Auslan LOTE Teaching Guide - Stage 2

About the LOTE teaching guides

These teaching kits include everything you need to teach Auslan as a LOTE.

Each guide including 2 years of material!

They includes curriculum objectives and assessment material and a full class curricula for both years. Full sign lists for every topic, and for the whole curriculum by year.

Each learning topic includes

• A teachers reference dictionary for the topic, including hints on how to help students learn and remember each sign.
• Student handouts, games and activities
• Assessment tools

2nd year topics revise the year before, which is also beneficial for students new to the school, or when starting a Auslan LOTE program within a school.

Generally topics flow naturally from noun groups, into adjectives and verbs that relate to that noun, then into a Bring-It-Together topic that joins words to begin to form sentences and more elaborate communication (Eg Farm animals followed by colours, then into Bring-it-Together topic that sets up for description + noun combinations like pink pig)

As you work through the programs the Bring-It-Together topics are constantly drawing on past topics to extend and expand communication in more detailed ways.

LOTE 2

This extensive guide includes 443 pages and includes everything you need for 2 years teaching! It is cleverly written to either implement with grade 3-4 students or year 7-8 at high school.

Every section includes a teachers reference dictionary and tips on teaching those signs, activities to use in class to reinforce the signs in a fun and engaging way. Every third section is a Bring-It-Together topic, that draws a naming topic with adjectives and verbs to extend communication, and introduce grammar and linguistics in a context.
Gradually over the years students move from naming everyday objects and people, to more complex communication

Used in over 200 schools already the popularity of this all inclusive guide is growing rapidly

It can be used without first implementing stage 1, however stage 1 is recommended for primary school implementation. We have had many high schools use this as a year 7-8 starting program for their LOTE years with great success.

What's in the folder

Presented in a Durable folder with plastic dividers and pockets packed full of resources.

• 444 Pages of teaching material!
• Every section includes teachers notes, a quick reference teachers dictionary 
• Activities games and assessment activities to use in class
• Extras
  -CD-Rom with Menu for navigating all the printable handouts
  -Something To Sign About DVD with 11 original Auslan Songs
  -Pad of Award Certificates in Auslan

Aims and Objectives of Stage 2

Broadly speaking, the aim/objective of the stage 2 curriculum is to bring students from the mostly game play and vocabulary building curriculum of LOTE 1 into communication building and understanding Auslan. Through out this curriculum you will find that as vocabulary is introduced students will also be guided through an explanation of the language, grammar and linguistic basis for the language.

 Specifically, students will :

• look at whole body signing, and how facial expressions and posture can influence the meaning of sign.
• Formal, Informal and Casual signing
• Why signs are what they are. Broadly speaking signs can be divided under meaning groups. That is to say groups based on how they get their meaning. An English equivalent would be Unicorn = Uni + Corn. Coming from the Latin words meaning one and horn. In the same way Auslan signs can be broken into base parts (like handshape, but also location, mimicry and so on) to understand their meaning.
• Exaggeration and Emphasis in Auslan
• Prepositions and suffix in Auslan

They will look at signs not in isolation, but begin to test their expressive and receptive skills in paragraphs; and in context of real life examples. They will move from noun-verb combination into conversations and communication in Auslan.

Each year in a nut shell

First Year :

Children will broaden their vocabulary of stand alone signs and expand receptive and expressive communication in Auslan. They will be practice their skills to describe animals using 5-8 descriptors, including the use of the ‘negative’ (not like, not eat, not have etc). They will be able to use and understand a simple recipe in Auslan only, and they will practice describing family members in detail, including physical appearance, age and relationship to self. They will have explored formal vs informal communication for the first time, and looked at signing space and exaggeration

Total signs included in curricula material :  321

Second Year :

Now with a strong vocabulary knowledge children will spend a great deal of time in this year exploring deeper concepts of Auslan, and moving into speech presentations and interpreting.

At the conclusion of this year your student will have expanded their knowledge of descriptive signs and used this knowledge in a receptive and expressive way to discuss animal (including textures, sizes and appearances, habitats and food) and people (inc their appearance, occupations, and forms of transport). They will also have stepped into the language of food and food preparation, including numbers and  measurements. They will have also entered the world of fingerspelling and have started to use this comfortably.

Total signs included in curricula material : 734

Special Events : There is supplementary, optional topics on Birthdays, Easter and Christmas  that can be implemented at the appropriate times in the year. The Birthday topic can be used as a short 5 min item as each child has a birthday; gradually expanded throughout the second year to include fingerspelling the students name. While the Easter  and Christmas topics can be utilised as a fun end to term 1 & 4.

Topic by Topic Year by Year Communication grows naturally

While you can use this guide in your own order, we highly recommend following our plan. 

 Why? The order and content within each topic is designed to naturally flow through not just the vocabulary, but also the deeper concepts that form part of this curriculum.  Both years start simply, and gradually increase in complexity.

Both years have built in revision and expectations based on the assumption that you have completed the topics before.

The second year, does, however, assume revision of the previous year is essential and in theory you could start in the second year; however we do not recommend this as you will miss vital introductions to core concepts like Formal verses Informal Signing; Whole body signing; exaggeration; and sign basis.

 Each year includes :

• A year plan : you will note that both years include 4 topic groups, each ending with a Bring-It-Together topic; These are roughly designed to take one term each (based on a 4 term school year); however it does not matter if this is not the case. You may find public holidays and internal events require some topic groups to take more than one term, and others may be shorter.

• Topic vocabulary lists : We have listed for you the core and non-core vocabulary covered under each topic. Core vocabulary forms the base for the topic; non-core vocabulary are new signs taught to supplement the core vocabulary and help use the core vocabulary in meaningful ways. They may include question signs, joining signs or other related terms that you will find necessary to complete the topics tasks. You may find that you non-core vocabulary is actually much large; we have simply listed the minimum number included within the curriculum.

Prior Requirements

The Auslan LOTE Teaching Guide - Stage 2 is a 2 year program that assumes no prior learning, however can also follow on nicely from the LOTE 1 guide which is designed for very young children (5-7years). This system can be used with grade 4-5 children, or as stated above older children as a first stage to LOTE in High school years. Students will need some reading capabilities to complete all tasks. 

It can be used without first implementing stage 1, however stage 1 is recommended for primary school implementation. We have had many high schools use this as a year 7-8 starting program for their LOTE years with great success.

Each section follows on from the previous building the students general vocabulary and communication capabilities. Every section includes extensive teaching notes including hints not only on how to teach each sign but also how to help children remember the signs. There are full guides as to activities for each topic, and every section includes games, worksheets and activities handouts.

Throughout the program students will not just build vocab, but also acquire an introduction to grammar, and a deeper understanding of why signs are the way they are.
An extensive and complete teaching guide, LOTE 2 is used in hundreds of schools across the country and highly recommended.

• Insects and Reptiles
• Numbers 1-10
• Bring-It-Together - Which Animal Do You Like?
• Emotions and Feelings (basic)
• Bring-It-Together - How Are You and About Me
• Basic Measurements and Big Numbers
• Bring-It-Together - Let's Cook Something Easy
• My Family
• Describing People
• Bring-It-Together - About My Family

• Australian Animals
• Describing Animals (extended)
• Bring-It-Together - Which Animal Did That?
• Emotions and Feelings (Extended)
• Alphabet (Fingerspelling)
• Bring-It-Together - More About Me
• More Measurements, Fractions, Times & Dates
• Cooking Words
• Bring-It-Together - How Do You Cook That?
• Describing People (Extended)
• Occupations and Items at Work
• Bring-It-Together - What do you know about me?

Optional Topics
Brithday, Easter and Christmas