Hero photograph
 
Photo by Leoni Combrink

The link between ELL and mainstream programmes

Rebecca Donaldson & Lesley Cowie - Within school Kāhui Ako teachers, Hagley College —

As part of our project inquiring into the link between ELL and mainstream programmes and working to improve learning pathways between the programmes, we are teaching a NCEA level one English class.

This class intentionally includes students for whom English is their first language and students for whom English is not their first language.

Students using their first language is encouraged (translanguaging) — Image by: Leoni Combrink


Our twelve ELL students speak seven languages including, Tagalog, Mandarin, Fijian, Samoan, Somali, Portuguese, Spanish. There are 33 students in the class and fourteen of them have a first language that is not English. Twelve of these students have been in New Zealand for three years or less. The students are between the ages of 14-20 years old.

Rebeca and Lesley planning ?


Our focus has been on social interaction with the goal of developing social connections as well as English skills and strategies. This mix of students has resulted in a diverse range of ages, languages, cultures and prior experiences. This diversity has meant that all students are able to access a range of different perspectives on the texts we are reading. This will have the effect of improving all of our students’ critical literacy skills by helping them to understand that there are multiple readings of a text. By focusing on Achievement Standards, we are establishing high expectations for all students and providing new academic pathways for multi-lingual learners. One of our aims is to improve learning pathways between ELL and mainstream programmes in English and to investigate if this connects to other subject areas. So far we are both really enjoying teaching this class.

Students using their first language is encouraged (translanguaging) — Image by: Leoni Combrink


 Next steps include incorporating ways to help multilingual learners in other mainstream classes. This includes identifying a focus group of students and teachers which has started already. We are also planning to mentor a cohort of multi lingual students in mainstream classes and work with the new teacher’s induction programme to discuss multilingual learners in their classes. We will be sharing strategies that are working in our class that other teachers can use with their multi lingual learners. This will include strategies that can help all learners.

Sharing our thinking about connections whole class after some time in partner sessions.