The National Strategies have produced guidance for APP with respect to Black Carribean and EAL Pupils :
Using APP: Children of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage Assessing Pupil Progress provides extensive opportunities for teaching staff to make good quality assessments of the progress which Black children make. Assessment for learning and APP take seriously what teachers know about the individual children whom they teach. This is particularly important when assessing and understanding the rates of progress of Black children. This is because
- as a group, Black children are not yet achieving well enough in English and mathematics
- too few Black children are attaining higher levels in English and mathematics
- there are differences in the educational histories of different groups of Black children
- children’s rates of progress and attainment may be understood and improved when salient contextual features (including English as an additional language) are taken into account
To use assessment for learning and APP effectively with Black children, schools need to take account of the following
- initial lesson planning for English and mathematics lessons which draws on the experiences and the interests of the children being taught
The examples which are used to illustrate concepts need to be consonant with the experiences and the interests of the children being taught.if the children are to become consistently enthusiastic and successful learners. Efforts may need to be made to develop professional knowledge so that the quality of the detail of lesson planning is enhanced. Taking to children and listening well to what they say will also contribute to making lessons as relevant as possible.
- assessment judgements are tested for accuracy and fairness
Even the most carefully drafted assessment criterion can be differently interpreted, from one person to another. The continuous nature of APP will mean that differences in interpretation are minimised. It remains necessary to check that all children are being assessed fairly and that recording of their mastery of specific aspects of English or mathematics is not delayed. The communication between the teacher and the child which are linked to the marking of children’s work contribute significantly to the quality of assessment judgements.
- use strategies to support English language learning progress where relevant
Black children, as a group, will present will with a range of language competencies and fluency in English. Most children’s English language development needs are exactly those of a child born and brought up in an English speaking setting. Care needs to be taken to make sure that support for English language learning is given where there is evidence that the language of the home differs in detail from that of school. This may happen where children are familiar with English-based patois or Creole, from the Caribbean.
Useful Resources:How effective is our teaching in terms of meeting the needs of Black children in our school? – questions for school leaders.
- Are we sufficiently ambitious for children’s progress: setting challenging targets and planning for children to reach them?
- Are we aware of the performance and progress of individuals and groups of children, looking at ethnicity and gender patterns as part of data analysis?
- Are proactive in researching materials which are reminiscent of children’s cultural, linguistic and social experiences as well as those which introduce them to new realms and imaginations?
- Do we recognise the need to tailor intervention packages and personalise learning to meet the needs of Black children at risk of underachievement?
- Are Black children sufficiently engaged in lessons and motivated to learn? If not, are there specific lessons or times in lessons when they are more engaged and motivated? How can we build on this in other parts of our teaching?
- Is the balance of whole-class teaching, group and individual work right for Black children in our classes and groups?
- Does our teaching
- provide a range of contexts for learning, ensuring they are appropriate for the needs of the Black children in our school?
- engage children in active learning?
- include sufficient and appropriate differentiation and scaffolding?
- build on children’s existing skills?
- teach to explicit and shared objectives and lead to intended learning outcomes?
- draw on an appropriate variety of teaching strategies?
- provide for a range of learning styles?
- support children towards independent learning?
- Do we provide appropriate and effective opportunities for collaborative and cooperative learning in our school?
- Do we give sufficient status to speaking and listening in our lessons?
- Do we provide engaging and relevant opportunities for speaking and listening in order to foster exploration, problem solving and other aspects of social, academic and cognitive language and learning?
- Do we group children in order to secure the best learning opportunities and outcomes for all children?
- Do we vary groupings for different learning and teaching purposes?
- Does the teaching in our school enable Black children who are identified as underachieving to make accelerated progress in order to get back in line with national expectations for their year group?
- Does teaching in our school enable Black children who are identified as high achievers make progress which will allow them to realise their potential
Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for Black Children in the primary years, 00058-2008PKT-EN
Information and guidance on designing good learning opportunities: Designing learning, Unit A, Building Futures, the Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for Black children in the primary years e-learning resource. www.nationalstrategiescpd.org.uk (click ESCGA link and then BCA link). This resource contains a wealth of information to help schools to ensure that Black children make appropriate progress in school.
Using APP: Children for whom English is an additional language
Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) provides a useful opportunity to assess progress made by English as an additional language (EAL) learners in English and mathematics. The APP process enables teachers to recognise and record uneven profiles and different rates of progress in the different language modes and this is particularly useful for children who are learning EAL.To use Assessment for Learning (AfL) and APP effectively with bilingual learners, schools need to ensure that teachers have the appropriate subject and pedagogic knowledge so that they can assess language development as well as curricular learning. Teachers of all bilingual children need to be aware of the children’s language development, as well as their learning needs in particular subject areas, when making a judgement about performance and achievement.When assessing writing, teaching staff need to be aware of the aspects of language that are identified * as requiring particular attention for bilingual learners. Teachers need to understand the nature of children’s errors rather than just assessing them as mistakes.Many of these aspects of language are linked to: · AF 5: Vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect· AF 6: Write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and sentences· AF 7: Select appropriate and effective vocabulary. They include accurate and appropriate use of determiners, prepositions, verb tenses, modals and subject-verb agreements. While these may not affect judgements about National Curriculum levels at levels 1 and 2, they are crucial if children are to achieve level 4 and beyond, as many of them in turn affect progress in the other assessment focuses (AFs). Information from assessments of children learning EAL will need to inform language development targets as well as ensuring progression in the core subject areas. For assessing reading, evidence should be gathered from across the curriculum and using a range of strategies through which children can demonstrate comprehension. When collecting evidence for mathematics, children who have used their first language to learn mathematics should be given opportunities to show their knowledge and understanding through the use of their first language as well as English. As with all learners, decisions about attainment levels need to be drawn from a range of evidence. The profiles of EAL learners are likely to be more uneven than that of other pupils and therefore it is essential that the widest range of evidence possible is used to make a periodic assessment. A language in common: assessing English as an additional language (Ref: QCA/00584) QCA (2000) provides extended scales, which show progress towards level 1 in English and supplement the APP guidance for level 1. This is a useful resource for teachers who are assessing older children who have recently arrived in the country and are beginners in learning English.It is not recommended that schools or specialist staff adopt separate scales or measures of performance for making judgements about levels of English language proficiency. Locally devised fluency scales create additional work and do not necessarily provide reliable or consistent information that can be used for tracking progress or setting targets. (More information can be found in: Aiming High: Guidance on the assessment of pupils learning English as an additional language DfES 1469-2005DOC-EN).Note: P scales should not be used to assess EAL learners unless they also have a special educational need that is unrelated to their language learning need.
Useful resources
DfES (2006) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary years (Ref: 0031-2006PCK-EN), Unit 1 Planning and assessment for language and learning: Information on use of questioning, oral and written feedback, use of learning objectives and success criteria, and use of first language in assessing learning. 0013-2006PCK-EN: www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/bi_children/ For further guidance on conditions that enable bilingual learners to show what they know and can do in language and curricular learning, see: New Arrivals Excellence Programme Guidance 00650-2007BKT-EN www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/neap_guidance/ QCA (2000) A language in common: assessing English as an additional language (Ref: QCA/00584) DfES (2005) Marking progress: Training materials for assessing English as an additional language (Ref: 0196-2005) at: www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/ethnicminorities/raising_achievement/763697/?section=4 Teaching units to support guided sessions for writing in English as an additional language Ref: 00068-2007FLR-EN www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/bilingual_teaching_units/ * L. Cameron and S. Besser (2004) Writing in English as an additional language at Key Stage 2 (Ref: RR586 (report) or RB586 (brief)).
The AVON group of LAs have produced a very comprehensive web-site which contains some useful resource. There are some lesson suggestions for lessons which in my view are a bit weak. However, the quality of resources and many of the suggested approaches are very valuable.
The web-site address is: http://www.emas4success.org/home.htm
Let me know what you think of it.
DVD for Welcoming New Arrivals from Shared Futures
SHARED Futures is a new DVD and training resource pack, which aims
> to assist schools and youth groups in:
> · welcoming refugee children and young people and other new
> arrivals
>
> · promoting their well-being
>
> · helping them and their families become part of their local
> communities.
>
> The project is managed by Salusbury WORLD, and builds on the
> successful body of good practice developed by the organisation and
> its best-selling publication ‘Home from Home’. The project is
> funded by Comic Relief.
>
> "A timely new educational resource. Anyone who wants to know why
> attitudes towards refugee children are changing should consult
> SHARED Futures.”
>
> Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations
>
> During 2007, SHARED Futures undertook research to capture existing
> effective practice within the UK, which has developed in recent
> years in schools, youth groups, local education authorities and the
> voluntary sector. This guided the selection of examples of
> effective practice that promote inclusion and integration, which
> have been filmed and are available as a DVD and supporting resource
> pack. For further details visit: http://www.sharedfutures.org.uk/
>
> The project and its resources are for teachers and other
> practitioners working in primary and secondary schools, including
> teaching assistants, learning mentors, educational psychologists,
> Connexions advisers, and educational social workers. It will also
> be of relevance to practitioners working in other settings for
> children and young people in the wider community, such as youth and
> community services, supplementary and community schools, children’s
> centres and faith groups.
>
> SHARED Futures offers support to schools and youth groups through
> FREEtraining workshops and consultancy. This is available to
> practitioners throughout the UK. Already SHARED Futures has
> supported, in collaboration with local and regional partners, a
> series of successful conferences and training workshops across the UK.
The DCSF for National Strategies is rich in resources for teaching and planning for BME pupils, particularly EAL. The site can be accessed from the following link: www.standards.dscf.gov.uk.
The Bracknell site has some very good resources for teaching on it, partciularly Bilingual Phrase Books for Beginners in Czech, Polish, Thai and German to name but a few. Their web-site is: http://www.bfinclusion.org.uk/EAL%20files/Resnewtoeng.htm
The Britkid site built by Chris Gaine is really good for use in class discussions on race. It can also encourage empathy to different ethnic groups through individuals taking on the role of one of the young people. www.Britkid.org.uk
Below are a web-links to various sites that NASSEA member organisations have constructed. They provide lots of useful information that can be used in the claassroom, for inservice training, strategic planning and for background information.
If there are any web-sites that you think would benefit a wider audience, please contact the web master through the forum messaaging board.
English as an Additional Language -
This site provides some good links to other web-sites. They have produced a CD, the content of which is on their web-site. It gives advice to schools which have little or no experience of supporting newly arrived EAL pupils. There is a particularly good faq section supporting schools who are not experienced in working with newly arrived pupils.
http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/childrensservices/sats/ema/ealprof.asp
The resources below have been found to be useful for Cumbria:
General EAL issues
http://www.qca.org.uk/8476.html
This QCA website ‘Pathways to Learning’ contains excellent information on supporting newly
arrived pupils with EAL
http://www.emaonline.org.uk/ema/
This is a resource base that has been developed by Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester LAs.
The ‘EAL and Bilingual Resources’ section links to many resources including multilingual
stories, lesson plans and guidance.
http://www.dgteaz.org.uk/resources/letters.htm
This contains translated letters in many languages and is available on this website.
http://www.naldic.org.uk/
The National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) works to provide information regarding supporting pupils with EAL.
These following web-sites have been taken from the Leeds Learning web-pages
The bilingual books project is very interesting. It is one from Canada and not only gives resources and ideas, articulates clearly the pedagogical research into effective practice
Translation Websites
The following websites can be used for supporting translation, but you should always be aware that accuracy of translation websites can vary.
http://www.systransoft.com/index.html
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_for_Kids/tagalog_for_kids_fs.htm
Bury also have a web-site where all resources can be used free of charge
http://www.bury.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/SchoolsAndColleges/EthnicMinorityAchievementService/Default.htm
Curriculum - Primary, Secondary
The Collaborative Learning web-site have a lot of ideas and lessons for teaching bilingual pupils. It's site is well worth delving into.
http://www.collaborativelearning.org.
Improving Self-Esteem
Developing the self-esteem of an individual is important if that person is to become a successful learner, a confident individual and a responsible citizen
The Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning(SEAL) materials provide a wealth of resources that can be used in the classroom for any child of young person.
http://bandapilot.org.uk/primary/
http://bandapilot.org.uk/secondary/
