MESHGuides

TEACHER’S/LSA’s NAMES: PAUL LEGGATT AND RUTH ECKETT, Henry Beaufort School (11 – 16), Winchester                

YEAR GROUP OF PUPILS:   7 & 9 ( 11-12 & 13 -1 4 years)

TOPIC OF ENQUIRY

Exploring reading activities to support  beginner English learners

TARGETING (what specifically are you seeking as outcomes?)

TEACHER’S NAME:          ROB BAKER-GALL, Harrison Primary, Fareham         

YEAR GROUP OF PUPILS: Y5 (9 - 10 years)

TOPIC OF ENQUIRY

Developing language for writing

TARGETING (what specifically are you seeking as outcomes?)

Growth in breath of vocabulary and in understanding of the grammatical structure of written English.

Exploring the possible impact of child having opportunities to think in first language.

TEACHER’S NAME:   SARAH-JANE JACKSON, St Michael’s CE Infant School, Aldershot        

YEAR GROUP OF PUPILS:   Y2 (6 - 7 Years)

TOPIC OF ENQUIRY

Reading comprehension with one Y2 able EAL learner

Exploring writing activities with Y2 EAL learners

TARGETTING (what specifically are you seeking as outcomes?)

Improving reading comprehension

Improving specific aspects of writing

In designing this MESHGuide for EAL the authors drew on the thinking and feedback of teachers and learning support assistants (LSAs) in schools where numbers of EAL pupils were relatively low but where practice for EAL was recognised as well-informed by Hampshire EMTAS. The process of design involved the teachers in trialling aspects of the guide as part of the their active practice with their EAL learners; the resulting action research projects form the case studies in this section.

It is important that schools find ways to proactively acknowledge and celebrate the languages spoken by pupils and staff alike; this helps to create an ethos whereby multilingualism is valued and pupils/parents feel more included. This will enhance a sense of school belonging and opportunities for greater cross-cultural understanding.  In keeping with this, the print environment, including the stock of books in the library, should reflect the linguistic diversity of the school community.

‘The physical environment plays an important role in how valued children from diverse backgrounds feel in school. Children are more likely to feel valued and develop a sense of belonging when their ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic background is reflected positively in the displays in their classroom and around the school.’  DfES (2006) 

Ideas for making the school and classroom environment more inclusive:

Practitioners may notice that pupils for whom English is an additional language may continue to make grammatical errors in their written English long after they have achieved conversational fluency in English. 

Leadership
1. The dispersed multi-level leadership model.
2. Effective leadership to enable evaluative and reflective discourse, including the negotiating of meanings and perspective sharing.

Understanding Perspectives
1. Perceptions of time and the relationship between time and motivation.

Building Community
1. Building a sense of community.
2. Characteristics and constituents of Virtual International Schools.

The research findings suggested that the following areas were important when it came to thinking about the technology itself.

• Barriers to working in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
• Differences between teacher and students use and expectations of use of different technologies
• How other technologies outside of the VLE are utilized
• The reasons why different technologies are selected

The data analysis in this research suggested that time needed to be given to build a sense of community and that the following elements needed to be considered:

• group dynamics
• collaboration
• isolation
• communication
• differences in the face to face and online worlds
• how people learn to:
  • problem solve
  • negotiate meanings
  • share purpose.