Building Communities of Language Learners: Issues and Opportunities

1. Building Communities of Language Learners: Issues and Opportunities Dr. Cynthia Lewis BCATML October 2006

2. “Opening the parachute”for students and educators • Risk taking • Engagement • The meaning of the word “education” • The Canadian context- Intertextual cultural identities (Aoki), multiliteracies (Cummins), and personalization

3. Definition of Multiliteracies (from Cummins et al) • Work of the New London Group- to reflect multiple modes of communication outside school and including multiple languages- the way the world is : forms of literacies in complex pluralistic societies • Developed a framework calling for students engaging in meaningful experiences and practice within a learning commuity with explicit instruction as required • Importance of literacy engagement (Guthrie, 2004) incorporating notions of extensive contact with texts, depth of cognitive processing and the active pursuit of literacy activities

4. Issues • Are we promoting “multiliteracies” as the Canadian national vision (socio- political)? • As a “value- added” component to education in Canada? • As a commodity in a global economy? • How much de we care about equity of access? • How much should we care about students’ home languages and cultures?

5. Outside Influences The globalization of the knowledge economy is everywhere • “Literacy” is becoming “multi-literacy” • Learning is anytime, anywhere, just in time, continuous, and a lifelong necessity • School- based governance is becoming stronger • Canada will continue to be a complex pluralistic society- that we have to be thankful for

6. Challenges • How can we make the case for all learners experiencing learning an additional language in a meaningful way in school as part of literacy engagement ? • How can we expand opportunities for lifelong learning which includes multi-literacies? • How can we do influence the policy, provincial, board level? • How can in Preservice and Inservice Teacher Education, in partnership with the universities, help?

7. How? Raising the Profile on Credentialing • How should we conceptualize our expectations about contact time and outcomes, program design differences aside? • What is the “real life” level of second language literacy (other than passing the grade) that we can hold up as the “target” for 5-8, 5-12, 9-12, Immersion, Intensive French? • Can there be such a thing as a national set of standards with a national assessment and recognition? • How can we include L2 competencies in the graduate profile and have that recognized up front by the world of work?

8. How? Seeing ourselves as an essential part of the new educational basics: literacy and ICT • INFORMATION LITERACY- the critical thinking, ethics and “reading and decoding” of the grammar of the internet and the digital world • COMMUNICATION: WORKING WITHIN GLOBAL, INTERACTIVE COMMUNITIES- Adult work in the real world relies more and more on creating collaborative content and seeking immediate authentic feedback and adjustment. • SELF-DIRECTEDNESS -the ability to manage multi-facetted projects, know yourself, and continue to learn

9. ICT and Globalization • Information will come to you on your Ipod • Students are online with others all over the world • “Communities” exist beyond the barriers of time and place • <www.novemberlearning.com>

10. Examples • <Skype.com>- the ability to conduct 2-5 way conversations around the world over the internet, in audio and video, at no long distance charges . eg. Creating ongoing relationships with parents and grandparents, researchers, twin schools and classrooms • Podcasting- the downloading and creation of audio files to be used anywhere, anytime (nlcommunities.com/communities/podcasts/default.aspc).

11. “Blogs” can be a powerful tool for Literacy. Classroom blogs are a “ meeting place”–the teacher has a role as as publisher and builder of community. Eg <visitmyclass.com/blogs/burnett>. This middle school English teacher in an inner city classroom in Detroit has used the class blog to enable her students to post their writing for response, and to share their work on novel studies and other projects. Students from around the world respond to them, and these students continue to seek opportunities to edit and improve their work long after the assignment is over

12. Multi-author web sites (wikis) (see <wikipedia.com> where knowledge can be constructed and shared collaboratively between students and educators all over the world eg. A teacher anywhere could create a wiki on the history and heritage of the local community, that was collaboratively constructed by students between schools and over several years, posted on the internet for others to access and respond to.

13. How? Creating and extending communities of language learners • The classroom as a community of multi literate learners focussed on the additional language: literacy engagement • Online communities of parents and students, language learners • Ongoing relationships with French speakers around the world • Competency building online and through audio files • Targetting university students at early stages

14. How? Extending the walls of the school • Participate in the global village. Create volunteer and service opps for students in French • Create the learning community with the Francophone students and families in BC, in Canada, around the world • Expand opportunities for students to learn anytime, any place- eg online and BAA courses for students across schools and regions

15. Themes in the Conference: Opening the Parachute for the Learner • Language learning portfolios (Rehorick) • Facilitating and accomodating (Arnett) • Language awareness and metacognition (Hazelton, Jeffrey) • Transferable literacy skills between languages (Svenningsen) • Identity building, making connections with culture (Duran, Muroya) • Ways of increasing time and intensity, extending the walls of the classroom (McAuley, Gunderson-Bryden, Carr, SEVEC, Japanese webpages, LLearn)

16. How? “Buoying up” the parachute through learning communities: • Building community for language learners at the school level: celebrating multiliteracies, supporting and influencing identities and literacy engagement, creating connections outside the walls of the school • Building professional learning coalitions and networks for teachers • Building on the potential of ICT to enhance these communitites • Using assessment antenna on an ongoing basis to guide instruction and respond to needs

17. Being supported by what we know about learning: (Donavan and Bransford, 2005, in Cummins et al) • Constructing understandings on a foundation of existing understandings, experiences and identities • Integrating factual knowledge with conceptual frameworks • Taking active control of the learning process • Being supported within the community of learners

18. How? Learning communities for educators “It’s about Time, It’s about Learning” (Earl, Stoll, Fink) • Risking, reviewing and refining, reflecting, reading, researching, relating • Systemic enablers for this: “Leaders need to create the conditions in which the learning of all staff and pupils will prosper. This means inviting others both personally and professionally”

19. How? Engaging the identities of learners (students and teachers) • Making connections to the learners’ experiences and lives • Getting to know students and inviting their lives into the conversations • Using various lenses (from Bennett: multiple intelligences, gender, students at risk, brain research, motivation)

20. How? Sharing assessment FOR learning with students • Key characteristics of motivation are success, accountability, safety, scaffolding (Bennett and Rolheiser, Stiggins)

21. How? Developing reciprocal relationships with students’ existing and developing literacy skills • Using multiple genres of text as a starting point for oral language development, comprehension work, just in time “word work”, meaning making, and “output”, project based learning • The “art” of instructional integration: risk-taking and engagement- Bennett (French teacher p. 12)

22. Conclusion: • A personal anecdote

27. References Bennett, B. and Rolheiser, C. (2001) Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Integration. Toronto, Bookation Inc. Cummins, J., Brown, K., Sayers, D. (2007) Literacy, Technology and Diversity: Teaching for Success in Changing Times. Pearson Education Novemberlearning.com Stiggins, R. Assessment FOR Learning. Assessmentinst.com Stoll, L., Fink, D., and Earl,L. (2003). It’s about Learning (and It’s about Time) London. Routledge Falmer