BESA CORNER
This month, in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear about RM COMPARE and
ASSESSPROGRESS.COM; and we learn more about bilingualism in the classroom with ACROSS CULTURES.
Here’s to a comparatively good Christmas
So, you’ve successfully navigated the first term, 7 long weeks of restrictions, absences, returns, further illnesses (it’s probably terrible flu), on-line learning, face to face, catch-up teaching, all the while you’ve been dodging the worst pandemic in 100 years like the last child on the playground in a game of British Bulldog. Well done, you made it! As the new term starts, nativity parts are handed out to be learned
while caretakers across the land unwind and unravel the knot of Christmas tree lights, set out the nativity scene and polish the presents of the three wise men; Curriculum, Ofsted and Assessment. I digress, but with the advent of the holiday season upon us, so too are the first full assessment points for all teachers, in all year groups, in all classes. In Primary Literacy at least this might mean comparing children’s
outcomes to a rubric or checklist that you’ve been planning and teaching ‘the essential skills’ to meet the criteria over a number of weeks, a couple of cold or ‘apprentice’ writes where the children are presented with a stimulus and asked to write for a length of time to see how well they’ve learned the content, and the mark scheme! Acres of marking, feedback, green and red pen and a keystage or whole school moderation later and you’ve got your assessment of writing - done! The tick box approach will have certainly got some of the way to
‘proving-attainment’ and, based on having gone through the same process the year before, ‘proving progress’ but the unintended consequences of this approach are often that writing can be formulaic, smattered with hyphens and semi colons, particularly in KS2, where writing ‘prioritises skills’ that need to be ‘met’ over developing a great narrative and engaging the reader. 10% of local authority schools in Oxfordshire have been pioneering
an approach to moderation, collaborating together to liberate their young writers and provide all teachers with some great feedback and understanding as to what a good bit of writing really looks like (WAGOLL) when you release children from the shackles of criterion assessment. They’ve been using RM Compare’s new Comparative Judgement
engine with stimuli designed and distributed by
AssessProgress.com to moderate and evaluate writing across the whole school. Just over 2,000 children have been moderated in the first 2 months
of this academic year, all age groups from Year 1 – Year 6. By return, all schools have a good idea of the quality of writing in their classroom, who in their schools meets the requirements for WTS/EXP/GD in each key stage and, because of the unique way that the moderations have been conducted and the reports that were able to be produced, what the cross-over between year groups looks like. The programme continues and all schools will continue to moderate together for the remainder of the academic year. One further moderation event is planned for Years 1,3, 4 and 5 while Year 2 and Year 6 have two more sessions planned as
AssessProgress.com attempt to develop a ‘portfolio of evidence’ approach to using comparative judgement. The final outcome remains to be seen but early signs are very encouraging: teachers have reduced time marking, been exposed to writing across other local schools, have had the writing outcomes of their children benchmarked against peers, been able to feedback a real sense of WAGOLL to pupils, and had insightful development CPD to boot. Looks like Christmas has come early for all those involved!
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www.education-today.co.uk
The voices that don’t get heard: why a child’s mother tongue
matters in the classroom The National Curriculum is clear: English is at the heart of our education system. It’s “essential to participating fully as a member of society” and pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are “effectively disenfranchised”. Few would argue. So why would a teacher encourage a child to use a
different language in their classroom? The UK has an estimated 1.6 million pupils in schools with a first language
(mother tongue) different to English. In some schools, the proportion of EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils is as high as 90%. For class teachers, this is undoubtedly a challenge. For some, it represents solely a problem. And yet our world is ever-more connected – and a wealth of research
shows that having another language to call upon is highly beneficial for learners. Bilingualism confers “a superior ability to concentrate, solve problems and focus, better mental flexibility and multitasking skills”, according to a BBC article. For this to happen, however, the other language needs to be maintained and nurtured, including in the classroom. A recent research paper by Olena Gundarina and James Simpson shows
how the traditional UK approach of repressing a child’s first language in school can have negative consequences. The paper considers the experience of ‘Katerina’, a seven-year-old Russian
speaker in an English primary school. The school’s one-language policy prevented Katerina from speaking Russian in the classroom. If she did so, she was penalised – and other Russian-speakers who attempted to help her were reprimanded. Katerina became very unhappy and began to fail academically. With her mother tongue seen as a threat, her “linguistic safety” was compromised. Thankfully, Katerina’s is not the experience of every EAL pupil in the UK.
Sally Roberts is an EAL consultant and peripatetic EAL teacher who is revolutionising the approach to EAL children in Nottinghamshire. For Sally, the presence of an EAL pupil in the classroom represents a valuable learning opportunity for all children. A bridge needs to be built between the new arrival’s home language and culture and that of English – but the traffic over the bridge is two-way: the other children in the class have just as much to learn and gain. The language environment in Sally’s classrooms is therefore richly
multilingual. Children are given words to take home and translate into any language they wish. The translations are compared, discussed and displayed in class. Integration work culminates in the school’s language club. Sally explains
how this operated in one school: “With many Romanian children joining the school, Romanian was the first language chosen for the club. The older Romanian pupils became the teachers and ran a series of six lessons, introducing two representatives of every class to basic Romanian. The representatives cascaded the teaching back to their classmates. There was a final Bingo competition, with a trophy awarded in assembly – and the winners chose the next language for the club to focus on.” It was, Sally explains, a success for everyone, with the Romanian learners, in particular, feeling highly valued.
A human right? The writers of the research paper see access to a child’s first language as “an unconditional linguistic human right”. They suggest creating a separate space for EAL children to use their mother tongue in a school. In the classroom itself, they recommend that learners use their home language to make sure they understand the content of a lesson and to brainstorm ideas. They encourage teachers to explore resources – such as the Learning Village – that promote learners’ mother tongues. Through initiatives like these, all voices in a class can be heard – and all
children can fulfil their potential.
www.axcultures.com
December 2021
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