Communicative Communicative Approaches to Teaching Approaches to Teaching English Language ArtsEnglish Language Arts

Communicative Communicative Approaches to Teaching Approaches to Teaching English Language ArtsEnglish Language Arts

Parikrma SchoolsParikrma SchoolsFebruary 18-27, 2008February 18-27, 2008

Purposes of These Workshops

1. To draw on current research and best practices on working with language to support children’s development as readers, writers, listeners and speakers of English in school settings

2. To learn about current practices, interests, and concerns of Parikrma teachers and build on those in appropriate ways

Purposes of These Workshops

3. To work with a sequence of integrated and speaking, listening, writing and reading activities for language and literacy development.

4. To design other sequences that will be appropriate for the Parikrma schools context

5. To foster an ongoing exchange between a US elementary school and Parikrma schools.

My Background• 35 years as a researcher, scholar, and

professor in language and literacy• Four books in these areas• Extensive work with teachers and

schools at all grade levels in the US and internationally

• Ongoing work with a second grade classroom for ESL learners in a California school

Some Understandings We Share

What Parikrma teachers have written to me about the children they teach and their own goals and purposes as teachers.

1. Parikrma teachers understand the children’s background and

work to build on it.• Here almost all children are from less privileged homes with paucity

of even minimal necessities at times. They do not do very well initially in writing the English language, as they have no prior training and their mother tongue is usually a local language like, Telgue, Kannada, etc. (Geetha—Jayanagar Centre)

• Apart from academics, I focus on their personal development in a range of areas, especially their mental development. I liaise with the CDS staff to know the family background of each child and to understand their situation. I believe knowing the child’s background is important to helping them progress in all aspects. (Shoba KS)

• [To] practically understand the environment in which they are brought up helps us to comprehend the student’s psychology and teach him the culture is the one which never lets fail in the battle of life. (Sandhya—JC)

• I could interact with different background/characters of children and also explore my knowledge to the needy. (Christina--NLO)

2. They see their roles as helping to shape the whole child

• [I am] a friend, guide, facilitator and a mother for the children at Parikrma (Shanti--SC)

• I am very proud to say I am the foundation for the children. (Selvarani—SC)

• It is very easy to mould children along with teaching subject. (Kavitha—KS)

• I have emboldened students in various aspects. (Kavitha KS)

• I feel that children are like wet cement - whatever falls on them makes an impression. That’s why I am here to create an everlasting impression in the minds of the kids and enable them to have a better future. (Poornima—KS)

3. They build on children’s

talents and individual needs • I try and give individual attention to each of my

children and encourage them to build on the talents they possess. (Susan—JC)

• The talent of teacher is not in just blabbering what ever she had learnt in her school, but the talent of a teacher is in her flexibility of going to the level of a student. Think like him understand his psychology and build up a proper strategy to take the students understand the concept (Sandyha—JC)

• [In]the new method which has to be implemented to make the students understand concepts, the teacher understands the students completely and then helps to come out of their difficult conditions to be able to learn well. (Susan—JC)

4. They help children enjoy learning

• [I like to] help the children to learn the subjects with fun, drawing on Montessori training (Gladys—Nandini Lay Out)

• [I use] my own techniques. . . to draw children’s attention.& make things interesting through a disciplined way. (Leena--NLO)

5. They help children acquire basic skills as readers, writers,

speakers, listeners

• I want to train my children to learn well from the basics, i.e., pronunciation, reading, spelling, etc. I make use of phonics, comprehension, listening, speaking writing and reading skills. (Geetha--JC)

• I teach English to my children with the help of text books and grammar book provided to us by the school with a manual to use it. (Chuda—JC)

6. They engage children in learning concepts through

activities and creativity• I teach children Phonetics, story telling and conversation.

In life skill I teach them in areas of good habits, cleanliness, happiness, likes and dislikes etc. In my class I make it a point to teach every concept through activities, games and interesting pictures. Children grasp better and retain the concepts better if things are shown practically, touched by them and experienced by them. Since these children come from a rural background we should take more effort and care to teach them in an experiential way than the traditional method. Children should have hands on experience to grasp the concepts better. (Dhanumathi—KS)

• I need to be more creative on projects and activity oriented learning to make the student performance much better than what it is now. (Malathi—KS)

6. Active Learning (Continued)

• It is a class with more of fun, excitement and dancing where the kids enjoy each and every day. They feel it is very special for them because teaching in a concrete method than abstract helps children to reach the concepts more easily. I teach Mathematics, EVS and Recitation which help them for the mental growth, thinking skill, and pronunciations, learning rhyming words and basic understanding of the environment and their surroundings. (Anitha KS)

• When I started teaching, I became passionate about educating these children and I heartily felt how wonderful it is to teach them using various techniques, especially being more creative as that can enhance teaching more effectively. It not only helped me to teach the children but also how to think creatively. (Anitha-KS)

7. They love their role as teachers and the work they are

doing at the Parikrma

Foundation Schools • I enjoy teaching to these special children and feel very

worthy. (Jagadamba)• I am passionate about educating the Parikrma children

who come from a disadvantaged background. I am optimistic that these children will go on to achieve great success in their lives. (Shoba KS)

• I feel delighted when I see my little ones performing well in their exams and improve in all the aspects of academics and co-curricular activities because as a teacher this is the reward I get. (Anitha KS)

8. They want to continue to learn and grow as teachers, building

on their personal strengths, and draw on the trainings they have

received.• I have a positive attitude, I am confident, organized and

think systematically and I am able to adapt to new situations, help others, and I am compassionate. These are some of my strengths. I am keen about learning new things in my life and also I am passionate about teaching and upgrading my knowledge and skills. . .Here the teacher is not just a teacher, but also a self learner. (Poornima—KS)

• My strength is I like to learn anything new and upgrade myself and adapt to the situations and things around me. (Danumathi-KS)

• After joining to Parikrma I learnt a lot of things and became more bold and brave. (Nandini--NLO)

8. Teacher’s Learning (Continued)

• I am also grateful for the school and the opportunities given to me to explore and expand to new horizons. To be and become and learn and develop our talents. (Kavitha—KS)

• I am aware of the training program provided here for the teachers which will enhance their confidence. Also, the training helps to present ourselves with effective and qualitative teaching and even the slow learners can be brought up. This in-service training is very helpful because we can learn both the theory and the practical side of it. (Poormina—KS)

• The training by Indira Swaminathan was basically about how to make cost effective teaching aids from recycled things. Eurythmics was another training to quote where the children are taught the concepts in a musical way. The training by one Mrs.Kusumika was all about story telling. (Dhanumathi--Koramangala School)

9. They have many wishes and concerns about their own English and that of their

students• I feel nervous to speak in English sometimes, and I

have an inferiority complex that my English may not be as good as others. But I want to overcome this, and I am looking forward to this training program in this respect. (Geetha--JC)

• I wonder at how people speak English without committing any grammar mistakes with good pronunciation and accent. I take this opportunity as an advantage of [Eleanor (Ellie)] being with me and helping me in English. (Leelavathi--NLO)

• I have always had a fascination towards English language. I am looking forward to join you and get a more detailed insight about the language. (Anupama--SC)

9. English (Continued)• My children’s spoken English is good because

they are use to International volunteers. Some times both of us do some error with grammar which needs to be improved. First language influence is always [there] while speaking English. Many a times I correct them while they speak. Many a times I have been corrected by others who are good in English at Parikrma. I [am] never ashamed because I need to correct my self learn and grow. (Chudra--JC)

What I won’t do in these workshops

• I won’t correct your English• I won’t be able to teach you much

about English grammar in this time (although I’ll be happy to answer your questions and give explanations)

• I won’t change your pronunciation

What I’ll try to doI’ll give you some teaching strategies and

activities for heightening your own and your children’s language awareness and paying attention to the forms and pronunciations that are “correct” or typical in particular contexts

I hope to help you and the children to become good observers of language

Some Underlying Principles of the Work I Do

• All learners bring to school settings their competence as language users for communication in familiar contexts

• That competence provides a bridge to all new learning—to the speaking/listening and reading/writing they’ll do in school settings

• Effective teaching/learning practices build on

existing communicative competence

Implications for work with children

• Draw on learners’ prior knowledge and communicative practices, building a connection between home and school, between social language competence in familiar settings to that required in school settings for new learning

• Connect first language experiences with those of the second language being learned, drawing on existing first language communicative and discourse competence

• Connect spoken and written language, drawing on oral competence

• Provide opportunities to use writing as a genuine communicative act, for authentic purposes to real audiences

Communicative Language Activities

• We’ll work with specific activities that connect children’s social language with school language, their uses of a first language with English as a second language, their spoken language with writing and reading

• These are based on activities we’ve been using with second grade children at the Marshall School in

California

Parikrma Schools

• Children from poor circumstances, learning English as a second language

• Expectations for teachers– Teach children English, reading and writing in

English, academic subjects in English– Support children in social adjustment to

school– Prepare children to pass tests– Use interactive, engaging activities to help

children learn

Marshall School Children of immigrants, Mexican and

Vietnamese; Mexican parents are often illiterate and may be in the US illegally

Expectations for teachers from two competing directions– Focus on standards and testing that

encourages test-focused teaching– Rich tradition of theory and practice that

supports engaged, interactive learning

What might be relevant from Marshall School

Context• Children are from immigrant

families with little experience of schooling

• Children are learning both social English and academic English at the same time

• Children need personal/social supports as well as academic ones

Second Grade Children, Marshall School

Proposed Work

• I visit your classes, meet the children, introduce the animal exchange with Marshall school, observe a little of the work your children are doing

• I share a specific activity sequence, taking into account what I’m learning in your classrooms

• We talk about why these activities are useful for supporting children’s learning about language

• We see some examples of the work Marshall School children have done, posted on the project website

• We discuss how they might work in Parikrma schools context

• You try a version of these activities• We discuss outcomes, look at Parikrma children’s work• You create your own sequences to fit your context• You post work to the project website to share with

Marshall School children and teachers.

Project Website

Activity Sequence 1

• Using animal ambassador to show the life of a classroom, make children’s knowledge of school activities, school ways explicit. School genre: process description

• Choosing an animal mascot/ambassador: brainstorming, tallying, questions and answers, writing, and reading, listening and transcribing with digital voice recorder. School genre: description

• Story writing (spoken/written language, recording/transcribing using digital voice recorder—) School genre: narrative.

• Ongoing activity--using an animal friend to bridge home and school. School genre: report

Activity sequence 2—

• Story reading/children’s literature (pre-writing, prediction, share pairs and reciprocal teaching). Using web resources for teachers.

• Story writing/revision idea generators, organizers—resources on website . School genre: narrative.

Activity 3• Letter writing to Marshall School

children. What children want to tell MS children about themselves, what they want to know. Genre: letter

• Long term follow-up exchanges

Creating an Ongoing Exchange

• Marshall-Parikrma Schools Website on WikiSpaces

What Else Should I know as We Begin Our

Work?

Introductory Activity—What Children Do with LanguageBrainstorm in groups, share lists, look at functions and how they’re carried out in

school settings

At Home At School

Ask for food Ask to have a turn