EAL and Communication At Pleckgate High School Mathematics & Computing College.

Background information 85% ethnic minority pupils. 74% of pupils have EAL. >10 Verbal/Non-Verbal CAT discrepancy: Year 7 20% Year 8 18% Year 9 17% Year 10 21% Year 11 19%

Background Reading age (on entry) 36% pupils < White British heritage pupils also struggle with Literacy.

What is an EAL Learner? “ …first language is the language to which a child was initially exposed during early development and continues to use this language in the home and community. If a child acquires English subsequent to early development, then English is not their first language no matter how proficient in it they become.” DfES 2007

What barriers do they face? Vocabulary gaps in commonly used words and serious gaps in higher order language. Literal vs. metaphorical understanding, idioms, puns, collocations In reading, struggle to decode meaning in texts. In writing, find it hard to express their ideas clearly.

Example of an EAL learner’s struggle… The following question was asked on a recent KS3 Science SATs Paper: “How do blocked oviducts prevent fertilisation taking place?” Which word do you think the EAL learners struggled with?

The Iceberg Model Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skill Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency Remembering (Knowledge) Understanding (comprehension) Application Analysis Evaluating Creating BICS CALP Bloom’s taxonomy HIGHERORDERHIGHERORDER

What does this mean? They don’t progress as well as other pupils at KS3 and KS4.

Talk

Strategies for Managing Group Talk Pair Pairs to fours Listening triads Envoys Snowball Rainbow groups Jigsaw groups

‘Top Tips’ for managing group talk Clear roles Time limited Clear outcomes Scaffolding Question Token

Timekeeper To keep pupils on task: Reporter Recorder Organiser Observer Researcher

Talk prompts for plenaries The main points in this lesson were … Today we covered … but the main point was … I thought … was useful because … I would like to know more about … I really understand … I found … difficult because … … would be useful for … I think this was similar to … because I can see how I could use this in … Another way of looking at this is …

Spelling

TASK Try and work out which levels the following words belong in. Write a level between 2 and 6 under each word.

Spelling rules – Plurals When a word ends in y when do I change it to –ies? Strawberry Lady Donkey Jockey Similarity Storey

Spelling rules – Plurals What about words ending in o? Potato Patio Rodeo Halo Tomato

The –ible / -able rule Possible Manageable Acceptable Horrible Available Incredible Desirable

Words ending in ‘shun’ How do I know whether to use -tion, - sion or cian? Optician Conversation Occupation Electrician Beautician Expectation Musician

because Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

piece A piece of pie

Writing

Non-fiction text types Instructions Information Explanation Recount Discursive (argue) Persuade Analysis Evaluation

TAP TTask What are the pupils being asked to write? Letter Article Report … AAudience Who is the piece for?Child Adult Formal / informal … PPurpose What is it trying to do?Persuade Inform Argue …

1.Blackpool settlement project. 2.Was King John a good or a bad king? 3.Write a recipe for a party fruit cocktail for publication in a summer edition of a teenage magazine. 4.Write about how to play your new computer game. 5.Design a leaflet for Year 6 pupils called ‘How to survive Year 7’ 6.Write an article about smoking in public places. 7.Write about the 3 convenience meals you tasted and give your opinions on each. Setting writing tasks

The sequence for teaching writing 1 Establish clear aims 2 Provide example(s) 3 Explore the features of the text 4 Define the conventions 5 Demonstrate how it is written 6 Compose together 7 Scaffold the first attempts 8 Develop independent writing 9 Draw out the key learning 10 Review

Key points talk Plan for group talk – include strategies for managing the activity: role cards, question tokens / talk toolkits (scaffolding) Spelling Spelling – offer a range of strategies for learning key words Writing Writing – make TAP clear; follow the sequence for teaching writing

Final Thought… Literacy is everyone’s responsibility not just the English Departments!!!!