Introducing the vocabulary
The students will learn some vocabulary for describing their homes and will explore some thinking processes that will help them to construct meaning.
Getting started
Play Clip 8.1a: Rooms, things in the home. Tell the students to focus on the new vocabulary for describing a home.
Replay the clip several times so that they can practise the signs along with the presenters.
Note that it is usual to use the sign for TOILET in NZSL, whereas there are a number of ways of referring to the toilet, including "loo" and "bathroom" in English. The same applies to the sign HOME. In English, we use words like "house", "home", and "place" interchangeably in some contexts. The students will also observe the use of non-manual markers for BIG and SMALL.
Working in pairs
Hand out copies of Worksheet 8.1: Vocabulary for the home. The students work in pairs and take turns to point to a word, with their partner signing the item they indicate.
Extend this task by asking them to interact with each other using these patterns.
First person: IX WHAT?
Second person: IX BEDROOM, IX-me HAVE 4 IX-me
Exploring thinking
The next task will enable students to explore their thinking. Play Scene S – Nice place!.
Ask the students “What information could you pick up from what you saw?”.
Replay the clip. Ask them whether they understood a little more, this time. If they did understand more, ask what helped them to increase their understanding. You have the Scene S transcript to help you with your questioning.
Probe their responses to find out which particular techniques the students use to make sense of the information so that they reflect critically on their thinking processes. Help them to explore new ways of making meaning by having them select one new technique to trial from those you discuss.
Encouraging "thinking" talk in the classroom, where the students habitually review and challenge their own thinking processes, will reinforce the learning focus.
Checking for understanding
The students now use the new technique they have chosen. Replay scene S. Ask whether the students now understand more. Tell them to write a comment in their workbooks about the usefulness of the technique.
Hand out copies of Worksheet 8.2, one copy to each pair of students.
Replay clip 8.1a. The students review the vocabulary by signing along with the presenters. Each pair completes the worksheet and then uses to check their entries.
Rehearsal
Challenge the students to walk around their own homes, identifying the different rooms using the signs that they have learned. They could teach family members these signs. As they teach them, they could ask them "What techniques are helping you to learn these signs?".
Follow up this task with a class discussion on learning techniques, based on what the students find out as they teach family members some signs and what they are finding out about themselves in relation to the techniques they use to learn signs in NZSL.
