Literacy for everyone
The first day at a new school is always going to be a nerve-racking experience but when you add to the mix the challenge of adjusting to a new culture, a new teaching style and a new language, those first days, weeks and months take on an even more challenging shape for both pupils and teachers.
The number of children enrolled in Scottish schools who speak English as a second language has risen significantly, putting an unprecedented demand on schools' provisions for pupils with English language learning needs. In fact, there are currently over 28,000 bilingual primary and secondary school children in Scotland. As Louise Ballantyne, National Development Officer for Literacy at Learning and Teaching Scotland explains, this trend was a key driver behind Learning and Teaching Scotland's 'English Language Learning (ELL) and Literacy Across Learning' project. 'It's part of my job to go out and speak to teachers about Curriculum for Excellence, and I noticed that a lot of primary schools were asking for advice on how to help improve literacy among pupils for whom English is not the main language spoken at home,' she says. 'The project aims to support teachers in schools that have seen an influxof international pupils by sharing with them engaging techniques to help all pupils access the curriculum and improve their literacy skills.'
Glasgow was the first authority to get involved in the project. 'The project has really taken off over the past few months with schools in Inverclyde, Aberdeenshire and Angus getting involved in it and similar initiatives,' she says. 'A cross-curricular approach uses literacy to explore the culture of other countries and allows teachers to try out the new literacy and English experiences and outcomes in a meaningful context. The overall aim is for teachers to share their experiences with their colleagues and other schools.'
Pollokshields Primary School in Glasgow has embraced the project to great effect. 'We were delighted to be asked to take part in the project. For a lot of our teachers, who have previously only taught in monolingual schools, it can be quite daunting when very few pupils in a class speak English as their first language, so the chance to get involved in creating lessons to help these pupils access Curriculum for Excellence was very attractive,' says Carol Wood, P6 teacher at the school.
Model behaviour
During 17 years of teaching at Pollokshields Primary School, Carol has watched the proportion of children with ELL needs grow from around 60 to 97 per cent at present. 'When I first joined the school, many of the native English speakers helped the incoming pupils with language needs. But as these families have moved on, more families have opted for monolingual schools. The absence of pupil role models has put even more pressure on us teachers,' explains Carol.
So how do the teachers meet this challenge? 'We use a lot of visuals during topic lessons as relying solely on words simply doesn't work. We also try to activate the prior knowledge that pupils bring to the lesson,' explains Rhona Proctor, fellow P6 teacher at the school. 'Many of our pupils can converse and socialise well but their understanding of the academic language required for learning is more limited.'
As part of the ELL and Literacy project, Pollokshields Primary School created a suite of lesson plans under the banner of the 'Multicultural Scotland Project'. The project saw P6 pupils work together to create fictional characters living in Scotland with diverse cultural backgrounds. Erric Talkarova, originally from Slovakia, was just one of many imaginative characters created by the children. The pupils worked together to research Slovakia and put together a PowerPoint presentation about his fictional background and way of life. 'We did a lot of circle time activities and divided the pupils into groups to create their characters, do research into their parents' countries of origin and create presentations about them – their culture, lifestyle and beliefs etc,' says Carol. 'By encouraging the pupils to work in groups everyone could get involved. Even pupils with very limited English were able to discuss ideas with the group, ask questions and find answers. It was very rewarding to see the sense of achievement it gave pupils who perhaps are working at P3 level reading and writing.
Power to the pupils
The pupils took on roles such as timekeeper, noise monitor and mediator, allowing them to work with minimum guidance from the teachers. Empowering the pupils to choose what they learnt about produced remarkable results. 'One of our aims was to meet the capacities of Curriculum for Excellence and apply the new literacy and English outcomes, and I'm glad to say we achieved that. The children really did become successful learners and effective contributors,' explains Rhona. 'As well as helping the pupils with the English outcomes (punctuation and grammar, etc), the project was a great opportunity for the pupils to build on the language and literacy skills required to work with others, to collaborate, mediate and discuss. They also explored their artistic side, creating models of their characters, and learnt new ICT skills, using digital cameras to take photos of them.'
Pupils at the school also receive an excellent grounding in foreign language acquisition, learning basic phrases in Slovak, Swahili, Polish, Czech, German, Spanish and Urdu among other languages. 'Encouraging the pupils to use unfamiliar languages not only improves their own language skills, but it also helps them empathise with some of the pupils who struggle using English in class,' explains Rhona.
Although the Multicultural Scotland Project offered a wealth of learning for the pupils, and greatly boosted their literacy skills, for Carol it was even further reaching. 'The project was about more than all the fabulous facts the children learnt about other cultures, and learning how to listen to each other and work together. It was also about celebrating their success when they presented the work to their parents and challenging misconceptions about people from other cultures,' explains Carol.
The pupils' pride in their work shone through during an open afternoon for parents. 'Standing up in front of classmates and parents, and presenting in English was a big ask of our pupils but they more than met the challenge,' says Rhona.
Carol is excited about the scope of the project. 'The lesson plans within the project will lend themselves easily to other schools. A student teacher here has already delivered the lessons and found it easy to do so. I'm confident that any school in Scotland could benefit from them,' she says.
Multicultural classrooms
Cuthbertson Primary School, Glasgow has also reaped dividends from the project. Traditionally, many of its pupils hail from an Asian background but over the last couple of years, a larger proportion of pupils from Eastern European countries have joined the school. 'The pupils in my class represent 10 different countries and during the last year alone six new pupils, who do not speak any English whatsoever, have joined the class,' says Michelle Mathers, P2–3 teacher at the school. 'Within the class there is a wide range of language abilities. Just three of my pupils are from the UK and speak mother tongue English.'
As part of Learning and Teaching Scotland's ELL and Literacy Across Learning project, Michelle created a set of lessons that run for six weeks, called the 'Animals of the World' project. The project saw the pupils select bean baby animals and books about each animal. For instance, one child selected The Hungry Caterpillar and a bean baby caterpillar. They took the caterpillar and book home for a week and kept a journal of the time they spent together, using a digital camera to take photos of some of the activities they pursued.
'At the end of the week, the children brought in their photos and journals, and shared them with the class. This involved a lot of writing, reading, talking and listening, and gave the pupils a valuable glimpse of their classmates’ cultures and ways of life,' explains Michelle. 'It was a fantastic way to apply the literacy and English experiences and outcomes. For us the main focus was on listening and speaking skills to accommodate the children who were brand new to English. Giving them more confidence to interact within the class, and watching children embark on the project with little or no English and end up giving class talks in English, was quite remarkable. I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year and to hearing feedback from other schools who run the project.'
The lesson plans and case studies created within the ELL and Literacy Across Learning project will be posted on the Learning and Teaching Scotland website later in 2009. By sharing experiences and best practice, everyone in Scottish schools can be equipped with the literacy skills necessary for a valuable learning experience.
Find out more
Wha's Like Us?
The Homecoming National Group has introduced 'Wha's Like Us?' - an initiative aimed at classes made up of pupils who have come to live in Scotland from different countries. It allows pupils living all over Scotland to talk about their experiences. The Group will cover regular monthly topics for classes to work on together, and offer pupils a chance to upload their work, chat, discuss and take part in Glow Meets.
Visit the Glowscotland blogs to get involved.
The Polish Project: It is not only teachers who are working to help cater for children from diverse cultural backgrounds.
- Posted on 21 September 2009 under Literacy and English, Issue 24, Features.
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