Workshop 1
Understanding our learners and
supporting their learning
Workshop 1
Supporting Student’s
Literacy Learning
Slide1
Reflection
• Pre workshop
introduction
session.
• Keep the booklet
as a summary of
the workshops
ahead.
Workshop 1
Session 1
Slide 2
Course overview
• Knowing about our learners
• Scaffolding learning
• Helping children’s oral language
development and links to learning
• Helping children learn to read
• Helping children learn to write
Workshop 1
1
Session 2
Slide 3
Big ideas
What do I need to know ...
What understandings do I need to have ...
• about children as learners?
• about supporting students’ oral
language development
• about supporting student’s
reading skills?
• about supporting students to
develop their writing skills?
• about educational language?
Workshop 1
Session 2
Slide 4
The best learning occurs when
adults work in teams to learn
together and plan interactive
experiences for their students.
Workshop 1
Session 2
Slide 5
Workshop 1
Understanding our learners and supporting their learning
• Getting to know each other
• Explore how to understand the
learner/your students in order to
support their learning
• Explore how our cultural and
linguistic experiences shape our
view of the world
• Activities to stimulate talk
Workshop 1
Session 2
Slide 6
Your Workbook
Includes:
• Purpose of the workshop
• Sessions within each workshop
• Reflection and Journal
• Homework Task
• Glossary
Workshop 1
Session 2
Slide 7
Planning for purposeful talk
Write the answers on 7 ‘post it’ notes
• Your name
• Where you were born
• Your interests outside of work
• Languages that you speak
• What your job is
• Number of years you have worked in
education
• What you want to learn from this
course/workshop
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 8
Knowing our learners
Round 1
• Red Topic: The best things about living
where I do are ...
• Green Topic: My earliest memories of
school are ...
• Blue Topic: A challenging experience I
had meeting people from a different
culture was ...
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 9
Knowing our learners
Round 2
• Red Topic: In my family, when I
was a child, literacy meant ...
• Green Topic: Working with
children, I think my strengths are ...
• Blue Topic: One thing I wish I had
learned as a child is ...
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 10
Knowing our learners
Round 3
• Red Topic: I think children learn
best when ...
• Green Topic: Some interesting
things I have learned about the
cultural background of one of the
children I work with are ...
• Blue Topic: The best things about
where I work are ...
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 11
Community circle reflection
The aim of the “What did I learn?” section at
the end of each session is to give
participants time to reflect on:
• what you have learned in each session
• the skills and knowledge you needed to have
to be able to participate in the session
• any assistance you required
• how you felt after completing the
activity/session
• whether you have seen the
strategy/skill/activity used in your workplace
• how you could use/adapt what you have
learned to your own work
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 12
Community circle reflection
The “What did I learn?” sections will
follow a pattern of:
• “community circle” where each participant
is given the opportunity to talk about the
reflection questions
• journal writing time where participants can
work in pairs or individually to write about
or visually represent their learning and
feelings.
Jeanne Gibbs (2001) Tribes:
A New Way of Learning and Being Together
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 13
Community circle - Reflection
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What did you learn from this session?
What skills/help/understandings did you need to be able to
participate in the activities?
During the ‘talk stations’ activity, why do you think only one
person was allowed to speak while the other two had to listen
and/or ask clarifying questions?
Do all the children you work with come from the same cultural or
linguistic background to your own or to the teacher’s? What do
schools need to know about their students’ family, cultural and
linguistic background and experiences? How can this knowledge
help you with the work you do with children? Where would you
find this information?
How did you feel while doing and / after completing the session?
Have you seen retrieval charts/information grids being used in
the classroom?
Have you seen or used ‘talk stations’ in the classroom. Were
they successful/not successful with students? Why?
Could you use/adapt the activity in the work you do with
students?
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 14
Homework Task
Student Profiles
Talk to the teacher about
• the homework task,
• the selection of two students to be
profiled,
• information that the teacher has about the
child,
• suggestions of who else to talk to about
the child
Use the example of a student profile in your
workbook.
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 15
Student Profiles
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Name
Other names
Date of birth
Place of birth
Languages spoken at home
Mother’s country, language
Father’s country, language
Languages spoken by student
Languages understood by student
Who does the child live with (extended family)
Siblings / close family members at school
Places / communities the child travels to
Schools attended / Attendance history. Are any of these schools
bilingual?
Cultural / ancestral background
Workshop 1
Session 3
Slide 16
Big ideas
What do I need to know ...
What understandings do I need to have ...
• about children as learners?
• about supporting students’ oral
language development
• about supporting student’s
reading skills?
• about supporting students to
develop their writing skills?
• about educational language?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 17
Scaffolding Thinking About Learning
Thinking about a skill you have learned
• What was the skill?
• Who had you seen using the skill?
• How were you supported to learn the skill?
• When did you use it independently?
• How did you feel about learning this skill?
• If the learning was not successful, why do
you think this was so?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 18
Reflection
• What did you learn from this
session?
• What skills/ help/ understandings
did you need to be able to
participate?
• How did you feel while doing? After
finishing the activities?
• Have you ever thought of learning
new skills in this way before?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 19
Scaffolding
In pairs:
• Brainstorm the everyday meaning of
scaffolding
• Talk to your partner about this and
write key words, make notes and
provide examples of scaffolding
A: Getting Ready
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 20
Scaffolding
• Read the article in the workbook
• Jot down 5 main points on your post it
notes
• In groups of 3 define scaffolding as we
use it in education, using the 5 points
• Share definitions
B: Show Me How
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 21
Scaffolded teaching learning
A sequence for planning
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A
B
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D
Getting Ready
Show me how (modelling)
Help me do it (guided practice)
Let me do it myself
(independent practice)
• E What did I learn?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 22
Scaffolding
.
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 23
Reflection
• What did you learn?
• What skills/understandings did you
need to participate in the sessions?
• How did you feel while doing/ after
completing the activities?
• Could you use the think/ pair / share
activity with the students you work
with?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 24
Scaffolding in Practice
What do parents do to encourage
their children to speak?
• Expect them to speak
• Provide models of how spoken
language works
• Demonstrate how to listen
• Support their attempts with praise
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 25
What do teachers do?
Macro Level Scaffolding
• clear goals or outcomes
• an understanding of linguistic
demands of tasks
• knowledge of the students ,their
abilities and understandings
• careful sequencing of tasks to achieve
the goal/outcome
• gradual shift of responsibility from
teacher to student
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 26
What do teachers do?
Micro Level Scaffolding
• student-teacher dialogue within small
groups – where paraprofessionals
mostly work
• Students need to be scaffolded:
– from home language to school language
and
– from spoken to written language
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 27
IRF
Initiation, Response, Feedback
• Initiation
TEACHER
“What is a magpie?”
• Response
STUDENT
“A bird”
• Feedback
TEACHER
“Yes. Good.”
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 28
What we do to scaffold learning?
Support children in the classroom by
• asking open-ended questions
• repeating new language
• rephrasing and modelling
• pause-prompt-praise
• extending
• being an active listener
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 29
Strategies
Scaffolding Oral Language
Being an active listener
• Nodding, eye contact with speaker,
smiling, gestures
• Repeating words said, word for
word, rephrasing what was said,
respond with comment or question
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 30
Strategies
Scaffolding Oral Language
Asking open ended questions
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How will you...?
What happened after...?
List all of the....
How did...?
Can you tell me...?
How many ways can...?
What would happen if...?
Why do you think...?
How did you feel when...?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 31
Strategies
Scaffolding Oral Language
Repeating new language
• Child: Her in Hostabul
Adult: Yes, she went to the hospital.
• Child: trimba
Adult repeats word and may define: Did
you know timber is the wood from trees?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 32
Strategies
Scaffolding Oral Language
Rephrasing and modelling
• Student:- big monster, big and fat, very
good
Adult: Oh! You liked the big monster,
because he was big and fat.
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 33
Strategies
Scaffolding Oral Language
Extending
• Teacher uses what the student says and
builds on the utterances, to extend what
the student has said
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 34
Strategies
scaffolding Oral Language
Pause-prompt-praise
• Pause = Wait for the child to think.
• Prompt = Help the child by giving a key
word, or sound, or starting a sentence.
• Praise = Praise their efforts.
Praise the behaviour not the child
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 35
Reflection
• What did you learn from this
session?
• What skills/ understandings did you
need to participate
• How did you feel while doing/ after
the session?
• Have you seen/used similar
strategies in classrooms? what
made it effective? or not?
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 36
Homework task
Talk to the teacher about
• the homework task,
• the ways they use questioning techniques
to scaffold learning,
• particular children that require a lot of
scaffolding.
• Use the table on page 28 of the workbook
• Ask the teacher/s to verify, sign and date.
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 37
Glossary
• Words on the poster?
• Any words you want to note to find
out more about (Internet search,
ask a colleague)
• Add to the Glossary page at the
end of your workbook
Workshop 1
Session 4
Slide 38
Conclusion
Understanding our
learners and supporting
their learning
The Strong Literacy and Numeracy in Communities Pilot was funded by the Australian
Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations as part of the
Education Revolution – Improving Our Schools – National Action Plan for Literacy and Numeracy