MULTICULTURAL LITERACY STRATEGIES

Ashleigh Gorjup & Lauren SkibolaStage 1 coordinators

• What is Literacy?1

• Multicultural Australia2

• Our School Demographics3

• Target for Term 4 2013 (onwards)4

• Literacy Issues and Strategies for our Stage 1• Our Multicultural and Multilingual Classroom

Strategies5

• ESL students- Teaching Strategies- Literacy Strategies: Reading, Writing, Talking and Listening

6

Overview

What is Literacy?According to the NSW DEC Literacy K-12 Policy:

• 1.1.1 Literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate meaning through reading and writing, listening and speaking, viewing and representing.

• 1.1.2 Literacy skills need to continually expand and diversify because our rapidly changing social and economic environment requires competence in a range of new communication forms and media.

• 1.1.3 Literacy competence is central to achievement in all areas of learning as students progress through the early, middle and later years of schooling and into the workforce and personal life.

Multicultural Australia

In the 2006 Census, Australians reported more than 250 different ancestries, with many people claiming two ancestries. The census also recorded that almost 400 different languages were spoken in homes across Australia, with a significant decrease from 1996 in the number of Australians who spoke only English at home.In the most recent survey, it was found that a language other than English was spoken at home by more that 23 per cent of the population.

(The Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006; The Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012)

Our School Demographic: Auburn Public School

• One third of the Western Sydney population has migrated to Australia and half of the world’s nations are represented among its residents. In the Fairfield region alone, over 70 different languages are spoken, while Auburn is home to people from over 100 nations.

• Our local public school in Auburn school has an increasing student population.

• Our enrolments have increased from 487 in 2008, 513 in 2009 and 532 in 2010. In 2013, the school reached a population of 713.

• A large proportion of our new students are of Asian or Middle-Eastern origin, with a number of families with refugee status.

• Our student population now comprises 85% of children from a non-English speaking background.

Language background

non-English speaking background

English speaking background

Department of Education & Training

The Department of Education and Training (2010) define ESL students as learners from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) who are learning English as an additional language, as well as developing literacy skills in English.

These students need to simultaneously learn English, learn in English and learn about English in order to successfully participate in informal social interactions and in more formal academic contexts (Department of Education and Training, 2010)

ESL students have a diverse range of backgrounds and English language learning needs. The Department of Education and Training (2010) indicate that ESL students enter Australian schools with varying levels of prior education and knowledge of English.

The Stage 1 classes in our school comprise of students from various ESL contexts. Specific strategies for literacy instruction for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening must be employed and must cater to the specific learning needs of each ESL student.

Due to the diverse nature of students and languages within the school, the main Literacy issues face by students are: -Reading-Writing-Speaking-Listening

Literacy Issues at Auburn Public School

Target: Improved literacy outcomes for students with Language Backgrounds Other Than English

• In our school, there are students from a rich variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Therefore, when translated into our classroom settings, the diversity of languages are inevitable, as are the various literacy issues.

• Students with reading and other literacy difficulties are frequently unable to use strategies that will best enable them to achieve the goals of a set task.

• More capable peers usually develop strategies such as summarising, and monitoring, incidentally; however, for those with literacy difficulties, these strategies need to be explicitly taught.

Relationships with parentsOur school needs to encourage positive interaction between our students school and home life. We can do this by providing parents with children with literacy difficulties with relevant information on what can be realistically achieved, as well as what services are available to them in our school and the wider community.Due to a large population of students and their families speaking little or no English, the school needs to accommodate this by providing resources to the parents in their own language to enable effective communication between the school and the families.

(Whitehurst, G.J., Arnold, D.H., Epstein, J.N., Angell, A.L., Smith, M., & Fishel, J.E. ,1994).

Presentation of classroom instruction

• Teachers presentation style of content and instruction in the classroom significantly influences students' ability to learn.

• This knowledge can be used as a strategy, by using diverse instruction techniques in order to reach each student in the class.

Some key elements for effective teaching of ethnic and language minority students.

1. Teachers have a clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities.2. High expectations for the success of all students are communicated to students.3. Teachers are personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students' learning. 4. Teachers have developed a personal bond with their students and cease seeing students as the 'other'.5. Students are provided with an academically challenging curriculum that includes attention to the development of higher level cognitive skills..

7. Learning tasks are seen as meaningful by students.8. The curriculum is inclusive of the contributions and perspectives of the different ethnocultural groups that make up society, and the classroom. 9. Teachers explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students' sense of ethnocultural pride and identity. 10. Teachers are involved in political struggles outside of the classroom, aimed at achieving a more humane and equal society.

Zeichner, K (1993).

Speaking and Listening Collaboratively writing poems aids in learning the difference between “word families” and rhymes (McDougall, 1996).

- Teachers can scaffold a poem’s structure by starting with phrases and sentences they already know, such as class rules. As students understand this structure, they can invent their own phrases to make poems.

- Students can act out the poems or perform them with puppets to practice speaking. For those not yet confident in their oral skills, students can still be involved by using simple instruments, like rhythm sticks; this is a low-risk activity and still allows for auditory skill development.

Reading InstructionTypes of Reading Instruction:Shared reading- Hearing language while observing its corresponding phonological representationPractise English left-to-right, top-to-bottom directionality. Paired reading with a 'skilled reader' - Helps ESL student read more fluently and accurately.Books and tapes - Hear language while observing its corresponding phonological representation - Learn basic literacy practices like page-turning, tracking left-to-right, top-to-bottom.Making meaningful connections between words and illustrations

Types of TextsSchema theory holds that comprehending a text involves an interaction between the reader's background knowledge and the text itself. Choose texts that will match the cultural schemata and background knowledge of ESL students.Folk or fairy talesCharacters who are similar to the ESL student

(Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983).

Reading Instruction ESL students require instruction in basic vocabulary words and more sophisticated words. Total Physical Response (TPR): Singing and acting out songs, poems or readings. Narrow reading: Learners read about the same topic in a number of different texts. Read alouds: Read aloud one story to students three times a day for a week. (Drucker, 2009)

Reading and Writing• Use a range of different methods for teaching a new grammatical structure.

- Deductive Methods: Writing out grammatical concepts and rules and explaining them.- Inductive Methods: Students come up with the rule on their own after seeing sentences with the targeted grammatical structure. • Provide an extensive amount of practice, with a range of simple recognition-

type activities. Multiple choice questions allow students to simple identify the forms without having to produce their own sentences using the new grammatical concepts. Providing both correct and incorrect examples on flashcards and asking 'yes' and 'no' questions are also effective.

Scaffolding student writing

Scaffolding is provided by teachers that links the academically challenging and inclusive curriculum to the cultural resources that students bring to school.

Teaching students how to organise their thoughts and providing authentic audiences are strategies that help scaffold ESL students' writing efforts (Williams, 2008). According to Williams (2008), these strategies include: • Providing Time for Peer-to-Peer and Student-to-Teacher

Discussion. • Conducting thorough class discussions prior to writing.• Encouraging illustrations.• Providing and using graphic organisers.• Allowing students to write or dictate their stories in their

native language, then have their compositions translated into English.

• Provide ESL students with authentic audiences - writers circle, publishing students' work, writing letters.

ICT tools

• ICT can facilitate and support the integration of migrants, as they can contribute to the three main issues of intercultural integration; foreign language acquisition, first language usage and intercultural learning (Ebenhofer, 2007).

Examples:• LAMS• Edmodo• Graphic organisers such as bubbl.us

LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.

LAMS: Learning Activity Management System

READING & WRITING

READING

READING & WRITING

SPEAKING & LISTENING

SPEAKING & LISTENING

For more information: NSW Department of Education and Communities

Summary

• Define your challenges– Technological as well as personal

• Set realistic expectation– Mastery is not achieved overnight

• Keep your eye on the goal– Mentorship programs

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006). Census of Population and Housing: Media Releases and Fact Sheets (Catalogue No.2914.0.55.002). Canberra: Author. Carrell,P.,& Eisterhold,J.C. (1983). Schema theory and ESL reading pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 18 ,441-469. Department of Education and Training (2010). ENGLISH as a Second Language. Sydney: Darlinghurst Delpit, L. (1993). The politics of teaching literate discourse. In T. Perry & J.Fraser, Freedom’s plow: Teaching in the multicultural classroom. New York: Routledge. Drucker, M. J. (2009). What Reading Teachers Should Know about ESL Learners. The Reading Teacher, 57(1), pp.22-29 Ebenhofer, Marianne & Knierzinger Anton (2007) Multicultural Classroom: The Potential of ICT for Intercultural Integration of Children in Primary Schools. Paper presented at the meeting of the ICL Convention, Austria. McDougall, J. (1996). Teaching Literacy through Rhyme and Rhythm. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 24:2, pp. 56 – 58. New South Wales Department of Education and Communities (2012) Literacy K-12 Policy. Accessed On (6/10/13) at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/curriculum/schools/literacy/PD20050288.shtml Whitehurst, G.J., Arnold, D.H., Epstein, J.N., Angell, A.L., Smith, M., & Fishel, J.E. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in day-care and home for children from low-income families, Developmental Psychology, 30, 679-689. Williams, M. M. (2008). How to Scaffold ESL Students’ Writing: Strategies to Teach Written Composition and Extend English Language. Retrieved October 9, 2013, from http://margaretmwilliams.suite101.com/how-to-scaffold-esl-students-writing-a76534 Zeichner, K (1993). Educating Teachers for Cultural Diversity. MI: National center for Research on Teacher Learning.

Stage co-ordinators

Teacher Stage Contact informationSamantha Hodge & Jessica Stevenson

ES1 Samantha.Hodge@det.nsw.edu.auJessica.Stevenson@det.nsw.edu.au

Ashleigh Gorjup & Lauren Skibola

S1 Ashleigh.Gorjuo@det.nsw.edu.auLauren.Skibola@det.nsw.edu.au

James Mois & Kaitlin McDermot

S2 James.Mois@det.nsw.edu.auKaitlin.McDermot@det.nsw.edu.au

Claire Henderson & Peter Harris

S3 Claire.Henderson@det.nsw.edu.auPeter.Harris@det.nsw.edu.au