So Today AcademyEx Masters students dud their final presentations for their change projects. I can definitely say that it was worth going. This meant that I got to see others present their project and get an idea on what my presentation could look like or could turn out to be like. It just put into perspective that what my project needs to cover and be about when completing my iterations.
I noticed that the questions the panel were asking really leaned towards how the data you collected has informed your iterations with your participants or stakeholders. Another questions was what have you learnt and what do you intend to do further in order to engage with your community?
The Data part of my project is or could be the most important part of this project. Thinking back to my project there are many things that are going through my mind right now in terms of bilingual education. Like I mentioned in the beginning of my project that most of the students that are coming through to our bilingual unit are New Zealand born where their parents were born here which therefore meant that the only language they indulge in is English.
This is a constant battle my teachers are facing in todays bilingual units. I spoke to one of my colleagues today and they confirmed that they feel really sorry for the students are better in English than Gagana Samoa. At this point in time the junior classes are following our new policy of 80% Samoan and 20% English are to be allocated to lessons in class. Which means that everything they read, write and speak about is in Samoan.
When they say they feel sorry for the students who are stronger in English this means that they dont understand the lessons in Samoa rather they understand content better in English. This colleague feels that this is unfair for these children who are stronger in English.
These students are reading higher levels in English than Samoan. Other students are reading higher in Gagana Samoa than English. What does this tell us? Researchers state that we need to use the language that the student is most stronger in to support the language that is lagging behind. So then what needs to be done here?
Should students who are stronger in English be taught in 80% English and 20% Samoan and Those students who are stronger in Gagana Samoa be taught 80% Gagana Samoa and 20% English?
What would this programme look like? and how would this classroom programme be managed to inform students progress and raise achievement? When I think about more we actually need to identify the language the students is more confident in and then meet the needs of the students this way in the other language? This has really stirred the pot for me because I am about to embark on my change project in term 3 and just a lot more ideas and thinking is coming to my brain all at once.
This is my research objective: I will implement Universal design for learning together with flipped learning approaches in order to develop an online tool that provides more engaging ways in improving the understanding of Gagana Samoa in our senior year levels in our Samoan Bilingual Unit.
From this research object stems 3 main questions that will help me with the planning and delivery of my change project. There are 5 main elements that will guide my literature research and inform my iterations in term 3.
Universal Design for Learning:
Flipped Learning Approaches:
Student Engagement with the Gagana Samoa Content
Rotational model of Learning Gagana Samoa and English
Assessment for Learning In Gagana Samoa:
I said to that colleague that you need to go back to our Vision for our Bilingual unit what is it about and what are we aiming to accomplish with the students that come through our unit? is it as easy as this? or is there more thinking required for this situation?
I mentioned in my research objective a online tool but this is probably something for further down the track but in the mean time what I am more interested in is my own classroom practice when it comes to bilingualism and finding out what works for my English Language Learners and what works for my Gagana Samoa Language Learners. I thought about what we constantly say about billingual education and all I hear is the same things, like if we teach using L1 then L2 will develop more and more and I thought to myself how do we know this? is there evidence we can source that supports this way of learning where use the stronger language to improve English? could we collate a series of evidence from students who started the Bilingual Pathway in year 1 to year 8 vs students who started mid way? I dont know but this is my thinking at the moment. Definitely worth digging more into this. I hope I am not wasting my time because you know how sometimes we take things at face value but its us that are in the classroom research says this but how do I know it works? frick there better not be a one answer to this lol all this thinking and then the answer is basic as lol
- Universal Design for learning and Flipped learning will support the development of the programme I am going to take my students through.
- The content will be in Gagana Samoa.
- Data might be a survey to start off with about how these students see themselves as Gagana Samoa
- Learners, also could see if students could share their experiences with learning Gagana Samoa.
- Assessment could be another way of Gathering Data, Maybe Assessment in where they need to show their understand of formal language in Gagana Samoa? May a story and speech could be used to support the teaching and learning and then tested again at the end?
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