Teachnique

• The Basic Lesson 2.0.  This is it. If you follow this format, you’ll probably produce a pretty solid lesson that engages all learning styles, breaks the ice, and includes enough repetition and group engagement to make them excited to come back for more.
• Core Activities 2.0.  These are the ancient techniques that form the foundation of our classroom practice. Most activities that practice dynamic listening skills in a multilevel environment are some combination of these techniques.

Tools

• Alphabet Fingerspell Sheet.  Over the years, we have used many variations of fingerspelling graphics. This is the current one. It’s free for use with attribution from lifeprints.com.
• Alphabet 2 – Keyboard.
• Alphabet 3 – Handshapes.
• Attendance Record 2.5 – This tool is used by the DJ to track the attendance at each class. Every site should have a stack of these, but if you run out, just print one off and make copies at your location. This should be filled out by the DJ at the end of the class by pulling information about attendees from the Loyalty Cards.
• Deck of Professions – Card List (Name, Profession, Suit, Rank).
• Deck of Professions – Card Bios.
• Lesson Plan Template 2.0 – This one works for us. It’s helpful to mention that everyone plans differently, and novice teachers also plan differently than experienced ones. In this program the one-page lesson plan is essential as a classroom agenda and documentation tool. You may need a more detailed format for some activities – but most teachers need something to refer to during the class that’s easy to navigate.
• Lesson Self Evaluation 2.0 – This tool is used to describe the qualities and behaviors that make an effective Language Skills Development Facilitator in the Community-Based setting. Used to facilitate a reflective conversation after every class session.
• Loyalty Card Template 2.2 –  A “Loyalty Card” is what many businesses use to refer to a system of tracking user visits or purchases to earn an incentive. In our case, we’re using it as a learner-centered attendance tracking system which duplicates our primary Attendance Record above. In the future, we hope to give out incentives for continued participation.
• Voting for Curriculum.  This short document illustrates our model of visual needs assessment.