Guildford Public School Stage 2 Staff Professional Development Day

1. Guildford Public School Stage 2 Staff Professional Development Day Presentation by Jessica Pavani & Benjamin Ambler-Baird

2. “We understand that it is the quality of the teacher that makes the difference and therefore prioritise the professional development of our teachers” In this session we will focus on; Literacy issues faced by stage 2 students across the curriculum in our multicultural school environment, and ways to address this. We will cover; • The causes of literacy issues within our school • Literacy statistics of our school • Support in the home • Sociocultural backgrounds; Arabic and Muslim Community • Parent literacy • Teaching strategies • ICT Tools • Key Strategies • Education theories

3. School context • 92% of our students come from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) • Approximately 20% of students from an Arabic speaking background • 20% from an Islander background • Other smaller but significant groups speak Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese and Farsi as a first language • There has been an increasing number of refugee families arriving from African and Middle Eastern communities, with an average of 10% transiency of student population annually. Image source: DET. (2011, November 21). Retrieved from Department of Education and Training: http://det.wa.edu.au/redirect/?oid=com.arsdigita.cms.ReusableImageAsset-id-11923904

4. Identifying the causes of literacy issues within our school: “One of our greatest challenges is meeting the needs of a diverse and changing community” • Sociocultural backgrounds; Arabic and Muslim Community • 92% Non English Speaking Background. Majority of the parents speak little or no English. • Support in the Home • Cultural considerations. Many parents do not take responsibility for further learning in the home (Markose, 2011) • Many of our students begin school at phase 1 ESL • Phase 1 ESL is where understanding and production of spoken or written English is limited in all social and educational situations1 • We educate ESL students from phase 1 through 3, (Low understanding to near fluent English) which places a lot of responsibility on the ESL teachers to cater for a large and diverse group 1See https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/student_serv/equity/comm_rela/d04_23_ESL_Guidelines.pdf

5. Teaching strategies • ICT Tools • Reading Eggs (also available as Ipad App) http://readingeggs.com.au

6. Teaching strategies • ICT Tools • Mind Snacks Kid’s Vocab – Apple App for both iPhone and iPad

7. Teaching strategies • ICT Tools • Starfall – Learn to Read http://www.starfall.com

8. Teaching strategies Key strategies • Individual targets in reading and writing • Book week 2013 – emphasized the importance of individual reading • Differentiation and scaffolding according to student’s level (Berk & Winsler, 1995) • Students continued use of first language • Encourage development of first and second languages • Provide access to resources in first language (Diaz & Harvey, 2007, p213) • Organise peer tutoring with a student from the same language background (Diaz & Harvey, 2007, p213) • Students produce texts in first language and translate to English (Jafar, 2010) • Languages are bearers of culture (Welch, 2007, p. 158)

9. Teaching strategies Key strategies • Social Constructivist Learning (Vygotsky, 1986) > group based learning > learning through play > collaborative processes

10. Encouraging Results Despite the obvious challenges our school faces with a large ESL population, our students are making very encouraging progress! Some ways we are already supporting our students include: • Formative assessment focus • New arrivals program • Value of student diversity and culture • Encouraging retention of home language through Arabic classes • Support teachers for literacy sessions All credit to the professional educators that our school is fortunate to have working with us!