WEBVTT 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:07.760 This is a quote from one of our Year 10 pupils. We interviewed some pupils at the start of this year, just before we started the project, 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:14.080 to get their sense of their relationship with language and what they thought about the kind of things we were trying to do. 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:22.000 And as you can see, Amina is a bit jumbled up. She's trying to spread it out. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.640 and one of the things that she suggested she needed to do 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:30.040 was use more bigger words 00:00:30.040 --> 00:00:35.320 and really what she's wrestling with there is this 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:39.240 it's the difference and the continuum between the everyday language 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:41.640 that she uses at home and with her friends 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:46.720 and the academic language that she needs to use for success in school 00:00:46.720 --> 00:00:49.920 and ultimately to, as Laura made reference to in the video 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:51.820 to gain academic qualifications 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:59.100 so the work we're doing is based on this shift from everyday to academic language and it's based 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:07.020 on holiday's functional model of language okay just to maybe teaching grandmothers to suck eggs 00:01:07.020 --> 00:01:11.380 here and i apologize if that's the case but just again just to pick up on something that laura said 00:01:11.380 --> 00:01:20.520 when we talk about eal that masks a huge variation in the the kinds of pupils that we are dealing 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:27.700 with. And so I wanted to take a look at the kind of four different groups that we may 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:34.120 deal with and look at how aligned their language backgrounds are to the academic registers 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:39.260 that I've just made reference to that they need to be academically successful. So the 00:01:39.260 --> 00:01:58.259 pupils who are closest and are furthest on that journey are those who speak English as a first language and have professional parents or parents who have acquired academic literacy And then actually the next group are EAL pupils whose parents also have academic literacy but in their first language 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:03.799 And that may come as a slight surprise to some people, although probably not to many. 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:08.439 and then beneath that we have the pupils who speak English as a first language but 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:15.139 whose parents have not acquired academic literacy and we're talking about white working class 00:02:15.139 --> 00:02:19.459 pupils and other groups there and then the pupils that we're dealing with at Parkview are 00:02:19.459 --> 00:02:24.279 these pupils. They speak English as an additional language, they didn't start to speak 00:02:24.279 --> 00:02:31.699 English until they went to nursery or to reception. They have no literacy skills in their first 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:35.799 language because it's mainly Merpuri so it's not a written language it's just an oral one 00:02:35.799 --> 00:02:41.179 and their parents and carers haven't acquired academic literacy and in fact many of their 00:02:41.179 --> 00:02:49.359 parents and carers don't speak any English at all. So just to sort of clarify what we mean by AAL 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:55.059 we're really talking about pupils in that second definition there so Ofsted define it as 00:02:55.059 --> 00:03:00.819 learners' first language is not English and then school census preparation guidance from a few 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:06.399 years ago talks about pupils who for whom English is not the first language that they they use or 00:03:06.399 --> 00:03:11.439 they acquire so that's the pupils that those are the pupils that were dealing with the Parkview 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:17.379 the first language or languages they use at home are their community or their heritage languages 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:22.359 and it's not really until they go to reception or nursery that they they start to use English 00:03:22.359 --> 00:03:28.939 and I'm sure that everybody will be familiar with this this journey that EAL pupils go on 00:03:28.939 --> 00:03:31.919 that it takes about five to seven years 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:33.699 if they have literacy in their first language 00:03:33.796 --> 00:03:37.796 to acquire your language proficiency in English, 00:03:37.936 --> 00:03:39.916 and it can be up to 10 years if they don't. 00:03:39.996 --> 00:03:43.676 So we're really dealing with those pupils for whom it's going to take 7 to 10 years 00:03:43.676 --> 00:03:47.776 as an average for them to get to the kind of level of English that we need 00:03:47.776 --> 00:03:51.696 for them to access their curriculum and achieve what they are capable of. 00:03:53.516 --> 00:03:57.856 So in practice, what are we trying to do with the pupils? 00:03:57.936 --> 00:03:58.996 Where are we trying to shift them? 00:03:58.996 --> 00:04:02.216 Well, I like this example from Pauline Gibbons. 00:04:02.696 --> 00:04:05.356 We're trying to shift them from the first statement to the last statement, 00:04:05.456 --> 00:04:06.476 and I'll just go through them in order. 00:04:07.956 --> 00:04:12.596 So this is two pupils perhaps in a science classroom, 00:04:13.096 --> 00:04:16.216 and they're talking about something that's happening right in front of them. 00:04:16.216 --> 00:04:19.736 It's very context-specific, and they're probably playing with magnets 00:04:19.736 --> 00:04:21.296 and looking at how things move around. 00:04:22.256 --> 00:04:25.656 So that's the first sort of everyday stage of language. 00:04:25.736 --> 00:04:30.296 And then we're trying to get them to move to then report back on what they've done. 00:04:30.296 --> 00:04:35.416 So this is perhaps them talking to their teacher about it or reporting back to the class. 00:04:36.216 --> 00:04:40.496 And then we're trying to get them to write down what they've been doing 00:04:40.496 --> 00:04:45.136 and report in writing rather than in spoken language what they've been doing. 00:04:45.596 --> 00:04:48.756 But actually where we need to get them to is to the kind of theoretical level. 00:04:49.236 --> 00:04:52.716 So instead of talking about, look, it's making them move, those don't stick, 00:04:52.776 --> 00:04:56.076 they're talking about magnetic attraction because that's what they're talking about. 00:04:56.716 --> 00:04:58.716 And actually there's a slight mistake on this. 00:04:58.716 --> 00:05:00.716 because it doesn't only occur between ferrous metals, 00:05:00.716 --> 00:05:02.716 but I apologize. 00:05:02.716 --> 00:05:06.716 So we're trying to move them from that very spoken language 00:05:06.716 --> 00:05:09.716 that's very context specific to this more written language 00:05:09.716 --> 00:05:12.716 that is theorizing and drawing out theory 00:05:12.716 --> 00:05:14.716 from the things that they've seen. 00:05:16.716 --> 00:05:28.075 And we also trying to get them to write like this rather than like this Those are essentially the same two ideas or same groups of ideas being expressed 00:05:28.915 --> 00:05:32.715 One in academic language, which uses 23 words, and the other one in everyday language. 00:05:32.815 --> 00:05:37.475 It's not necessarily about using bigger words or more words, but it's about packing in meaning. 00:05:37.475 --> 00:05:44.195 And if we look at that, the way that the meaning is packed in there is through lots of extended nominal groups, 00:05:44.195 --> 00:05:48.075 rather than the more everyday language at the bottom. 00:05:48.395 --> 00:05:52.135 So we're trying to get pupils to write like that top example there. 00:05:53.315 --> 00:05:58.575 And the approach that we're trying to use draws on the ideas of Vygotsky 00:05:58.575 --> 00:06:00.075 and the zone of proximal development, 00:06:00.275 --> 00:06:04.595 and it acknowledges that learning is a social thing. 00:06:04.675 --> 00:06:05.655 It doesn't happen in isolation. 00:06:05.955 --> 00:06:09.135 So we're not trying to talk about transmission, 00:06:09.295 --> 00:06:12.795 where the teacher is the expert and the learner is the bucket to be filled up. 00:06:12.795 --> 00:06:16.515 and we're not talking about progressivism where the pupils go out and learn things independently. 00:06:16.995 --> 00:06:21.715 It's a social process where we are taking the learner from what they can do already 00:06:21.715 --> 00:06:24.455 to what they can begin to do with some support 00:06:24.455 --> 00:06:27.495 and then leading them, as Laura made reference to in a video, 00:06:27.795 --> 00:06:30.495 when they're in that exam, they need to be able to do that on their own 00:06:30.495 --> 00:06:32.855 without anybody to talk to, without anybody to help them. 00:06:33.255 --> 00:06:37.135 We need to take them from that zone of proximal development into independence. 00:06:39.195 --> 00:06:41.255 And the way we do that is through scaffolding. 00:06:41.255 --> 00:06:46.235 So that doesn't mean writing frames, it doesn't mean sentence starters, it means scaffolding 00:06:46.235 --> 00:06:50.515 the new things that students need to learn so that that is future orientated, we are 00:06:50.515 --> 00:06:55.395 taking them to independence. 00:06:55.395 --> 00:06:59.295 And hopefully this is what we end up with, what the child is able to do in collaboration 00:06:59.295 --> 00:07:03.395 today, he'll be able to do independently tomorrow. And we also very much believe in that bottom 00:07:03.395 --> 00:07:07.495 quote as well, a learner is capable of learning any material at any age, so long as the child 00:07:07.591 --> 00:07:09.251 the instruction is appropriately organised. 00:07:09.371 --> 00:07:13.451 What we're not trying to do is say that there's a limit on what students can learn 00:07:13.451 --> 00:07:16.171 because they don't speak English as their first language. 00:07:18.431 --> 00:07:21.131 And we are using this teaching and learning cycle, 00:07:21.231 --> 00:07:26.931 which comes from a course or a set of courses developed in Australia. 00:07:27.351 --> 00:07:31.251 The first one called TestMC and the second one that we're now looking at 00:07:31.251 --> 00:07:33.151 and using is called How Language Works. 00:07:33.151 --> 00:07:35.691 And I believe that the first school in that video, I think, 00:07:35.691 --> 00:07:41.351 have used that as well as an approach for their, when they made reference to training 00:07:41.351 --> 00:07:43.451 their teachers, I think this is the approach that they used. 00:07:44.611 --> 00:07:50.691 So as you can see, what this leads to, we go from setting a context and building a field, 00:07:50.771 --> 00:07:56.231 so we're talking about how can we give pupils information that isn't from their context, 00:07:56.351 --> 00:08:02.891 that we can give them the content, if you like, and then we have to then address the 00:08:02.891 --> 00:08:07.631 language through the different stages so we model and deconstruct what writing 00:08:07.631 --> 00:08:12.191 looks like and what the use of good language looks like we then jointly 00:08:12.191 --> 00:08:15.191 construct it with the pupils and we eventually lead them to independence in 00:08:15.191 --> 00:08:18.491 the independent construction phase so there's a there's a model that we're 00:08:18.491 --> 00:08:24.911 trying to follow and the only not the only problem but one of the problems with 00:08:24.911 --> 00:08:29.651 this is as the quote suggests that we're finding that actually we need to start 00:08:29.651 --> 00:08:32.551 with the teachers, it's not about starting with the pupils, 00:08:32.551 --> 00:08:35.511 that the teachers are either not confident enough 00:08:35.511 --> 00:08:37.091 in their knowledge of language, 00:08:37.091 --> 00:08:40.391 or they need to denaturalise their knowledge about language. 00:08:40.391 --> 00:08:43.471 And I put myself in that sort of former category, 00:08:43.471 --> 00:08:44.551 the latter category, sorry, 00:08:44.551 --> 00:08:48.431 where I was never explicitly shown how to use language, 00:08:48.431 --> 00:09:03.030 I just absorbed it and so I don necessarily know how to put that across to my pupils Just one more minute Lee No problem So the way we done this is by working with 8 across a class in school 00:09:03.030 --> 00:09:08.090 across four different subjects, and the information on 8.4 is there. 00:09:09.170 --> 00:09:13.610 So they are the pupils we're talking about where they have only learnt English 00:09:13.610 --> 00:09:14.490 when they've gone to school. 00:09:14.890 --> 00:09:18.690 Parents don't speak a lot of English or certainly don't have that academic literacy. 00:09:19.510 --> 00:09:23.690 and if I skip through, we've got three focus areas for our work. 00:09:24.270 --> 00:09:27.530 We're trying to move them between exploratory talk and reporting back talk, 00:09:27.610 --> 00:09:29.790 which is the four sentences I showed you. 00:09:30.170 --> 00:09:34.530 We're trying to develop their ability to use specialist and technical language, 00:09:34.950 --> 00:09:39.830 and we're trying to teach them how to produce subject-specific genres. 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:41.410 So we're not looking at this as an English thing. 00:09:41.750 --> 00:09:43.850 We're looking at it as a history thing, a geography thing, 00:09:44.050 --> 00:09:45.630 and a science thing, and a maths thing. 00:09:45.630 --> 00:09:51.910 and just to present some of our findings so far this is the the results so far in english after 00:09:51.910 --> 00:09:57.210 six weeks that as you can see majority big majorities of the pupils are moving up in their 00:09:57.210 --> 00:10:01.830 sub levels and what we haven't done yet is compared this to the groups around them but we are seeing 00:10:01.830 --> 00:10:08.630 these pupils make progress and in science especially stark um 86 percent of the pupils improved by a 00:10:08.630 --> 00:10:16.690 GCSE grade in one term of this work. In the previous term only 21% of them did. So we're 00:10:16.690 --> 00:10:21.330 starting very small with some action research at school, looking at how we can make language 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:27.130 explicit, looking at how we can teach language alongside content and we're hoping that we 00:10:27.130 --> 00:10:30.850 will find some good evidence and see some good evidence that makes an impact and try 00:10:30.850 --> 00:10:34.110 and spread that work. So if anybody would like to talk to me afterwards about that, 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:35.550 I'd be very pleased to do so. 00:10:36.810 --> 00:10:38.650 And that's what we're trying to do at Partview. 00:10:39.690 --> 00:10:40.650 Thank you very much.