More new level 1 materials

13 December 2019

New units 1-9 posters

Exciting news! There are new posters for units 1-9 and also term posters e.g. 1A. You could use these for a few things e.g. put on the cover of your teaching folder, hang up in your classroom, put in your students’ booklets, help with advertising etc. Special thanks to Sonia Pivac for doing these posters. You can find these posters on the website under each unit.

Level one teaching materials edited

TeachSign NZSL Level One materials were launched in 2014 and since then, TeachSign has received feedback from NZSL tutors to make further improvements to these materials. TeachSign has kept a record of all feedback since 2014.

With thanks to funding from the NZSL Board, Merge NZ has been contracted to produce / edit all level one resources. So that means TeachSign, with Merge NZ’s support, has been able to go through all feedback and make some edits to ensure the high quality of NZSL teaching materials. Updated materials are now on TeachSign website:

Graphics

  • More black and white drawings in colour
  • More Māori people in drawings (thanks to recent Māori units 1-3 project)
  • Icons in corners removed, so slides look less busy
  • Slightly darker font / footer line colour so it’s easier to read
  • Topics in both English and Te Reo for all PowerPoint titles
  • More spacing between lines / font size increased to 28 on PowerPoint slides
  • Sections added to PowerPoint so it’s easier to go to the beginning of each lesson
  • Improved slide (titles) at the beginning of each lesson

Content

  • New cover for units 1-9 teacher guides
  • Homework slide added for all lessons so it’s easier to give homework
  • PowerPoint slides / tutor instructions edited as needed
  • Activity sheets / handouts edited as needed
  • NZSL grammar links added in tutor’s instructions for tutor’s info
  • Teaching content document updated
  • Lesson plans updated
  • Donated materials edited and added to TeachSign website

Website

  • Activity sheets tab split in two on each unit page: Activity sheets and Activity sheets (optional) to help tutors know which sheets are important to save printing costs
  • Links to separate pages for units 1-3 teaching video samples. More lesson sample videos coming in 2020.

TeachSign welcomes ongoing feedback to improve level one teaching materials.