Teach Primary Issue 19.6

www.teachwire.net | 47 expressions for emotions such as sad , sorry , surprised , scared and confused ! BSL and assemblies The first steps that you take to introduce BSL can be through simple, no-extra-work steps. Most schools play music as pupils enter assembly. Pick a song from YouTube that has accompanying BSL. The best choices are calmer songs such as ‘A Million Dreams’ from The Greatest Showman or ‘What Do I Know?’ by Ed Sheeran. The charity Sing Up also has some song videos on its website ( tinyurl.com/ tp-SingUpVids ). For your singing assembly, check out Christian BSL’s website, especially if you work in an Anglican or Catholic school. You’ll find loads of free worship songs with BSL signs. It also has Christmas favourites like ‘Silent Night’, ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’, and ‘Joy to the World’. If you have a careers week, invite someone from your council’s service for deaf children to your assembly. They can talk about how and when they learned BSL and show their favourite signs. The service has both hearing and deaf adults, so email them and ask who would be happiest to come. BSL and literacy For younger children, hold a weekly BSL story time. Search YouTube for Leanne Signed Stories to find videos of an expert signing your children’s favourite books (like We’re Going on a Bear Hunt , The Snail and the Whale , or Rainbow Fish ) as well as stories about deafness ( Oliver Gets Hearing Aids; Dachy’s Deaf ). For older children, could your class write persuasive texts to convince adults to teach BSL to every child? Most pupils will argue that it is fun to learn, makes it easier to be friends with a deaf child, or makes the world fairer. Some children will add extra creativity (such as BSL means that you can talk underwater)! Teaching BSL To teach BSL in class time, you’ll need agreement from your school leadership team. Alternatively, how about teaching BSL as an extra-curricular club: Sing and Sign Choir, anyone? Spend half the session learning BSL and the other half singing with BSL. When the children are ready, perform your songs for families or the rest of school. You can find introductory resources from the National Deaf Children’s Society ( tinyurl.com/tp-NDCS ) , and there are plenty of YouTube videos to teach yourself finger spelling (i.e. spelling words using the BSL alphabet). Finger spelling is useful, because you’ll need it to sign your name! When learning new signs, use videos from the BSL dictionary website ( signbsl.com ) . These short clips show the hand movements clearly. You don’t need to be fluent to make a difference. Start small. Whether it’s introducing BSL in assembly or persuasive letter writing, every step takes the world forward. TP Aaron King is a SEND advisor who helps schools, trusts and councils to improve inclusion. He also teaches Y6 on Thursdays. @9000lives.org Facial expression is part of BSL Facial expressions add meaning to your signs, like tone of voice in speech. Sign ‘finished’ with a smile and it conveys a job well done (when you’ve finished a long assignment). But if a relationship has finished, the same sign is accompanied by a glum-looking face. If you are signing ‘sad’, show your sad face. This really engages children, who will adore copying your facial 4 BSL GAMES FOR YOUR CLASS Spelling test in BSL: use last week’s spellings, and in pairs, get one child to read out the word, while their partner spells it using finger spellings. Hangman: a classic with a twist; play the game as usual, except that guesses can only be made using finger spelling. Word searches: BSL word searches show an image of the finger spelling of each letter instead of the actual letter. Google images will help you to find BSL word searches. Alternatively, make your own by Googling BSL wordsearch maker, using words from recent topics (e.g. Great, fire, London, flames, smoke). Times tables: Once you’ve taught BSL signs for numbers, teach the signs for multiplication, then allow pairs to sign times tables sums to each other. How many can each child answer (using BSL) in 60 seconds? F EATURE S COMMUN I CA T I ON