My head is buzzing ideas, some more challenging that others….
1. Playing with your food…..
Recently a colleague and I were discussing play based learning and using multi sensory approaches to help our very young bilingual learners with their phonological awareness and phonetic knowledge. We made a list of things we could use:
shaving foam, paint, mud, pasta…..
At this point my colleague stopped and said “You know one of my nurseries is against using food as a play medium’
At first I was questioning this as I’ve always made play dough with learners, used spaghetti to hide letters, and even jelly to make brains at Halloween! After some further discussion, she told me the head teacher’s reasoning was that in our very deprived area, the children are exposed to food poverty and she thought it sent a bad message. That we, the staff, had so much food, we could afford to play with it.
This made me pause. It made me uncomfortable. I had never even considered this to be a possibility even though I keep spare dinner tickets and biscuits for children who come to school hungry.
I decided this would be my first ‘itch’. I searched twitter and googled.
Many of the points raised in the above article are valid and I’m still deciding how I feel about using food, especially from a Learning for sustainability view.
2. Teachers attitudes to bilingual learners……
My second came from my day to day teaching. As an EAL teacher, I know the benefits of being bilingual and the richness a multicultural schools provides for all pupils. However recently, I’ve heard unhelpful comments and some very disappointing statements from class teachers. Does this come from fear of the unknown or pressures to produce and have child on track? How can we make a more welcoming ethos?
So much to think and ponder………
Great wee initial ‘itch’. The EAL comments really interest me. As a Principal Teacher of Foreign Languages very often the pupils in the Secondary setting are ‘pulled’ from my language class as they are seen not to be able to cope, when English is foreign for them! It infuriates me enormously! EAL pupils often have a willingness for language that the ‘natives’ struggle to grasp. Learning other languages enables children and young people to make connections with different people and their cultures and to play a fuller part as global citizens. Don’t stop fighting for these pupils!
My son, who has just started High School was in a primary school considered to be SIMD1-2 and where food poverty was part of their daily fabric. They thought about ‘playing with your food’ in a very different way. They worked hard with their PEF monies to involve parents and the wider community in ‘Food for Life’ activities helping to build healthy food cultures and resourceful, resilient communities. Just a few thoughts.
Thanks for your comment! It was hard to keep to 300 words!
I will definitely keep fighting the fight. It’s good to know there are others who understand and see the value of bilingualism!
Hi Claire,
Such interesting points raised in your first blog – thanks for sharing!
I undertook an enquiry into joint learning interventions with EAL families where parents supported their children in dedicated literacy sessions using their home language. It made me look further into understanding ‘deficit’ views around home language versus dominant language. Lynn Tett has written about ‘family literacy.’
Tett (2000) writes that, ‘if families are to be real partners in their children’s education, then they must be able to share power, responsibility, and ownership with [education settings] in ways that show a high degree of mutuality’ (p. 2).
Tett (2000) argues that, ‘if the range of literacy activities that people already engage in and feel comfortable about can be built on, then some of these deficit views (Gregory, 1996) can be challenged and parents can be helped to see that they are competent first teachers of their children’ (p. 2).
In my enquiry I realised we had processes and structures for parental engagement but that we had hadn’t professional learning around the complexities of dominant language and home language.
Tett, L. (2000) ‘Excluded voices: Class Culture and Family Literacy in Scotland’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 44 (2) p. 122-8.
Gregory, E. (1996). Learning from the community. In S. Wolfendale &K. Topping (Eds) Family involvement in literacy. London: Casell. p. 89 – 102.
Struggling to access an online version of Tett (2000) to share with you but some of her other work is available on http://www.core.ac.uk including
https://core.ac.uk/reader/5224639
Long comment – hope it’s not too waffly!
Let me know questions or comments!
Lise
Not waffly at all!
Thanks for the reading. I am thinking of leaning towards something about home language or perceptions of EAL learners in our schools. I have been trying to get parental engagement groups running and found the parents aren’t keen to interact with the school. Could this be because of the message we are unintentionally sending to families?
Good question. Changing the language is important around our schools to ‘parents we haven’t engaged with yet.’
I also struggled with the 300 words. I wrote my post, then cut it down and it ended up being 299!
The food article is interesting, as I was reading it I was questioning how I use resources in the classroom. As with most things in teaching, it is worth trying to take an objective look at ‘tried and tested’ activities now and then. I don’t think it can be a hard and fast rule either way, as the twitter article pointed out swapping pasta or rice for plastic brings it’s own considerations. Is mass produced Play-Doh delivered in 12 hours from Amazon Prime better than knocking together some of your own?
What about dried beans in an old plastic water bottle for a shaker. Is that contributing to the use of plastic and wasting food, or re-using a bottle which has already been bought and using a small amount of food to make a resource which will last for a long time?
I’m playing devil’s advocate with no clear answer myself.
I find this has also made me question the use of food for play. I previously was a nursery teacher, within a deprived area, and would encourage play through the exploration of food and sensory stimulus. Although within the sector I find myself now I don’t use it as often due to the nature of the young people and the traumas they bring with them. Subconscious knowledge or use of a different teaching approach?????
Thank you for making me think.
Hi Claire,
Firstly your blog looks great! Your ideas about EAL is one that really sparked my interest. I had a pupil last year in my class from Romania, who started P4 with no English and I have to admit at first I was lost at where to start. At the end of the year the pupil in question was speaking, reading and writing in English with confidence. I can say that this was one of the most rewarding things to happen to me in my career so far.
So lovely to read 🙂