LIVERPOOL PUBLIC SCHOOL

ACTION INQUIRY2011

School Context • There are an increasing number of refugee students – 87 students in 2011.

• The Primary Intensive English program provides targeted intensive support for Refugee students enabling them to develop language and Literacy skills and participate effectively in the mainstream classroom.

1st Phase studentsClass: 5R

5 refugee students

Rationale

• We perceived that students were confident users of “every day” language but to achieve stage 3 curriculum outcomes students needed to develop their “academic” language in Key Learning Areas.

• We needed to design high challenge teaching and learning activities that would scaffold ESL learners and provide high support.

Rationale• Many of the students in our class were “quietly”

disengaged and disconnected from their learning. They had limited understanding of the “essential” knowledge of units of work in the classroom.

• Although tasks were modelled, there was no transferral of knowledge in writing or talk.

• We wanted to create a quality learning environment which was focussed on developing intellectual quality.

Rationale: Links to Quality Teaching Framework

Quality learning environment

Intellectual Quality

Action Inquiry Focus

• How do refugee and ESL students

access the academic language

required to achieve stage 3 outcomes?

Key Pedagogical Focus

Designed in scaffolding Learning experiences were designed and sequenced to build on students’ knowledge of the language and concepts of Electricity and Antarctica, so

that students could transform and demonstrate their learning.

Varied participant structureWorking with different and varied participant structure

Independent work, group work, jigsaw groups, small groups, whole class

Message AbundancyDVDS, word walls, photos, excursions, blogging, You tube, Internet access,

Travel agent brochures, Matrix, News report

ESL based teaching sequenceControlled, guided and independent activities

Initial Assessment

A number of assessments were carried out throughout the programs, including:

ESL band levels for Oral and Writing.

ESL Scales indicators in a form of a checklist was used to update their band levels.

Pre and post writing assessments

Teacher observations of whole class, pairs and group work

Assessment throughout project

Video clips of student presentations and class participation.

Work samples

Electricity experiments

Learning goals are explicitly shared with students and students were taught how to recognise the standards they are aiming for. (Matrix criteria)

Peer and self-assessment

Teacher and student reflection

Student feedback

Student blogs

Cycle 1 – COGS unit on Electricity

Rich task  

• Students demonstrate their knowledge and

understanding of energy by designing,

creating and explaining a product that uses

transformation of energy.

Designing Rich Task

•Design and make a product using electrical circuit either powered by battery or solar power.

•Product will need to serve a purpose and meet personal need.

• Students needed to explain how the product worked and they also needed to persuade the audience to buy the product.

Targeted Language

Electricity conductors circuits insulators motors

Energy produce closed transport store wind

Wires cells open filament generated solar

Bulb complete parallel simple hydro nuclear

Electricity Program

Teaching and Learning Experience

Scaffolding / Strategies

Introduction to the COGS unit ‘Electricity’ by filling in a KWHL chart. (What do we know and understand about electricity? what do we want to find out? How might we get this information?)Appoint a reporter, then have groups report back to compare information. (Rotate these charts and students add infor.)

• Small groups• Progressive brainstorming activity and

reporting back.  • Collect charts• Sharing information with each other. 

Front LoadingTeacher explains that each of the images either use, produce, transport or store electricity. ( 12 pictures) Students observe a variety of pictures on a power point based on different forms of energy. Names of images are displayed. ( 12 pictures) In small groups, they classify these pictures into the correct headings and justify their choice in a full sentence. E.g. A cable is used to transport electricity.(Use, produce, transport and store).

•Use video of brainstorming session and reporting back.  •Collect work samples.   •Matrix•Take photos of their work.

Electricity Program

Teaching and Learning Experience

Scaffolding/ Assessment

Excursion to the ‘Powerhouse Museum. Students will be asked to report back to the WC on what they learnt about electricity.Each leader has a digital camera where they take photos of their learning and fill in recording

sheet.

• Building the field• Developing metalanguage• Photos of different forms of electricity • Blogging

Teacher modelling of collage.Students make a collage using digital images from their excursion. Students report what they had learnt about electricity. Students blog their learning from the Powerhouse.

• Internet visual support. • partner work• work sample• videoing• blogs

Supply small student groups with a battery, two pieces of wire and a torch globe. Ask students to explore ways of making the torch globe glow.Ask students to draw and label a diagram of their observations.Introduce the language to explanations. Provide sentence starters to demonstrate cause and effect.Ask students to write an explanation (using text and drawings) of how a torch works.

• hands on activity – taking apart and rebuilding a torch

• teacher supplying technical language to label a torch diagram

• videoing some children orally explaining the process of how a torch and circuit works.

• models of explanation, joint construction, language features, grammar, technical language,

• cause, effect.• work samples of Explanations on torches.• blogs

Electricity ProgramTeaching and Learning Experience

Scaffolding / Strategies

Exploring Electrical Energy As a whole class brainstormed ideas about creating a product that served a purpose in their life. Students thought of ‘everyday’ problems such as, their brother keeps going into their room.Students had to come up with a product that would help solve this problem, BUT it had to include an electrical circuit. Eg Alarm on their door.

•Showed inventions on the internet on You tube Ellen Show.

•Advertisements of products.

•Student observations  •Video taping

Introducing design taskModel problem and design. Procedure structure (Head torch on a head band.)Students mark teachers design using criteria.Brainstorm problems that arise in the classroom and how they can be resolved using electrical energy as part of design solution.Students sketch initial ideas for their product and annotate their sketch to explain how the product works.Have students consider the circuit required to operate the product.Criteria to be used to judge the success of their solution

•Student Criteria Checklist  •Student observations  •Photographs of their final products

Electricity Program

Teaching and Learning Experience

Scaffolding / Strategies

Presentation Day – Students display their sketches and models to the class and talk about them.

• Video - taping presentations during Assembly. (Science Show)

KWL chart

Front-loading• Students are shown a series of photographs of objects that

store, produce , use and transport electricity and predicted whether they store, produced or transported electricity.

Powerhouse Museum

Blogging - Now that your product is made, how do you feel about the design? What are some positive points? What would you change?

Miss Giggles (Ivona) says: The product that I made was a house with a fan and light. I liked making the house and I learnt a lot about electricity like you can only put a black wire on the negative side and a blue, white and red on the positive. The positive side of the house was making it with my uncle and I wouldn’t change anything.

pretty princess(Andjela) says: I am proud of what I made and I am so excited about presenting it to the class. The first time I tried it, it didn’t work. Second time it worked. I need to change a little more staff and I need to make it more entertaining.

Aishwarya says: I really enjoyed making my latest invention and I am very impressed with it.My invention is a lamp and I won't make any differences in it because I love it all.Some of the positive points about my lamp are, when I first tried to make the straws stay still sticking to the clay ,they didn't and I was really disappointed, the next time I tried it they did and I was very happy that they did.

Noora says: I made a rainbow colours that when you spin it the colours will change into one colour which is blue and I put lights around it .

made a product that's called THE SECRET NIGHT LIGHT STAND it's similiar to a lamp but the difference is that the torch is balanced by two thick straws that are balanced by some sticky clay, another difference is that the torch is in a case that is made out of tissue paper roll. I made this because my parents expect me to finish my studies before bedtime but sometimes I don't finish all of it, so at night (maybe at 3'o clock)I wake up to do my studies and notice that I can't turn the lights on because my parents will know that I am not sleeping, I also noticed that there's not enough light for me to read books, so I made this product so I can get some light to do studies and to read books.

Building Vocabulary

Increasing children’s field knowledge and metalanguage.

Exploring, investigating and experimenting with different components

used in Electricity.

Labelling a torch / Explanation

Experimenting with CircuitsInvestigating and exploring how an electrical circuit

works.

Trial and error

• For students to become motivated and engaged in electricity, lots of oral interaction, scaffolding and hands on activities were incorporated.

Exploring and Investigating

Brainstorming ideas for their models

Products

Designing, creating and explaining their models to Year 6

Product: Rainbow fan Product: Fun HouseLightinator Solar battery

Car

Product: Light Fan Product: Light Alarm

Rich Task: Electricity

Cycle 2 - Antarctica

Direction: 5R Change of ESL teacher: Mrs P. Vella

Continued focus on Phase 2, Stage 3 ESL students.

Cycle 2 – COGS unit Antarctica

Rich Task

Stage 3 COGS unit was based on Antarctica.

Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding by creating and filming a news documentary on Antarctica.

Target language

Sea ice Aurora Katabatic winds blizzard ice shelves

Glacier iceberg whiteout icesheet

Ozone pollution biology geology Glaciology

meterology oceanography global warming human impacts

Adelie penguins Emperor penguins Southern elephant seal

Leopard seal Weddell seal humpback whale blue whale

Orca krill algae albatross

Antarctica ProgramTeaching and Learning

ExperienceScaffolding / Strategies

Excursion to Maritime Museum where children saw Scott’s Last Expedition (to Antarctica) display and watched a documentary about Antarctica on IMAX.

• Building the field• Developing metalanguage• Visual support

Introduction to the COGS unit ‘Antarctica’ by filling in a KWL chart. (What do we know and understand about Antarctica? what do we want to find out? How might we get this information?)Appoint a reporter, then have groups report back to compare information. (Rotate these charts and students add infor.)

• Small groups• Progressive brainstorming activity and

reporting back. • Sharing information with each other. 

Location of Antarctica on world map, show travel agent brochures of Antarctica and view it on

Utube. Guided Reading on Captain Scott, front loading activity and synonym cloze.

Physical features of Antarctica: Weather and Landscape reading, Matching vocabulary to pictures and vocabulary to meanings.

• Small groups• Developing metalanguage• Building on their comprehension skills and

reading strategies.• Skimming and scanning • Visual support• Authentic texts

• Visual support• partner work• work samples• Peer sharing

Antarctica ProgramTeaching and Learning

ExperienceScaffolding / Strategies

Jigsaw Comprehension Readings on : Tourism, Scientific Research and Human Impact. Students will be required to write the positive effects, the problems caused and how the problems were overcome with their base group.

• Small group work• Skimming and scanning • Reading strategies• Sharing information

Guided reading: Books on Antarctic AnimalsAnimals in Antarctica Information gap activitiesMatrix –ComprehensionDescription of the animal that they have to guess what it is by looking at an Antarctic Animal flowchart

• Group work• Sharing information with peers• Communicative activities

Presentation: News report • Small groups• Developing power point based on their

knowledge of Antarctica• News report criteria

Building the field: Excursion to Powerhouse Museum and Imax

Matching Vocabulary

Matching Vocabulary

Jigsaw Comprehension

Antarctica Animal Matrix

Information Report

Information Report Criteria

Criteria for Marking

News Reporting – Final Presentation

Findings: Cycle 1 & 2 Learning was enhanced by use of hands on activities, experiments,

excursions, authentic texts, Youtube, videos and photos (message abundancy)

Sequencing of tasks which embedded talk, enabled all students to experience success. Students had everything they needed to achieve – criteria, language, concepts and skills – All carefully scaffolded.

Rich tasks engaged all students.

Students confidently used technical and metalanguage, developing academic language.

All students were engaged in substantive communication with opportunities to work in pairs and small groups. More opportunities for contingent scaffolding and for students to articulate their ideas.

ESL Bands – Terms 1 - 4

Terms

O.I

R/R

W

1 3 3 2

4 4 3 3

Terms

O.I

R/R

W

1 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

Terms

O.I

R/R

W

1 3 2 2

4 4 3 3

Terms

O.I

R/R

W

1 3 3 2

4 4 4 3

W.B.

Impact of program for refugee / ESL students

• All students participation in mainstream classroom

• Development of academic language

• Confident to have a go and take risks

• Confident in the classroom, not just in a withdrawal group

• Scaffolded up for success!

Reflection

• Importance of backward mapping from rich task

• Identifying essential knowledge, skills

• Quality rather than quantity

• Planned opportunities for talk

• Use of academic language

Personal reflections• Team teaching with a focus on moving students from

playground language to academic language has been inspiring for both teachers.

• Both have developed a deeper understanding of ESL pedagogy and its impact in the classroom.

• The importance of ESL support in the mainstream classroom.

• We know more about our ESL students – their strengths, therefore allowing us to determine where to proceed next with their learning.

Implications: So where to now?

• More co-operative planning of programs with ESL teachers.

• More opportunities to team teach with ESL staff and use their expertise.

• A greater emphasis on developing oral language including academic language.

• More explicit teaching of rich tasks in the classroom.

• Mentoring other grade teachers in Rich Tasks and ESL based activities to build

oral language.