elizabeth coelho, november 2005: literacy and numeracy secretariat, ontario ministry of education...

Elizabeth Coelho, November 2005: Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Ontario Ministry of Education

Sharing Space with English and French

How to Create aMultilingual School Environment


Sharing Space with English and French

The World in our ClassroomsWhy Support Community

Languages?Making Space for

Community Languages


The World in Our Classrooms: immigration

Canada has the largest per capita intake of newcomers of any country in the world

Ontario receives most newcomers to Canada

The federal government plans to increase immigration by 30-40% in order to meet Canada’s economic and employment needs.

Toronto Star, September 24, 2005

Ottawa to throw open doors to immigrants

Canada to welcome 100,000 more immigrants each year

Sault Ste. Marie is ready to welcome 6,000 new immigrants

Globe and Mail, October 31, 2005

Canada opens door for 700,000

Ottawa to unveil revamped immigration rules to cut backlogs

Volpe: "We are producing more jobs than the labour market has workers

for… We're desperate for immigration."

The five-year plan announced this fall includes:• An increase of up to 100,000 additional newcomers each year• An annual target of 300,000 by 2010• Incentives to encourage more newcomers to settle in smaller

towns and communities across Canada


The World in our Classrooms: linguistic diversity in OntarioOntario has always been

multilingual20% of the children in Ontario’s

English-language elementary schools have a first language other than English (EQAO, 2005)

Some of these students were born in Canada, into immigrant, francophone and Aboriginal communities, while others have arrived as newcomers from other countries


The World in our Classrooms: languages in Ontario

English and French have special status as official languages and languages of instruction

Ontario’s linguistic heritage also includes several Aboriginal languages, many African, Asian, and European languages, and some varieties of English such as Jamaican Creole.

These languages have a role to play in schooling, alongside English and French.


The World in our Classrooms: unrealized potential

In most multilingual schools only the student population is multilingual: after the students have gone home there is little evidence of the many linguistic communities they come from.

It is hard to argue that we are teaching the whole child when school policy dictates that students leave their language and culture at the schoolhouse door.

Jim Cummins, 2005: p. 38


The potential of multilingual schools

Multilingual schools offer exciting opportunities to draw on the linguistic resources of the community, even if few of the teachers speak any of the community languages.

All our classrooms are actually or potentially multilingual and the sooner they are all actually so, the better. All our children need the cognitive and cultural enrichment that multilingualism endows and so do all teachers.Nora McWilliam, 1998


Why Support Community Languages? The most appropriate medium for

instruction An essential means of communication

for families and communities A source of cultural identity A foundation for learning English A tool for thinking and learning An intellectual asset to the individual An economic asset to the nation A positive image of language learning

for all students


Making Space for Community LanguagesRaising the profile of community

languages in the school environmentUsing students’ languages in the

classroomUsing community languages to

connect with parents


Raising the profile of community languages in the school environment

Hire staff with proficiency in a community language

Provide multilingual library resources

Create multilingual signs, notices, and announcements

With permission from the Peel District School Board

With permission from the Toronto District School Board



Encourage students to use their own languages when it is natural and appropriate to do so

Involve students as a resource: ambassadors, tutors, website support; Community Service and Co-operative Education



Involve parents in creating and selecting materials in community languages

Include community languages in special events

Create display material that communicates positive attitudes toward linguistic diversity

Languages for Peace


Mapping Students’ Roots/Routes



Raising the profile … by connecting with International/Heritage LanguagesPromote the Heritage Languages

program to all students and parentsExpand the menu of language

coursesVisit Heritage Language classesConsult HL teachers about

students’ linguistic capacitiesDesign some joint projects Display students’ work from the HL

class

With permission from the Toronto District School Board


Using Students’ Languages in the ClassroomIncorporating students’

languages into classroom routines

Using students’ languages for instructional support

Incorporating students’ languages into the curriculum


Incorporating Students’ Languages into Classroom Routines

Names and introductions

What’s your name? Teach me how to say it.

Who gave you your name?

Would you ever change your name? Do any of

your names show that you are a boy?

Do you have a nickname?

Does your name have a meaning? In what language?

What else can you tell me about your name?


Oh no… let him sit somewhere else!

This is Dmitri. He is a new student from Russia and he doesn’t speak any English. Dmitri, you can sit with this group.

What a loser…

Moan…

Groan…


This is Dmitri. He is a new student from Russia. He speaks Russian and now he is going to start learning English, with our help. Maybe he will teach us some Russian. Which group will look after Dmitri for the first few days?

OK Dmitri, you can come and sit with us.


In this class you will all learn a lot of science. Some students are learning English at the same time. That’s quite a challenge, so I expect the rest of you to help. What would be some good ways to help? Discuss this in your groups…. Make sure that you hear the suggestions of students in your group who are learning English



Incorporating Students’ Languages into Classroom Routines

Names and introductionsGreetings and polite

expressionsLanguage etiquetteL1 writing samples


Using students’ languages for instructional support

The Ottawa-Carleton First Language Tutoring Project


The Ottawa-Carleton First Language Tutoring ProjectProgram for students in grades 7 and up with

significant gaps in their schooling.Tutors proficient in English and Somali,

Albanian, or Arabic were hired and assigned to 6 schools where specific groups of newcomers were experiencing difficulty because of limited prior schooling.

Tutors taught a target group separately, team-taught with the classroom teacher, ran homework clubs, and supported the target group within a variety of mainstream classes.


Using students’ languages for instructional supportThe Ottawa-Carleton First

Language Tutoring Project Tutors and volunteersFirst journal entries, outlines,

and rough drafts in L1Translation dictionaries and

vocabulary notebooks Same-language partners


Incorporating Students’ Languages into the CurriculumLearning about each other’s

languages: e.g., names, proverbs, idioms, script systems

Dual language books: http://

thornwood.peelschools.org/dual/index.htm Dual language projects

http://thornwood.peelschools.org/dual/index.htm

http://thornwood.peelschools.org/dual/index.htm


Incorporating Students’ Languages into the CurriculumPosters/brochures:

–Field trips: e.g., Our Trip to the Zoo–Civics/History: citizenship-awareness posters for the class–Physical Education/Family Studies: health and nutrition posters –Science: environmental awareness posters –Geography: publicity brochures on cities or regions of Canada


Other projects:

Something Special To Me (recount and explanation)

Children’s Nonfiction Books: e.g., “How Your Body Works” (Grade 11 Biology)

Multilingual Poetry Café (concepts about poetry)

Language Surveys (mathematics, language, social studies)

Our Multilingual Classroom

Cantonese

Croation

English

Farsi

Tamil

Twi

Urdu

Vietnamese



Connecting with Parents and Community

Reception and orientation: Kindergarten RegistrationPeel Welcome Kit Welcome to KindergartenFamily Reception Centreswww.settlement.org

http://www.settlement.org/


Connecting with Parents and Community

Parent networksParent and community

volunteersNewsletters, report cards,

field trip formsFamily activitiesParent-teacher interviews and

meetings L1 use in the home

You might want to use English at home some of the time, but it’s also important for your child to continue continue to develop in your language. This will help you to have good communication with your child. Also, strong skills in her own language will help her to learn English.

How can I help my child? Should we use English all the time at home?



Realizing the Potential of Multilingual Schools

All students can benefit from immersion in a multilingual environment:–English speakers may be encouraged to learn other languages–Celebrating linguistic diversity can foster more open attitudes among various cultural groups, and

help to ensure that all members of the school community feel valued, welcomed, and included–Support for students’ languages can enable English language learners to build on their first language

skills as they develop literacy in English

elizabeth coelho, november 2005: literacy and numeracy secretariat, ontario ministry of education...

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