1. Multicultural Literacy Strategy Designed for Stage 1
Hebersham Public School

2. Hebersham Public School Be a Learner; Be Respectful; Be Safe
Enrolment is currently 580
49% of students from non English speaking backgrounds
11% from an Aboriginal background.
22 mainstream classes and three support classes
HPS is on the priority schools program and included in the Low SES School Communities National Partnerships initiative
Literacy, numeracy and student welfare are key focus areas.

3. Something to Remember
Learn English, learn in English and learn about English to participate.
Some have Literacy skills in
own language, some do not.
We are asking students to do all these things – learn, learn in and learn about …… be patient and supportive and consider the AITSL standards and QTF.
Research indicates that a student’s level of language competence in his or her first language influences the rate of second language learning.

4. Obstacles in Your Classroom?
Allow 1 minute discussion – ask for some feedback
Discuss your concerns / obstacles with ESL students within the classroom.
Each table are to report back to us with a shared concern that may be occurring within their classrooms, specifically regarding ESL students

5. Obstacles Absence of culturally specific resources
Classroom culture = lack of confidence
Wide range of languages
Students at different EAL literacy phases
Limited communication = no sense of belonging
Not all same language speakers have the same world knowledge
Monocultural syllabus
Discuss these points, many would have been raised by the group.

6. Aim of this Strategy
Not to disregard or ignore students’ culture, rather allow students the ability to identify and interact with the English language to their full potential.
Equity in Diversity
ESL students should be encouraged to use English when interacting in the classroom – practice, practice, practice!
Provide a range of multiliteracies
Equity in Diversity = acknowledging difference but understanding that not all students from the same background have the same life worlds and lived experiences.
Diversity is NOT just about acknowledging food and religion – this is more about cultures.

7. Aim of this Strategy
Recognising that students are NOT illiterate … many students are literate in their first language
Acknowledge that ESL learners come to school with existing language skills, cultural knowledge, social knowledge and cognitive abilities
* Use ICT to engage ESL students
* Support ESL students in mainstream classrooms as much as possible
ESL learners come to school with existing language skills, cultural knowledge, social knowledge and cognitive abilities. This linguistic and cultural diversity is valued in itself. Developing fi rst language competence is important not only for reasons of identity and community but also for developing the cognitive, linguistic and cultural understandings learners need to be able to learn another language.

8. Aim of this Strategy To use a range of ESL teaching odes
Mainstream Classrooms
Direct Teaching
Tutorial, Elective, Parallel
Collaborative
Joint Teaching, Group Teaching
Resource Based
Culturally specific, ICT
Collaborative (All relationships should be clearly defined ahead of time)

9. Outcomes to Achieve Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing THROUGH
Communication
Socio-cultural understandings
Language structures and features
Learning how-to-learn

10. Thinking Specifically about ICT

11. ESL Literacy Strategies – Phase 1 (English limited in all social and educational situations)
Purpose
Increase confidence
Develop initial skills in English language for use within the culture of the school and the community
Initial skills in learning-how-to-learn skills, ie managing the classroom environment, social skills and early literacy skills.
How to / ideas to implement ICT Phase 1
ESL purpose for this Stage
Increase confidence
initial skills in English language use within the culture of the school and the community
Communication within the community - this takes precedence over mainstream content learning
initial skills in learning-how-to-learn skills, eg managing the classroom environment, social skills and early literacy skills.

12. ESL Literacy Strategy – Phase 1
Storyline Online
Helps students understand that illustrations and pictures convey information and add meaning
ability to identify parts of the book and handle books appropriately
Related activities appropriate across language diversity in the mainstream classroom
Maintains a balanced appraoch
Takes place with mainstream class and through individual instruction.
Appropriate cross cultural communication opportunities – paired-share activities etc
ESL Literacy focus for this stage
understanding that print carries a message
understanding that illustrations and pictures convey information and add meaning
ability to identify parts of the book and handle books appropriately
knowledge of print conventions, eg left to right, word spacing, knowledge of sound
symbol relationship.
Maintaining a balanced approach to literacy – reading / listening

13. ESL Literacy Strategy – Phase 1
Turtle Diary
ability to identify parts of the book and handle books appropriately
knowledge of print conventions, eg left to right, word spacing, knowledge of sound
Reading Eggs
Letter / sound correspondence
Symbol recognition
Phonological awareness
Available for use at home
All support direct instruction and ‘traditional’ literacy teaching methods ie not ICT based.

14. ESL Literacy Strategies – Phase 2 (Progressing, but limited to a range of familiar social and educational situations)
Using a program called “Clicker”, students are able to “write with pictures”
This allows the student to writes short stories, using the pictures to both prompt and reinforce their words
This helps the students to take familiar concepts and place them into stories, creating their own context.
How to / ideas to implement ICT Phase 1
The activity takes place in the mainstream classroom with assistance by ESL or classroom teacher. Mainstream students working on similar ICT activities.

15. Literacy Strategies – Phase 3 (Generally function fluently in English, occasionally requiring assistance.)
Student are to write a newspaper report about anything at all. It can be something in another country, something within the school.
The idea of this activity is to encourage and allow all students to participate in the activity and cultural diversity to be embraced
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How to / ideas to implement ICT Phase 1
Phase 3 is Normally supported by class teacher
Usually writing is the difference between the 2nd and 3rd phase – often better in listening and reading.
AIMS for Phase 3 ESL Learners:
Phase 3 Learners are confident in using English in social situations but at times will display some difficulty using English in the more demanding academic contexts. These students may
• understand written texts at a literal level but have difficulty identifying implied meaning, author’s viewpoint and bias, and relationships and connections between
information
• have well developed understanding and use of English language for the purpose of social discussion, but may still experience diffi culty with using and following academic nd classroom discussion used for developing new or deeper understandings and concepts
• be unable to demonstrate their abilities because of some difficulty coping with the language demands of long or complex written assignments.
Learners who have reached the end of Phase 3 can communicate flexibly and competently
in English in social and academic situations commensurate with their age.
The teaching focus for Phase 3 learners is on
• increasingly complex informational and aesthetic use of language related to specific areas of study
• developing research skills and independent learning. ESL learners of average academic ability, social adjustment and

16. Differentiation Adopt an inclusive and equitable classroom environment
Maintain your class as a whole as often as possible, just differentiate the content for ESL students
Allow students to select subject areas
Peer support – encourage students to work together
If ESL students are using ipads, allow the whole class to be using them, just differentiation the content – don’t exclude the mainstream students from ‘fun’ ICT activities
Example – mainstream students read, ESL students are read to by teacher or audio books
Students complete the same activity, however ESL students are given more time and appropriate resources ie dictionaries

17. Reading
The aim for reading is to enable students to help each other out, as well as further their knowledge and literacy ability. Various strategies can be put into place such as;
Reading Groups
Activating prior knowledge
Make predictions
Group summarising
Developing Sight Words (on the wall, in the classroom)
This also helps them when writing.
Familiarisation with the words

18. Writing
Writing is a great activity for ESL students, at it allows them to formulate their own context and ideas, while assessing their knowledge of words and basic grammatical concepts.
Brainstorming
Visualisation using pictures (including ICT clicker activity)
Re-Reading
The basic idea for these strategies is to allow students to come up with their own ideas, share them, and then build on each others. When this is done, cultural diversity is embraced

19. ICT Multiliteracy Strategies
Television (IWB)
Cultural news
Listening skills
Visual Explanation
Internet Research – Webquests
Reading Skills
Culturally specific information
Pop Culture
Music for listening comprehension
Games

20. ICT Multiliteracy Strategies
Sing and listen to songs in other languages
Read bilingual books. Have students read in their native language.

21. Don’t Take up all of the talking time.
Be inconsistent with classroom management.
Forget cultural differences.
Forget to know students backgrounds and needs.

22. For Parents Setup an online parent community / Blog
Post links/resources that will help parents with their own language development
Keep parents active
Allow them to make suggestions
Invite them to help in the classroom
Invite parents to a workshop
Use Google translator to communicate
Students growth increases when parents see themselves as co-educators of their children
Involve parents are the beginning of the school year, especially those who believe involvement in their child’s education is not expected or desired.
Teachers have an obligation to build a relationship with parents (especially ESL) to help strenghten the collaboration between school learning and home.

23. Where to Start …… OxfordUniversitypress (elt.oup.com)
Englishgrammar.org
Eslpartyland.com
Eslvideo.com
Pinkmoney.com
Brighthub.com
Dictionary.com
Usingenglish.com

24. Remember ESL is a schoolwide adaptation, not an additional department.
A little knowledge about your students’ lives can go a long way.
All teachers must view improvement in all language domains for all students as the responsibility of all teachers.
There is a world of difference between a student who does not speak English and a student who is illiterate in his or her native language.

25. References
Bremner, S (2004) Talking and listening activities for ESL students, Primary English Teaching Association, PEN143, Sydney.
Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2000) Multiliteracies. Literacy learning and the design of social futures. Routledge, New London Group.
Cricksoft. (2013) Word Processor. [ONLINE] Available at: [Accessed 02 October 13].
Dooley, K. (2008) Multilitereacies and Pedagogies of New Learning for Studens of Enlighs as an Additional Language. In Healy, A (Ed.) Multiliteracies and Diversity in Education, New pedagogies for expanding landscapes. Oxford University Press
Hill S, (2006) Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching, Eleanor Curtain Publishing, Melbourne.
Killen, R. (2005) Programming and Assessment for Quality Teaching and Learning. Southbank Victoria: Thomson Social Science Press.
Mu, Congjun (2005) A Taxonomy of ESL Writing Strategies. In Proceedings Redesigning Pedagogy: Research, Policy, Practice, pages pp , Singapore
NSW Department of Education & Training. Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools Discussion Paper, May Retrieved August
NSW Department of Education & Training. English as a Second Language Cultural Diversity and community Relations Policy. Guidelines for Schools. Retrieved September
NSW Institute of Teachers Professional Teaching Standards. Retrieved August Professional-Teaching-Standards/
NSW Department of Education and Communities. (2005). Multicultural Education Policy. Retrieved August %26+equity%7Cmulticultural
NT Department of Education and Children’s Services. (2012) Teaching Multilingual Learners Program. Retrieved August 2013 from