Writing at Key Stage 2 and 3

Activity 5.1
Student Teachers’ Own Language Resources

Not all student teachers are confident to share their language experiences and skills in front of a large group and it sometimes does take a little while to establish an environment where student teachers feel secure enough to do this. However, once we have managed to overcome the barriers, we usually uncover a huge source of language experiences in our midst from which we were able to make vital links to classroom practice.

Student teachers are asked:

• Can you speak another language or read/write another script?
• Would you share a favourite story or poem/rhyme in another language?

Some student teachers are usually willing to have a go. Those listening are asked:

• Can you recognise the text type?
• Can you recognise any similarities in the language structures – any repeated phrases or intonations?
• Can you recognise any sounds, rhymes or rhythms?

This activity results in us sharing, for example:

• a Punjabi nursery rhyme with actions and gestures very similar to the English version of Round and Round the Market
• a reading of Hansel and Gretel in Spanish
• a reading of the Hare and the Tortoise in Gujarati.

Activity 5.2
Discussing Language Diversity

This discussion can also be supported by photocopies of extracts from Charmian Kenner’s Home Pages (2003) or her chapter in Bearne et al (2003) Classroom Interactions in Literacy.

Student teachers discuss the following statement:

EAL learners who already know the sound system of another language and the principles of phonology and spelling can bring that awareness to bear when learning to read and write in English … Managed carefully, talking about literacy in languages other than English can help EAL pupils to identify points of similarity and difference between languages at word, sentence and text level (DfEE, 1998: 107).

Comments from Activity 5.1 are mounted on card and used as a stimulus for this activity. In one instance, they included:

• I grew up in Gibraltar and we weren’t allowed to speak Spanish at school. We were too scared … but it would have helped us.
• My grandmother wrote down the Gujarati symbols next to the English sounds because she wanted me to speak Gujarati.
• I have always been told I am very good at writing. I think that is because my grandfather was in the Indian Army and he always insisted that we spoke in Standard English.
• Actually I felt really proud that I had taken part in this activity. I’d forgotten the Gujarati so I wrote in English – just how I’d pronounce it in Gujarati.

Activity 5.3
Focusing on Language

This Activity uses the findings from Activity 5.2 plus pages 91-94 of Charmian Kenner’s chapter ‘A Pedagogy for Bilingual Children’ in Bearne et al. (2003) which gives examples of bilingual children’s knowledge and capabilities.

The student teachers’ comments from Activity 5.3 are re-introduced along with some of the additional comments on cards:

• There are parts of speech that we miss out …
• We have 36 letters in Punjabi – you have … less!
• When you learn two languages it tunes you into language

These cards are then considered alongside the notion of an interactive classroom pedagogy as described in Charmian Kenner’s model. The following quotation gives a flavour of her views but it is best to read parts of Home Pages or her chapter in Classroom Interactions in Literacy.

Once having begun to make links with bilingual pupils’ educational experiences outside the mainstream classroom, teachers can conduct an ongoing dialogue with children and families which enriches learning. This dialogue can include remaining aware of children’s current home and community interest and celebrating Saturday school work for example, by making a photo display of children who attend Saturday classes and noticing their achievements. In Britain, children can now be encouraged to record their knowledge in the European Language Portfolio designed for use in school (Kenner, 2000)…

Where multilingual activities have been incorporated into the curriculum, teachers can direct parents’ attention to the texts made by children and what has been learned from them, and this discussion can take place with monolingual as well as bilingual parents…. This interactive pedagogy can also be pursued with children in the upper primary years and with young people in secondary school.’ (Kenner, 2003: 100).

The student teachers can be asked to discuss practical strategies for the classroom to develop this sort of pedagogy and to share school experiences of seeing bilingual pupils’ writing being valued in the classroom.