Empowering Story Tellers
through Collaborative
Approaches
[email protected]
[email protected]
Links to everything you see today will be on this
webpage!
www.collaborativelearning.org/mechelen.html
Stories
• Story telling is a vital part of human
existence
• The beginning of empowered language
users
• Move from transactional to narrative
“Learning Floats on
a Sea of Talk”
Douglas Barnes
Collaborative Learning is a teacher
network which develops and
disseminates curriculum based ‘talk
for learning’ teaching activities. It
was funded by the Inner London
Education Authority from 1983 –
1989 and is now spread worldwide.
Collaborative Learning evolved in
multilingual mainstream classrooms in
London. It helps to produce a language
friendly classroom. It helps to make
teachers language conscious because
they listen more to their children and
respond appropriately.
Neuro-science
• Research into language acquisition and
brain development.
Brain research
• Up to age of 11 brain is 150% more
active in acquiring language.
• The act of talking and thinking
increases the number of connections
and cells that build the brain.
• Talk fuels brain development.
Research summed up in Robin Alexander’s
“Towards Dialogic Teaching; Rethinking
Classroom Talk”
In the last ten years progress in
neuroscience has confirmed our earlier
guesses that exploratory talk creates
synapses and fuels brain development
which of course makes you more
intelligent …
Victoria Murphy
Victoria has highlighted two key strategies
to improve additional language
acquisition:
• Increasing quality of verbal interaction
• Improving subject specific vocabulary
(both words and phrases)
• When children learn to tell stories they
begin to ‘own’ bits of language and
culture
• Stories offer unique opportunities to
extend range of vocabulary and
phrasing
• There is a transformational space when
learners learn together out loud.
The transformations that take place
somewhere between pupils talking through
ideas together and then presenting them to
others are brain empowering, but need to
be scaffolded.. Scaffolding is good for all
pupils, but vital for pupils learning a new
language while they are learning.
Collaborative learning
and stories
• Structured, scaffolded activities
designed to both embed stories and
allow for transformational interaction.
Maintenance of First Language enhances
Development of Second Language
A graphic organiser/key visual representation of the relationship
between first and second (or third) languages
Collaborative Classroom Practice
• Build on prior knowledge
• Move from concrete to abstract
• Ensure everyone works with everyone else
• Extend social language into curriculum language
• Provide motivating ways to go over the same thing
more than once
We strongly recommend that
you plan collaborative
activities collaboratively!
Introduce me
An introduction to a collaborative
approach.
• You are going to receive a card with
some information about a character.
• Read it and memorise the main points.
Rehearse them to yourself under your
breath without looking at your card.
Find
ONE OTHER PERSON
who has the same letter card as you.
Then put the card away.
..In
turn, introduce the topic on your card to
the other person. If you get stuck, glance at
your card but try not to just read it. Try to
present your main points without looking at
the card all the time.
When you have both done this go to
find the other
two people who have your letter
Now you are a four.
Now pairs take turns to introduce
EACH OTHER’S
character to the other pair.
You can stop here, and work in your new
groups
or add two fours and make an eight.
Keep going as long as you like.
Let me Introduce.
How does it work?
1.Pupils read a role card and try to become card
independent by memorising some information.
2.Pupils find one person with the same colour
card.
3.Each one introduces themselves “I am…..”
4.The pair then finds another pair – now they
introduce their partner so it is no longer “I am” but
has become “This is …… they….” in pupils’
own words.
How could you use his technique?
Let Me Introduce
Why does it work?
• Opportunities to deliver curriculum content
• Practice in reading >.
• Process of listen>understand/think> construct
speech in own words.
• Communication and interaction is integral.
• Opportunity to work with many others.
• Possible application across many
topics/subjects at all ages from Y1 up.
•
•
•
•
•
Opportunities to explore vocabulary.
Practice in explaining ideas.
Opportunities to expand mental models.
Visual organisers structure thinking.
You can reinforce the organisers with
games.
Simple examples
•
•
•
•
Venn diagrams
Matching games
Sequencing events onto timelines
Dominoes
•
•
•
•
Why does it work?
Opportunities to deliver curriculum content
Practice in reading > reading aloud.
Need for language of reasoning, justifying,
explaining.
• Communication and interaction is integral.
• Reinforces classification and sorting.
• Possible application across many
topics/subjects.
• Barrier games are games where one person (or
pair) has half the information and the other
person (or pair) has the other half.
• Complete information sets can be obtained by
asking questions or by passing on information.
Familiar informal examples would be battleships.
The deduction game “20 questions” is also related.
Barrier Games
Why do they work?
• Opportunities to deliver curriculum content
• Practice in reading or interpreting data.
• Practice in questioning.
• Communication and interaction is integral.
• All must participate
• Possible application across many
topics/subjects.
How are activities planned?
1 Learning
• What do we want the children to know
or understand?
• What kinds of thinking do we hope they
will practice?
How are activities planned?
2 Language
• What kinds of language do they need?
Necessary language and potential
language?
• What key visuals best produce the
thinking and the language?
How are activities planned?
3 Enjoyment
• How can we make our activity sociable
and fun?
Kapiti plain
You need to divide up and become
6 groups
Each group will get a number
1
2
3
4
5
6
Cloud
Grass
Cows/herd
Ki-pat
Feather/bird
Arrow/stick
What did you learn?
• Key language (vocabulary and phrases)
• How the story is structured.
• Now you can retell it yourself
Making an Language Conscious Activity
• Provide pictures and labels.
• Provide a sorting grid to organise ideas.
• Add in a game element to re-inforce and practice.
•
•
•
•
•
Connect 4
Snap
Bingo
Track games
Collection games
A list of different kinds of thinking demands
Classifying-Comparing-Contrasting-Defining-DescribingEstimating-Evaluating-Explaining-Formulating hypothesesGeneralising-Inferring-Interpreting data-Judging-Justifying
opinions-Labelling-Measuring-Noting a process-Ordering
chronologically-Ordering spatially-Predicting-Problem solvingRank ordering-Recommending-Testing hypothesesUnderstanding and applying cause and effect-Understanding
and applying rules and strategies
Too many to help planning but they can
be reduced to…….
Reduced to six key thinking skills.
Classifying
Reasoning
Justifying an
opinion
Describing
Sequencing
Decision
making
Planning on this grid can ensure that your
lessons include different kinds of thinking
and consequently a range of language
structures.
Everything you have seen
today can be found on this
dedicated webpage.
www.collaborativelearning.org/mechelen.html