student page in color and black and white

Grab it here for Free and use it tomorrow!

Cultural Hexagonal Thinking

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Have you tried hexagonal thinking in your classroom? Share how it went in the Creative ASL Teaching Facebook group. I’d love to see your students’ maps!

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