This reflection from Rebecca Dickinson, Head of ELL at GEMS Royal Dubai School, is a great example of how we have to step back and change our whole approach to teaching and learning - rather than just adding rockets to a tractor!
Innovating
for Excellence
A
Story of Innovation, Improvement and Excellence: GEMS Royal Dubai School
English Language Learners
GEMS Royal Dubai School is an
English National Curriculum school of over 1000 students, ages 3-11, many of
whom are bilingual learners. When I
became Head of English Language Learning in 2012, I was keen to make sure the
children received the very best education possible, so I began looking at how
we could improve provision for all our English Language Learners (ELLs).
Journey
Through my own curiosity, coaching
and personal research, I saw the potential of using mobile digital technology
for students who have very little English, specifically through the use of
iPads. I presented my classroom research and was allocated 8 iPads for the new
department. Over the next few years, through the natural growth in numbers of
English Language Learners, more staff members were added to the team and they brought
with them their expertise and confidence in using other digital tools.
The structure of support came from
Mark Stone, our Digital Learning Coach, and I ensured that each member of the
team had time to receive weekly coaching. This level of 1:1 support was, and
remains, both uplifting and powerful. It allowed for individual creativity and
time to discuss ways of making our teaching – and the children’s learning -
more exciting. Underpinning this was the intrinsic motivation of each team
member and the confidence in their own abilities to use their newfound skills,
sharing them through whole team planning meetings. As each member became more
confident, our passion to share our work grew ever stronger and out of this
grew our ELL blogs, which have been a great success.
Very soon, multiple sessions were
being taught simultaneously, student numbers were up, resources were spread
thinly and we realised that the only way forward would be for the students to
bring their own iPads into school (Bring Your Own iPad or BYOI). I arranged a workshop
for the parents to explain the benefits. Initially, I only invited students
from Years 1 to 6 to take part, however, I soon extended it to Foundation Stage
(FS) as well. Parents saw the blog posts
about the initiative, or had older children taking part, and I received many
emails from FS parents wanting to participate. We found that the students were
excited to share their favourite apps with their friends, providing
opportunities for speaking and listening that were not anticipated. We quickly
found that, because the children had their iPads both at school and home, the
parents became much more aware of, and ‘in tune’ with, their children’s
learning.
Previously, we informed parents of
their child’s learning by writing in a learning diary, one for every child for
every ELL session, and, as our numbers grew, this task became more difficult to
complete and to maintain consistency. Once we started blogging, it became a
quick and seamless cycle of teaching, learning and reflecting. Sharing the
blogs with parents and showing them how to use them to access their own child’s
learning had an immediate impact on a daily basis, allowing parents to share
the photographs of their children to extended family across the globe.
Parents are now given lists of recommended
apps and digital tools for their children’s year group topic, or to support
their child with a particular area of learning. For the older students, it
allows them to make informed choices about which apps and websites they wish to
use, helping them to becoming effective thinkers and more able to support their
own learning. Our ELL parents now very rarely attend teacher parent conferences
because they are frequently and consistently updated about their child’s
learning.
Curriculum and Assessment Re-design
From Year 2 upwards the team
encourages the students to share what they have learned on any platform they
prefer. They choose different tools to complete their ‘Mini – Missions’,
including Powtoon, Prezi, iMovie trailer, Comic Life, Google docs, Voki and, in
Key Stage 2, their own individual blogs. Using Google has proved to be a powerful
tool for collaboration and students have built meaningful and effective
relationships with their peers by working together online.
Topics are planned using a rubric
that provides interest and variety, with scaffolded support to allow for
learning without walls. In Upper Key stage 2, the planning is shared with the
students and parents together in learning workshops. They both have access to
the planning at all times through Google Docs and they are actively encouraged
to add their own ideas by adding comments. Within the structure of the learning rubrics, the
students are given continuous support and formative feedback to allow them to
make their own decisions about their learning. Through a project- based
approach, they are learning new skills and gaining confidence through
collaboration, giving them the tools to transfer their learning into the
classroom.
It is the students’ responsibility
to track their own progress, selecting which level they want to start from and
modifying the success criteria based on what they achieve for each Mini-Mission
(learning outcome). The students are learning to be more self-regulated and are
intrinsically motivated to learn. Ultimately, they are more aware of their
accomplishments. As the ELL team only sees the students for a few hours a week,
they inform us of the different stages of their learning through Google
Classroom, email or posting on their blogs. Students come voluntarily to the
department at break times and often stop me in the corridors to tell me about
their learning.
Students are invited to try out
websites, apps and games that are new to the support staff, giving valuable
feedback. On one occasion, a child in Year 6 shared what she had been doing at
home with her sister on Minecraft. She explained how it had supported her with
her learning, so together we added it to the learning rubric as a Mini -
Mission and the students began to teach me how to use Minecraft so that I could
understand the skills involved in the revised success criteria that she had
written by herself. Out of this sparked a passion that I had never witnessed in
school before and the spoken language that I observed during this task far
exceeded what I expected or planned for; it inspired me to blog about the
power of Minecraft in the classroom and led onto a different path for the
topic.
Impact
Since using this new approach to
teaching and learning, the data that we have generated from vocabulary
assessments indicates that, on average, the ELL children were able to double
their previous rates of progress. One child’s vocabulary (in Year 5) increased
by 5 years and 4 months in one year - far exceeding our expectations. A year later, she now has the vocabulary age
of a 14 year old and no longer needs additional support. Most noticeably, we
have seen huge improvements in spoken language. Students who were previously
apprehensive are now more willing to discuss their ideas and talk about their
achievements and are more active in their home learning. I believe that if a
child can’t say it then they shouldn’t be asked to write it, so this is a
valuable part of the learning process.
We have now built such a reputation
within the community that parents with ELL children apply for school places
here because they have heard about our language support. English speakers,
siblings and friends of students receiving our support beg me to let them come
to ELL!
“ELL helps you to learn about
different things that you’ve never heard of”. Sama Year 5.
Using a combination of modern
pedagogy, innovative curriculum design, effective assessment and technology,
has provided us with the stepping stones to fulfilled, happy students, who
enjoy and understand what they are learning. The children have told us that
they believe the key to their success is that they are allowed to learn rather
than being taught!
Being able to innovate educational
experiences for our students has taken me on an inspirational learning journey.
I have been able to take a step back and look at what skills the students really
need. In doing so, I stopped doing what was expected and what wasn’t working.
My students are living and breathing in the 21st Century. In a world where
advances in technology are rapidly accelerating, the human brain is evolving.
As facilitators of learning, we need to catch up.
I believe we all need to do things differently
to make a difference. Innovation and improvement don’t happen without change.
Rebecca
Dickinson, Head of English Language Learning, GEMS Royal Dubai School
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