Scaffolding for success- Guided Inquiry, storyboarding and ICT
TESOL Seminar - Information Technology: strategies for supporting ESL students, 2012
Ian McLean, Teacher-librarian, Penrith PS
Why me?
Enthusiasm!
A practitioner in Web 2.0 (BBS, blogging, Wikipedia in areas of interest) - ICT
“Learning together”
Circle Time
Tracking and sharing the students’ learning journey – “Guided Inquiry”.
Penrith Public School
Outskirts of western Sydney
Two to three classes per grade
Two hearing support classes: K-3, 1-4
0.63 Reading Recovery (6 students/day)
Full time STLA (2 teachers job share).
ESL learners at Penrith PS
128 students out of 403 are LBOTE
36 home languages (including Persian/Farsi/Dari/Arabic, Tokelauan, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Filipino, Shona, Malay, Thai)
0.8 ESL teacher supports 54 ESL students (and 3 ESL students have hearing support)
19 are Phase 1; 30 are Phase 2; 5 are Phase 3
Saturday language school (Farsi & Dari).
Other support
Rainbow Cottage
Reading tutor program with trained volunteers and paid teachers aides (PSP funding - till 2013)
Buddy reading and community reading picnics
Tutor buddies - sight word flashcards; shared reading
“Racing to Read” - fluency.
Circle Time
Provides a nurturing environment, models oral responses, opportunities for vocabulary building, retelling events
Three rules: only one person speaks at a time (eg. wand); you can pass if you need to; we don’t put anyone down.
Supporting our ESL students
Cultural experiences & behaviours
Creating a stress free environment
Comprehensible input - visual aids
Language development - in context.
Travel buddies
• Cranky the crocodile• (Stage 1 students).
• Cyclic K-2 literacy program:• nursery rhymes
• fairy tales
• Dreaming stories
• fables
Travel buddies
.
Second Law of Prediction
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” - Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008)
Travelling Fearless - ICT
• Kindergarten's Photo Peach slideshow
Introducing Guided Inquiry
Cyclic K-2 literacy program: factual writing
Four core values: learning, cooperation, respect, environment
Extended brainstorming
Scaffolds (eg. PMI – “Plus, minus, interesting” matrix)
Storyboarding
Photo Peach digital slideshows (Web 2.0).
Guided Inquiry
• Endangered animals: beyond the rainforest
• Collaborating with the ESL teacher• Group work• Collaborating with the teacher librarian• Tools to measure student learning.
Scaffolds
• Flickr Creative Commons
• Thanks jeffk42
Leading learning
a clear vision for the future of learning we wish to see in our schools
build from our own experience, and learn by doing
chart the learning - ie. demonstrate excellence through evidence-based practice - Dr Ross J Todd, 2008.
Web 2.0
The challenge: “What will you do differently on Monday to incorporate Web 2.0 into your teaching?”
“If I wait till I’m ready, I’ll never be ready” - Me
penrithpslibrary.pbworks.com
Using Web 2.0
Gold quest blog
Newspaper clipping generator
ESL students using Web 2.0
• Talking tomatoes• Talking owls• Wizard text generator
• A cigarette packet (anti-smoking – Secondary).
Other Web 2.0
Booked Inn: ianmclean.edublogs.org
Penrith PS rappers & bloggers
QR codes!