complexity everywhere: communication, collaboration and emergence
Last Friday I was lucky enough to be part of a big professional development drive at the school where I work. Myself and 12 other local (Indonesian) teachers ran a total of 24 workshop sessions for 130 teachers with a focus on CLIL strategies. However, I’m not going to write about that just yet.
What I do want to write about is a ‘moment’ I had during the keynote session, led by our Director Erik Hoekstra. Erik showed this TED talk by Sugata Mitra on his learning experiments and Hole in the Wall Education – if you haven’t watched it, go and do so right now!
Now, the day before this keynote one of my colleagues and I were discussing communication. Diana was saying, ‘I can find lots of evidence showing that communication really helps learn languages, but nothing to prove it helps learning in other content areas… How can we convince the staff about the importance of Communication (in CLIL) if there is no research supporting it.’ A 30 minute google search appeared to confirm that she was right. Lots of stuff on ELT but nothing on content. There were a few lines from the IB MYP, but nothing really substantial. So when Sugata Mitra described an experiment where the learners achieved more than 100% learning recall 3 months after performing a communicative and cooperative task, we exchanged a knowing glance and Diana updated her workshop presentation. Serendipitous?
But the real reason I’m writing this, is down to Mr Mitra’s final line in the TED talk. He says that he believes, ‘Education is a self organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon…‘
Emergence. Cropping up again.
I’ve recently been brave enough to talk to a number of teachers (both ESL and mainstream) about emergent phenomenon and the Dogme approach to ELT and been surprised that, rather than shying away from it as if it were some weird pagan ritual being performed in St.Peter’s, most people were, at the very least, interested. My reluctance to discuss these ideas has mainly been down to the ‘magical’ element of emergence. The idea you get something for nothing, or that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That in additional language learning, complex language can emerge, mysteriously, from a cauldron of simple words and basic structures. In the past, such conversations with colleagues resulted in raised eyebrows and a ‘here he goes again’ glazing of the eyes. But not now, those I talk to seem more receptive… why?
Following these conversations, I’ve noticed the idea of emergence cropping up round every corner. News articles, blog posts, youtube videos, internet forums, colleagues, and now a keynote address to our entire staff… almost as if the idea of emergence in teaching is emerging in to the consciousness of the, and my, teaching/learning community all on its own.
Just like magic.
the curious incident of the dog(me) in the pyp classroom
So we’ve just started school again after a rather cool 10 days off for the end of Ramadan (Idul Fitri) celebrations.
In my previous post I outlined how I plan to try an unplugged approach once a week with the aim of developing language of a BICS type. I didn’t plan to start this until after we had settled back in after the break.
In my grade-2 class we have regular news sharing sessions followed by journal writing and this was to be the plan for our first lesson back. I say ‘plan’, but besides the fact that it was an opportune time to share news, I’d also been working hard on a CLIL workshop we are presenting next week and hadn’t had time to prepare any materials for the other stuff currently on our learning agenda. In short, I was ready for a familiar, comforting, prep free routine: students in pairs on the carpet share their holiday news; open-class, students report on their partner’s holidays; retreat to desks; take a look at their recount writing checklists; write their news in their journals and draw a picture.
But then…
A few minutes before going in to class I stumbled across this post by @chrisozog: teacher training unplugged 2 in which he describes an activity thought up by Jason Renshaw that hinges on a phone conversation. This gave me an idea that seeded this lesson, of dogme ilk, with a class of 23 seven year olds.
Procedure
- kids came in to class and sat down on our big ‘sharing’ carpet.
- we started to exchange pleasantries when my phone “suddenly” rang (prearranged).
- I show kids the screen… yay! It’s my dad… calling from England!
- I ask kids permission to answer the phone as I haven’t spoken to my dad for so long. They agree (giggling).
- I ask them to sit quietly and invite them to listen.
- My dad asks me questions about my holiday and I tell him: …went to beach… with Patrick (son) and Lene (wife)… last Wednesday… because it was a beautiful sunny day… I went surfing… Lene sunbathed… Pat made a sandcastle… postcard? no, sorry… okay, I promise I’ll send a postcard… miss you daddy (more giggles from kids)… got to go now!
- Kids straight away start asking questions: was it really your dad? where is he? Is he Patrick’s grandad? Excitement is rife.
- We chat for a while, then I ask the kids to help me reconstruct the text. We go through what I said on the phone, and they suggest the questions that he asked. I board the questions:
- Where did you go on holiday? Who did you go with? When? Why? What did you do there?
- Everyone’s excited about the idea of me writing a postcard to my Dad telling him about my holidays. I ask if they know anyone who would like to get a postcard from them. They all do.
- The kids use the questions on the board to scaffold a plan for their own postcards. I board some more of the language that emerges (holiday activities) and we look at the tense that’s cropping up.
- Together we create some aims for the leasson (WALT and WILF, for those familiar with the terms)
- They write a draft for their postcards and I print off some funky looking postcard templates I have saved. Everyone is super excited about the giant postcards with colourful borders.
- Myself and the other two teachers (I did mention that I’m lucky to have two teachers in my class supporting me, didn’t I?) check their drafts and do some editing.
- They publish their work on the postcards and design some pictures for the front.
- Finally, they check the class aims and assess their own achievement.
Reflection
Learning Spaces
I took a scout around the school grounds looking for a variety of uncluttered spaces to run my Dogme sessions.
A few pics:
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Dogme in the PYP
This is the first post of a series documenting my experiment in an approach to language learning known as Dogme. Subsequent posts will be ‘hands-on’ with pics and descriptions of actual learning, I promise!
The need to communicate is instinctive. The development of language is fundamental to that need to communicate; it supports and enhances our thinking and understanding. Language permeates the world in which we live; it is socially constructed and dependent on the number and nature of our social interactions and relationships.
The quote above is taken from the very first paragraph in the PYP language scope and sequence – a chapter titled ‘What the PYP believes about learning language.’
For a number of reasons I want to get more ‘language’ in to my English lessons with grade-2, particularly in the area of BICS (Basic Interpersonal Language Skills) and the vocabulary and functional language which are an essential component.
Why? Well… because 99% of the kids at our school are learning English as a second or third language. Teaching an integrated curriculum through English submersion… ermmm, I mean, immersion… ensures the kids pick up a fairly decent academic vocabulary during their time at school. I hear upper-grade kids wielding conceptually challenging IB keywords like ‘reflective’, ‘collabarative’ and ‘transdisciplinary’ with ease; words I myself knew nothing of until much later in my life. However in the school canteen a different story unfolds. The same kids don’t know the English words for the food they are buying, they don’t know how to ask for things in a polite and acceptable manner and they don’t know the language of taking turns.
In short, the kids are becoming diglossic: they have an English vocabulary for their class work, but their everyday social vocabulary is that of the first language – Indonesian for most of them. They struggle to use their first language to talk about academic content and they cannot communicate sufficiently in English outside school.
Doesn’t the PYP Scope and Sequence allow coverage of this type of language? Well, yes. But it’s hidden within some quite innocuous outcomes that are probably often overlooked by literacy teachers trained in a first language setting:
use language for a variety of personal purposes (Speaking and Listening Continuum)
or
understand and use specific vocabulary to suit different purposes
Those two sentences could conceivably encapsulate the entire wealth of language included in BICS. Depending on the situation of the school, letting BICS slide may be no big deal. For EAL learners in a school in an English speaking country for example, BICS type language would be encountered everywhere they were to go: the school canteen, shops, the local playground or swimming pool, the bus stop. Likewise in an International school with a multi-national student population there would be an established need to use English as a lingua franca in the playground. As a result exposure to everyday functional language occurs regularly.
Our school is a little different. The kids are largely mono-lingual Indonesian/Javanese speakers so it’s natural that they speak their mother tongue in the playground. Furthermore, English is rarely encountered outside the school gates, either in public or at home. Subsequently everything goes against the kids when it comes to developing basic language communicative competence. I believe this also has a knock on effect which ultimately affects their ability to communicate academically, particularly in the later years of high school where systemic errors in basic language affect the coherence of students trying to communicate deeper understandings and thinking.
About Dogme
Dogme is a communicative approach to language learning that I think sits very nicely with the IB’s inquiry programme and philosphy about both language and learning.
It’s conversation driven and ‘places more value on communication that promotes social interaction.’ It’s a materials light, learner-centred approach where ‘student produced material is preferable to published materials and textbooks’, an idea that is inline with the PYP philosophy of inquiry learning. Finally, Dogme has a focus on emergent language. The teacher’s job is to facilitate and draw attention to emerging language, the tip-of-the-tongue language which is ordinarily just outside of a learner’s reach but occasionally spills out into actuality. The notion of facilitating emergent language sits nicely with Vygotsky’s idea of the Zone of Proximal Development – also a corner stone of ‘guided inquiry’ in the IB Primary Years Programme.
Dogme is often delivered in an ‘open-space’ environment and has parallels to open-space learning which you can read about on the University of Warwick site here. I’m very lucky in that I have two extra teachers with me in class, so there’s a real possibility of creating a number of different open space learning environments to account for different interests and learning styles.
Why is all this appealing to me?
Well…
- Dogme is materials light – We don’t have many ESL resources anyway, and I’m not fond of course books for young learners. I also have major time constraints: I do have time to plan provocations that could trigger conversations leading to emergent language, but I do not have time to create additional resources.
- Dogme is learner centred.
- I can hit speaking and listening outcomes from the Scope and Sequence as I go (with some forethought about assessment strategies)
- It’s different! I think both the kids and I would like to try something new.
- There are lots of opportunity for differentiation – one of my p.d. goals.
That was a lot of talk, but my next post tomorrow will begin to document the ‘walk’.
For all messy teachers
“If an untidy desk signifies an untidy mind, what does an empty desk signify?” – A. Einstein -
On ‘observation’ lessons
Taken from a new post ‘P’ is for Practicum on Scott Thornbury’s blog ‘An A-Z of ELT‘. Scott criticises the way teachers are observed during their pre-service training courses.
The trainer’s role, as silent, impassive observer, noting every move, and delivering the feedback retrospectively, seems to run counter to what we now understand about skill acquisition. Cognitive learning theory has long recognised that feedback in ‘real operating conditions’—i.e. while you’re actually engaged in a task —is generally more powerful and more durable than feedback delivered after the event.
This is, of course, also how the majority of schools appraise their in service teachers. This example of ‘double standards’ – the way we facilitate our own learning being diametrically opposed to how we want our students to learn – has always irked me.
What other examples of teacher development have you experienced that would be completely taboo in your own lessons?
Ken Robinson interview: creativity
I like the recurring message here: creativity can be learnt. There are processes and skills we can learn which lead to creativity.
