1st
L (F–10) 7-8
Communicating
Identity
- Elaboration 10
- creating and comparing individual biographies, including elements such as
family origins, traditions, beliefs, experiences, and considering how these
influence their sense of identity
- identifying elements of visual awareness in deaf people, such as good
observation skills of body language and alertness to hazards in the environment
while walking/driving and signing
- describing how the concept of Deafhood applies to them and to others by
evaluating texts and media portrayals of deaf identity
- discussing visual ways of transmitting and receiving information and how these
influence group learning and information sharing among Deaf people
- exploring how Deaf cultures around the world build shared group identity, for
example through gathering formally as national and international communities
through activities such as Deaf film festivals, performing arts or sporting
events such as Deaf Way, Australian Deaf Games, Deaflympics
- discussing when and how they learnt Auslan and how this contributed to their
sense of identity
- analysing ways in which Deaf people design and adapt spaces in cultural ways
(‘Deaf space’), for example, by eliminating visual obstacles to signed
communication; using circles or semicircles for meeting and learning spaces; and
using open-plan areas, lighting and window placement to maximise visual access
to information, with reference to Gallaudet University’s Deaf space design
principles
- considering how accounts by different deaf visitors to the classroom of their
lives, work, education, interests and experience reflect a sense of identity and
relationship with Auslan and Deaf culture
- identifying ways in which members of the Deaf community demonstrate
responsibility for relationships within the community and between it and the
wider ‘hearing’ society, for example, describing past learning from deaf adults
or other deaf peers about navigating relationships
- investigating and explaining connections between rules, culture and community,
identifying how these are demonstrated in Deaf culture through visual ways of
being and using language, for example, exploring the values and beliefs which
influence observable behaviours and social rules
- suggesting how reciprocity works in relation to community members sharing
responsibility for each other’s wellbeing, comparing examples of how they
themselves negotiate relationships with each other and look out for each other
- exploring the concept of ‘Deaf gain’ and providing examples of how wider
society may ‘gain’ from the Deaf community, for example the benefits of
captioning for groups such as elderly people or newly arrived migrants
- describing how the Deaf community maintains Deaf places and keeps them
relevant to new generations, for example by acknowledging Deaf pioneers in the
naming of places and identifying historical links with places
- discussing with elders how patterns of ownership and management of Deaf spaces
and places impact on the Deaf community
- describing their experience of moving between English and Auslan, comparing
how this feels and considering changes in their sense of identity when
communicating in either language
- sharing their understandings of Deafhood and Deaf gain with Deaf elders and
comparing these the elders’ views on these concepts