Collaborative Learning EAL Friendly, Language Conscious Learning Resources

1. Collaborative Learning EAL Friendly, Language ConsciousLearning Resources Hereford 5th July2010

2. Lev Vgotsky • The construction of knowledge is a social process

3. Douglas Barnes • Presentational talk • Exploratory talk:constructing new meaning

4. Neil Mercer • Symmetrical talk • Asymmetrical talk

5. Progress in putting talk at the heart of learning • Andrew Wilkinson - “Oracy” - 1965 • Harold Orton - English dialect survey • Britton, Barnes, Rosen 1974 • ILEA Collaborative Learning Project 1983 • Language in the National Curriculum • Oracy Project

6. Decline of talk in the classroom • 1993 LINC banned and Oracy Project closed down. • “Standard English where appropriate” replaced by “Standard English”

7. Some good news • Oracy, Dialogic teaching and the Cambridge Primary Review (Robin Alexander) • Exploratory talk (Neil Mercer/Lyn Dawes)

8. Whole class discussion: example 1 Teacher: OK. Looking at the text now I want you please to tell me what tense the first paragraph is in. Girl: The past tense. Teacher: Yes it’s in the past tense. How do you know it’s in the past tense? Girl: Because it says August 1990. Teacher: You know by the date it’s in the past tense, but you know by something else you know, you know by the doing words in the text that change. What’s a doing word? What do we call a doing word David? David: A verb. Teacher: A verb good. Will you give me one verb please out of this first paragraph. Find one verb in this paragraph. Stephen? Stephen: Rescued. Teacher: Rescued, excellent, excellent and that’s in the past tense. (Hardman, 2007)

9. Whole class discussion: example 2 Teacher reads text : 'Ten to twenty Daddy-long-legs can live together in this cage. It is fun to watch then at night. They are more active then. They rest during the day. If you look into your Daddy-long-legs cage when they are resting, your shadow will wake them suddenly. Then they will scamper round the cage, bouncing up and down in their funny dance. A few minutes later, they will all be resting quietly again.’

10. Whole class discussion: example 2 contd. Teacher: Who has a question? Susan: How many spiders can fit in a cage? Reggie: It didn't tell. Susan: Yes it did. Justin: Reggie doesn't think it told us. Susan: Charlie? Charlie: About ten or so. Susan: Mara? Mara: Ten to twenty. Teacher: Ten to twenty. Daryl…what question would you ask? Daryl: If you came by and looked, if you looked in the Daddy Long Legs cage, what would the Daddy-long-legs do? Justin?

11. Whole class discussion: example 2 contd. Justin: Your shadow would wake him up and then they would start scampering around and... Mara: And in a little bit all of them will lay down and go back to sleep again. Daryl: He kind of left something out Teacher: What did he leave out? Daryl : When they bounce up and down Teacher : In a funny dance, right. That was a good question Daryl. And Justin, I like the way you brought in the use of shadow.

13. Build on prior knowledgeMove from concrete to abstractEnsure everyone works with everyone elseExtend social language into curriculum languageProvide motivating ways to go over the same thing more than once

14. How does collaborative learning help construction of new meaning? Visual/kinesthetic support for concept development Opportunities to value prior knowledgeSupportive environments to formulate new ideasOpportunities to rework/reword ideas and provide time for reflection

15. How does collaborative learning help thinking? Opportunities to revisit learning in attractive waysTemplates for pupils to develop their own activitiesScaffolds talk at all levels simultaneouslyProvides tasks that model thinking processes Transformation of information

16. Activities that provide access to the curriculum, opportunities to practice predictable language structures and improve social relations

17. Build on prior knowledge • Buzz groups/talk partners • Information gap

18. Move from concrete to abstract • Key visuals/graphic organisers • Humanising the abstract

19. Some key visuals • Chart • Grid • Venn diagram • Tree diagram • Sequencing line • Time line • Cycle • Diamond Nines • Sorting table • Tracks

20. Everybody working with everybody Create different roles and then jigsaw!

21. How do you jigsaw?

22. Move social language into curriculum language

23. Provide motivating ways to go over the same thing more once

24. How are activities planned? • What do we want the children to know? • What kinds of thinking do we hope they will practice? • What kinds of language do they need? Necessary language and potential language? • What key visuals best produce the thinking and the language? • Can we make our activity collaborative/sociable?

25. Here is an example!! • We want children to consider the different habitats of animals. • Where do they live? • What is it like there? • Why do they live there? • How do they survive and/or thrive?

26. What key visual will help their thinking?A sorting grid or chart.

27. This can be made into a game. • You need 4 people, one baseboard and two sets of cards (different colours.) • Work with a partner to make a team of two. • Shuffle your cards and place them in a pile facing down. • Take it in turn to turn over your top card and decide where to put it on the board. • The winning team gets four in row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. • Decide whether to have challenges or a checking system.

28. Collaborative Learning and the National Forest • Inspired by a vision • Fits in where there is space • Committed to growth • Scattered outcrops all over the place • Plans to cover the whole country

29. Go to http://www.collaborativelearning.org/hereford.html For links to all the resources you have seen today including the powerpoint.