In my classroom I have a number of children requiring differentiation due to learning needs or ELL needs. I have 5 ELL children this year with Cambodian, Mandarin, German, and Czech as their first languages. I also have some Māori priority learners whose achievement is of concern, and I have a number of children exhibiting active behaviours and very short attention spans. The school wide PD focus this year will be very useful for me.
On the 6th March I was fortunate to be able to attend this PD course below. See my notes from the course and following actions that have occurred in my teaching as a consequence of attending this PD.
Workshop/Course:
ELL-
Using the ELLP
matrices to support English Language learning across the curriculum.
By Jane van der
Zeyden ( Tools for teachers)
jane@tools4teachers.co.nz
|
Date:
6/ 3/ 15
|
Key Learnings: ( RTC6, RTC7,RTC9)
· Matrices
are a tool to help us access the funding. They inform our teaching.
Poem - Why
English is hard to learn- Anonymous
· “How do I know what I think until I think what I
say.”
7 Language Learning Principals- Rod
Ellis ( University of Auckland)
1. Know your learners - their language and school backgrounds, their language proficiency,
their prior knowledge and their experiential
background. Differentiation- what language do they speak at home- how
much is in first language- can they read school text at home, who supervises-
grandma granddad- what's their interest- fill in survey form together. - what
toys did you play with- do they understand but don’t speak- who attends
extra learning to extend their first language
2. Identify the learning outcomes
including the language demands of the teaching and learning ensure the learners know the content and
language learning outcomes Identifying the language which learners need to
complete the task
3. Help students achieve the same learning
outcomes using differentiated levels of support - Making the lesson
comprehensible to all learners. Planning the learning tasks so that all
learners are actively involved, watch the difference between the
cognitive level and the language level- don't dumb down the level
provide support for success
4. Begin with context embedded tasks which
make the abstract concrete-Setting the learning
context linking learning to real life- use visuals- acting- how do you
explain identity? use visuals - video clips
5. Provide multiple opportunities for
authentic language use with a focus on students using academic language- giving learners many opportunities to first notice
and then use new language. Recycling the use of the same language in many
ways- motivation is important- must copy correctly its really hard to correct
a wrong way to write words- address issues straight away- takes 80 x to
correct it.
Academic language are words we ask children to do in
the classroom- sort, group, draw, write, list, underline, listen, correct,
describe, share- children need to understand what these words mean- this
needs to be unpacked with them from day one
6. Ensure a balance between receptive
and productive language - using approaches
that include listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing, and presenting..
Children need an oral preparation for learning. Are the children using both
Productive (speaking and writing) and receptive
( listening and reading) during the lesson.
Children can’t write until they verbalise first- orally rehearse
7. Include opportunities for
monitoring and self- evaluation - using “think alouds” to model use of strategies- eg I am
wondering ... Monitoring students learning and giving explicit
feedback.
vocabulary is tricky- before/ after /bigger
/smaller /next /in front/ behind.
·
These principals
support all language learners
·
We sometimes need to
use forced outputs to encourage risk takers in writing- providing the format.
·
These language
demands need to be planned for in teacher planning.
Language demands we use.
explaining/ prior knowledge/ justifying/ stating
opinions/ revoicing/ paraphrasing /checking in/ questioning/ clarifying/
listening/ negotiating/ repeating/ giving instructions/ modelling /
prompting/ telling/ extend/ illustrating/ prediction/ retelling/
sequencing
· by considering the language demands we can think
about the needs of the students
Constructing questions is one of the
hardest language structures
· Maybe try avoiding questioning- 4 comments
before a question or give a starter phrase and let them finish.
Often we use this plan- IRE ( Initiate/
Response/Evaluate)
IRE we initiate the question we get a response and
then we evaluate it - we have already decided on the answer
often telling is a deliberate act of teaching and is
stronger than confusing questioning.
The same thing can be said many ways in
English- this can be confusing
How many ways can this cause and effect be
expressed?
It rained.
The soil got washed away.
Torential rain caused erosion.
The heavy rain shifted the earths water table
resulting in erosion.
Water from the sky made the earth move.
It rained and so the soil got washed away.
The soil got washed away because it rained.
Because it rained the soil got washed away.
Kids need to know that every time we
change the words slightly it subtly changes the meaning
I got a new
car.
I got a new car.
I got a new car.
·
|
|
Actions/Ideas
you could trial: (RTC6)
. Hunt out learning through talk book -
orange strip
investigate ESOL on line
1. LISTENING GRIDS
Listening Grid for learning focused listening-
feeding in information- modelling vocabulary. All sentneces in simple
text.
Follow on with a partner talk about one aspect
of the grid-
if needed use my speaking frame eg A….
is a …..whale It eats ……..
it is………….
When it goes underwater…..
Another interesting fact is ……….
I’m wondering what we would have to do if the
Mountain looked like it was erupting.
Speaking frame:
If Taranaki started to erupt I would…….
First of all I would…..
2. Same and different
My picture is the same as yours because……
My picture is different to yours because…..
3. Skills Flow strategy
Pictures for the story Stranded
Listen
match to pictures - number sentences
4. Talking frames
1
Thirty whales
2
Lots of people came
3
The sea was very
4
At night time
5
In the morning the
whales were
6
The trucks stopped
7
That afternoon the
whales
8
Back at Ahipara
5. Say it task NB need some content knowledge
Junior version - only 4 pictures - possibly a
repetitive sentence
we use water to clean our hands
we use water to wash our food
|
|
What
impact has this had on your teaching practice: (Promoting Well-Being, RTC7)
UPDATED: 13/7/15
Following
this course I have been more thoughtful about the types of activities that I
use to extend the oral language of the children in my room particularly the
ELL children. I have reintroduced the oral language help kits and the
children have focussed on listening and giving instructions using the scenes
and characters in the kits. They have really enjoyed these sessions and I
note that many children are now able to include more detail in their
instructions or even ask for confirmation when confused. Some children still
point but more are able to actually use language to express their
instruction.
I
have utalised the disappearing text strategy many times for poetry and for
understanding technical information eg the day and night/ space information.
The children are very keen to get to a whole page with only lines and seem to
be able to still recall the information at a later date.
I
have ensured that there is more time to talk prior to writing in order to
draw out the deeper vocabulary and clarify the meaning of words.
Our
senior teacher included the talk to learn descriptors in our term overview to
keep oral language needs to the fore of our thinking when planning. This has
been really helpful and makes it easier to consider the oral language needs
of not only the ELL children in the class but all learners.
As
a consequence of this course I joined the primary ESOL community and receive
regular correspondence from other teachers of ELL children. I have already
found this to be very useful as a place to source ipad apps and website
activities for the children both in my class and to share with other
colleagues. It was through this correspondence that I discovered that the ready to Read texts were now online as app downloads for our children.
Thank you for joining
the Primary ESOL community.
To post to the list, please send an email
to primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.
To view the list archive please visit http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/sympa/archive/primaryesol.
To protect the privacy of list subscribers you will be prompted for a
username and password:
Username: eesollonline
Password: mailinglist
To
unsubscribe from the list, please visit http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOL-Online/Community-discussions/Primary-ESOL.
To
view the community guidelines for this list, please visit http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOL-Online/Community-discussions/Primary-ESOL.
|
|
