Assessing progress
The students will assess their progress across the outcomes to be achieved.
Look over achievement outcomes
Hand out copies of Worksheet 10.3 (Assessment record). Explain that they will review their own and the other students’ progress on the outcomes to be achieved on the worksheet.
Review the recording with the students. Use the process described in activity 10.1 for the students to assess their own and others’ performances.
Have the students work in groups and complete their worksheets. Ask them to assess the performance of each student in their group, taking one bullet point at a time. The students then tick the box that the group has agreed on. When this task has been completed, give them time to reflect on the completed assessment and to write down three areas where they now see that they need to improve their NZSL knowledge and skills.
Give more time for learning or move on?
You will know from the outcomes of Unit 10 whether your students need more time to consolidate certain aspects of their learning in Units 1–9 or are ready to advance to Unit 11.
Consider to what extent the activities in Units 1–10 could be exploited further to reinforce your students’ learning in the particular areas (knowledge or skills) that they themselves have identified as needing further attention. In this way, your students can engage with the next phase of their learning with confidence.
Repetition, with adequate variation, is the key to successful language learning.
Promoting NZSL school-wide
Consider ways to further promote the teaching and learning of NZSL in your school.
With your students’ agreement, you could show the video of their presentations at a school function, such as a parents’ evening. This would showcase student learning in a positive way and would help to promote the learning of NZSL in your school and its community. Or your students may be keen to make their presentations to a wider student audience, for example, at an assembly.
You may already have been in contact with members of the Deaf community in your local area. Inviting them along to a class can contribute to the students’ learning. If your students engage with a first-language speaker of NZSL and make themselves understood, they will gain a real sense of achievement.
Learners need to have opportunities for sustained conversations with other users of NZSL, and they need to be exposed to language role models in a variety of situations.
The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) page 14
