1.Developing ESL, including refugee students, language andliteracy skills and the understanding of concepts throughmultimodal texts By Mallika Das Auburn Public School

2. Auburn Public School is a multiculturalschool with around 560 students located inSydneys mid western region. 98% ofstudents are bilingual and speak English as asecond language.Over 35 different languages are spoken,largest cultural groups are from turkey,Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Chinaand the Pacific Islands. A significant numberof families have refugee status resulting inmany students with disrupted or no priorschooling.Along with regular mainstream and special-ed classes the school also has two receptionclasses for newly arrived students, one forStage 1 and the other a multistage classwith students from stages 2 & 3. 3. In 2010 and 2011 I had a composite reception class of new arrival studentsincluding refugee students. The students ranged from years 3 to 6 and theirLanguage backgrounds included Dari, Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese andMandarin), Somali and Russian. All of them were first and second phase ESLlearners. I was part of PIEP program in 2010 and 2011. This program is Primary Intensive English Program which aims to support the language and literacy skills of newly arrived refugee students as well as their general health and well being as well as their participation in mainstream classroom. I had 19 students in the program in 2010 and 16 students in 2011. 4. The internet has added a new dimension to the way we access information. Today we live in a world which is constantly changing and becoming more and more technology oriented. Developing students understanding ofreading visual images and being able to create multimodal texts is very important. The multimodal nature of English is deeply integrated in all strands of theAustralian national curriculum.In the literacy strand, it is written that textsprovide the means for communication. They can be written, spoken ormultimodal, and in print or digital/online forms. Powerfully persuasive images and multimedia need to be met with equallypowerful tools for discussion, critique and analysis. One aspect of the multi-literacies concept is the use of a visual metalanguage to assist in this task...Teaching about visual literacy should provide students with a sound understandingof visual and multimodal texts(JONCALLOW AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2006, pp. 723) 5. 2010Rich Task:Students use movement and storytelling todevelop and present a narrative/performancethat explores effect of human activity onrainforest environment.5 6. Students looked at maps of theworld to locate rainforests areasand discuss the tropicalrainforests in particular. Students learned about thestructure, some flora and faunaof the Amazon Rainforest as wellas the Daintree rainforest andcompared the two rainforests. We went on an excursion to theRoyal Botanical Gardens toexperience and understand theflora of rainforest in more detail.6 7. Teaching and learning comprehensionstrategies The students read The Great Kapok Treeby Lynn Cherry and were taughtcomprehension skills and strategies such assequencing, visualising, concept maps, keywords, paraphrasing and main idea throughthis text. They also learnt the structure ofnarratives through graphic organisers andstory boards among other things. 7 8. Text Innovation based onThe Great Kapok Tree Students wrote their ownstory based in theDaintree Rainforest. Forthis, they undertookresearch work in groups,and decided on thesetting, characters andthe plot for their story.8 9. Writing our story on the computer They first produced theirstory on the computer using To Create a Super Story software. Students were very proud to see their stories in colour print!9 10. Producing the Big Book Students produceda big book of theirown story topresent andperhaps read it toKindergarten orYear 1 audience. 10 11. Presenting the Big Book11 12. Reading and presenting the Big Book to Kindergarten L12 13. Multi-lingual Big Book Students are so proud oftheir finished story bookthat we decided totranslate the story in otherlanguages and thought ofinviting parents for astorytelling session too! Students were invited bythe Australian Communityof Languages (ACL) topresent their Big Book toparents and communityduring Book Week. 13 14. Making Props and puppets for the movie 14 15. Getting ready for filming15 16. The Premiere INVITATIONYou are invited to the premiere of The Blue Fig TreeProduced and Directed By 4-6 D The Movie showJobs for the show 16 17. 2011 18. Action Inquiry: To support refugee students tointerpret the positions advocated by texts - Howauthors and illustrators can influence the reader to aparticular point of view through their choice oflanguage and images.Action Inquiry: To support refugee students readingand writing of multimodal, multimedia texts(differentways in which meaning can be created andcommunicated in the world today). 18 19. I introduced Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks to explicitlyteach my students how authors and illustrators can influence the reader to a particular point of view through their choice oflanguage and images. As we read the book Fox we evaluated visual messages by asking:- What am I looking at? What doesthis image mean to me?- What is the relationship betweenthe image and the displayed textmessage?- How is this message effective?- How do the pictures and textwork? LETTERING PICTURES the use of line, COLOUR TEXT ORIENTATION and LAYOUT 19 20. In picture books, there are two texts the words andthe images. As we read we put these two textstogether to form a composite text. Creating Images20 21. After creating images, students were shown how the pictures in a text work.For example - Foxs power over Magpie is communicated by Fox looking downon Magpie as she looks up at him.Students created their own books and tried to use some of their new found knowledge in their own illustrations.21 22. LAYOUT GIVEN AND NEW Given New What does it mean?Dog runs with Fox comesFox isMagpie.dangerous.into the ( haunted,. bush andfire and, Magpieflickers....like a trembles. tongue = scary like the snake?Dog andFox and Magpie has aMagpie atMagpierelationship with Fox thattheirtogether, does notpool,without Dog include Dog.together. 22 23. I chose Inanimate Alice, a digital story by Kate Pullinger to develop students critical andcreative reading and writing.Inanimate Alice tells the story of Alice, a young girl growing up inthe first half of the 21st century, and her imaginary digital friend, Brad.Inanimate Alice was created as a digital book; the immersive story allows users tointeract with the central character, Alice, and to help her advance into the story.Text, audio, video, special effects and gaming are all used to deliver the narrative in acompelling way. 23 24. We began with students reading episode 1 without sound then with sound to see thedifference of adding sound to a story. Later we discussed the various elementsindividually and their effect on a reader.24 25. 25 26. We discussed the meaning of inanimate. We We compared and contrastedthought the in might mean an opposite and different literacy media as readersanimate could be related to cartoons andanimation. We had learnt about here, hiddenand head questions. So we made some of ourown.26 27. 27 28. 28 29. Creating Inanimate Alice, Episode-5Students createdepisode-5 of inanimateAlice usingPowerpoint andPhotostory. Discussionon issues of copyrightand publicity consentfor photos took placeand decision was takennot to use photos ofpeople. 30 30. Student Outcomes Rich tasks resulted in enhancing studentslanguage and literacy skills as well asdeveloping their confidence and engagement. Learning to read and creating multimedia texthas given the students an essential tool forlearning across the curriculum. Students are able to achieve the stageappropriate learning about outcomes. 31. 6 5 ESL Scales4 3 2 1 054Oral Interaction3210 3.5Reading & Responding 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Writing32 32. Reflection It is possible to teach newly arrived studentscomprehension skills even though they may notbe fluent at decoding skills with the use ofmultimodal stories. With high challenge and high support ESL andrefugee students can achieve beyond ourexpectations. I believe that we must teach children to thrive inthis century rather than preparing for the last.The need for creative and critical thinkers is neverbeen more needed.