CoL 2020: Evaluation Of The Intervention/ My Changes To Practice

Changes to teaching practice over the last two years have seen significant shifts in my student's oral language acquisition, extremely pleasing progress in reading and surprisingly huge shifts in my student writing data (surprising because I had intended to gain shifts in reading). All within the craziness of teaching and learning with the challenges of Covid-19.

What did I do differently?

• Two-week high-interest topics exposing the students to as much rich vocabulary within contexts that were outside of their day to day worlds or connected to wonderings about everyday phenomena that they didn't have the vocabulary to explain. Before this, we would teach whole school topics for the whole term. By making this change I saw the urgency in exposing students to as many different contexts as possible but still at a deep level. This also meant giving students hands-on engaging activities that they could connect new vocabulary to, and prior experiences and knowledge that they can build onto as they move through their schooling. Example Of Two Week Unit

• Shifted my two-week high-interest topics to a digital platform. For this, I had to be mindful that my young students were mainly learning independently without parent help. I videoed me taking through hands-on activities, using resources they may have at home and explaining, using, reusing and recycling rich vocabulary. Video evidence showed students doing the activities and using the vocabulary at home which was exciting. I kept this going via our class site after lockdown for those students who still had not returned to school and to follow the Manaiakalani Pedagogy of learning being ubiquitous Learning At Home

• Valued the use of students first language within the classroom. This allowed students to make connections to English through their heritage language. I created opportunities for students to learn in their first languages and share their language with others. I utilised the opportunity for families to help their children with their learning at home during lockdown by shifting to more culturally responsive teaching practices. I became aware that I needed to be cognitive about this as it was easy to slip into old habits, especially when faced with a different way of teaching and learning e.g. totally online teaching. A Shift To More Culturally Responsive Teaching

The Effects Of My Changed Practice/Intervention

Reading

Whole-Class Reading Graph Tracking Students From 0-120 Weeks At School

Target Student Reading Graphs For 0-120 weeks at school

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3


Student 4

Whole-Class Reading OTJ Data 

This data shows that those students that returned to school after lockdown made accelerated progress of expected progress. This surprised me as usually after time off school e.g. summer holidays their reading level drops back. Also, many of my students' families were going through difficult situations due to lockdown/covid and from my own experience, difficult situations at home can influence students learning at school. 

The Pie Graph shows that many of my students are still working below the expected level for their age but some of these students are just one colour wheel level of reaching the expected level. I, therefore, believe that with the continuation of this intervention they would quickly reach where they should be. 

Writing

EAsstle Results Term and Term 4 For Target Students

Results show where my target students sit against National Norm from Week 3 Term 4 EAsttle writing sample. Since this sample was taken my students started to make even greater progress, as shown on the below pie graphs.

Whole-Class Writing OTJ Data 

Their writing shows that they are now able to sequence their ideas. They have the vocabulary to express themselves and their sentence structures are becoming much more complete. Having engaging experiences to write about not only motivated them but they also had so much to share and the language to use that the writing became so much easier. They went from students who would say one or two-word utterances who found it difficult to say a sentence let alone write it....to students producing writing like the piece above. 

Next Step:

My next step is to support my team to implement the intervention across the Junior school. I know implementing change across a team can be challenging, especially gaining buy-in however I hope this data shows that a rich oral language acquisition programme makes a difference to student learning and has the capability to accelerate student progress. 

Bilingual Approaches Open Linguistic Spaces

Below is an article published in the Education Gazette featuring Room 2's teaching and learning through a bilingual approach in an open linguistic space.

Incorporating the PELP programme into my everyday teaching practice is something I have been exploring as part of my CoL Inquiry into developing an intensive oral language acquisition programme to raise student achievement in literacy. The below whānau and student voice describes the effectiveness of the PELP programme for my learners.

Bilingual Approaches Open Linguistic Spaces

Tamaki Primary School whānau kōrero

Tamariki Q&A

Q: What do you like the most about reading stories in your first language?

A: Because it is my language. I have to speak more so I can be a Tongan person and know people that have passed away. It makes me happy to read books. It is hard to think about the story if you get stuck on it in English. Toko, 7

A: They make me smart. The books have stories and pictures, some are easy and some are hard. Virginia, 7

Q: What do you like the most about speaking your own language at school?

A: You get to teach people different languages and you get to see if anyone else knows your language. I don’t really know much about Niuean and I get to learn about it. Saryah, 6

A: I can teach the teachers how to speak in Tongan. I can speak in Tongan to my friends. Epalahame, 7

Whānau Q&A

Q: Has the Pasifika Early Literacy Project (PELP) helped your child?

A: YES, it has helped my child learn more about our language and culture and it has encouraged our family to speak more of our language at home.

Q: What do you like the most about the dual-language books?

A: The fact that the books have both English and Tongan versions; that way our children can understand what they are reading about and make connections to their culture.

Q: What difference does it make for you (and your child) that they can do some classroom learning in their own language?

A: It makes a huge difference, especially in today’s world. My children are encouraged in the classroom to use their language and it’s amazing for me as a mother, to hear them speak and understand. My child has also taken on the role of sharing and helping other students and teachers to speak our language and he shows great pride in sharing our Lea-fakatonga.

Q: Why do you think this is important?

A: It is significant that my children learn our Lea-fakatonga and to do that in the classroom is amazing. This is a part of their identity as a person and I believe that all our tamariki need to have access to learn their language and about their culture in order for our culture to thrive. This will also teach them how sacred all cultures are no matter the differences and beliefs; we are fortunate to live in Aotearoa as a country that encourages diversity. Jade Fonua

Changes To My Teaching Practice During Lockdown

Although I feel I effectively created online lessons that mirrored the intensive oral language programme I was delivering at school, Self-analysis of my teaching practice showed how easy it was to revert back to old teaching habits during difficult and busy times like during the last lockdown. I noticed how I reverting to how I used to teach before I gained a greater understanding of cultural responsiveness and the power of placing immense value on students heritage language and culture.

Looking back at my slides from the previous lockdown I observed

What Worked Well

I was using the learning I had gained from the intensive oral language programme to created online, digital versions of the types of oral language lessons I would have previously taught in class.

 

What Was Lacking in My Teaching Practice

A flip back to non-culturally responsive teaching was evident in the content I was delivering online. I wasn't harnessing the opportunities for students to learn at home in their first language with whānau. I wasn't providing them with the resources to do this or making the content culturally responsive.

The 2nd Lockdown

Going into Lockdown a second time has given me the opportunity to do things differently. I created learning activities that can be completed in the student's heritage language and that provide opportunities for whānau to share stories and culture. My hope is that having the reading resources in the student's heritage languages allows parents to help them with their learning during this time and allow for students to make connections between the languages they speak at home and English. It is my hypothesis that this will help their language acquisition in both their first language and English.  

Inquiring Into Specific Aspects Of My Current Teaching Practice

Main Learning About My Teaching and My Next Steps

To be reflective is uncomfortable. I'm a firm believer in those aspects of your teaching that you become defensive about are probably the aspects that most need changing.

I have observed three aspects relating to my teaching where that uncomfortable feeling rose from my gut. Indicating an area that I need to reflect on. Below is a description of those moments and what it has meant to me in regards to areas I can make changes to my practices.

Situation 1

During an observation of behaviours of students within my class, my DP observed two students rushing through their writing. We had a great reflective discussion regarding the possible expectations I have of these students. 

Some questions I reflected on:

Do I have lower expectations of these boys who find it difficult to stay focused and complete tasks to the same level as other students? Thinking back to lockdown these were the boys who refused to do online learning when their parents asked them too. What is causing this divergence? If I up my expectation of these students will they persevere more with their learning?  One of these boys is a fidgeter and struggles writing his letters in sequence. Does observing these tendencies lower my expectation of writing output? What would happen if I lifted the bar? How can I motivate them to write more, for longer periods? How can I use self-directed learning and student agency to accelerate progress with these students?

Situation 2

Every now and then we come across a difficult situation that takes us by surprise and makes us evaluate how we see the world. My second reflection on my teaching practice is not actually directly related to my teaching. It was a cultural misunderstanding by me that made me reflect on the value of Whanaungatanga and my understanding of what this means. 

My instant reaction to a conflicting situation that arose was to stand my ground in what I believed in, but I was wrong to do this. I needed instead to look at how others see the situation to truly learn from the experience. The situation that arose (without going into details) could easily put down to miscommunication, however, I believe the real problem was my own lack of knowledge of Māori culture, values, and the Tikanga of Whanaungatanga. I am on a personal journey to grow my understanding of Te Ao Māori and this highlighted important new learning for me.

The situation made me reflect on how I have been brought up. I have grown up in an English family who are insular in our ways. We are not part of a large community, we don't go to church or have large family gatherings, I didn't play team sports and although I will do anything to help I often need to be told what to do. Whanaungatanga is something I am having to learn.

How much do my Pakeha beliefs and values come into my daily teaching practice that I am not even aware of? Of course, they are going to, but I truly believe I need to acknowledge my culture and put it to one-side and embrace Māori and Pasifika culture, to teach Māori as Māori and Pasifika as Pasifika in culturally responsive ways. I'm sure I will not be successful all the time and I will make cultural mistakes (as indicated above) but if we are putting students in the centre of teaching and learning, then expecting them to assimilate to Pakeha culture is not the way, it is putting us in the centre instead.

Situation 3

The third learning about my teaching is how easy it is to revert back to the comfortable, the well-established ways of teaching. Looking at my learning site during lockdown is an example of this...

There were great things I was doing on my site to engage learners, make learning accessible for those students that were working independently without adult help and continuing with ways to accelerate language acquisition through our work with Dr Jannie Van Hees. However, the one thing that slipped away was culturally responsive teaching. This tells me that that I have a long way still to go until culturally responsive teaching practice is a natural way of teaching and a part of all that I do. When the hugeness of lockdown happened and we had to change how we taught and students learned in many ways. That is the one thing that dropped off. This tells me that there is so much more work, learning, changes to my everyday practice that I need to make to ensure culturally responsive teaching is at the forefront of my practice.

Summary

• High expectations for all students. Student agency and self-directed learning to engage, motivate and encourage perseverance amongst the boys in my class.
• Acknowledgement of my own culture and putting my culture perspectives aside to truly learn about and experience Te Ao Māori and increase my cultural responsiveness.
• Keep the changes I am making to my practice in terms of PELP and culturally responsive practice at the forefront, even when times are challenging and you feel yourself reverting back to past ways of teaching.

How PELP Changed My Practice

What Is Language?

Language is the words or symbols we use to communicate meaning, it is arbitrary, and it can convey information about things that are not present in the current place or time. (Northbrook, 2020)

However, it is far more than a tool to communicate meaning and ideas. It is deeper than that. It is fundamental to what it means to be human. Not only does language learning shape meaning and capability, but it is an integral part of culture and identity. Language and culture are intertwined. With the loss of language, we see the loss of culture and cultural identity. (MOE, 2016)

How taking part in PELP has changed my understanding of literacy acquisition.

PELP has made me aware that building on a child's heritage language or languages helps strengthen the acquisition of English as a second language and I have seen first hand the power of drawing on a child's cultural capital to support literacy learning.

I have known that learning is about making connections, connecting new knowledge and skills to our prior experiences and beliefs, however until recently I hadn't thought about the part language plays in this...if language shapes meaning and capability, then surely making space in the classroom for children to use their heritage language to make connections and build understandings makes sense.  

For me, PELP helped me understand the 'why', it showed me the 'how', it supported me in changing my practice to be a better teacher and it opened up possibilities. It quite frankly has totally changed a part of how I teach and my pedagogical beliefs. 

I came to Tamaki Primary from a high decile, predominately Pakeha school. Myself having grown up in England for half my life and then teaching in a school that was reflective of my own culture I knew very little of the Pasifika cultures represented within my new school. Although I jumped at the chance to take part in PELP I was completely outside of my comfort zone attending the first workshop. Fear of what you don't know is always scary, which is crazy as we all know that that is usually an indicator opportunity for learning. I can remember clear as day the thought "How can I teach using dual language books when I don't know the language myself?" 

From what I know now - I don't need to, I have a have half a class of Tongan speakers who are more than willing to be the experts... I just need to value their language and culture and create space to explore literacy in their language and allow them the opportunities to make connections between Tongan and English. 

So what has PELP taught me?

• Opening up opportunities for the students to be the experts, to bring all their knowledge, their culture and language to the table and to be able to connect this to their new learnings.
• Value bilingual and multilingualism and foster it within our classroom. Know that it is easier to acquire a second language when one is strong in their first language.
• Value the cultural capital that students bring to school. Use this to help build literacy acquisition.
• Try speaking in Pasifika languages. Students love it when you attempt to speak their language. This in itself is valuing their identity.
• To use the dual language books as you would any other reader, and utilize the audios online. Think of follow up activities that may help students connect their culture and language with English.
• Create opportunities to use Pasifika languages and cultures across the curriculum e.g. Count in Samoan, use the Cook Island Maori colours in art.
• The importance of listening to families and understanding the students within their family and home context. 

What am seeing as a result of my change of practice?

• The students going from not associating the languages they speak at home with the school context and not speaking them within the classroom, to students now using their heritage language across the curriculum.
• Students competing to use their language when we are doing counting or playing games e.g. let's count in Tongan!...no Samoan!,
• Students giving the meaning of Samoan words or telling me what an English word or phrase means in Tongan. They are verbally translating constantly.
• They naturally speak to each other in their own languages in the social context of the classroom.
• They are fiercely proud of their culture. 
• Massive confidence and overall happiness of students and a sense of belonging.
• They use the illustrations in the books to discuss the story and make connections to their own experiences. 
• Families are realising the importance of building using heratage language and that it can help their children to acquire English as a second language. 
• A spark of interest in students that don't speak in their heritage language at home. They have also become aware that they do not know their heritage language from seeing their peers speaking in their language at school.

What are my next steps?

• Increase my knowledge of Pasifika cultures, as this has highlighted how little I know.
• Increase opportunities for families to come in to share their culture with the class. 
• Create more ways to be culturally responsive in my teaching practice.

PELP is such an effective programme. I encourage all teachers to run with this opportunity. I have been amazed how easy it actually is to make these changes to your practice and even more amazed at the incredible effects it has on the students. 

Push past the fear of not being an expert and make those first few steps... and just see what happens!

Here is a link to my first few reading lessons using the dual language books 

Retelling The Story In My First Language 

CoL: Evaluation Of My Intervention After The First Year

This Evaluation looks at the different parts of our inquiry into creating a culturally responsive intensive oral language programme across the Junior School. It reflects on the three hypotheses developed at the beginning of this inquiry. 

Utilising the student's strengths in their first language, working in bilingual and multilingual ways, creating Talanoa, and working in partnership with families will help build students English language and literacy.

Developing oral language through short high-interest topics and real-life experiences, with a focus on intensive oral language acquisition, will create an environment of language in abundance.

A collaborative inquiry across the junior school (Years 1-3) will grow professional capital across the school. The shared inquiry will allow all students across the junior school to benefit from the effectiveness of changed practice and allow teachers to learn from and with each other. It will hopefully also enable an effective changed practice to become sustainable.

Student Voice

Student voice shows that there has been a shift in students feeling comfortable using their first language at school and that the target students see their heritage language as a way to communicate effectively with their peers and family and value themselves as experts when it comes to teaching their teachers their first language. Whereas previously the target students said that they just spoke their first language at home and with friends. They also see changes in my teaching practice such as collaborative learning opportunities, turn taking when talking and using language acquisition activities as ways in which they learn best.

Comparison of student voice survey Term 1-4 

Pasifika Early Intervention Programme (PELP)

After one Term of the Pasifika Early Literacy Programme (PELP) our Target Students made significant progress in the number of words spoken during the PELP oral language assessment, with the exception of Student 3 who already had a higher English oral language level than the other students. Student 4 didn't speak their heritage language at home which accounts for there low level of heritage language pre and post intervention.

This data shows the increase of students confidence speaking their first language at school alongside the increased acquisition of English within that one term.

The above graph shows the average amount of words spoken during the Pasifika Early Literacy Programme language test pre PELP intervention and post intervention (one school term).

The graph indicates that on average Junior students increased their oral language after one term of PELP. During this time we changed our teaching practice to incorporate students first language into our teaching programmes, encouraged students to use their first language, used dual language books in class and at home, and connected with families about the importance of students using and learning their first language.

The graph also shows that those students who were also in the Target Group, participating in small group oral language acquisition activities  (Dr Jannie Van Hees) went from having a below average oral language level below level to an above average level. These students participated in all Dr Van Hees modelling sessions and classroom sessions lead by the teachers exploring hands on oral language activities, insisting on use of new oral language, picture talk and shared writing sessions using new vocabulary. This shift is far greater than those students not participating in the programme.

It is therefore my conclusion that although we would probably see shift in students oral language through the use of PELP alone we see a far greater shift when we combine this programme with the teaching strategies that make up the Oral Language Intervention Programme designed by Dr Jannie Van Hees.

Combilist Data

The Combilist was used to measure language development factors of all students within my class.
Factors important in language development are rated below using the scale Yes/Sometimes/No.

C1-2 indicates willingness to communicate
C3-4 indicates communication with teacher/adults
C5-9 indicates participation in discourse
C10-13 indicates contribution to the discussion or discourse
C14-16 indicates benefits from feedback

Areas that target students made the most gains where: 

C2 Keen to express meaningfully and well.

C4 Expresses responses as clearly as he/she can.

C5 Takes the opportunity to speak.

C8 Gives elaborate responses to open-ended questions from the teacher/adult

C9 Reacts and responds spontaneously and on own initiative to teacher.

C12 Thinks before he/she speaks so as to express at a higher cognitive level.

C14 Continues his/her meaning and intentions, and picks up and uses teacher examples and models later.

Areas for continued development are:

C10 Sustains expression of his/her meaning, ideas and intentions.

C15 Meanings and ideas logically developed and expressed.

The rest of the class still struggle with giving elaborate responses and thinking before they speak to express at a higher cognitive level. The gains the target group made in this areas I feel is reflective of my change in practice, pushing students to use more words, new vocabulary, modelling responses and to think before they speak. The graphs show that those students that were 'No' in many categories all shifted to 'Sometimes'. This was not the case for many of the other students within the class that made comparatively little gain in these areas.

These results show that Dr Jannie Van Hees programme does have a substantial impact on oral language acquisition and using Dr Van Hees teaching strategies across the Junior school would benefit all students.

Transference Into Reading

The below graphs show the little progress students made within their first year at school (40 weeks). The graph also shows the progress that was made during the last 20 weeks of which these interventions took place. Although three of the students are working well below the expected level, all have made progress. However, it is hard to say whether this progress would have been made due to changed oral language programme or whether it is due to the normal classroom reading programme.  

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Collaborative Inquiry Into Changed Practice Across The Junior School

The collaborative nature of this inquiry is harder to evaluate however a survey completed by the Junior teachers showed that they all had a clear understanding of the 'why' behind the change in practice and held a shared vision. As a team, we have undertaken a vast amount of PLD this year with DR Jannie Van Hees, the Pasifika Early Literacy Programme and ENGAGE, and shared our new learning with the rest of the school Staff meeting slide deck. 

We soon realised that creating changed practice across the Junior school would take longer than anticipated and extended the length of the inquiry from 1 year to 2 years, dedicating the first year to professional development and exploring changes in teaching practice. Teachers were at differing stages of uptake of this new learning due to two teachers being beginning teachers and experiencing all the new learning that comes with teaching your first class. What was important to me was the openness all teachers had to the PLD and that all teachers tried some of the teaching strategies learned.

We began collecting data on all junior students but then realised that it would be more significant to focus on a target group that would participate in all small group intensive oral language activities  (Dr Van Hees), PELP and ENGAGE taught by me. Next year as we all implement the new learning we will take data across the Junior School.

During the second year,  the aim is for all Junior teachers to fully implement the changes to practice, creating a Junior curriculum that focuses on a culturally responsive intensive oral language acquisition programme.

The Introduction Of ENGAGE

One of the factors that became apparent throughout the inquiry was the impact students low levels of regulation had on students ability to uptake new oral language. 

ENGAGE seemed to be the missing piece and when offered the opportunity to participate in the programme starting Term 4 we as a team jumped at the chance. 

It is hoped that through the games based programme students will develop self-regulation skills that will help them to uptake new learning. 

Data will be used from this programme to support our inquiry moving into its second year. 

CoL- Sharing Our Changes of Practice

COL - Teaching Chunks Of Words

Articles, determiners and quantifies precede and modify nouns and pronouns replace nouns.  These are often used incorrectly or omitted in my Student's oral language which of course is then reflected in their writing.

What have I learned from the Pacific Early Literacy Project (PELP) and My Work With Dr Jannie Van Hees regarding the use of structural words?

• Instead of teaching bilingual learners individual words, teach words in meaningful chunks by teaching the words within the other words surrounding it. Bilingual students may understand lexical words but don't know the structural words that go with them such as pronouns and articles. Therefore, build these structural words into oracy programmes. Instead of using nouns in mind maps and think pair share activities build both the nouns and the articles that proceed them. Display the words within meaningful chunks for students to see and revisit.
• Insisting students use correct sentences through listening, thinking about what they are going to say, copying and repeating is a way of practising using the structural words surrounding new vocabulary e.g. say and do- "I am placing the tuatara on top of the log." "I am tieing an apron around his waist." 

What am I doing differently in my practice?

• I'm insisting on the correct use of pronouns and articles, I am doing this through modelling and gifting correct use and I give them multiple opportunities to practice. This can be done through hands-on 'say and do' activities like exploring floating and sinking I am picking up the stick and placing it on top of the water."  or "These objects float and those objects sink.
• Using mind maps that include the pronouns and articles that go with nouns.

How is it going?

It sure isn't easy for the students to use these words and this can seem laborious, but students amaze me with their perseverance working hard at correct speech. We talk a lot about how talking and listening are helping our brains grow.  One thing that I have noticed is the children finding it difficult to calm their bodies and minds down so that they are able to listen to others talking including me modelling the correct speech.  

What am I noticing?

The four students I'm tracking are all using correct sentence structure after repeating these correct structures a few times. They are using words such as they, that, these more often and when asked to think about what they are going to say are able to use a greater amount of words. However, they still all revert to short word-groups or one or two-word responses when they are talking naturally. I feel that significant changes to their everyday speech patterns may take time and that the hard work students are putting into their speech in the above learning situations will eventually transfer into their day to day speech. The challenge of students gaining the self-regulation needed to calm themselves down enough to listen during oral language work is something I need to look into further as I feel that this is a barrier at the moment.

Teaching chunks of words PELP

Articles and pronouns are used to describe nouns and have a variety of formats. Correct use is important in writing.  Articles and pronouns are often used incorrectly or amitted in our student's oral language which of course is then reflected in their writing.

What have I learned from the Pacific Early Literacy Project and My Work With Dr Jannie Van Hees regarding the use of structural words?

• Instead of teaching bilingual learners individual words, teach words in meaningful chunks by teaching the words within the other words surrounding it. Bilingual students may understand lexical words but don't know the structural words that go with them such as pronouns and articles. Therefore, build these structural words into oracy programmes. Instead of using nouns in mind maps and think pair share activities build both the nouns and the articles that proceed them. Display the words within meaningful chunks for students to see and revisit.
• Insisting students use correct sentences through listening, thinking about what they are going to say, copying and repeating is a way of practising using the structural words surrounding new vocabulary e.g. say and do- "I am placing the tuatara on top of the log." "I am tieing the apron around his waist." 

What am I doing differently in my practice?

• I'm insisting on the correct use of pronouns and articles, I am doing this through modelling and gifting correct use and I give them multiple opportunities to practice. This can be done through hands-on 'say and do' activities like exploring floating and sinking I am picking up the stick and placing it on top of the water."  or "These objects float and these objects sink.
• Using mind maps that include the pronouns and articles that go with nouns.

How is it going?

It sure isn't easy for the students to use these words and this can seem laborious, but students amaze me with their perseverance working hard at correct speech. We talk a lot about how talking and listening are helping our brains grow.  One thing that I have noticed is the children finding it difficult to calm their bodies and minds down so that they are able to listen to others talking including me modelling the correct speech.  

What am I noticing?

The four students I'm tracking are all using correct sentence structure after repeating these correct structures a few times. They are using words such as they, that, these more often and when asked to think about what they are going to say are able to use a greater amount of words. However, they still all revert to short word-groups or one or two-word responses when they are talking naturally. I feel that significant changes to their everyday speech patterns may take time and that the hard work students are putting into their speech in the above learning situations will transfer into their day to day speech. 

PELP - Retelling the story in my first language

The book 'Locked Out' was a guided reading book the students had been working with previous to this lesson. The students were very familiar with the story. As this book was one of the titles available as dual language copies I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a play and explore using the dual language books with my students. The group of students I was working with were Tongan Samoan and Maori.

Day 1- The students were shown the Samoan, Tongan and English books and were asked what do you notice about the books. Is there anything different about them? Is there anything the same?
Students explored the books and after I read the title of each book to them they discovered that they were in different languages.
Students were each given a book in their first language and asked in small groups to retell (talk about what happens in the book) the story in language using the pictures.

Each group naturally started talking in their first language with parts of their dialogue in English the English parts being well-known phrases from knowing the English text. The older students naturally took the lead within the group (I teach a Year 1-3 class).

Day 2- We listened to the audio in Tongan and stopped it every now and then to talk about the story. The students told me what some of the words and phrases meant and I repeated them.

This was a beautiful session. All the students were engaged in listening to the text and were excited to be my teacher and correct my pronunciation. 

Day 3- The students listened/read along to the audio version of the story accessed through our class site as an independent reading activity. Then as a follow-up activity, they were given a sequence of pictures, and text, from the book that they had to put together and sequence.

Even though the students couldn't read the text in their first language they were looking carefully at the print to match it to the picture. The discussions they had around the retelling and sequencing of the story was brilliant and most of it done in their first language. They worked in groups with students with the same first language. I added that it was a competition to see who could get it correct which took it to another level of excitement.

Day 4- This book is now going home along with a set of pictures and matching text and a note to parents with ideas on how to use the book at home.

I'm excited to hear feedback from the parents.
My Maori students decided it wasn't fair that there was no book in Te Reo so connected with some of our older students to write their own Te Reo version using explain everything.

Getting Started With PELP

Excited to get started working multilingually with our students.
This week's reading site for our learners to explore during reading independent activities or at home with Whānau.
Our site will be able to be shared with families at our fono this week.