Scaffolding Language Learning into content areas

Prior experience becomes a context for interpreting 
the new experience ...prior experience serves as the contexts 
within which the language being used is to be understood.
Lily Wong- Fillmore

Before I began teaching this year, I set certain rules for classroom talk. One of the most important rule is to listen to everyone's ideas respectfully because everyone perceives things differently and  everyone's opinion is important.

To clarify this idea a bit more I started with one of the lessons from Jo Boaler's week of inspirational Maths. In this lesson the teacher shows a pattern ( as given below) for a few seconds and then questions students on how many dots they could see in the pattern. 

All students gave me the same answer. There are seven dots in the pattern. Then I asked them how they saw it and below is a picture of the different ways they saw the dots. The discussion became very interesting when they realised that everyone's answer was the same though each one saw the dots differently. 

This mini lesson engaged students in lots of talk and confirmed the idea that people see things differently and so it is important to respect everyone's ideas. I noticed that some of the students were struggling to explain their thinking so the more proficient ones encouraged, helped and supported them. 

The above lesson served as an awesome warm up activity for my next lesson where I introduced the tens frames. When I showed the Tens frames, most students made connections with their previous lesson and said that they were dots. I acknowledged what they knew and what they had recently learnt... and then moved them on to simple problems. It was interesting to hear them say things like -

  " There are only 10 dots on it, five on one side and five on the other... This one has just two dots..." The foundation work that had led to this lesson paid off. Students were able to make quick connections and this helped them to learn their basic facts. They quickly translated their mathematical thinking into equations. The golden moment was when they tried to form equations for both addition and subtraction problems.

We kept practicing till we became fluent!

By this time my students were completely drowned in their study of exploring patterns around them. They showed me patterns everywhere they found in their environment. I encouraged them to take pictures of patterns and they saw symmetrical patterns, stripes, crisscross patterns and many more...

When I asked them to explain their pattern, it became very challenging for them as they did not have the specific vocabulary. So we explored words like alternate, overlapping, symmetrical etc. below is a presentation made by one of the students in which he uses the new words learnt to explain the patterns in his environment.

Integrating with Language

Integrating with Maths Strand - Geometry

During their exploration of patterns some students clicked pictures of geometrical shapes and so this was a great opportunity to learn about 2D and 3D shapes. We talked about the differences between the two also identified the characteristics of various shapes. Students learnt the vocabulary related to shapes e.g. what corners, edges, faces and sides were? How a side was different to an edge and what was a difference between a surface and a face?

 As a follow up they had to make a presentation on shapes.




Some of my students struggled to verbalise their thinking, I made a barrier game for shapes and gave them sentence structures to talk about their shape.

Integrating with Reading

Now was the time to know that it is important to learn about patterns because they help us in our daily lives. So I gave them a text on Braille. This developed heaps of discussion - Students said that patterns are important to build something... like a house... or a table... they were important for blind people... Important to them to learn their basic facts...etc. I was very excited to see how my students could make these connections readily and could talk about the topic without being shy.

Integrating with Art

Lastly, Students made a shape collage. They chose the shapes and used their imagination to design a cat or a dinosaur or a mouse. They further explained their what shapes they had used to make their art. Most exciting bit during this lesson was when a one student who is usually not so social, showed most of the students how to put commas when listing things in writing. Students wrote stories like " I have used 3 triangles, 4 squares, 5 rectangles and 2 semi-circles in my picture.
It was just Perfect!

At the end of this whole week long lesson I felt very satisfied as I had been able to engage my students meaningfully into different tasks. Language learning is not a simple linear process. It involves and revolves around the content - in this case patterns and basic facts. By focussing on ways to scaffold my students could not only attain the subject knowledge but also learnt the language. 

Reflection It was delightful to see how the sequence of lessons rolled on from one learning to another. By linking tasks to other curriculum areas, it was easier for students to make connections to what they already knew and hang on their new learning to their previous knowledge. During the course of task designing, I have deliberately created tasks where students would get the opportunity to formulate ideas, set and evaluate and reach tentative decisions in a set up that is informal. The aim is to to develop an interactive classroom where students are proficient in explaining their ideas and their thinking. I want them to face challenges, make mistakes and then learn from them so that each student in my class grabs learning opportunities to improve their learning. My next step would be to continue to link my topics to other curriculum areas so that students have lots of before hand experience to think deeply and critically about the topic of their study. This is just the beginning...

From a mother to her Daughters

It was hilarious when during our conversations I told my daughter "You will only get one gift from me at your wedding... and that will be my favourite book of recipes by Annabell Langbein". She looked at me and then burst out laughing especially when she is aware that being born in a hindu Indian family, she will be bestowed with gifts on her D day.
Not that she is going to get married or that she knows whom she would marry... but cooking good palatable food is an art and a skill that every child should be taught.

These holidays I have been teaching my girls how to cook. This became a necessity when my younger daughter's hostel closed down their kitchen at the end of last year. Some of the basic needs of every served meal are -

Food must be cooked with love, care, empathy and positive vibes for those who will have it. Such food is bound to taste good and will greatly benefit the health of all who consume it. Food is the essence of life.

It should have a balance of spices. The aroma from the food when being cooked should arouse the appetite to have it.

The different dishes cooked should have a balance of cooked food and salads. So try and have as many colours as possible in your dishes. The rainbow of colours should be appetising to the eye before the tongue tastes it.

Food served should give a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction after finishing. To achieve this completeness, the cook needs to make sure that all 6 tastes, sweet, sour, bitter, astringent, salty and pungent are delivered. The taste determines how we experience our food. The flavours in our foods are very therapeutic and so ultimately effects the overall flavours of our existence.

Food served should be freshly cooked as much as possible.

It has been a great experience of bonding with my children especially after a very busy year at work. Though they keep saying that it is tedious and they are not going to cook all the things that I have taught them, but I know they have seen me cook and so will definitely have an idea if they decide to do it later in life.

Holiday Reading

Just finished reading "Me before you" by Jojo Moyes. It is a good romantic novel with a message.Will Traynor who leads a big life suddenly gets tied down to a wheelchair after a nasty accident. I loved the character of Will more than the main character Louisa Clark. Despite of him being a handicap, Will leaves no stone unturned to improve the quality of Louisa's life. He encourages her to take risks and gives her the confidence to achieve and do better in life. The book certainly left me in tears.

Instant benefits of meditation in a classroom

One of the most simple ways to meditate is to close eyes and concentrate on the breath. The simple intake of air through the nostrils, feeling it travelling through the windpipe into the lungs and then release of carbon dioxide back from the body. This is s a very calming exercise for students especially after they have come back form their lunch hour.
Though I have always encouraged meditation in my class but it was not a very regular feature last year. In 2017 I will make sure that I keep ten minutes  aside for meditation. Usually I would play a soft meditation music from you tube and ask students to listen to the music and concentrate on the breath. Music helps them to settle down quickly and once their eyes are closed and and they start taking deep breaths, they become more relaxed and ready to learn.

Some of the instant benefits of meditation are -

1. It improves the mental health of a person and so helps in improving concentration.
2. It reduces anxiety levels and so helps in having a class of more calmer students.
3. Helps in improved blood circulation, so energises the body.

I am determined to create tiny buddhas in my class in the coming year. I would love to hear any feedback and would also love to know if teachers out there do meditation in their classes to get some more ideas if they do it differently.

The 6 C's in Education

At U learn Conference this year, I have been very inspired by the 6 C's. 

Here is a brief description of what 6 C's stand for and how they are so important in education. This write up is also a reflection on how I will be developing my plans so that I create a space for all the C's into my lessons.

Thinking Critically- This is done the best when students have a variety of media to inform themselves about the topic. It allows students to analyse and filter the information and eventually form their own opinion based on the facts and information received. They weigh the positive and negative affects of the information.  It also allows students to think if the information is valid or is it biased. They make connections with their experiences and understand the topic deeply.

How can I plan to make this happen in my class?

Working Collaboratively - When students work collaboratively, they communicate to make an optimum outcome. In the process, everyone's ideas are valued.

 How can I maximise the success by making communication effective in my class? What are the most effective means of communication when working collaboratively? 

Communicating Clearly -  This means that students and Teachers need to communicate meaningfully. This will happen if communication is effective and engaging to the classroom audience. 

 How can I make communication purposeful and effective for my students? How can I encourage engagement within the students? Do my students need to develop their communication skills? 

Embrace Culture - Students become more engaged in their learning if teachers encourage and appreciate the cultures of their students.

How can I become more responsive to the culture of the community I teach? How can I include the members of the community to become a part of my classroom culture?

Develop Creativity - Creativity allows students to express their learning and share it with others. Just learning would not be of any value if students are not able to apply their new learning in a purposeful way. When students apply their knowledge to create something, they gain deeper understanding, their knowledge expands, possibilities of innovations arise, imagination happens and their is a sense of completeness to the learning.

 How can I bring more creativity into the topics I teach?

Utilise Connectivity - This allows students to share their learning with the wider community. It is important because it allows students to have authentic audience to get constructive feedback.

How can I use Technology to connect at the local and global platform about my learning?

Reflection -  On reflection I feel the need to plan my lessons very carefully keeping in mind the 6 Cs. Though I already plan under the umbrella of  'Learn, Create, share',  but sometimes the essence and richness of the learning experiences can get lost if emphasis and care is not devoted to the 6 C's.  For this to happens effectively, I need to set up norms in the beginning of the year where students will learn how to communicate and collaborate so that we get more engagement through richer discussions. I will need them to learn to embrace each others cultures and value each other's ideas  and communicate respectfully so that the outcome of each lesson is acceptable and workable for the community. 

Multimodal Literacy - Manaiakalani Leaders PLG

Last week I attended the Manaiakalani Lead Teacher's PLG.  Dr. Aaron Wilson is one of the researchers at the University of Auckland and he was sharing his views about the importance of multimodal reading. It is different to reading a story in a journal over the week. Multimodal texts show the interrelationship between reading and writing and develop deeper understanding of the texts by making meaning of different modes of communication. 

We talked about

• Why it is important to talk about the text and how it benefits children's learning?
• What are some of the key indicators of quality talk about texts?

We shared our ideas on a padlet. Click on the link below to view the ideas.

Share your ideas - Padlet

Aaron emphasised and we all agreed that IRE ( Initiation, response and evaluation) way of teaching can be useful if it helps the teacher to check understanding of students. But it has it's limitations. It is one sided as it is teacher centred. Students do not get involved into deeper understanding of the topic as they do not get a chance to explore about the topic.

Texts should be talked about and students should be given opportunities to share their opinions about the ideas in the text. This would enhance deeper understanding of the text. Ideas in the text develop into rich discussions between the teacher and the students and within groups as everyone questions, agrees and disagrees. Most discussions are supported by reasons and so everyone contributes to the learning.

Teachers need to very careful about the level of the students and multimodal reading can become very disengaging if texts are not chosen strategically. Click the link below to see what Aaron had to say about what makes rich talks harder and easier.

What factors make rich talk about text in classrooms harder and easier

Aaron has been working with teachers at Tamaki College and showed us how there was a change between the teacher and student utterances as teachers shifted form IRE to more meaningful and authentic discussions.

Observations in the beginning of the year

Observations - mid year

Observations towards the End of the year

Aaron discussed that it could be valuable to re- negotiate the norms in the class about talk. I personally believe that it is very important to keep visiting the norms in the class as they develop a culture where everyone feels supported and comfortable to participate in discussions.

Our class treaty is all about class norms and has worked well for me and my students. It is not just a poster that hangs on the walls. It is very much a living document that is referred by students and teachers regularly so that our class remains a healthy place to discuss, ask, inquire, justify, agreeing and disagreeing. This is what our class treaty looks like-

I have not changed this treaty for the last two years because it works for me. What changed is just the koru patterns.
To involve students in discussions we also practice talk moves. Both me and my co- teacher Ashley use talk moves in all areas of the curriculum.

In the end Aaron left us with some question to ponder over?

• Are we on board with a shared focus on deep and wide learning using text sets and talk about text approaches?
• How many times should we engage students in multimodal literacy?

In my opinion, this is a great way to develop critical thinking amongst students. I have tried this in my class and the results were very satisfying for me as well as for the students. They felt like they had a voice and that their ideas and opinions were valued. 

The topic of my multimodal literacy was Theme parks. Please view the presentation below to check what year 3 and 4 students did for their reading last week.

Teaching Writing in my Class

I had my literacy observation recently and one of the  criteria is to record our lesson and then analyse the  lesson with a critical buddy. My critical buddy is Paula Were who does PLD for Writing at our school.

My goals from my last observation were-

Specific development of vocabulary eg clines

Continue building power words

Seeking the very best choice to avoid ‘over blown’ language

I not only wanted to achieve the above goals as a teacher but also wanted my students to to achieve their goals to become better writers. The group that I am teaching is  mixed ability group and their goals are to write interesting stories in order to create impact on their audience. To achieve this goal they have the following Success Criteria-

• Use detail for ideas
• Use correct punctuations
• Use Powerful words and similes
• Use dialogue
• use emotive language

Connections with Reading and writing

To start the lesson I made connections to the text that they had read the previous day.

I drew their attention to the new words and phrases they had read in text. I made sure that they understood the meanings of all the new vocabulary so that it becomes easy for them to use these in their writing.

Global Connections

The picture prompt that I used was that of a roller coaster. This was because I wanted to make connections with the recent incident that happened at Dream world.

Specific development of vocabulary

Most of my students use simple words in their writing or else they may use overblown words that really do not make much sense. To help them use specific vocabulary I made clines.

Making connections with culture

After explaining the word cline I asked my students if they could make any cultural connections to the roller coaster. It is important that we acknowledge and cherish what our students bring with them. In this case the students said that the roller coaster looked like a Taniwha, an eel, a huge wave or a whale, a dragon's tail and a tunnel.

I reminded students several times about their goals and gave them hints on how they could transfer the new words learnt to their writing.  Here is what they produced in about 5 minutes.

Revisiting Learning intentions and success criteia
To sum up students read their stories to each other and checked to see if their friends had met the success criteria. Next, students checked if they had achieved their goals. They checked this with their buddies and then ticked against the success criteria if they had achieved them.

Follow up task

A follow up task was to ask students to highlight detail, powerful words, dialogue and emotive words in a text on roller coasters. This was a winding off activity that would help them to remember their goals. Here is the text that was given.

To sum up students read their stories to each other and checked to see if their friends had met the success criteria. Next, students checked if they had achieved their goals. They checked this with their buddies and then ticked against the success criteria if they had achieved them.

Reflection and feedback - The feedback that I got from my critical friend was very good. To sum up she said that the connections with the reading and writing, culture and student goals were very elegantly done.

Link to my plan for the above lesson