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If you work on #EAL in a school and leadership is not fully behind you, supporting, encouraging, enabling, then it is hard, hard work and I think you can be proud of any small achievements. Here’s to you all.
EAL teacher retweeted
Do you want to find out about primary schools with fantastic EAL practice? Watch the short videos at theealacademy.co.uk/eal-in-p…. @EqualiTeach @EALOxon @EALGlasgow @EALteach
‘knows more English than they let on’ - on a transition note about a pupil who arrived in the country new to English a few months ago. I find the attitude concerning - am determined to make sure that child will be surrounded by empathetic adults and all the support they need.
EAL teacher retweeted
If news orgs wanted to, they could fire up the live blog. They could give minute-by-minute updates. They could fill the time with interviews from naval and coast guard experts. We could learn about the human stories of the people on this boat. We could be made to empathise.
EAL teacher retweeted
My new post on #EAL Learning Postcards: "Is this normal? -encouraging #ParentalEngagement"
eal.pjb.co.uk/index.php/blog…
Thank you @Jmosley_history for the original Learning Postcard idea.
EAL teacher retweeted
Robert Jenrick: taking action on the people’s priorities, which apparently now includes making children feel less safe & welcome.
I can barely find words to express how despicable this is & @RobertJenrick should be made to answer for it.
This craven villainy represents no one.
#EAL pupil labelled ‘lazy’ by a teacher without considering the challenges the child faces, which are considerable 😔
I want to say it’s ‘lazy’ not to seek answers as to what’s going on…
But I stop and reflect on what’s gone wrong here, because that all needs addressing!
EAL teacher retweeted
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate, value and enjoy those languages, but a sense of loss has definitely been my companion for as long as I can remember.
Prob why I advocate so much both professionally & personally for children not losing their linguistic & cultural heritages. (2/3)
EAL teacher retweeted
One of the most powerful analogies by Pauline Gibbons explaining why content and language teaching in our classrooms needs to happen simultaneously.
#multilingual #EAL #MLs
EAL teacher retweeted
The 2023 Schools Census data is now available. It tells us that the both the number and the proportion of EAL pupils are continuing to rise.
@PLSEALDep @rs_EAL @EALteach @BetterBilingual @FrankMonaghan @FranNantongwe
EAL teacher retweeted
🧵Lots to digest from the @EngMediaCentre @__BAAL
symposium on Challenging Linguistic Discrimination.
@KhawlaBadwan delivered a fab keynote w/loads of important ideas about language, literacy & literacy monsters, arguing for a 'plurilithic' not 'monolithic' view of literacy. 1.
“You’re getting smarter” said a well meaning teacher of a 11 yr old EAL pupil, referring to her progress in learning English. I winced at the word choice. “She’s smart already”, I said in the pupil’s defence, “She speaks 2 languages, for example”.
“3” corrected the pupil.
🙌
EAL teacher retweeted
We should both collect #EAL proficiency data in England AND invest in doing that collection properly. The brief period in which it was collected nationally was characterised by an absence of central guidance, moderation or quality assurance.
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This anecdote is so important when we consider phonics teaching and #EAL
This was on my to buy list for a while. I finally ordered it, prompted by @EALteach. It reminded me of a bemused Polish child sitting in the imageless phonics lesson, when she was taught: a is for ant and showed the crawling gestures up her arm. For her it would be m for mrówka.
Reminded this week that if we find a way at school events to engage families in real conversations about their languages and language practices - show interest, ask questions, learn - it will be valuable time spent and it will be joyful.
Finally got my hands on a copy of ‘A is for Bee’ by Ellen Heck. I knew I would love it! Will be such a good resource to share with children to explore languages, especially with the audio levinequerido.com/aisforbee @LevineQuerido
ALT Illustrated pages with translations in several languages where R is for fox and S is for lion
ALT Index page listing languages and on which alphabet page they are represented
Reading this important thread, this shocking quote stopped me in my tracks
Some participants recalled how post-lesson feedback was often not centred on discussions of pedagogy at all, but instead focused on the hostile and racialised policing of language which led pre-service teachers to question whether they wanted to remain in teaching. As Leon said:
ALT Like there wasn’t much he said about my teaching at all, and if there was, I don’t remember it, because all I remember was just him saying about the way I say the ‘th’ sound you know, like I say it like, ‘fing’ for ‘thing’ or whatever. But all he did say was I wasn’t speaking properly, and started oh god, I remember, just saying fing fing fing over and over again and said repeat after me THING THING THING and I just, oh man, I think at that point I was like, mate, I’m out.
I’ve found that peer support for new #EAL starters works well when there’s a system in place. In case you haven’t seen them, these free materials from @RESCUE_UK are great for establishing a buddy system for new refugee/asylum-seeking pupils. rescue.org/uk/search-uk/site…
Talking with a colleague about a new student. They’ve been told the correct pronunciation of the student’s name and I’m using it. They continue to use a v different pronunciation they find easier. I’m left weighed down by what entrenched attitudes we have to continually challenge
EAL teacher retweeted
Getting ready for next week's Polish, Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, Chinese and Russian oral GCSE/A level exams. Gerald the giraffe has proven very useful: he does not rustle paper, jingle bracelets or make noise when squeezed by (some) anxious teenagers whilst being recorded #EAL
