CoL Meeting Week 1 Term 2

Language in Abundance
Dr Jannie van Hees

Language is the elevated tool that humans use to make meaning of life.
Language is used in a combination of spoken and print.
Do we just get students to talk? Effective dialogue is important but it is much more than that.
Print and the construction of words in print, gives students the chance to have contact with much more complex language structures.

Teachers have to create the opportunities to tighten the ability to learn. Are we ensuring the learning potential is there in a heightened way?
The students need to do this too as well as the teachers.

Get the balance right about what the students know and feeding them new stuff.

Flourishing learning potential

1 - Optimising learning and interactional conditions.
2 - Elaborative style pedagogical responses.
3 - Scaffolding learners to become effective conversationalists.
4 - Planning Preparing Providing language acquisition potential.


Peer sharing with a framework of talk.
Think about what is going on and share with another person what you know.

The learner has to take responsibility too - it is not a one way street.
Can students take responsibility for each others learning and not just the teacher. Can they contribute to each other not just for the teacher.

Elasticity of the brain - ability to look at things from different angles.

60 / 40 % of gifting to extracting information
Work in the space that is just beyond their known.
Notice and focus - catch what you can.
Try and get a transcript of videos that the students watch as they tend to miss a lot of the vocabulary and grammar and ideas if they just listen.
Multi-model / foregrounding the text by providing the transcripts.

Inquiry; -metrics for on-trackness
Dr Aaron Wilson
collecting or recording information and reflections on your changed practices, and adaptations you are making along the way, and the importance of having checkpoints where you do formative assessments and collect student voice to see if things seem to be getting the kinds of outcomes you’re aiming for.

Get the students to help record the effects of the teaching changes. Student voice etc.

Make the recording of changes regular so you can track what is happening and if changes are happening. This small times between can make it easier to know that it is the changes to your teaching that is making the change and not all the other factors that affect the students.

Clearly show an audience what you did differently so they can judge the effect it has had and whether what you did made it happen.

Take note of the little shifts that happen day to day as it happens so you don’t forget anything later for evidence.