TESOL seminars

Asset Based Approach to EALD Education | Part 2 video transcript

Welcome to the part B video for this seminar. Let's get started. So let's have a look now at some examples of asset-based pedagogy. There are a couple of really short readings that you've got access to after you finish watching this slideshow, which go into a little bit more detail about some of the different types of activities and practices in an asset-based class environment.

In all of these examples, which adhere to asset-based pedagogies, prior knowledge and lived experiences of the students are connected to new academic knowledge, and teachers employ culturally informed principles to nurture a sense of belonging, agency, and well-being amongst students and teachers themselves.

The example we see on the screen here is classroom circles. It's very similar to the idea of restorative practice circles. Classroom circles, I'm sure you all know, enhance and foster communication. They build relationships, a sense of belonging in the community, and they make everybody equal. There's a really great equalizing force in these classroom circles in terms of peer relationships, but also student-teacher relationships.

Other examples might be ideas of how we, as teachers, locate students. This might be, for some teachers, possible to do home visits. In other contexts where that's not possible, identity projects would be how we could locate our students. As teachers, we need to think about multiple ways of knowing, so the difference between heart and head knowledge and mind knowledge. We might employ read-alouds and writing, so books with characters that are reflective of our students. I'm sure that all of you have used books such as these in your classes. The other thing is fostering a sense of communal responsibility. So as teachers, when we're talking to our students using dialogic and inclusive talk, pronouns such as "we," "us," and "our" are heavily used in order to foster that sense of communal responsibility.

Another tool that teachers can use to open the possibilities of building connections between students' out-of-school knowledge and their understandings in school is open-ended and invitational questions. The vast majority of questions that we ask as teachers are closed questions or display questions, unfortunately. Those yes/no questions and those display questions really don't encourage extended discussions. It's scary to use more open-ended invitational questions because you don't know where your students are going to go, but you're going to learn more about your students when you do ask these open-ended invitational questions. These kinds of questions are also really great at addressing differentiation and looking at students' different learning trajectories. How far can we go with students? How many open-ended questions can we add on to a discussion to challenge our students with the language that they're using, for example, and the ideas that they have? These open-ended questions do encourage much more complex thinking and much more complex expression of ideas.

Another activity or practice used quite often in a classroom that adopts an asset-based pedagogy are special projects. With special projects, the teaching and learning style move away from that traditional instructional style. The teachers and learners, in a way, share the power. That means that when you introduce a project as a teacher, you need to have very firm beliefs about your students' assets, what they can bring to the learning space. Sometimes, quite often actually, your students will surprise you with what they can actually bring within those special projects. With these special projects, you can incorporate ongoing formative assessment that reflects a supportive and collaborative culture of belonging in your classroom. That goes back to one of those three competencies that we talked about, that sense of well-being and belonging that you cultivate in an asset-based pedagogy.

Now we come to language. When we're thinking about language, we think about this term "languaging." Languaging has been defined as the use of language to gain knowledge, to make sense, to articulate one's thought, and to communicate about using language. From languaging, we also have trans-languaging, going between different linguistic structures and systems, including different modes and modalities and going beyond them. Trans-languaging includes a full range of linguistic performances of language users, including the representation of values, identities, and relationships. Trans-languaging practices are evidence of students' creativity, criticality, and multilingual competence.

Trans-languaging has a transformative capacity. It creates a social space for the multilingual language user by bringing together different dimensions of their personal history, experience, and environment, their attitude, belief, and ideology, their cognitive and physical capacity into one coordinated and meaningful performance, thereby making it into a lived experience. In doing all this, it develops and transforms their skills, their knowledge, their experience, their attitudes, their beliefs. Thus, this is how students can create new identities for themselves as multilingual speakers. Students can display creativity because trans-languaging enables those students to pick and choose rules and norms of language, to push the boundaries of what they know, what's the norm, and what's expected. They need to have holistic knowledge of linguistic systems of all languages in their repertoire to do that, and with that holistic knowledge, they need to have knowledge of the appropriate use of their resources. That's the basis for being critical.

The ability to use these languages appropriately, systematically, insightfully, to form considered views of cultural, social, or linguistic phenomena, to question, to pose problems about knowledge and wisdom, to express views adequately, to have reasoned responses to situations. They need to display creativity, criticality, and multilingual competence when they're navigating this. Creativity and criticality, they have a knowledge of deeper linguistic and deeper social meanings of the languages that they're using and speaking. They have an awareness of positions within a community through the use of different languages and different terminology. For example, their ability to change the social dynamics of a situation based on language use, their ability to make an impact on something or someone based on the creativity, criticality, and multilingual competence that they possess—all of these assets that they possess.

So, our EAL students as multilingual language speakers have the potential to be able to not only approximate or appropriate for themselves someone else's language but to shape the very context in which they're using and learning a language. They, therefore, won't distinguish themselves through ownership of one social or linguistic patrimony, but they'll be able to play a game of distinction. They'll be able to sit on the margins of different patrimonies, and by that, I mean different cultural heritage, through their use of all the different languages at their disposal. Again, it's up to us as teachers not to have them take off some of those coats in order to put on an English coat. We need to be additive in our English as an additional language or dialect learning and teaching environment.

How do we encourage our students and encourage the use of other languages in our schools and in our classrooms? On the left-hand side here, you can see the Global Language website, which offers books in a range of different languages. You might be able to get books in English and other languages, which students in your school speak. Looking at the comparison of the different languages in the books can be useful. Other ways of doing this are to get members of the school community who speak a language of one of the students in your class to translate for you. This might be done in written translation or orally in some cases so that you're bringing in the students' home language or heritage language and English in the same kinds of story

.

On the right-hand side, you can see a resource from Queensland University of Technology, which is a multilingual glossary of school-based terminology. On their website, they have instructions for how you can make your own glossary of school-based terminology to suit your particular school. For further information on trans-languaging and incorporating trans-languaging perspectives in your classroom practice, CUNY, or the City University of New York, has excellent guides and resources. You can see their webpage, their resource webpage there. The Cape Treasures collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories is also quite wonderful. They have PDFs of the stories, and you can see in this story here there are some indigenous words incorporated into the story. They also have the story as a film, so each story is presented as a film as well as a read-aloud almost. The last one there is from Museums Victoria, and it's the story of Tik. In our Australian culture, we also have these different discourses and discourse communities that are happening, which are extremely rich models for all of our students.

Another extremely powerful activity to do in EAL classrooms is to explore our linguistic repertoire. I like to call this an asset-based trans-languaging pedagogy. In these examples, we can see language mapping being used as a tool for teaching and learning. These examples were used with year-five classes who were asked to map the languages that they use and to think about how they communicate, where they use language and when, and who they communicate with, which language they use depending on who they communicate with.

In this study, which is part of the book "Tell Me Your Story: Confirming Identity and Engaging Writers in the Middle Years," you might know of that book already, "Tell Me Your Story: Confirming Identity and Engaging Writers in the Middle Years." You can see the authors there, Dton et al., 2018. One of the year-five students, after doing this language mapping exercise, was asked what they thought about the activity, and the student said, "You made my home language matter at school." Thinking about those three central aspects of asset-based pedagogy, belonging, agency, and well-being, I think has been achieved from that comment. One of the teachers said, "Conversation around the texts and language were rich and personal, creating an authentic experience for students to learn about the English language. This authentic experience was created by making the foundations of the learning their own experiences, their personal experiences in languages. They had more to say and were excited to share the experiences with parents."

This quite simple linguistic mapping or language mapping is an opportunity for students to showcase their linguistic and cultural strengths. It's also an opportunity for teachers to recognize and then build on students' home languages in order to scaffold the learning of English. They can be built into part of the regular classroom program. Before getting to these maps, teachers engage students in discussions about how people communicate. You can see there's a brainstorming on the left-hand side here. You could do it as a list writing activity on the ways that technology and signs and symbols and dance and gestures and body language, music, art, film, all of these things make meaning and facilitate communication and conversation. Students have to think critically; they have to develop their vocabulary in order to complete the task.

Another activity to do is to tell students that they have become researchers and they're analyzing how and when they use languages to read, write, talk, listen, and view in their lives, inside and outside the classroom. With the students, teachers would create individual research questions: How many languages or dialects do we speak? With whom? What languages? Where? When? How do we use technology to communicate? How do we use our bodies to communicate? Do we change how we communicate when we're communicating with different people in different places? If we make our students researchers like this, then we're covering a number of key learning areas—maths, science, creative arts, geography—and the students are moving across modes as well. They're going from spoken mode to written mode. They can graph and map the data collected, so they're working on outcomes in maths and numeracy when they're making their linguistic repertoire. As we can see in the middle here, with the diagram with the tree and the three different flags.

On the right-hand side, titled "My Language is Vietnam," students might be given some prompts: "Think about yourself. Who do you communicate with? How and in what ways do you communicate? What languages or dialects? When? With who? Where? Which places? Make a picture to show this and organize it any way you like." This activity could be done with multilingual students, but it could also be done with monolingual students to challenge their idea of monolingualism and multilingualism.

A great way to begin is for the teacher to model their own language map. With low-level classes, you might need to enlist the help of teacher aides, translators, or community members or other students as translators if required. In this study, the authors sent the maps to the teachers who were participating. They sent the maps home for students to discuss with their families because often the families have a much deeper understanding of what the students actually know and what they can do. It gives these parents and caregivers a really nice window into what students are doing in the classroom. It also sends the message to those parents and caregivers of the importance of their assets.

When students have finished their maps, you might put students in pairs and get them to answer some questions: What do you notice about the maps? How could you group the maps? What do they reveal about the individual person? How has the space been viewed? What things can we see on the map? Students could then do a Venn diagram of some of the similarities and differences between their map and their partner's map. The teachers in the study said that they found information about their students that they otherwise would never have known. The students revealed knowledge of languages and practices and heritage that the teachers were completely unaware of. The thing that getting students to do the map is that it reveals how strong the relationship between language and identity really is.

For EAL learners, they then have an alternate way of communicating, an alternate way of demonstrating to their teachers what assets they possess. Through doing this activity, we can really think about our teacher expectancy, the inferences that we've made about likely student performance might be challenged through what the students produce in their maps, and we can then hone our teacher expectancy.

Other activities to explore linguistic repertoire in the classroom might be to build bilingual dictionaries with the help of students and colleagues and the school community. Also, Google Translate, have a school-wide exhibition of the students' language maps. Get the students to make a film and record themselves talking in languages about aspects of their maps. Digital storyboards of a place or practice that they've expressed on their maps might be another activity. Extension activities like role-playing using scenes from the maps would also be another possible activity to do. Writing scripts to perform those role-plays or writing descriptions and recounts of places or events included in the maps could be another extension activity, looking at the language choices that students have made when they're writing on their maps and looking at how different choices might change the meaning or change the tenor in the maps.

Another extension from this is to pair up with other students to write bilingual stories or make multilingual posters to address school issues.

An extension of exploring the linguistic repertoires, aside from the maps, might be to invite parents to the class to read bilingual books with students. At higher levels, students might write persuasive essays about why using or learning a language other than English is important. Go on an excursion, which is a linguistic landscape walk, to explore the language and the multilingual, multimodal signage in the local neighborhood. Students could also research countries and places, invite parents and community members into the class to share stories and share cultural practices, and complete oral and written assessment tasks that prompt students to reflect on their own learnings and understandings.

In all of these activities, as your students are learning, as you as a teacher are also learning so much. It also helps to engage students; it gives them a really clear understanding of what they know and what they can do. It helps them to practice new ways to apply their own knowledge to tasks that they are faced with in school or given in school. Some of these maps are quite complex, but all of them are quite authentic. This exploration of these linguistic repertoires is really rich tasks that help students to use and extend their English skills but also skills in other key learning areas—research skills and critical thinking skills as well.

That brings us to the end of the Part B video for this seminar. I hope you all agree with me that we've come a long way from the pre-video reading titled "What Did You Bring With You to School?" If you think about that reading, you can think about all of the different types of capital that Vasilica Citis Kazus had but which were not recognized in her school years. You can think also about the lack of sense of belonging and agency and well-being that she felt in her school years because of this lack of recognition and value given to all those different types of capital that she possesses.

I have also included for you two further readings which give examples of different types of activities that you might like to do in your EALD classrooms. The first one is from the book "Tell Me Your Story: Confirming Identity and Engaging Writers in the Middle Years." It's so very difficult to choose just one chapter from this wonderful book. I've chosen that chapter, affirming identity through drama pedagogy, because I think that it offers you scope for your own creativity to take some of their suggestions and create your own class activities which follow an asset-based pedagogy from those examples provided. The second reading is a journal article called "Learning Routines That Reflect Teachers' Asset-Based Pedagogies: Creating Breathing Spaces for Students." Now, please don't feel that you need to read the whole article; just zero in on parts 5 and 6, pages 9 to 14 of that article, which gives some wonderful suggestions for activities and approaches in the classroom pedagogies which follow an asset-based approach to learning.

Thank you very much for listening. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in our live session and to hearing about all of your experiences and reflections on asset-based approaches in your EALD classrooms. I'll see you soon. Bye.

welcome to the third t-o seminar for this year which focuses on using

technology to support the learning needs of eal

Learners I am living and working in the Sydney Basin which is the traditional home of the Gadigal people of the Aurora

Nation I'd like to begin by acknowledging these traditional owners of the land I would also like to pay my

respects to Elders past and present

my name is Damian and I'm a lecturer at the school of international studies and education at

UTS and I'm working in both primary and secondary uh preservice teacher programs

so just a brief background on my educational experiences as you can see I've been in

the education game for a few good years now I've had the opportunities to work in many parts of Australia as a school

teacher and have experiences in working with students from diverse cultural and

language backgrounds I um worked at trapart Primary School in Ella Springs

many years ago which was an interesting experience and I've been working as a

full-time academic since 2008 and during that period i undertook

a graduate diploma of linguistics at UTS and and my main field

of research is on educational Technologies and how they can support teaching and

learning in this session today we're looking at three aspects the first

aspect which takes up the the bulk of this presentation is on

multimodality the second part of this presentation is looking at digital games

and the third part is looking at artificial intelligence so this is looking more

from a theoretical perspective in the next presentation what we'll be doing is

looking at it from a more practical perspective the theory of multimediality

is a framework within communication and social semiotics that explores how

meaning is created through the use of multiple modes or channels of communication unlike traditional

theories that often Focus solely on language multimodality considers a

variety of modes which we will look at in the next slides here are the key principles and

component components of the theory of multimodality multiple

modes multimodality emphasizes that communication and meaning making involves multiple modes not just

language each mode can carry a variety of forms including images sounds

gestures and spatial Arrangements independence of modes

different modes work together to create meaning for example an image and accompanying text can provide a richer

and more nuanced message than either could alone contextual

meaning the meaning of multimodal communication is context dependent how

modes are used and interpreted can vary greatly depending on cultural social and

situational contexts social and cultural factors

multimodality recognizes that the use and interpretation of mod are influenced by social and cultural factors different

cultures may prioritize or interpret modes differently semiotic

resources modes are seen as semiotic resources that people use to communicate

these resources have their own affordances and constraints which influence how they can be used and

understood here are the five different modes that are considered when using a multimodal perspective let's consider

each one and how this supports eal

Learners images provide visual representations that can simplify

complex information illustrate Concepts and enhance understanding they offer a

quick and Universal way to convey meaning often transcending language

barriers so the ways these images support e Al students firstly contextual

understanding images help eal students grasp the context of a topic without

relying solely on a text visual cues they provide a visual

cue that can Aid in vocabulary building and comprehension

engagement images make content more engaging and can help maintain the interest of

students and the example in an educational setting images of

historical events scientific diagrams or cultural symbols can provide context

and visual reinforcement to textual information aiding comprehension and

retention animation brings movement and Life to static images making them more engaging and

dynamic they can demonst processes show changes over time and attract attention

making learning more interactive and enjoyable process

visualization animations can illustrate processes and sequence of events helping

students understand complex Concepts Interactive

Learning interactive animations can involve students in active learning

improving their engagement and attention simplified

explanation animations often simplify explanations making them easier for

students to follow and an example an animated video explaining the

water cycle can help students visualize and understand the process more

effectively than text

alone sound can include speech music and sound

effects and sound adds an auditory Dimension to communication enhancing the emotional and informational impact

speech provides direct verbal communication music can set the mood and emphasize points and sound effects can

illustrate actions or events listing practice audio components

give students the opportunity to practice listening skills improving their comprehension and pronunciation

contextual cues sound effects and background noises provide contextual

cues that help students understand the setting and actions engagement and memory music and

sound effects can make lessons more engaging and memorable and an

example in a language learning app the combination of spoken words background music and relevant sound effects can

create an immersive experience that adds that aids in pronunciation and listening

skills colour enhances visual appeal and can convey meaning highlight important

information and evoke emotions it helps in organizing information and guiding the viewers

attention highlighting key information colour can be used to highlight key vocabulary or important Concepts made

making them Stand Out emotional engagement different

colours can evoke emotions and set the tone helping students connect with the

material organization colour coding can help organize information and make it easier

for students to follow and understand in the example a colour-coded

chart in a presentation can help differentiate between categories making the information easier to understand and

remember text provides detailed information explanation and narratives

it is often used in combination with other modes to provide clarity and

context language practice text allows students to practice reading and writing

in the target language detailed explanation text can provide detailed

explanation and definitions that support learning multilingual support text can

be presented in multiple ways aiding understanding and language development and the example in a infogra

in an infography text descriptions complement images and diagrams providing

essential details that complete the visual message

from a multimodal perspective these modes are integrated to create a comprehensive communication experience

for eal students this means reinforcement of learning multiple modes

reinforce learning by presenting information in different ways enhance

comprehension and retention combining text images sound color and animation

helps students better understand and retain information from a multimo perspective these modes

do not operate in isolation but are integrated to create a richer more engaging communication experience for an

example in educational video images illustrate the content animations bring

Concepts to life sound enhances understanding and engagement color makes

the video visual appealing and highlights key points and text provides

additional information and

clarification so what will be happening in these next few slides is we'll have a look at an example of an

ebook to illustrate some of the concepts discussed previously so the ebook we're

looking at is called 50 below Z by Robert Munch and it's an animated uh

ebook of or version of the book so the animation version is self-paced allowing

the reader to pause fast forward or rewind the

text the inclusion of images added a great deal of meaning to the written text the first image shown here

presented informs the reader when the story is set both in regards to the time of day and the

season the image also provides information about one of the main characters Jamie and where the story is

set historically before the 20th century meaning in printed text was conveyed

primarily through the use of words although there are some examples of images being used for example Dickens

Noels and Penny dreadfuls which were the Forerunner of comics throughout the 20th

century where images were used with text the image was often subordinate to the

text with Contemporary multimodal Images they can carry more of the cognitive

load in relation to the meanings that can be conveyed of the night Jason was

asleep he woke up he heard a sound he said what that what that what that Jason

opened the door to the kitchen so let's consider sound the use of sound

was another feature of the ebook that was used in a number of different ways to add meaning music was a key aspect to

begin the story a short piece of music was played the music serves two different purposes first it signaled to

the viewer that something was about to happen in this sense it served as an

introduction the style of the music was also significant it was very up complet

and a little circus like in nature indicating the St tone of the

story here there was a sense created that this would be a lively fun story as

the narrator read the story the music played underneath throughout the story this music would come in an increased

volume where the page was turned thus indicating a point of change to the reader here then both music and spoken

text work together to create a sense of action and meaning so let's just have a listen to this

short sound F at the beginning of the the [Music]

book the next aspect of sound relates to sound

effects so another feature of sound was the use of sound effects which were used to add meaning and attention to the story

one sound effect was the sound of breaking objects here the use of sound effects added to

the meaning of the story by adding tension where the coffee cup was seen to move slowly across the kitchen

table this is where the use of Animation also comes in and then it

breaks went to sleep

the last aspect of sound relates to volume and Tempo the narrator Ed many elements that

good readers typically use to add meaning to the text volume was one

feature as the boy in the story try to wake his dead by yelling the narrator to

also raises his voice here the notional of social distance using a multimodal

framework can be applied the volume of The Voice voice signifies a different kind of social relationship between the

person making the sound and the receiver Tempo was another element that was used

to indicate action during parts of the story where there was heightened action

the narrator would speed up the reading along with the volume of his voice and then as the climax occurred he would

rapidly slow the tempo and volume

downed by he found father his father was leaning against the tree Jason yelled

Papa wake up his father didn't move Jason yelled in the loudest Possible

voice Papa wake up his father still did not

move the animations add meaning to the text by bringing to life the characters in the story where the father moves

around the house in a comical manner as he sleepwalks this movement involves a

short or lengthening of distance between the characters in the story as it does in this ebook where the

father's sleep walks and eventually goes outside this tells us

something about the world where the characters are being geographically located in relation to each

other in considering the positioning of the written text along with the images and animations this affects the

information value it has in English reading cultures the printer text is

read from the left to the right and so anything situated on the left of the screen or page typically has a higher

information value in this ebook the images and animations are alternately situated on

both the left and right of the screen with the text taking up the other side in this

way the images and animations and the text are been given equal value in

providing me meaning through their positioning

and there was his father who was walking in his sleep he was sleeping on top of the refrigerator Jason yelled Papa wake

up his father jumped up ran around the kitchen three times and went back to bed

Jason said this house is going

crazy and he went back to bed Jason went to sleep

he woke up he a sound he said what that what that what that he opened the door to the kitchen no one was there he

opened the door to the bathroom the use of cover was used in

several different ways to help add meaning to the text it was firstly used

as it would be in a traditional picture book to add meaning first the the

overall colour scheme of the pictures uh are blue and white indicating that the story is set in the

cold part of the Year being winter the use of the black sky and the washed out colours along with the muted

Shadows added meaning letting the reader know that the story was taking place at

nighttime the meaning was added to by the use of images where the characters wore bed clothes which also provided

information that it was nighttime and that the character was in bed asleep another way in which the use of

colour was used was where the sentence that was being read turned blue this

helped the reader to easily follow the text as it unfolded so let's have a look at how that

worked of the night Jason was asleep

he woke up he heard a sound he said what that what that what that Jason opened

the door to the kitchen the text carries the entire Narrative of the book it tells the story

of Jason and his father in a straightforward conversational style the

text includes dialogue descriptions and actions that drive the plot

forward Robert Munch often uses repetition in his text which is the

Hallmark of his writing style in 50 below Zer phrases or sentences are

repeated to emphasize certain actions or events for example the phrase this house

is going crazy conveys Jason's frustration and highlights the

observ of the events happening in the story repetition also helps with

memorability and Rhythm making the text more engaging for young readers

multimodal texts which combine multiple modes of communication such as text images audio and video can be highly

beneficial for eal Learners here are several ways in which they can support

such Learners enhan comprehension multimodal texts provide Visual and

auditory cues that can help Learners better understand the context and meaning of the language images video and

audio can clarify comp complex con steps and make the content more

accessible engagement and motivation incorporating various modes of communication can make learning more

engaging and interesting for Learners this variety can sustain their attention

and motivation making the learning process more enjoyable contextual learning multimodal

testt can provide a richer context for language learning for example videos can

show cultural context body language and situational usage of language helping Learners understand not just the words

but how they are used in real life situations reinforcement of vocabulary

and Concepts visuals and audio can reinforce the vocabulary and Concepts being taught seeing a picture or video

while hearing the and reading the word can help in better retention and

recall improve critical thinking and interpretation skills engaging with multimodal te Tex

encourage Learners to interpret and analyse information from various sources enhancing their critical thinking skills

they learn to make connections between different types of information and form a more comprehensive

understanding scaffolded learning multimodal text can provide scaffolding

that supports Learners as they build their language skills for example subtitles in videos can help Learners

follow along with spoken language while reading aiding in the development of listening and reading skills

simultaneously practice in real world communication multimodal texts reflect

the way language is used in the real world where communication often involves a combination of text image and

audio this prepares learners for real world interactions and enhances their communicative

competence interacting learning opportunities digital multimedia texts

often include interactive elements such as quizzes clickable links and interactive diagrams which can provide

immediate feedback and allow Learners to engage actively with the

content accessibility for Learners with varying levels of proficiency multimodal text

can provide provide alternate ways to access information if a learner

struggles with written text they might still grasp the content through images or

audio incorporating multimodal text into instruction can create a richer more

Dynamic and supportive learning environment that addresses the diverse needs of eal

Learners the use of digital Technologies assists in providing multimodal text for

students to read and provides the tools they can use to create such

texts digital games can be highly effective in supporting eal Learners

here's how they support them vocabulary building digital games

can introduce new words in a contextualized setting making it easier for Learners to remember and understand

vocabulary games can incorporate vocabulary exercises matching games and

interactive stories that require players to use and learn new words in meaningful ways

engagement games are inherently engaging due to their interactive and often

competitive nature they can Captivate students attention for extended periods

making language learning more enjoyable the immersive experience provided by digital games helps keep

Learners motivated and focused contextual

learning digital games provide Rich contextual environments where language is used in meaningful ways players

encounter language in real life scenarios within the game helping them understand how words and phrases are

used in different contexts this type of learning helps in better retention and

application of language skills listening and speaking skills

many digital games include dialogue and voiceover instructions which help

improve listening skills some games also feature voice recognition technology

allowing Learners to practice speaking and receive feedback this interactive

element can significantly enhance Learners ability to understand and

produce spoken English reading skills games that involve reading

instructions dialogues or storylines can help improve reading skills the

interactive nature of games often requires players to read to progress ensuring consistent practice

additionally reading in a fun context can reduce the pressure and anxiety

often associated with traditional reading exercises cultural

understanding games often incorporate elements of different cultures providing Learners with insights into various

cultural contexts this exposure helps Learners understand and appreciate cultural

nuances idiomatic expressions and social norms which are crucial for effective

communication in a new language motivation and

confidence success in games often leads to rewards and positive reinforcement

which can boost Learners motivation and confidence the safe and supportive environment of a game allows Learners to

take risks and make mistakes without fear of embarrassment fostering a more confident approach to language

learning critical thinking and problem solving many games require players to solve

puzzles and overcome challenges promoting critical thinking and problem solving skills these cogn cognitive

skills are transferable to language learning helping students approach language tasks more analytically and

effectively immediate feedback digital games provide instant feedback on

performance allowing Learners to quickly understand their mistakes and correct them this immediate reinforcement helps

help helps solidify learning and provides a clear understanding of progress making the learning more

efficient by incorporating these elements digital games can can create a

dynamic and supportive learning environment that addresses the learning needs of eal Learners enhancing their

language acquisition and overall educational

experience let's have a look at artificial intelligence now which is going to take up a reasonable amount of

the next video so number one personalized learning paths AI can create customized

learning Parts based on each student's proficiency level learning pace and specific needs these paths can include

Target exercises activities and assessments that address individual weaknesses and build on

strengths real-time translation and language support

AI power translation tools can provide real-time translations of text and speech

helping students understand instructions content and interactions in the classroom these tools can Bridge the

language Gap and facilitate better communication between students and

teachers adaptive learning platforms AI driven platforms can adapt to the

students progress providing exercises and content that match their current level of understanding this ensures that

students are neither overwhelmed or underwhelmed keeping them engaged and

motivated speech recognition and pronunciation practice AI can assist students with

pronunciation and speaking skills through speech recognition technology

these tools can provide instant feedback on pronunciation helping students improve their speaking abilities and

gain confidence in their language skills interactive language learning

apps AI powered language learning apps can offer interactive exercises games

and quizzes that make language learning fun and engaging these apps can cover

vocabulary grammar listening speaking reading and writing skills providing

comprehensive language education content

recommendation AI can recommend reading materials video and other resources tailored to a student's language level

and interests this personalized approach ensures that students are exposed to appropriate and engaging content that

facilitates language learning language learning Bots AI

driven chat Bots can engage students in conversations providing a safe and non-judgmental environment for

practicing language skills these Bots can simulate real life scenarios helping

students develop conversational abilities and cultural

understanding Grammar and Writing assistance AI tools can assist with writing by providing grammar checks

suggesting vocabulary improvements and offering feedback on sentence structure and coherence these tools help students

improve their writing skills and produce clearer more accurate

texts listening comprehension support AI can provide listening compreh

ion exercises tailor to a students proficiency level by offering a variety

of accents speaking speeds and contexts AI can help students develop their listening skills and better understand

spoken English cultural context and

idioms AI can help students understand cultural nuances idiomatic expressions

and Cal language that are often challenging for non-native Speakers by

providing explanations and examples IO tools can enhance Cultural Literacy and

language fluency assessment and progress

tracking AI can monitor students progress and can provide detailed reports on their language development

this data can help teachers identify areas that need additional support and

adjust their teaching strategies accordingly support for multilingual

classroom rooms in a multilingual classroom AI can facilitate communication and collaboration among

students who speak different languages translation tools M multilingual resources and adaptive learning

platforms can create an inclusive environment where all students can participate and learn

effectively last one parental engagement AI can help parents of students by

providing translations of school communication resources in their native languages and tools to support their

child's learning at home this involvement can enhance their overall learning experience and provide

additional support for the student so that wraps up this video as

noted earlier the next video we will focus on more practical aspects of using technology to support eal students see

you there

English (auto-generated)

AllFor youWatched

00:00:00:11 - 00:00:31:22
Speaker 1
I'll. My name is Megan Daily, and today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about reading the experience and the work that I've done. With books about new arrivals and for new arrivals. And there's a little bit on the screen here about me now. Basically, I am a teacher librarian. I'm also an author. I have a book called Erasing Readers, which was published in 2019 aimed at teachers educators in general and parents.

00:00:32:01 - 00:01:00:07
Speaker 1
I have another book coming out next year about native bees, and I'm a regular literary judge and I do a fair bit of sessional lecturing and tutoring at the Queensland University of Technology here in Brisbane. Both in the field of early childhood education and in teacher librarianship. I've also got a podcast and a website and for children. So you know, there's a fair bit going on.

00:01:01:12 - 00:01:29:32
Speaker 1
I'm going to talk to you today about what's on the screen now. I'm going to have a little bit about how I think we can support students in the classroom with their reading, particularly, particularly obviously Aldi students going to talk about why I think books are important in the lives of all young people books, mirrors, windows and sliding doors, perhaps a term that you've heard before, the way books I see as works of art.

00:01:30:01 - 00:01:58:09
Speaker 1
They are works of heart, how we read aloud to students and the importance of that. And then looking at books which explore the migrant experience and also books which explore change and dislocation in general in terms of supporting students in our classrooms, Really, I see books as having two purposes in an educational setting. Books for skill development. So they as tools.

00:01:58:20 - 00:02:31:21
Speaker 1
But books are also very much about an emotional connection to stories and books. In this case, as both a story and as an escape So just to recap that, I really see books as skill development and as emotional connection. We have to, as educators, think about how we foster the will to read in our young people, thinking about the importance of reading aloud to our young people, reading in first languages, bringing books to life, the way book clubs can work in the lives of young people of all ages.

00:02:31:29 - 00:03:11:17
Speaker 1
And I guess there I'm talking I work as a primary school teacher librarian at the moment, but in a prep two year 12 school, and I have run book clubs for many, many years, 20 years for high school students. I'm students in the last few years of primary school, most specifically over the last few years, I've run international student book clubs because like my last point there says I have really used certainly in the schools that I've worked out over the last few years, we've really used book clubs with some of our upper primary and secondary international students to explore contemporary life in Australia.

00:03:11:26 - 00:03:38:31
Speaker 1
So we've read aloud with students in book clubs and talked about giving them a really good picture of what the experiences of children in contemporary Australia look like these days. And for context, I currently work in an International Baccalaureate school with an extremely high ild population. Having said that, it's a high fee paying school and the majority majority of our Aldi students have all the support they need in place.

00:03:39:13 - 00:04:05:22
Speaker 1
My mother is also a teacher librarian and she works as a volunteer tutor in the reading program at a school in Brisbane called Milperra State High School, which is an intensive English language school for newly arrived young people of refugee and migrant backgrounds. And it's had an enormous influx, obviously very recently with refugee children. So I have some experience in that area and certainly as a family.

00:04:05:22 - 00:04:28:16
Speaker 1
That's something that has been really important to us our entire lives. I just wanted to show you a snip from one of my son's homework pages this week, because as I was preparing this presentation, I thought, Oh, this is the perfect example of the sorts of things that we do at my school to support our older population, particularly in this case in the early years.

00:04:28:32 - 00:04:57:14
Speaker 1
So this is just some snippet of his homework sheet this week. They have what is called a mentor text every week where that text will be read every single day and explored in different ways as part of their home learning tasks. They are encouraged to listen to these stories and QR codes are provided to take them either to page subscriptions that we have like storybooks, library or not usually YouTube clips because there's copyright issues around those.

00:04:57:23 - 00:05:23:24
Speaker 1
But sometimes we have the teachers reading the books on a closed network within our school but we also provide the books in other languages. And in an international baccalaureate school, we talk about mother tongue, and so we ask some of the parents in the class to read those books in Mother Tongue, and they are recorded again on an internal network sort of to get sort of around copyright issues.

00:05:24:01 - 00:05:52:10
Speaker 1
But we supply those books in Mother Tongue as well, and students listen to those and listen to the books in English and go between the two. So that's something that particularly one of my sons, one teachers, does each week with their mentor texts Why do I think books are really important in the lives of all young people, particularly students who are from Aldi backgrounds?

00:05:52:24 - 00:06:15:27
Speaker 1
Books can be mirrors, windows and sliding doors for young people. And this is something that I know is potentially a term that you've heard before. It's been attributed to a number of different papers people, but it's often written up in academic papers these days. But books can help to facilitate conversations and deepen understanding They're perfect for unpacking, unpacking, complex subject matter.

00:06:16:07 - 00:06:45:27
Speaker 1
And I have in fact had a PhD student sort of shadowing me for want of a better word for the last year, about eight months. And she's been looking about how in my classrooms I really do use books in this way for unpacking quite complex subject matter. And her Ph.D. has just been published. It's about looking at the emotional connection that students have with books in the way we teach librarians and classroom teachers can facilitate those emotional connections.

00:06:46:31 - 00:07:14:12
Speaker 1
Obviously, the saying a picture paints a thousand words is one we all know. And it really does communicate how powerfully art can change the ways in which we see the world books. I think one of the most accessible forms of art, you are ever going to find for a student. We can all hopefully have access to picture books and chapter books alike, and they're an extremely accessible way for young people to access art and start to analyze art.

00:07:14:30 - 00:07:40:22
Speaker 1
Books also, to me are very much a safe space to escape to when the actual world is just too noisy. Books are incredibly quiet companions. I'm not a quiet person, but books are certainly a place that I seek solace in. They're there. When you want them, but you they're also silent when you need that space. So books are absolutely an escape, and they are an escape for so many of the young people that I work with.

00:07:41:11 - 00:08:01:07
Speaker 1
Just in case you haven't heard about these mirrors, windows and sliding doors analogy before, we use it a lot when we're talking about books books as mirrors are stories that reflect your life and help build your identity because we know that young people need to see their lives reflected in literature. It helps them to feel less alone in the world.

00:08:01:07 - 00:08:23:17
Speaker 1
And, you know, that's been particularly important in my family's case. My husband passed away five years ago, and I know that my children have really it's been very soothing for them to see the lives of other young children who have lost a parent in the books that they read. Not always. Sometimes. Like I said on the previous slide, an escape is really good.

00:08:23:17 - 00:08:54:00
Speaker 1
But some of those books around grief and absent parents have been incredibly important for my own children. And for their peers. As is the case in a book, there is a window where it offers an eye, a view into someone else's experiences. So back to that grief analogy. You know, these books about grief and absent parents have been really important in my life, in particular over the last few years, because a lot of my children's peers have been able to develop empathy and understanding for the journey that my own children are going through.

00:08:54:11 - 00:09:22:08
Speaker 1
Books can really help to unpack really, really complex subject matter and explore some of those big issues that we we hope our young people may not have to experience, but we know that they do. Life is complex, life is messy, life is chaotic. And if we can be encouraging our young people to read books which show them a window into somebody else's life, that's how we create, you know, the next generation of of empathetic and caring and kind and compassionate leaders.

00:09:23:10 - 00:10:00:19
Speaker 1
A window can also become a sliding door in a book and allow a reader to really fully enter the story, to absolutely walk in the shoes of another person in another country, in another dimension, and reflect and take action. You know, when we're talking about a book as a sliding door where really they're talking about books that make you take action, they might make you, you know, want to help children living in circumstances they previously had nothing about or fundraise or just, you know, have had this really deep understanding and changed the way they think about a young person or a particular issue that a young person may be facing.

00:10:01:23 - 00:10:29:23
Speaker 1
I sparks interest. It nurtures empathy beautifully. And art can have a massive emotional impact. We only have to look particularly at, say, music and young people and some of the work that's been done by hip hop artists in indigenous communities in connecting First Nations people with hip hop and with words and with beat and with music and, you know, to to know that art has a huge emotional impact on young people.

00:10:30:05 - 00:10:56:03
Speaker 1
You know, the creative and wonderful people that write and illustrate our children's books, they do something incredibly special with the big issues in life. Looking at refugees seeking asylum and looking at all of the big issues, grief I mentioned previously, authors and illustrators use their best skills and all forms of writing and illustrated style to convey messages artistically and hopefully to connect with young people.

00:10:56:13 - 00:11:17:08
Speaker 1
So, you know, I talk with my students each and every day at school about how books are a form of art. And these books could be hanging on the walls in an art gallery, just as a picture hangs on the wall in an art gallery. And that's something that's really important to me and something important that I talk with my students about all the time.

00:11:17:19 - 00:11:43:19
Speaker 1
We sometimes think about art as something that is over there in an art gallery, but books are an incredibly accessible form of art. I'm sure you are all completely read aloud. People but I just want to, I guess, re-emphasize that when a trusted adult read aloud with a child, that child is hearing the rhythm of words. They're hearing expression and emotion, and they're building such a rich and diverse network of words.

00:11:44:06 - 00:12:04:27
Speaker 1
Reading aloud to children of all ages. And here I'm absolutely talking about to your children students from Prep to Grade 12 models of fluid and sustained reading. It helps young people to understand tone and expression. It improves listening skills, develops skills around book conventions, when you're holding up a book and turning the pages or, you know, showing them maybe how a graphic novel works.

00:12:05:13 - 00:12:30:28
Speaker 1
And just something that, again, I'm sure you all do the first time I read a book with young people, particularly a picture book. And here and throughout this presentation, when I talk about picture books, I'm talking about picture books for young people. Of all ages. There is plenty of picture books which are aimed at early childhood age audiences, primary age audiences, but just as likely aimed at a secondary school audience.

00:12:31:05 - 00:12:51:02
Speaker 1
And the first time I read a picture book, I always read it through without stopping so that the young people that I'm reading to here, the way the author intended the language to sound, the story to sound, so they get the narrative arc. So they hear the rhythm of the words, perhaps the rhyme of the words and I never, ever stop on a first reading.

00:12:51:10 - 00:13:18:17
Speaker 1
Then obviously I'll read a picture book again and we might stop at certain points, but I'll read it again and again and again. So when I talked earlier about mentor text, that's something that's really important at the school, current school that I work at and in fact has been at several previous schools as well, these texts that are read every single morning to the young people in the class, so that by the end of the week they've really they've read that story sometimes five to eight times.

00:13:18:17 - 00:13:44:04
Speaker 1
I'll read it in library as well. It's been unpacked, it's been discussed, but it's also been deeply understood reading aloud. You know, I just cannot emphasize enough the importance of and I'm sure you're all on board with that in a world which is so full of different ways of accessing books, it's really important to think about how we can help our young people to access stories in multiple forms.

00:13:44:04 - 00:14:06:08
Speaker 1
There will be a number of young people who will prefer audio books, and audio books have been such an incredible boon for all young people and for adults. I'm currently driving around, you know, listening to an adult book, which I highly recommend called Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. I know it's a few years old, but I've never listened to it, and I don't want to come home sometimes.

00:14:06:09 - 00:14:29:06
Speaker 1
It's just so enjoying it. Audiobooks are a way to really increase that reading of books and increase in turn, the vocab that children are exposed to. Graphic novels have been incredible for so many young people, and I would encourage you to visit your public libraries, your school libraries, and get on board with graphic novels and the way that they have become so important to so many young people.

00:14:29:14 - 00:14:55:03
Speaker 1
Podcasts are fabulous ways to access stories magazines. If you are in a primary school or even in sort of lower secondary I highly recommend a program called Story or a subscription based program called Story Box Library, which I have no affiliation with Pat from having read a few books on it myself, but it's a paid subscription model service, which does beautiful read aloud of books, and they are often in Auslan as well.

00:14:55:03 - 00:15:33:31
Speaker 1
So there's some different ways those stories are presented. Before we get onto some books that I want to show you, I just think we need to have a think a little bit about when we're thinking about books which may be suitable for our young people who are from an elite background, need to think about the history of the young person and you know, with the huge influx of refugees into Australia, we need to think really carefully about possible traumas that they might come out of book with and if that's going to be triggering in some cases for them to see a book, or if it is in fact if they are in a place where

00:15:33:31 - 00:15:52:06
Speaker 1
they would like to explore some of those feelings. But we need to think really carefully about the sorts of books that we are giving them. Do they want to read a book at the moment that is a mirror that is you know, reflecting their situation back at them and perhaps making them feel seen, or is it too early for them?

00:15:52:06 - 00:16:18:24
Speaker 1
Do they just need to have some books which are about feelings and perhaps are a bit more of an escape? Have to think about the stability of their current living situation. I'm an ambassador for the Pajama Foundation which supplies books and people called Pajama Angels to children living in out-of-home care or foster care, and sometimes the stability of living situations of recently arrived migrants to Australia.

00:16:18:24 - 00:16:45:31
Speaker 1
And you know, as in the case of, of foster children, it can be up and down and books may not be something that they're easily able to access at home or easily able to keep a track of. It's really important to think obviously about the reading level of the student and if you need to be supplying them with some high interest, but low reading level books in terms of where they're currently at with their English language learning.

00:16:47:01 - 00:17:09:28
Speaker 1
And there's plenty of those. My website, Children's Books Daily has got lots of what I would call high low books, where there is a high interest level, high maturity level of reading, but a really low level of English reading level and literacy level. Sorry. And you also need to think about the maturity level of some of the students always.

00:17:09:28 - 00:17:36:03
Speaker 1
I would encourage you and I know that you will always do this, but you know, we get so busy as educators that sometimes it's very tempting to hand over to a student without having pre read it. It's really important, particularly when we're talking about children that have experienced possible trauma, that we have had a pre read of whatever book that we give them so that we can just touch base with the young people that we're working with before we hand on a book to them.

00:17:36:16 - 00:17:59:10
Speaker 1
And obviously thinking about cross-cultural factors and understanding of a new culture. And this is if this is going to be something that's accessible for them or a little bit confusing for them, I'm going to have a talk about a number of titles over the next few slides, and I will obviously hand on these slides for you to have a great look at.

00:18:00:03 - 00:18:27:11
Speaker 1
I've got lists of books on so many topics. It's ridiculous. When I was thinking about this presentation today, you know, I could list you a hundred titles which represent the migrant experience in literature. They're not all great and I, but a lot of them are absolutely fabulous works of art. I haven't done that for the purposes of the issue.

00:18:27:11 - 00:18:53:29
Speaker 1
What I've done is I've focused on some key titles from the primary years up to the secondary years, but I think a really great one for you to access. And of course, again, when we're talking about this, you know, when we're thinking about the migrant experience, I think that these books are incredibly important for all of the students that you work with, not just your migrant students, quite obviously.

00:18:53:30 - 00:19:23:00
Speaker 1
I probably don't even need to say that, but this is the sort of list of books that I would really encourage you to share with the peers of the students that you work with and really get on to contacting your teacher library. And if you have one in the schools that you are working in and asking them either to do a display of these sorts of books or push these books have conversation with kids about these books and get them into the hands of peers.

00:19:23:00 - 00:20:01:01
Speaker 1
Because again, it's like I said earlier, these titles that I'm going to talk about over the next few slides are going to be really important to all of the children that you are working with, not just your child students, but also their peers. And also, I would say the adults who are working with them. Some of the books that I'm going to show you have been just, you know, mind blowing for so many of the adults that I have worked with and who are working with children for whom English is not their first language and have had experiences that we will never, thankfully, in many cases, have experienced.

00:20:01:01 - 00:20:19:19
Speaker 1
But you know, these books I know in Milperra State School, the intensive English school that I was talking about earlier, a lot of these books are available for staff to read because they're just books that I think are really important in developing a picture of the whole child. And as educators, that's something that obviously we all want to do.

00:20:19:19 - 00:20:46:25
Speaker 1
We want to be educating the whole child. Take up is one that I know many of you will have come across. It is an absolutely sublime rendering of the refugee situation in picture book form. Each approach is such that children are very much spared the horrors of what the boy who had to leave home in a boat and travel alone to a new land may have actually experienced.

00:20:46:32 - 00:21:23:19
Speaker 1
The boy does not represent any particular race or culture, and he is the universal refugee child. The text is by Rebecca Young. The artwork is by Matt Lee, who, you know, I have an out and out crush on. He has never produced a picture book, which is not award winning and just utterly sublime. The artwork for this book are quite large about sort of a meter over made up oil paintings, and they are on canvases and they are absolutely you know, emotionally the impact, the emotional impact of seeing them in the original artwork, these cannot be understated.

00:21:24:19 - 00:22:01:25
Speaker 1
The illustrations sort of transpose the reader both upon and above the boy's small boat, which is isolated on the sea. He achieves this with high and high angled long shots positioning. The boy is quite alone and quite vulnerable. And then we come in really, really, really close and to almost to our level. Where we can almost be at one with this young boy, this young character in the boat, the illustrations are generally on a double page spread to emulate the large myths of the open seas, but some of them are done as panels strips to represent growth over time.

00:22:02:07 - 00:22:29:14
Speaker 1
The Sea Voyage test the boy immeasurably with variable and often confronting weather and empty horizons. It's very much this sense of loneliness throughout a lot of them. But the natural elements and stars and clouds, as well as interactions with whales and an albatross, provide relief from that loneliness they there is he takes with him in the boat. I'm just trying to look at my notes here.

00:22:29:23 - 00:22:50:15
Speaker 1
He takes with him in the boat only a book. Of course he takes a book a bottle and a blanket, as well as a teacup with earth from his home and a seed sprouts in this teacup. And it becomes this really powerful symbol, both as food and protection place and new life. So the story is very much one of hope and new life and one that I would highly recommend to all of you.

00:22:50:15 - 00:23:09:24
Speaker 1
It's utterly gift to all. And I have gifted it to a lot of educators in my life. My name is a Refugee by Kate Milner. Again, I'm assuming a lot of you are quite familiar with this one. In this one, a young boy discusses the journey he's about to make with his mother. They'll leave their town and it will be sad, but it's also going to be exciting.

00:23:09:24 - 00:23:26:06
Speaker 1
They're going to have to say goodbye to friends and loved ones, and that will be difficult. They're going to have to walk and walk and walk and walk. But his mother says, you know, that they're going to see very many interesting things and it's this really powerful and moving explore action that draws the reader into each stage of the journey.

00:23:26:06 - 00:23:52:27
Speaker 1
And the fact that he's this young boy's name is not refugee. It's quite a powerful book. My two blanket by Irena Kobold and Freya Blackwood has won multiple awards and been translated into multiple languages. And that would be something, again, that I would ask you to consider finding books, which are translations or what is happening now with a lot of indigenous picture books.

00:23:52:27 - 00:24:16:01
Speaker 1
Is there often coming with a QR code in the back of the book where the book is being read in the indigenous language, which was originally written in, and there's also a lot of beautiful dual language First Nations books starting to come out which have got, say, the Darrag language on one side of the page and then a translation in English on the other side of the page so these dual language books I think are becoming really important.

00:24:16:11 - 00:24:41:18
Speaker 1
And again, you know, a really important part of our young people feeling seen. I guess in this book. My Two Blankets Cartwheels arrived in the new country. She feels the loss of all that she's ever, ever known. She creates a safe space for herself underneath and all blanket made out of memories and of thoughts of home. And as time goes on, cartwheel begins to wave a new blanket.

00:24:41:18 - 00:25:10:15
Speaker 1
One of friendship and a renewed sense of belonging. It's different from the old blanket, but it's still warm. And eventually it becomes quite familiar again. Utterly gift of all. You know, for all the educators in your life, loosely in the language of Tea is a really new picture book. I've just seen this one. It's about a little five year old girl called five year old girl called Luli, who joins her new English as a second language class.

00:25:10:15 - 00:25:29:08
Speaker 1
And the playroom is really really, really quiet. And there's there's she can't speak English and neither can anyone else in the room. The parents are taken to a room where they're obviously learning English as adults and the children are in another space. So Luli had comes up this brilliant idea to host a Tea Party, which brings them all together.

00:25:30:15 - 00:25:57:22
Speaker 1
She gets out her tea pot and her thermos, and she says, chai in her native Chinese. And one by one, her classmates pop up in recognition of the word in Russian in Hindi and Turkish and Persian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili. Tea is something that is a universal drink. The word sounds the same in in many languages. It's a word and it's a ceremony, tea, drinking, which which children tend to know well.

00:25:57:32 - 00:26:20:25
Speaker 1
And after this, the playroom isn't so quiet and this was written by an immigrant herself, Andrea Wang. And she makes the point that when you're looking to communicate with people, you're looking for something that's a common bond. So it's this really wonderful book. And the other books on the screen are part of a series by an author called Ashley Barton.

00:26:21:01 - 00:26:51:12
Speaker 1
These are really new books. What do you do to celebrate and how do you say I love you? I just two from this series. They're picture books aimed at a lower primary to middle primary to upper primary audience. And it's got different ways of celebrating, saying, I love you, saying different words like grandma and grandpa in different languages and these ones I've got in multiple copies in my library, and they've been really greatly enjoyed, bought by teachers and students alike, room on our rock and move that mountain.

00:26:51:20 - 00:27:12:18
Speaker 1
Now, these are the sorts of books that I think you could really you know, they certainly very, very beautiful, uplifting books and they're very clever again, you've probably seen these ones, but they can be read from front to back and then from back to front. So you can see the subtitle there. There are two sides to every story in Broome on our rock.

00:27:12:18 - 00:27:33:27
Speaker 1
We've got two seals perched on a rock, and when others need shelter, do they really want to share their rock? It celebrates this truth that there's two sides to every story. So, you know, the SEAL believes is definitely no room on their rock for others. But when the book is read from back to front, then the SEALs welcome each other to share shelter on their rock.

00:27:34:32 - 00:27:55:14
Speaker 1
It's quite confusing to talk about it. I need to show it to you but it's really, really amazing. And the same with move that mountain whales been stranded on a beach. But the tiny puffins are far, far, far too small to help when move that mountain is ready in reverse. However, the puffins realized they are not too little to help together, and they can fix the problem.

00:27:55:21 - 00:28:19:14
Speaker 1
They are really heartwarming and inspiring stories about how, you know, in the case of Move That Mountain, even small voices can make a really big difference. And Room On Our Rock is very much about sharing and compassion and empathy and understanding. They're wonderful picture books by Kate and Joel Temple. These ones you may not have seen yet. I'm not sure that they even out yet.

00:28:19:14 - 00:28:48:29
Speaker 1
They make them come out. They may be out by the time you watch this. And this is a new series called Our Stories and the Series Editor is Randa Abdel-Fattah. Amazing Middle Grade and why I all fan. And these are funny, relatable, engaging early chapter books. So I would be reading these with my grade twos and threes that celebrate Australia's multicultural society with authors and illustrators.

00:28:48:30 - 00:29:15:00
Speaker 1
From diverse backgrounds as well. The very best donut is about a young boy who is just starting to fast for Ramadan and explaining that to his peers in his class and some of the challenges around that for him, but also the pride he feels in being able to celebrate Ramadan and not eat his donut while he is fasting.

00:29:15:00 - 00:29:42:25
Speaker 1
And 29 things you didn't know about me is most beautiful story about a young boy inviting someone over to his house for the first time and sharing things about his culture. And then it invites the reader at the end of the book to share things that maybe their peers don't know about them as well. I can see lots of applications for these months in the classroom illegal by Owen Colfer comes with, I think, an enormous trigger warning, as you can probably tell from the front cover.

00:29:42:25 - 00:30:04:04
Speaker 1
And again, I go back to you know, do we really want to we certainly don't want to spring any books up upon a young reader, but I think we have to think really carefully about how we who we are giving some of these books to in the stage that they are at with their own journey around their own experience of arriving in Australia.

00:30:04:16 - 00:30:39:12
Speaker 1
It's a graphic novel. I it's, it's an amazing book. We have it in our grade five and six and our seven to 12 libraries at the school that I work at, but certainly not in the lower primary library. It's a powerful story. It's a journey from Africa to Europe, very timely, massive trigger warning. 37 Days at sea is one that is based on the true story of a young girl's journey in 1939 I think.

00:30:39:12 - 00:31:00:21
Speaker 1
Yes that says it on the front cover. I was 1939 from Nazi Germany, Germany in search of refuge. Now again more historical stories can sometimes give that bit of distance that is needed. So yeah we can still see that kind of mirror idea of I see my life reflected in this child's story, but I it's not too close to the bones.

00:31:00:21 - 00:31:50:14
Speaker 1
So some of the historical stories around arrival and displacement and the migrant experience and refugee experience can be really powerful ones. Jumping to Heaven by Catherine Good is a beautiful nonfiction book of stories of refugee children that I would highly recommend for an epic primary to secondary audience moving into more the wide field between us and the year the maps changed are just two of so very many beautiful, beautiful young adult books that I highly recommend that you guys all read yourselves either in audio book form or in book form in order just to just get into that space in between us, we've got two teenagers separated by cultural differences, their parents expectations, and 20

00:31:50:14 - 00:32:15:29
Speaker 1
kilometers of barbed wire fence Anita is passionate, curious and determined. She's also an Iranian asylum seeker who is only allowed out of detention to attend school on the weekdays. During school hours. She feels like she is a regular Australian girl, but the reality is quite, quite different. And then the year the math changed by Danielle Banks is one a number of awards and been shortlisted for a number of awards.

00:32:16:08 - 00:32:46:27
Speaker 1
It's set in Victoria in 1999. It's about a young character called Fred Her mother has died when she was six and she was raised by her pop and her adoptive father, Luca. But the is also in this town a group of Kosovo Albanian refugees that have been brought into their town and brought to a government safe haven, a safe haven far from Taranto.

00:32:47:02 - 00:33:38:01
Speaker 1
And their fate, should it becomes intertwined with Fred's and her family's in a way that she could never have anticipated. It's absolutely beautiful in many ways, very timely, but just this beautiful story of community action and kindness and empathy and the stories that connect us all. You know, Fred had been through so much in her own life. And her own grief journey, and she's very much her life again reflected in the lives of these Kosovar Albanians refugees who become important to her a way of wanting something that's just more along the idea of change and exploring feelings Like I said earlier, not every child who has recently arrived in Australia is going to want to

00:33:38:01 - 00:34:02:22
Speaker 1
see their life reflected in that book. Immediately. And these three titles here for a middle grade audience, I'm saying from maybe grade seven to grade nine, you could go from grade six to grade nine depending on maturity level. But these three here are absolutely amazing. And, you know, I can't recommend them highly enough, particularly worse things in the middle there.

00:34:02:23 - 00:34:25:07
Speaker 1
The first novel, first novels can be, again, quite accessible for students who might be struggling with English language. They've got a lot their free verse, not rhyming, but free verse poems which form a narrative structure with a beginning, a middle and an end, but just less words on the page, a lot more white space and, you know, less confronting, perhaps than a thick novel.

00:34:25:21 - 00:34:46:27
Speaker 1
In this one, we've got three characters. And as the story goes on, their troubles and their lives are revealed and they are all sort of interconnected. There's one character called Jolene who hates hockey but is forced into it by her mother. There's Blake, who loves football but has been terribly injured. He's a high level football player and he's been injured and he is left out.

00:34:47:05 - 00:35:09:15
Speaker 1
And then there's Ahmed, who would love to play soccer but his language difficulties are quite an obstacle to that. The text really enables readers to empathize with the characters and to develop ideas and responses to what they might do if they were in those situations. It's an outstanding book. I have to say, I don't love the front cover, but the inside design is wonderful.

00:35:09:15 - 00:35:44:14
Speaker 1
There's a few small illustrations within it, but yeah, it's a fantastic first novel for a middle grade reader. And the book of Chant is the most beautiful more contemporary middle grade novel by Sue Whiting that explores this main character, Chance Discovery, that her whole life has been a lie. And she's really well you know, she's got this beautiful refugee family living beside her, and there's a lot going on in her life, but it's about how she is resilient and she copes with change and she copes with finding out things about her family and dealing with all of that.

00:35:44:31 - 00:36:17:11
Speaker 1
And again, these books here, also middle grade audience the simple gift is, you know, it's a book. You've actually few words, but it's compelling and it's got this theme of change in general, counting by sevens. And these three on this slide have absolutely, you know, no reference whatsoever to being recently arrived in Australia. But I think they're unbelievably beautiful books exploring the idea of change and feelings around change, and they're absolutely beautiful.

00:36:17:12 - 00:36:46:15
Speaker 1
This read aloud these are three. In fact, I've done all of these ones and all of these ones as books with my year six and seven book clubs in the past. And I think on my website I might have teacher's notes around some of them or potentially in my book club I've got teachers somewhere around these ones and book club discussion questions because they've been really beautiful ones counting by sevens.

00:36:46:15 - 00:37:28:32
Speaker 1
I do every year with my book club. It's the most beautiful story about coping with feelings of grief and loss and being an outsider, and it encourages true empathy through really beautiful characters and lovely writing. It's one of my all time favorites for a middle grade audience, as is Catch a Falling Star by Megan McKinley. This one does touch on themes of grief, but in a really beautiful and very self soothing and almost uplifting way I have a podcast, as I said, and if you're looking for books on particular themes around what may be relevant for the young people that you are working with, you can search my podcast and Alison Tait, who is a

00:37:29:05 - 00:37:56:09
Speaker 1
great author, and I co-host this podcast and we we we look at different themes each week. We call them out bingo questions. So we've got books there in episode 34 about starting high school and exploring that change, particularly in contemporary Australian life. We've got an episode 39 books about families and representation of diverse families and family sit ups where things you know, might be might be different.

00:37:56:09 - 00:38:16:20
Speaker 1
Pie in the Sky, for example, by Remy Lai is one of those books about families which I think could be really important it's about a family who have immigrated from China and I think and have set up a bakery here in honor of their father, who was meant to come with them from China. But passed away before before they made that move.

00:38:16:20 - 00:38:37:19
Speaker 1
So it's one that, you know, I think is not only a beautiful book about family and grief and immigration but it's also a hybrid novel. So it's a half graphic novel, half narrative. That's a really beautiful one. And in episode 61, we talk a lot about books about sport which I believe is an entry point for many young people into reading.

00:38:37:30 - 00:38:58:07
Speaker 1
Not being a sports person myself, I struggled with talking about books about sport but I do know that they're incredibly important. And like in that book earlier that I was talking about worse things, sport is very much the theme within that book, and it's been a really important book for a lot of young people. I'm going to chat to you more when we meet up on Zoom soon.

00:38:58:08 - 00:39:19:14
Speaker 1
I'll just move myself. Think about books that you might like to use. You can ask me any questions about books at that time, any question about book clubs that I may have run and how I've run my book clubs, maybe particularly with the international students that I work with and anything at all. I'm looking forward to chatting with you.

00:39:19:25 - 00:39:47:10
Speaker 1
Come with lots of questions, comments, you know, whatever you would like. I love talking books. If you've got specific book questions, feel free to email me through my website before that time and I can prepare something earlier, but other than that, yeah, just enjoy and we will catch up. I've got a few sites that you might like to have a little look at before that time and you will also have access to these slides before we catch up again.

00:39:47:22 - 00:39:48:21
Speaker 1
See you all soon.