NET Scheme News 2023 Summer issue 44

Here is how to use your classroom displays to create an engaging language-rich environment… Decorating our classrooms with student work often falls to the end of a very long to-do list, where learning and teaching, of course, take priority over simple aesthetics. However, here we will show you how the four walls (and windows) of your classroom can become central to your teaching, and may even help lessen the load in embedding all of that target language! We discuss a range of ways classroom display boards can be effectively integrated into the writing process as shown in this year’s “Seed” project on Thinking Routines for Writing at Maryknoll Fathers’ School. What is a language-rich environment? It is an immersive environment where languages are heard, spoken and seen. Classroom display boards are often overlooked as authentic teaching and learning tools. How can they be made more effective? Well, it goes way beyond not simply having a bare room or even a display or work that is just looked at and never touched. Here we are talking about creating interactive boards in classrooms as a natural and authentic part of student learning. What worked well in schools, has been where students have reflected on work using the display boards. It shows what they are thinking, what they are saying and that it generates conversational talk about that particular topic and content so that it becomes something they focus on for a period of time. So it is a resource that integrates skills rather than just texts to read or lists of vocabulary. Can you give us an example of where this has been used in a school you are working in? Yes, creating a language-rich environment is one thing, but making sure it is successfully used by students to embed language and reflect on their learning is more important. Maryknoll Fathers’ School S1 students focused on the image on the board as a stimulus for the thinking routine, ‘See, Think, Wonder’. They worked together to generate ideas using language they already have at their disposal. This enabled them to develop vocabulary in context in their own writing. They shared the words and phrases and then had a range to choose from for their own writing. They then built upon this by using a ‘beginning, middle, end’ structure and some peer feedback to improve their writing. The steps for this were recorded on the board. So, thisworks as natural tool for differentiation? Students can work at their own pace and also learn from each other. Yes, it becomes a structure to hang onto when they are not sure of anything concrete to say, they can comment on and learn from each other’s work. Another useful idea for the board is to use it to generate, and expand ideas for group speaking, particularly in higher forms. Sometimes topics can be alien to students, but if you start with images, vocabulary, ‘Parking Ideas’ as talking points and simple Plus, Minus, Interesting column. This can bring unfamiliar concepts closer. It encourages an ongoing conversation with the board which changes regularly to give students a greater variety of input. As the display board at Maryknoll Fathers’ School is a thinking routine, the reflection on the display board not only activates the schema and recycles language but also helps students remember every step of the thinking process. The fact that the students are quite literally surrounded by language helps them to retain certain words and phrases but the more purposeful use Are you bored of your boards? 2 NET Scheme News Issue 44 Language-rich Environment