Languages- Auslan

Australian Sign Language

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2023, and welcome your input:

Amanda Oakley (Languages- Auslan) Amanda.Oakley2@education.vic.gov.au

Student Agency sessions Foundation/Year 1 and 5/6 students.

The students have been working together to practise their signing of greetings, alphabet and numbers one to ten. In our first attempt of videoing the students have demonstrated the Talk Moves signs, greetings and numbers. We had a lot of ‘out takes’ and many laughs during the process and as we build our skills I’m sure the footage will improve. With limited time however, I hope this first selection of clips assists with your understanding of the Talk Moves signs and some aspects of Auslan that the Foundation and Year One students have been learning.

Leah and Riley our school Auslan Captains.

Links to the Talk Moves and Student Agency and Engagement videos are attached at the end of the Auslan section.

Student Electives Years 3-6

When we met last term, the students brainstormed a list of topics that they wanted to learn about. Last week was the first of several topics that the students had requested such as fingerspelling the alphabet, how to ask someone their name and counting. We were so busy learning the alphabet, playing ABC bingo in sign language and how to ask someone’s name and respond to this question, that we forgot to take photos! We discussed the importance of using our dominant hand (our writing hand) when fingerspelling and when forming signs and used a silicone wrist band to help us remember. We also learnt some basic movement signs and numbers one to ten to play a brain break game that kept everyone on their toes.

Next on the list of topics and to tie into signs they are now familiar with, will be the question words: what, where, when, how much, how many, how old, why, and who. Being able to communicate with someone who is Deaf and ask questions came up frequently in the brainstorming session. Question words are ideal to get a conversation going!

Foundation

The students have eagerly jumped back into Term Two learning colour signs and a variety of pet, animal and insect signs. With many colour signs occurring around the head and face, the students will continue to practise these to consolidate their learning through singing ‘Sing a Rainbow’ in the coming weeks.

Now that the students are building a bank of sign knowledge with colour, number and a growing vocabulary of nouns, they are able to put together short phrases with supported prompting such as “I have a green frog” and “I have two brown snakes”. Repetition and using these signs across different topic areas will support the students’ capacity to remember and use these signs with peers. We learnt that some words do not have a sign, such as axolotl, and fingerspelling needs to be used for this pet.

Year 1

Year One students have been eagerly cutting, pasting and matching colour signs to colour dots in their workbooks. Many are also drawing a variety of fruit and vegetables and signing the colours to a nearby peer or teacher.

Asking each other for help when remembering all of the new signs.

Over the next few weeks the students will be applying their colour, number and animal knowledge by creating short phrases in their books and practising how to sign these. Last week the students were required to describe the frog, snake or insect and many chose to describe all colours, not just the dominant colour. They are demonstrating eagerness to show the class how much they remember!