[eal-bilingual] Re: New Arrivals Forum

I for one agree with all three of these principles, Graham.

Alison Mott

-----Original Message-----
From: eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Graham
Smith
Sent: 06 October 2007 21:43
To: 'For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic
andlinguisticminorities'
Subject: RE: [eal-bilingual] Re: New Arrivals Forum

I think Alison's right.

This is a very supportive and productive forum. It's a place where we
share
useful information, but also have quite robust arguments in the secure
knowledge that the broadly shared educational beliefs that attract us to
the
forum make it safe and productive to argue.

I thought be worth trying to tease out what those core beliefs (or
values)
are. So here's a starter. I think we're broadly in agreement that:

-collaborative learning increases achievement
-first language initiatives increase EAL pupils' achievement in English
(we've got some interesting KS2 evidence from Islington to share on
this)
-pupils with EAL need explicit teaching about how academic language
works.

Graham Smith

-----Original Message-----
From: eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Alison
Mott
Sent: 06 October 2007 11:33
To: 'For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic
andlinguisticminorities'
Subject: RE: [eal-bilingual] Re: New Arrivals Forum

When you're with the best, why bother with the rest....

Actually, I clicked onto the TES EMAG forum to have a look, spent time I
didn't really have reading postings, even sent in a couple of replies,
then spotted one response for 'help' which went something along the
lines of "you might be lucky - if the Chinese child you're supporting
knows they're staying in England for some time they will make the effort
to learn, otherwise if they know they're going home soon, they probably
won't bother."  How disappointing!  And this, presumably, from a
teacher!  It seems that I forget, working in the EMASS environment that
I do, that people still believe this sort of thing.

I think I'll stay here, too, with like-minded people.

Alison

-----Original Message-----
From: eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
Nelzfam at aol.com
Sent: 05 October 2007 20:09
To: eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: Re: [eal-bilingual] Re: New Arrivals Forum

I agree with you Mary. I registered but then couldn't access any forums.

I'll stick with this one ,Thanks!
Anne