Teaching Language
through Thinking in
Science Project
Project team
 Matt Dickenson, LG&T, matt.dickenson@londongt.org
 Ian Warwick, LG&T, ian.warwick@londongt.org
 Manny Vazquez, Hounslow Language Service,
manny.vazquez@hounslow.gov.uk
 Pat O’Brien, Independent Consultant, ttc31@aol.com
 Helen Wilson, Oxford Brookes University,
h.wilson@brookes.ac.uk
Building on the REAL Project
 National project to improve quality of
gifted and talented education in
England
 Positive model for inclusion –
realising equality of access and
achievement for disadvantaged and
under-represented learners
 Engaging with 50 local education
authorities and 1,500 schools
 Transforming approaches to gifted
education
www.realproject.org.uk
The REAL toolkit
www.realproject.org.uk
DVD Programmes
1. New arrivals. All new arrivals can be
assessed as potentially gifted and talented
2. Advanced learners. High challenge for
G&T pupils who are learning EAL.
Developing linguistic and cultural capital
3. Pupils, parents and communities. The
voice of communities and their attitudes to
G&T. Recognising culturally specific gifts,
talents and capital
4. Mentoring. Positive models of mentoring
learners from BME backgrounds
Core values for an inclusive G&T strategy
 All learners are entitled to be stretched and challenged –
high challenge, low threshold learning (making high
challenge accessible, not exclusive)
 The most effective G&T provision is rooted in good teaching
and learning within the classroom (not outside it)
 G&T is expertise in a development stage – knowledge,
skills and experience for the future (it is not about the past)
 Classroom G&T should focus on developing positive
learning behaviours in all learners (not just the identified
gifted and talented)
Academic literacy
Developing a working understanding for science
What is academic literacy?
the ability of a person to use speaking, listening and thinking to
learn what they need to learn and to communicate that to
others in a form which demonstrates their learning
Melzer
What is academic literacy?

learning as well as communication

depends on what student is being prepared for…

reflects what educators recognise as the intellectual and
practical abilities of their successful students

involves positive learning behaviours, subject skills, task
commitment; past, current and potential achievement

involves all four skills – speaking, listening, reading and
writing, but is normally heavily weighted in favour of writing
and formal communication
Academic writing

is difficult (should be cognitively demanding)

tends to have an argument

conforms to certain rules which vary from one context to
another, e.g. genre - formal vs. informal, everyday vs.
specialist

involves repeated interaction, e.g. drafting and redrafting

takes time to develop
Academic writing and talk require students to:
 adopt an ‘other voice’ – this can be third person
academic, specific role or position in argument, etc.
 exercise control over register, vocabulary etc
 operate within specific boundaries whilst demonstrating
critical skill
 develop an library of effective strategies to meet the
demands of different contexts