Planning for ESL teaching

1. Sydney Region
ESL Network meeting
Presenter: Janet Freeman
ESL/Multicultural Consultant K-6
janet.freeman@det.nsw.edu.au

2. Acknowledgement of country

3. Up dating ERN data
• Identify all new arrivals in Maintain ESL
• make a list from each grade
• Assess for phase
• Enter phase data in Maintain ESL
• Enter date of assessment
• Amend phase data for all students
Phase 1 for 12 months
• Amend phase data for all students
Phase 2 for 3 or more years

4. What underpins an ESL program
BICS AND CALP
According to Cummins (1984), there are 2 stages of
language proficiency. The first stage includes Basic
Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and the
second stage is Cognitive/Academic Language
Proficiency (CALP).
– It takes 1-2 years for a new ESL student to be fluent in
the first stage (BICS).
– It takes 5 – 7years for an ESL student to develop
proficiency in CALP with ESL support.
While these stages are sequential they may overlap in
acquisition

5. Timetabling ESL support
ESL new arrivals support should be provided to
NAP students in years 2-6 for 1-2 terms who have
little or no English
• NAP support should provide students with
survival skills to negotiate school and support
basic literacy and language across the KLA’s.
• NAP support should be provided daily for 45-60
minutes
• NAP support should have clear goals and a
structured program

6. Timetabling ESL support
ESL support may be provided to kindergarten who
have little or no English in the context of a play-
based language program across KLA’s in class.
• It is NOT recommended that kindergarten or yr1
new arrivals be withdrawn for NAP support. They
need to become accustomed to their class and
teacher.
• For young students who are new arrivals,
language support is best provided in the
classroom where they feel safe.

7. Timetabling ESL support
ESL support for phase 2-3 students across the
school should aim to build academic language in
the Key Learning Areas
• It is NOT recommended that ESL teachers provide
support during guided reading with a guided
reader!
• Guided readers DO NOT provide the academic
language students need to hear, say, read and
write in order to learn.
• Where possible aim to provide a focused
language and literacy program within a KLA.

8. Planning for teaching
Identify
The students in grades 2-6 who require ESL
support. These students
• Will not be achieving stage outcomes in
English in reading or writing (although they
may be speaking quite confidently in English)

9. Planning for teaching
Identify
When, how often and how you will provide the
focused language program
• It is not always possible to provide ESL support in
every classroom everyday. 3-4 times pwk is good
• Once you have identified the numbers of
students across a grade/stage you may need to
negotiate how you provide the support.
• A parallel lesson that runs at the same time may
be the best option

10. Planning for teaching
Identify
• School focus (writing, mathematics, talking)
• Grade focus (Australian animals, planets, food)
• The syllabus outline for the outcomes
• The technical language demands of the unit
• The grammatical language demands
• The assessment task/ any differentiation
• The activities you will need to create to assist
students achievement

11. The ESL Program
An ESL program should be written for every
group/class or grade you support listing the target students
It should include:
• the KLA outcomes/English outcomes
• ESL Scales level/s for each macro skill
• A list of the target language and grammar focus
• The text/s the students will read
• An explanation of the activities the students will do to
achieve the outcomes
• A rubric or marking criteria for the final assessment

12. The role of talk
• Consider, in relation to oral language use, the
relationship between talk and learning and
task design (the role of teacher talk, students’
participation opportunities, the role of L1 etc
and the selection, sequencing and pacing of
activities plus the resources used all support
language development).

13. risk taking
constructing
persuading
deconstructing
reviewing
reconstructing
Critically TALK explaining
analysing deducing
Facilitates
hypothesising
questioning describing
recounting
negotiating
instructing

14. ESL specialist knowledge

15. Language based
Communicative activities
Communicative activities provide students with the
opportunity to hear and use language.
They provide a situation where there is a need to
use language in order to do the task.
Communicative activities use pair and group
organisation and ESL students can be paired with a
more proficient language model. The language
needed to participate in the task must be
introduced to the student before the task begins.

16. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
(language
(language
accompanying
in reflection)
action)

17. The dynamic nature of oral interaction around a task.
Jackie: Let it go. You gotta … you gotta count.
Craig: No, you. I’m doing this.
Jackie: You’re moving it with your hand. It won’t …
Paula: Hang on. If … What if … um … Let’s get a …
Jackie: Yeah … we could hang it from the desk.
Craig: How?
Jackie: I dunno. Where’s … what about …
Paula: Stickytape!
Craig: No, it … it’d come off. Got a thumbtack?…
Here. Put it here.

18. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
(language
(language
accompanying
in reflection)
action)
task-based
group work

19. Unplanned reflection on task (loose structuring)
Craig: We got the … made the … pendulum thing … that
had a bit of a … on … a … just of bit of string and a
bit of plasticine … and to tie that on and sort of …
then we made a …
Jackie: … stuck it to the desk …
Craig: …to the desk
and then we had to put it up higher
because it was too long
and it would’ve hit the ground
so we put the books under the desk
and then we had trouble … um …
because it wouldn’t work properly
and we kept making the string longer
and we … um … we got about 58 centimetres … no
…58 seconds … and 60 things … but we never got it
exact … the right amount.

20. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
(language
(language
accompanying
in reflection)
action)
task-based
group work
reflection
on task
(unprepared)

21. Planned oral presentation

22. Planned oral presentation
Paula:
We had to make a pendulum that would swing 60 times in a
minute. First we got a string, some plasticine and a
stopwatch … and a ruler. There were two ways we tried to
measure the pendulum - first by changing the length of the
string and secondly by changing the amount of plasticine …
the weight.
When the string was 75 centimetres long it took 57 seconds
to get 60 swings. Then we kept repeating the experiment
and changing the length and the weight, but we couldn’t get
the velocity exact.
We think that the longer the string is the longer time it takes.

23. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
(language
(language
accompanying
in reflection)
action)
task-based
group work
reflection oral
on task presentation
(unprepared) (prepared)

24. ‘Our conclusion …’
A pendulum consists of a weight suspended
on a string, rod or wire. When the weight is
moved and let go, the pendulum will swing
back and forth in a regular motion.
The frequency of the pendulum swing
depends on the length of the string or wire.
The shorter the wire, the greater the
frequency or how fast it goes back and forth.
If you know the length of the pendulum, you
can work out its frequency.

25. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
(language
(language
accompanying
in reflection)
action)
task-based written final
group work notes draft
reflection oral jointly-
on task presentation constructed
(unprepared) (prepared) text

26. the mode continuum
‘spoken’ ‘written’
• dialogue (interactive, jointly constructed) • monologue (sole responsibility)
• spontaneous, fleeting • planned, frozen
(time available for reflection)
• ‘first draft’ • ‘edited’ (eg sifting relevant from irrelevant)
• flowing (grammatical intricacy) • compact
• lexically sparse • lexically dense
• independent of context
• embedded in context
(distanced in time & space)
• tentative exploration, clarifying • consolidation of knowledge,
thinking, making mistakes (making ‘deeper’ connections,
filling gaps, pulling threads together)
• oral features • written features
(intonation, volume, pitch, pauses, stress) (handwriting, punctuation, layout)