ESL, EAL/ESDTeaching methodologies and

a little bit of theory

OverviewChallenges students face

ESL Teaching and Learning cycle

Theory

PALLIC and The Big 6 for Reading

Challenges

High turn-over of teachers

Learning discourse of schooling

Learning in a second language

Reactions to teaching methods

Low expectations

Racism

Gaps in language skills

Seeing the relevance of work

Within School Outside of SchoolHealth issues (hearing)

High Transience / Prolonged absences

Overcrowded housing

Intergenerational trauma

Family breakdown

Responsibilities at home

Lack of Englishenvironment at home

•Substance abuse

Together, all these can affect motivation and self-esteem in the school context which

then have an impact on learning generally and language learning in

particular.

Building the Field (Knowledge)

Text Deconstruction

Joint Reconstruction

Independent construction

ESL Teaching and Learning Cycle

LOLO

HOLO

Transformations

Writing workshops

Building the Field

Base you work around a shared experience

Watch videos (You Tube)

Lots of Oral Language

Build Vocabulary

Use heaps of pictures and label them

Play games (Quizzes etc)

Revisit Field Every lesson

Text Deconstruction

Introduce a model text (write your own! know your end point)

Pull it apart using the structure of the genre

Colour code

Tell them the social purpose of the genre

Know your Grammar (Functional) (Metalanguage)

Teach writing tools

Identify Audience

Teach how MEANING is made by words.

Joint Construction

Rebuild the original text

Use what you taught in the deconstruction.

Work together in groups or whole class.

A persons level of understanding in a language community will depend on the quality of the experiences they had. If

as teachers we reduce students’ literacy experience to grammar and words, children have no chance to become

informed about the social value of the text that they study.

Language is social

Language development is about making informed choices

Teaching grammar as grammar overloads students.This is not because grammar is

hard. Rather, because children try to relate this knowledge to their other understandings. When they are not

ready, they just cannot see the relevance.

Use it as a load-reducing tool

The functional model

Recent Theory and the Big SIX

Based on OECD PISA report on where indigenous students are situated internationally with regard to literacy outcomes.

Big 6 looks at the 40 year debate on how to teach reading.

A meaning first, Whole language (top down) vs decoding, phonics, sounds (bottom up)

Findings were that there are 6 keys to effective reading development and that there are flaws in both (top down & bottom up approaches). The Big 6 need to work together as a team.

When readers can’t use bottom up approaches they rely more heavily on top down. When readers can’t use top down they rely more heavily on bottom up.

Poor readers need to focus on word recognition skills to facilitate links to context, which then helps with meaning.

Big SixOral language and early literacy experiences

Phonological awareness

Letter-sound knowledge

Vocabulary

Fluency

Comprehension

PALLIC

Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities.