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Oct 2022 Art- Technical drawing skills and developing schemes of work for KS3/4/5 JAWS (Hybrid)
The British International School, New Delhi
2 December 2022
The British School New Delhi (BSND) hosted EJAWS on ‘Elevating the EAL Framework for Personalised Provision’ on 2 December, 2022. The online event saw participation by over 30 attendees from 22 different FOBISIA schools. At the British School New Delhi, we implement intentional and practical strategies to create a safe environment for our multilingual students.
This eJAWS was a series of sessions with practical ideas on the steps taken at the BSND to capitalise on students’ background experiences so as to maximise language development and academic performance. The very first session of the day set the tone for ‘elevating’ the existing EAL framework. The participants broke off into smaller groups to connect, extend and challenge each other. They connected by reflecting on their practices, extending their ideas for supporting multilingual learners in their schools.
Following the icebreaker, ‘Personalised EAL Provision for Language Acquisition and Growth’ session talked about the current practices in place for further differentiation at BSND. The presenters gave an overview of transition, differentiation and mastery level programmes for EAL that cater to the needs of emergent, developing as well as learners
who are ready to be reintegrated to the mainstream classroom. An enriching dialogue followed about the need to identify and support multilingual learners at the right time with the right intervention.
Bangkok Patana School presented an engaging and valuable session on Translanguaging for Supporting Cultural and Cognitive Growth with a focus on their current HoLa (or Home Language) practices in place for Year 1 and Year 2. This session helped the presenters as well as the attendees to fine tune their own translanguaging practices. A key takeaway being inclusion of the parents and Year 13 learners as resources for HoLa translations.
Language cannot be taught in a vacuum, and the session on ‘Building Academic Capacity - Content and Language Integrated Learning’ focussed on using language to build the content knowledge of multilingual learners. CLIL strategies were shared during the session to help the attendees understand the importance of using CLIL in the classrooms. A great dialogue followed with the various activities that engaged the participants.
As a befitting end to the idea of elevating EAL framework and support, the final session of the day focussed on ‘Integrating Culturally Responsive Pedagogies’. The session provided the attendees with an understanding of ‘What is Culture?’ and ‘Why Culturally Responsive Teaching (or CRT) is the need of the hour?’. The 7 Principles of CRT were explained in detail with exemplars from the classroom. The survey at the end of the session gave participants an opportunity to discuss their practices vis a vis each principle.
Ms. Vanita Uppal OBE, Director - BSND , reiterated the school’s vision of considering all teachers as teachers of language and language as the gateway to culture. The workshop attendees left enriched with concrete strategies to help multilingual students access grade level curriculum across the school (EYFS-IB) to validate, honour, and affirm students’ language and literacy while helping them attain higher levels of academic success.
By Karishma Nirula, Kshithi Singh, Parul Mehrotra & Bindu Grover
The British School New Delhi India
