About me
I am delighted to be speaking at the conference to share my experiences in our ELA support 'hybrid model' at ISD. We use push-in support for science and humanities. This is enhanced with elective Extra EAL classes for small groups to further reinforce the learning in those specialist subject areas. This model has seen our students learn the subject specific vocabulary, reading, writing and speaking norms and methods quickly so that they can more actively participate in lessons sooner and more effectively.
The goal with our hybrid model is to have each student get as much as possible from their science or humanities lesson in the moment, or as close as possible thereto. This raises the knowledge in the room and the willingness to participate in each lesson, rather than relying on an endless cycle of translating and catching-up outside of class.
I hope to share some things which have been successful, for example, pre-teaching, establishing norms; using tech to enable students to keep up with or pre-empt the lessons; using Building Thinking Classrooms or visible learning to get the students to really go for it in every lesson. Taking the time to practice speaking/extending/countering in advance so that they can take part in the subject lessons with confidence. I will also highlight the things to avoid.
By using proven methods that keep ELA students with the class will help to minimize the risk of surprises when it comes to high stakes testing.
