EAL contemporary issue: How to succeed with EAL students in the classroom Group A - EAL contemporary issue

What percentage of the Jelly babies are EAL? = 5% of children in your borough

Barnet 38.2% Enfield 38.6% Waltham Forest 41.5% Hackney 43.5% Haringey 47.0%

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Pupil profiles What EAL students really experience

Group A - EAL contemporary issue My name is Salam Mohannayeh, I am 10 years old and I have been learning English for a year now. My first language is Arabic, the language is similar to English as they both have punctuation. It would really help me if my teachers would use actions to help explain things. I find reading and writing quite difficult, however I enjoy speaking and listening. My name is Daniella Almeida and I have been learning English for 7 months. My first language is Portuguese; the language is similar to English as they have the same spelling and punctuation. It would really help me if my teachers would use subtitles and pictures. I find reading and writing quite difficult, however I enjoy speaking and listening My name is Bader Radi and I have been learning English for a year now. My first language is Arabic, but I can also speak Swedish. The language is similar to English as the letters are the same. It would really help me if my teachers would give me extra homework to help me learn English. I find listening and writing difficult and find reading and speaking quite easy. My name is Daniella Almeida and I have been learning English for 7 months. My first language is Portuguese; the language is similar to English as they have the same spelling and punctuation. It would really help me if my teachers would use subtitles and pictures. I find reading and writing quite difficult, however I enjoy speaking and listening.

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Tried and tested strategies in the classroom

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Keywords How and why? Set explicit listening tasks around key words – either for the whole class or individual students. For example – make a tally chart of the number of times the teacher uses certain words A bingo chart of key words to cross off during a talk or clip

Group A - EAL contemporary issue DARTS How and why? DARTs are directed activities related to texts. Examples include – – sequencing; – prioritising; – matching pictures to text; – matching phrases to definitions; – matching examples of cause and effect; – filling in gaps in text; – the use of true/false statements; – matching concepts to examples; – sorting to determine which information is not needed for a piece of work; – grouping information together to identify similarities and differences between key words and phrases. Taken from Access and Engagement in RE, DfES, 2002, s/sec_re_eal_access_engagRE.pdf s/sec_re_eal_access_engagRE.pdf

Cloze Procedure Also known as fill in the blanks A cloze procedure is a "fill-in-the-blanks" activity where the learner uses clues from the context to supply words that have been deliberately removed from the text.

Why use it? Using cloze-procedure helps pupils with their reading and writing. Using this activity will help support learners in looking at either semantic patterns or sentence structure. Writing is the hardest skill for bilingual pupils to master so it is important to scaffold writing tasks by using writing frames, matching words to pictures and using cloze procedures.

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Each child has a nominated talk partner. Partners change every half term. Strategies such as ‘think, pair and share’ encourage EAL pupils to have a chance to interact and voice an opinion. The use of first language for learning is acknowledged and children are able to choose which language they want to discuss concepts in before sharing their thoughts with the class in English, to aid their understanding. Think, Pair, Share How and why?

EAL Strategies in Practice Pair and Share Visualisation Dictogloss

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Role models How and why? Use group work to help EAL students hear positive English language models. This may also be helpful to the student in internalising the ‘hidden’ rules of language inside and outside the classroom.

Miss W English Group: Yr 10, set 2 Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade C- Target C Grade C- Target C Grade C+ Target B- G&T EAL Grade C- Target C+ EAL Grade D Target D+ Grade C Target C+ Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade C+ Target B- Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade C Target C+ EAL Grade C Target C+ EAL Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade D+ Target C- EAL SA Grade C Target C+ Grade D Target D+ EAL Grade B- Target B Statemented EAL Grade C- Target C+ G&T EAL Grade C Target C+ EAL Grade C Target C+_ EAL Grade D+ Target C- EAL Grade C- Target C SAP Grade C Target C+ EAL TA - Mr S

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Rehearsals How and why? Prime EAL students that you will come to them for answers. Ask them in the interim to orally rehearse these with a (helpful) peer. This technique may be usefully applied to all students.

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Writing frame How and why? Provide students with a list of words and phrases appropriate for use in the writing task set. e.g. Write a news report on the water cycle Good evening viewers Precipitation In the mountains... Clouds The sun shining on the sea...

Writing frame The topic of the question is an exclusion - so it would be good to use other ‘school’ terminology in your response. Here are some useful words your could use in your response: appeal request decision policy action consideration exclusion contract anger management remorse (to show you are sorry) Sentences starter : Dear Ms. H Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I understand you are a very busy woman and would like to stress what a fantastic job you are doing running X School. Para 1 Para 2 Para 3 Para 4 Para 5 - Round up your points Yours sincerely

Group A - EAL contemporary issue ‘snapshot’ practical lesson Accessible Images Accessible language – use language culturally accessible Sentence starters

Group A - EAL contemporary issue How will you implement these strategies in your teaching? What new strategies have you learnt today?

Group A - EAL contemporary issue Sources: Access and Engagement series (DfES 2002) Jim Cummins, Language, Power and Pedagogy (Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 2000) Neil Mercer, Words and minds: how we use language to think together (Routledge, Abingdon, 2000) Woodside High School Happy EAL learners