Trust Projects

Teaching Language Through Thinking: Supporting And Challenging Advanced EAL Learners In Science.

This innovative project builds on the highly successful REAL Project, led by London Gifted & Talented, which is delivering on the White Paper commitment, from Higher Standards, Better Schools (DCSF, 2005) to improve the quality of gifted and talented education for pupils from black and minority ethnic backgrounds (BME) and those learning English as an additional language (EAL). REAL has enabled schools and LAs to transform their approach to provision for these groups, working from the positive perspective that all learners are entitled to be considered as being potentially gifted and talented.London Gifted & Talented.

Since 2004 LGT has delivered 48 programmes for educators in Science, attended by more than 600 educators and 2,000 students from more than 500 London schools.

Aims

The project will provide a transferable set of ideas, materials, resources and training materials which will develop the capacity of teachers at Key Stages 2 and 3 to provide stretch and challenge for advanced EAL learners through a focus on teaching Scientific language through thinking in Science. We aim to deliver a measurable increase in high achievement at Key Stages 2 (level 5+) and 3 (level 7+) in Science.

This will be achieved through a development network involving colleagues from 18 London schools (10 primary and 8 secondary) who will be provided with training and support to develop their capacity to engage, motivate, challenge and support EAL learners.

This will be achieved through training for schools in the use of gifted and talented strategies combined with an explicit focus on developing the academic literacy of an identified group of learners in each school. They target audience for the interventions will be EAL learners identified as being at risk of underachievement, but we know from experience that the ideas and materials produced will be of significant wider benefit.

The project will deliver guidance, tools, resources and training materials for dissemination across a wider network of schools and will develop the capacity of participating schools to support others through local networks. Project will be ready for dissemination and wider use from July 2010.
 

Programme

REAL has developed guidance, tools, resources and multimedia training materials which can be accessed at www.realproject.org.uk. This has led to significant improvements in representation within gifted and talented populations as well as significant gains in achievement for its target groups in participating schools. 

The project will focus on provision for advanced bilingual learners (hereafter referred to as advanced learners).
Advanced learners of English are EAL learners who tend to sound very similar to their peers and have the potential to achieve at a high level but may find it difficult to do so unless specific attention is paid to the development of their language and its context. The learning needs of advanced learners are complex; there is no single set of barriers to learning that apply to all. They may be recent arrivals who have been educated in English language environments, or have been in school in England for several years. English may be their first language but they may use another at home.

Gifted and talented learners who are also advanced learners of English may be assumed to be self-sufficient, but often need additional support to master the demands of language or cultural references in order to achieve at the highest levels. REAL has identified some common ‘misconceptions’ about advanced learners:

REAL has identified five areas of meaningful difference (highlighted in the diagram below) on which teachers should focus in order to provide the blend of support and challenge which will give advanced learners access to challenge in classroom learning and which promote high achievement for all learners in the process.

The key questions are:
• How do we provide differentiated support so that EAL learners can access challenge in normal classroom learning?
• What should be different about the learning opportunities we offer to build on their strengths?

Outcomes

Each school will identify up to 10 learners in Year 8 (KS3) and Year 5 (KS2) who have the potential to achieve L5+ and L7+ outcomes in Science but who are identified as at risk of failing to reach this objective. These learners will act as the ‘lens group’ through which the strategies and needs of the learners will be seen, understood and met.

Schools will be encouraged to identify learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Research and recent experience through the REAL Project has shown that when these learners are explicitly taught formal skills and cultural capital through their learning this significantly increases their chances of reaching challenging targets. The majority will be advanced learners of English, but some of the group may be non-EAL, but must be experiencing social or economic disadvantage. This will allow the project to do some informal exploration of the extent to which some of the issues are indeed related to the first language.

The key face-to-face elements of the training will be delivered through five meetings, the last of which will also serve as a dissemination event. Additional support will be delivered through school visits, with direct and distance support for LA personnel. The project will also be supported through an online community within the REAL Project website, which the project team will support.

Diagnostic assessments
The project team will develop a range of assessments to assess their learning needs on which subsequent work with schools will be based and from which progress can be measured.
• Measurement of academic vocabulary through the academic word test (www.realproject.org.uk/awltest) and additional diagnostic assessments to be written by the project team with schools in appropriate science contexts
• Assessment of potential. Schools will explore the use of alternative forms of assessment to identify a learner’s own personal best, e.g. using speaking and listening in English to identify L7 thinking in those learners who write at L5 or below.
• Writing analysis. Colleagues will receive training in order to analyse learners work in order to develop understanding of areas where disadvantaged learners tend to miss vital marks at Levels 5+ and 7+ when compared to learners from more affluent backgrounds.

Developing capacity
The project team will work with schools to improve teaching practices, resources and schemes of work to develop new capacity in relation to:
• High challenge/low threshold learning. How teachers can overcome a lack of prior attainment or gaps in the target groups’ knowledge or experience to teach to the top
• Thinking skills. Core ideas behind critical and creative thinking in science. Teachers will learn to select from a library of tools that can be used to teach both thinking and language explicitly and develop understanding of impact. This will be augmented by examples generated as the project unfolds.
• Higher order questioning. Focusing explicitly on questioning for high levels – developing the link between the most critical classroom tool and high achievement.
• Classroom talk. Participants will receive training in the use of strategies to develop formal communication skills through the use of a range of talk and cooperative learning strategies that ‘bridge’ talk to high achievement in writing. Teachers will learn to select from a library of tools that can be used to teach both thinking and language explicitly and develop understanding of impact. This will be augmented by examples generated as the project unfolds.
• Guided writing. Building on the writing analysis the project will enable teachers to provide more focused support for writing, using a group model which uses social learning to develop individual achievement.
• Differentiation and planning. The project will bring together a range of complex ideas. The project team will work with participant schools to enable this complexity to be practically integrated into the planning process.
• Monitoring. Development of resources to allow each of the diagnostic assessments to be re-tested in school.

 

Evaluation

A significant feature of this project is the formative approach used for evaluation. REAL led to the development of a transferable set of core ideas which were derived from what works in practice. The learning needs of EAL pupils and the development needs of their teachers and schools are complex and will evolve throughout the project.

All schools will complete a needs analysis to provide a detailed view of the factors affecting the confidence and competence of teachers in promoting achievement at L5+ (KS2) and L7+ (KS3). These have been well-used in LGT learning networks and help to ensure that the programme is needs-driven.

Participants will use an action research framework, based on tested case study model, to capture their activity throughout the project. This will include results of the diagnostic and continuing assessments of student progress. These provide a means for constructive questioning of practice – these will be posted online to keep observers up-to-date and to provide a means to identify and explore interesting and emergent practice.

The team are looking for what is transferable. Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences at network meetings to encourage trialling of ideas – this will quickly become the key driver behind the success of the programme. It will also help to ensure that the claims made for any intervention or approach are grounded in the reality of practice.

All schools will use the DCSF’s National Quality Standards for Gifted & Talented education. The project team will provide training in their use on the subject specific level. The standards will provide an objective measure of process value-added. The final report will contain a detailed analysis of the impact of the various interventions of the project on a ‘super’-school to show how the ideas can contribute to whole school and subject-specific self-evaluation and improvement planning.

The project will use the LGT database system to facilitate analysis of data at event and project level. This has been developed to assess performance against Key Performance Indicators as well as to provide qualitative feedback.

The internal evaluator will be Helen Wilson, who will attend all project meetings and be involved in visiting schools to provide support, as well as to inform the evaluation. Our approach is highly flexible, but can be readily matched to the Trust’s needs and the requirements of the external evaluator.

Additional

Channels through which the project will be disseminated include: 

• www.realproject.org.uk There are more than 1,000 educators registered with REAL Toolkit, including LA personnel and schools in more than 50 local authorities – this number is growing steadily.
• Teach First. We have a commitment from Teach First to support dissemination through their website, their National Conference and summer institute (their initial training)
• Lewisham LA and Hounslow LAs will support dissemination and use of the project materials to all their schools.
• Gifted & Talented. Dissemination through workshops at events in Regional Partnership and through the City Challenges. The project team will also make use of additional conference opportunities as these become available.
• Science Learning Centres. We are confident that the National Science Learning Centre will incorporate the project materials into their portfolio of training.
• Ethnic Minority Achievement. The project team frequently present workshops at conferences and deliver training for EMAS services to disseminate the work of REAL and other projects. This results in a very high take-up.

The final network meeting will also serve as a dissemination event with up to 100 delegates.
 

Contact

Matt Dickenson -  Contact e-mail matt.dickenson@londongt.org