Documentation of Markham Gateway Kindergarten Case Study
Authors:
University based researchers:
Judith K. Bernhard, Suchi Garg,and Lisa K. Taylor
School based researcher:
Mrs. Pasha
1) PROJECT OVERVIEW
2) RESEARCH SITE
3) PROJECT IMPETUS
Research Questions
4) THE LITERACY PRACTICE
5) METHOD OF DOCUMENTATION
6) ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS
References
Appendix A: Teacher interview questions
Appendix A: Parent interview questions
In Toronto, Canada and its surrounding areas, educators are faced with the challenge of educating children from minority ethnic and language backgrounds in what are predominantly monolingual English school settings. The challenge is especially demanding in half-day kindergarten classrooms. Coupled with the fact that children's literacy skills are just emerging at the kindergarten level is the additional situation which finds many kindergarten students encountering an English-only environment for the first time.
The case study described here focuses on a dual-language, student-authored book project developed in the context of a 27-student kindergarten class at Markham Gateway Public School located in Markham, Ontario. Markham is a city situated just to the north of Toronto and has one of the area's most culturally and linguistically heterogeneous populations. Working collaboratively with their teacher and parents, the kindergarten students in this study produced individual, self-authored seven-page books written in both English and their first languages. The books were illustrated with drawings and pictures from home. Each of the 27 books was then made into a CD in order that the children could also view their books electronically and send them via email to family members and friends back in their home countries.
Based on material from the publication, Authors in the Classroom (Ada & Campoy 2003), the dual-language, self-authored book was introduced at the kindergarten level as a literacy practice that would provide students with a secure linguistic and cultural/personal identity foundation that would prepare them for the Grade 1 curriculum. By emphasizing both the maintenance of L1 and the acquisition of L2, students' linguistic and cultural capital was acknowledged, respected, and promoted. As Virginia, the school principal, noted during an interview, "Although English is an added language for them, kids come to Grade 1 with an open mind, ready to learn."
This present case study is part of a larger Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) project entitled, From Literacies to Multiliteracies: Designing Learning Environments for Knowledge Generation within the New Economy (Early, 2002). The structure of the larger SSHRC study is a series of sub-projects that were collaboratively pursued with two main objectives: 1) to increase the academic literacy attainment that Ontario education systems currently focus on; and 2) to extend current conceptions of literacy beyond traditional print-based literacy to the multiple forms of literacy that are increasingly relevant to the new information-based and computer enhanced economy
The present kindergarten-focused case study comprised one of the sub-projects that were undertaken for the larger SSHRC project. It was conceived of in relation to two areas of investigation identified in the original SSHRC grant proposal. These areas were specifically described as follows:
Area 2: On-going critical case studies of the characteristics and practical conditions for success in innovative learning environments which engage all students (including those deemed "at-risk" in an expanded range of literacy practices, including imaginative and cognitively demanding integration of text-based and multimedia practices.
Area 4: Identification of the structures (i.e., school leadership, community and university partnerships, pre- and in-service teacher education, and material resources) needed to facilitate implementation of these innovative approaches.
2) RESEARCH SITE
Surrounding community. Markham Gateway Public School is located on the north end of Markham, Ontario. Markham is one of the region's newer urban developments and it is still growing. As one drives up to Markham Gateway Public School, one sees a community of relatively large, newly built homes in what appears to be an upper middle-class neighbourhood. The reality, however, is that the neighbourhood is composed of people who are now working-class but who were relatively well educated in their home countries. Many of the homes are multigenerational, mostly transnational immigrant families or extended families. These family units are made up of a combination of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and children. Each older family member contributes to the household both financially and in the raising of the younger children. In most families, preservation of first languages is valued and first languages are spoken at home.
The majority of the population of this particular area of Markham is of South Asian descent. More specifically, most of the families originate from Sri Lanka. However, the area still remains largely multicultural with people from many different world regions being represented. Estimates are that over 90% of the student population at Markham Gateway come from households where English is a second language. First languages include Tamil, Urdu, Cantonese, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Hindi.
Markham Gateway Public School.
Markham Gateway Public School is a relatively new school, having been built just three years ago to accommodate the growing population in the area. The school population has been steadily increasing over time with current numbers estimated at 800 students. Markham Gateway is a multicultural school in every sense of the word with the large majority of its students coming from minority backgrounds. The principal and vice-principal have endeavoured to meet the challenge of educating Markham Gateway's students by creating an environment where the students' backgrounds are used as resources and where their identities are valued. The principal stresses the importance of identity as a basis for creating common ground and community. In her words,
Common ground means that there is that identity value. Common ground means the creation of community. Creation of community is that identity or is that trust that happens when someone's identity is valued. (Dec. 12, 2004, Virginia)
The school, which has been open for three years, serves students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8. Teachers in each of the grades collaborate in planning and implementing the curriculum for the school year. The school also has programs for children with special needs in both an inclusive setting as well as in contained classrooms. Because of the belief that every teacher is an ESL teacher, there are no ESL programs in the school. In addition to the regular teaching staff, the school also has parent volunteer teachers that come to classrooms to assist the teachers. Many of these parent volunteers were teachers in their home country, suggesting that the designation of the community as working-class needs some qualification: many family members arrived in Canada with a good education. There is a concerted effort to ensure that the teachers come from cultural and linguistic backgrounds similar to those of the children.
Daily schedule.
For Grade 1 to Grade 8 students, the school day at Markham Gateway begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m. There is one recess break in the morning, one recess break in the afternoon, and a one-hour lunch break.
Kindergarten children come for half days only. They have one snack break and then are picked up by parents. The morning children come in at 8:15 a.m. and leave at 11:00 a.m., while the afternoon children come at 12:00 p.m. and leave at 3:00 p.m. The principal and vice principal greet parents every morning as they either walk into the school or drive up to the door to drop their children off. The children also have daily visits to the library where they listen to a story told by the librarian and choose a book to bring back with them to be added to the classroom library. Reading buddies in Grade3 come to the room twice a week and are paired up with one of the kindergarten children to read stories.
International focus.
The multicultural focus of the school is evident in several ways. Each morning children have five minutes of physical activity time where they dance to music from various regions of the world. This is a very popular activity for children of all ages. As one enters the school there is a glass showcase to the left in which different classrooms display their work. Often the displays are culturally rich. For example, for Chinese New Year, a number of texts and artifacts were displayed. In addition, the school holds assemblies at different times of the year that reflect the multicultural background of the school's population. Last year, for example, the school held a South Asian assembly where the entire staff dressed in various South Asian clothing and the children became the experts who provided guidance on key aspects including dancing and singing.
The research classroom.
The focus of this study was a morning kindergarten classroom of 27 students made up of both junior and senior kindergarten children between the ages of four and five years old. All 27 children were visible minorities and had various language backgrounds. The majority of them came from a Tamil speaking background but other languages represented in the classroom included Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi, and Cantonese.
The kindergarten classroom has a warmth and brightness about it. Two large windows are located at the side of the classroom behind the teacher's desk. The classroom has both a desk and a carpet area that are used throughout the day. The carpet area is located at the front of the room. This is where the children and the teacher are found most often. As part of the carpet area are a shelf of books that children replenish on their frequent trips to the school library. Behind the carpet area in the desk area, the students' desks are arranged as groups of four. The children are put in mixed groupings of both senior and junior kindergarten children and they will often help each other with work.
Behind the desks are play stations. A sand table is set up and there is a wall of shelves with various bins of activities. There is a paint centre beside the sand table. In one of the corners of the room is a computer area with two computers that children are able to use to play games. In the opposite corner is a playhouse area that has dolls of different skin colours, toy cooking supplies, and dress up clothes and accessories. On the front wall of the classroom is a blackboard with the calendar indicating the morning activities. Directly above the blackboard is the alphabet. To the right of the blackboard is a map of the world where the children and parents have marked, with their names, their countries of origin. The rest of the walls are filled with work that the children have produced. The children also engaged in an activity where their names were written in both English and their home language. These names are displayed on the wall just outside of the door to the classroom for teachers, children, parents and visitors in the school to see.
Daily kindergarten activities. The day begins with children coming into the room at 8:00 a.m., putting their bags away, and choosing a book from the shelf to read during carpet time. The children then sit in colour groups (e.g., the blue group, the red group, etc.) in rows on the carpet. The morning announcements begin shortly after, followed by a school-wide physical activity time where the students stand up and dance to music from around the world. The teacher, Mrs. Pasha, is an eager participant and dances along with the children, as both a model and as a learner copying the children's moves. The children take great pride in the dancing and their movements reflect their cultural knowledge.
Following the morning dance, Mrs. Pasha proceeds with attendance and the morning routine where they sing the "Good Morning" song. One child is chosen to direct the calendar routine. Mrs. Pasha often follows the lead of the children in determining the order of the activities for the day. Children, along with Mrs. Pasha, often recite the alphabet in the morning. On a typical day, the children are asked to face the back of the classroom as Mrs. Pasha explains to them what they are going to write about in their journals. The children are given their journals and then walk to their desks to begin their work.
Later, the children are given their math activities. During our observation sessions, they were learning their numbers. Snack time is at approximately 10:30 a.m. following which children are then free to pick an activity from the several play centers set up around the room. Parents pick their children up from the classroom at 11:00 a.m. in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
The school-based researcher.
The school-based researcher for this case study was Mrs. Pasha, one of the kindergarten teachers. She completed her teacher-training in Iran and then was qualified to teach in the province of Ontario. Mrs. Pasha is fully bilingual in Farsi and English. Mrs. Pasha has also raised two of her own children to be bilingual. She expressed her view of the importance of achieving high levels of bilingualism,
There's the example of what happened to my son when I took him back home to Iran. My son couldn't read the signs. I said, "Oh, you speak Farsi but you cannot read. Then for me, you are like an uneducated person." I agree one hundred percent that we have to teach our children to keep their language and not just the basic language, but enough to learn their literature. (December 6, 2004, Mrs. Pasha)
The above quotation also illustrates Mrs. Pasha's implicit understanding of the difficulties of maintaining balanced bilingualism in Canada. This understanding informs her passion for the children in her classroom to maintain their first language.
In addition to her kindergarten teaching, Mrs. Pasha counsels new immigrants as a part-time job:
I have another job actually. I am an immigration consultant. I bring people here and I settle them and I have clients who are engineers and who are doctors. But they cannot find a job and they don't know what to do. They have children in school and they don't understand when they go for an interview and sometimes they misunderstand the teacher. Then they come to me and then I have to call the school and help them. Parents are really having a hard time. This is our problem. They are cutting back all those English classes. Parents don't have resources to go and get help, to get a job. I have a parent who was a Ph.D. and a college professor. And I showed her where to go and she got in a college and she will be a teacher next y ar. They need somebody or a program to help them, to show them where they can go. (Dec. 06, 2004, Mrs. Pasha)
This statement is clearly indicative of Mrs. Pasha's respect for immigrants and the knowledge they bring with them to Canada. She also has first-hand awareness, through her work with immigrants, of the lack of resources that parents have at their disposal and therefore has an understanding of the difficulty that many immigrants face.
Mrs. Pasha is a warm and passionate teacher. In her interaction with the students she will kneel down or sit on one of the children's seats and get close to her students and talk to them. A close relationship is built early on in the year between her and the children and it is not uncommon for her to tell them how much she cares for them often followed by a hug.
This teacher also has a good rapport with the families. She greets them at the door and speaks with them freely and openly. It is not uncommon for her to invite family members into her classroom when their children are having a difficult time or when they are interested in observing the class. She shows empathy for her students and often invites families of children who are new to the classroom inside until the child feels comfortable, encouraging them to stay longer if they feel they need to.
Parent volunteers.
In addition to the teacher, Mrs. Pasha, there are also two parent volunteers, Mrs. Ali and Mrs. Karim, who come into the morning kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Ali comes in on a daily basis and Mrs. Karim comes occasionally. Both parent volunteers were trained in their home countries as educators and both are interested in pursuing the teaching profession in Canada. In addition, they both are Urdu speaking and are able to understand Hindi and Punjabi. This linguistic ability proves to be useful as many times Mrs. Ali and Mrs. Karim are required to communicate with the children in their home language.
The university research team.
Two university-based researchers were involved in this study. The first member of the research team was Suchi Garg, a graduate from the Bachelors Program in Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University. Suchi is pursuing a Masters in Second Language Education degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. The second member of the research team, Judith Bernhard, lived in Chile until she was sixteen years of age. She then moved to Puerto Rico and then to Canada. Upon receiving her doctorate, she became a professor in the area of education. Near the completion of the study, a third researcher, Lisa Taylor joined the team. She speaks several languages and is a graduate of the Doctoral Program in Second Language Education at OISE.
3) PROJECT IMPETUS
There is a great deal of evidence that ESL learners continue to remain disadvantaged in school and that graduation remains an elusive goal for many of these students. Educators in large urban centres are faced with the challenge of educating children from minority ethnic and language backgrounds in what are predominantly monolingual English school settings.
To prevent or remedy the dismal picture, policymakers and funders are currently supporting the investigation of a number of literacy interventions that will serve to prepare all children for the new economy. These interventions vary in terms of their philosophical approach and focus and can be thought of as roughly falling into two different types: those that emphasize direct teaching of specific literacy sub-skills and those that emphasize making changes in the larger sociocultural context of and children's participation in literacy-rich activities. Interventions that focus on formal reading instruction through structured, skills-based programs are numerous and have been shown to have positive short-term effects in a number of evaluation studies conducted in the US (Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1991: reported gains on phonological awareness and phonetic cue reading; O'Connor, Notari-Syverson, & Vadasy, 1996: reported gains on phonological awareness tasks of blending and segmenting). There is, however, no evidence of the impact of systematic explicit phonics instruction after grade 1 (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001).
Although skills-based interventions clearly play an important role, there are a number of concerns that have been raised about such approaches. First, although gains are often seen on specific literacy-related sub-skills, such as phonological awareness, increases in such sub-skills do not always translate into competent, sustained, fluid, and global reading competence and grade-level literacy performance (Bernhard & Cummins, 2004; Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001; Erickson & Guttieriez, 2002). Further, there are concerns that the teacher-centered transmission pedagogy found in such programs is diametrically opposed to both the emerging consensus among cognitive psychologists regarding how people learn in sociocultural context (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000) and standards for developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood settings (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). For many low-achieving, culturally and linguistically diverse students, the major literacy challenges come not so much in the acquisition of basic decoding skills, but in sustaining growth in reading comprehension and motivation through the upper elementary grades. Sustained reading growth requires that students form an affective bond to literacy that motivates them to read extensively for pleasure (Gee, 2001; Guthrie, 2004).
An alternative perspective on literacy that emphasizes the holistic processes of engaging young children in authentic literacy activities in appropriate sociocultural context can be termed the "transformational" or "empowerment" approach. Viewing literacy as a set of social and cultural practices enacted by relevant groups (Cairney & Langbien, 1989; Gee, 1990; Heath, 1983; Solsken, 1993) and learning as participation in a community of practice rather than what goes on in the individual learner's head (Moll, 1992, Scribner & Cole, 1981; Lave & Wenger, 1991), this perspective draws on family experiences and knowledge, or what Luis Moll (1992) calls family's funds of knowledge, to create school activities that connect classroom literacy practices with students' home cultures and communities. Such a view sees literacy as not just about decoding text but the transmission and understanding of significant cultural events mediated through symbolic artifacts and language (Cummins, 2004; Dixon Krauss, 1996; Freire, 1973; Vygotsky, 1997). Attempts to implement holistic transformative literacy interventions in early childhood are in their infancy and there is not much in the way of scientifically rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness (see Ada, 1988; Bernhard, Winsler, Bleiker, Ginieniewicz & Madigan, 2005; Chow & Cummins, 2003; Cummins, Bismila, Cohen, Giampapa, & Leoni, In Press, 2004). In his 2004 paper, Cummins formulated seven basic claims or hypotheses about the effects of such programs:
Students' home language (L1) knowledge is an educationally significant component of their cultural capital;
Even in an English-medium instructional context, teachers can create an environment that acknowledges, communicates respect for, and promotes students' linguistic and cultural capital;
Newly arrived students whose knowledge of English is minimal are enabled to express their artistic and linguistic talents, intelligence and imagination through the creation of identity texts written initially in their L1. In this way, they quickly join the classroom and school learning community as valued members rather than remaining at the periphery for an extended period;
Students' attitude towards and use of L1 changes positively in L1-supportive classroom contexts;
Parent-student communication and collaboration increase when dual language literacy projects such as book authoring are initiated;
Technology can increase the audience for students' books and provide reinforcement for students' literacy practices;
Dual language initiatives can serve to normalize linguistic diversity within the school and result in more coherent and effective school policies with respect to (a) affirming students' linguistic and cultural identities (b) parental involvement, and (c) technology use within the school.
The project reported here is one of a cluster of case studies under a larger grant (Early, 2002) attempting to provide supportive evidence for these claims or hypotheses. Since the study is exploratory, there was no attempt to use standardized measures of changes in teacher strategies, classroom change, parental engagement, or child outcomes.
The school was approached by the YRDSB Superintendent for Equity (Vicki Bismilla) and volunteered to participate in the Multiliteracies project. The nature of the participation of the different schools was worked out collaboratively among the schools, the Superintendent for Equity and the OISE/UT researchers. The Early Authors project at the Kindergarten level developed out of this collaborative process.
Markham Gateway was of great interest as a collaborating school site for a number of reasons. The researchers observed the large number of visible minority students who made up the population of the kindergarten grade. They noticed the students' comfort in speaking their home language within the school context to their parents, to the volunteers, and also, at times, to their friends. Further, the school's focus on technology-mediated experiences was seen as a way to broaden the approaches and methods used to support literacy initiatives (see Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; New London Group, 1996).
Finally, the school principles articulated by Virginia (principal) and Gerry (vice-principal) at Markham Gateway provided a solid base from which to investigate multiliteracies. The following summary principles were developed over a three year period, in terms that the principal, Virginia, described as "organically grown" through extended discussions and conversations among the members of the school community. During our first visits to the school Virginia and Gerry shared a list of 8-10 principles that they had been working with. These principles were then condensed into the following three strong statements that Virginia and Gerry saw as reflecting the spirit of the original principles.
1. For most students, English is an added language, beyond languages including Tamil, Urdu, Cantonese, Punjabi and Gujarati. The increased capacity resulting from multi-language acquisition makes our students some of the brightest and the best.
2. All our students have been sent to school with family good will and positive concern. We must acknowledge parental trust with a shared understanding through reinforcing and communicating added language learning in a sensitive, supportive, and authentic manner.
3. We honour our community and provide a learning environment which affirms the dignity and worth of every person. This also necessitates the elimination of passive nvoluntary immigrant or invisibility attitudes unconsciously projected upon students.
In June of 2004, a meeting was organized by the Markham Gateway administration for the teachers and the researchers involved in this study. At this meeting, Judith Bernhard led a workshop in which the book Authors in the Classroom was highlighted. The book had been distributed to the school earlier in the year. In this book, Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy (2003) reported on the empowering effect of transformative education and provided examples of ways to implement the approach. Many of the ideas from this publication were discussed at the meeting, and, as a result, a dual-language poem written by the teachers was made.
Following the meeting, the school principal suggested a kindergarten classroom study to one of the researchers on the team. As the quote below illustrates, the principal felt that there was something special happening at the kindergarten level that was enabling minority language children to succeed in Grade 1. She felt that focusing on children at the kindergarten level would shed light on just what exactly was being done so that it could then be replicated in other kindergarten classes at other schools. The principal explained:
Recently we had a discussion with the Grade 1 teachers and they noted how well the kindergarten children are being prepared to participate in the Grade 1 curriculum. It would be interesting to document what the kindergarten teachers are doing to get children ready for Grade 1. If we could articulate what is happening here, we would be able to take this over to the other school that is being built. We want to know: What we are doing? What does it look like? There is good stuff going on in kindergarten. In this school, kids get the message that it is cool to be from a different culture. Although English is an added language for them, kids come to Grade 1 with an open mind, ready to learn. What is happening in kindergarten that could be transferred to other schools? (May 26, 2004, Virginia)
In September of 2004, the research team was invited back to Markham Gateway. The research team made a series of visits to the kindergarten classrooms, including a visit on the first day of school. Upon visiting the classrooms, the interest in a dual-language project was voiced by a number of teachers, most of whom had attended the June meeting focusing on Authors in the Classroom.
A 21-item questionnaire for parents was developed in collaboration with the principal and vice principal to gather information on three main areas of interest about the students in the kindergarten classroom and their families (see copy of Questionnaire attached). Questions 1 through 5 were background questions designed to understand where the child and his/her family came from. Questions 6 through 9 focused on the language background of the child and its importance to the family. Questions 10 through 21 were designed to understand the literacy practice of the child in the home.
Out of a total of 27 questionnaires that were sent out, 13 questionnaires were completed. The results were entered into the SPSS database and the output from the data was then printed and shared with the administration team and the school-based researcher. After the data were analyzed, the teachers, administrators, and researchers had another meeting where the findings were discussed. The findings included the following facts: 1) 99% of the children had one or more family members living with them whose first language was not English; 2) many children were told bedtime stories in a language other than English; and 3) parents provided children with an array of literacy experiences outside of the school and use a variety of literacy resources.
A parent meeting was held on October 7, 2004. During this meeting, the parents produced seven spontaneous dual-language stories. In addition, a number of projects were started including a map of children's origins or where they came from, and a dual-language name activity. However, the most important outcome was the dual-language book project.
A decision was made by all three groups (i.e., the teacher, the administration team, and the university-based researchers) following the parent meeting to develop a project where the language backgrounds of the children could be incorporated. The principal, vice principal, and the teachers decided that a dual-language book where both English and the children's home languages were incorporated would be an interesting project. This decision was made after the dual-language stories that were made in the parent meeting resulted in three more parents and students deciding to write three more dual-language stories complete with illustrations. These three books were returned to one of the kindergarten teachers, demonstrating the excitement that parents felt in participating in a school meeting that involved writing in two languages. The parent questionnaire also provided a resource from which to develop the dual-language book.
Initially the dual-language book study was to include three morning kindergarten classrooms with children in junior and senior kindergarten. However, for the purpose of an in-depth study and taking into account discussions around limited resources, the study documented the literacy practice in only one of the three classrooms.
The participants in the study included one kindergarten teacher, the students in the kindergarten classroom and the families of the children. The total number of students who participated was 27, each of whom had one or more family members that were also a part of the dual-language book study. All the parents participated by working with the children to write the text, supply photographs, and illustrations.
The prin ipal suggested we work with Mrs. Pasha because she was a foreign-trained teacher that added another component to her teaching. The researchers enthusiastically seized the opportunity to collaborate with Mrs. Pasha.
Consent forms were sent home at two different times during the period of the study. The first part of the consent form briefly explained the study and its purpose. The second part of the consent form explained the participants' rights if they agreed to participate in the study.
The first set of consent forms went home at the beginning of the study to gather consent for the children of the kindergarten classroom to participate in the study. The forms were designed as follows: I consent for my child: 1) to participate in this study; 2) to be interviewed for this study; 3) to be audio-recorded for this study; 4) to be video-recorded for this study; 5) to be still-video recorded for this study (photographed); 6) to release examples of my child's work for this study to be posted on the multiliteracies website for other teachers, students, and researchers to learn about this project.
The second set of consent forms were for the purpose of gathering consent for parents themselves to be interviewed. These forms documented consent to the following: 1) to participate in this study; 2) to be interviewed for this study; 3) to be audio-recorded for this study; 4) to be video-recorded for this study; 5) to be still-video recorded for this study (photographed); 6) to allow sections of my interview to be posted to the multiliteracies website; 7) to have my interview shown at professional conferences. Anonymity was promised and parents and students were given the option of being able to leave the study at any time.
Research questions
As a result of the program involving the dual language books, we generated the following four research questions:
How, if at all, was the students??cultural capital increased as a result of the program?
How, if at all, were students and families engaged further in the classroom?
How were students??attitudes about cultural and linguistic diversity affected?
To what extent did the use of technology amply any of the above benefits?
4) THE LITERACY PRACTICE
The principal, vice principal, and the teachers decided upon the structure that the dual-language books would follow. (Samples of the books are included in the gallery area of the Multiliteracies website.)
Each book was seven pages in length and had two sides to it, one in English and the other side in the student's home language. There was also room above the written section for pictures and illustrations to be inserted. The following seven lead sentences were developed for children to complete with their own words:
1) At home I like to_______________
2) My favourite foods are__________
3) The people in my family are_______
4) At school I like to______________
5) I like my school because _________
6) My best friend is_______________
7) When I grow up I want to be______
The books were first written in English at school with students dictating and the teacher, volunteers, and researchers writing the exact dictation verbatim.
The students then illustrated what they had authored. Subsequently, each page was sent home one at a time and parents translated and wrote, into their home language, what the child had written in English at school. Mrs. Pasha believed that pictures from home would also be a positive addition to the book:
You know, I thought it would be better for children to put their own pictures with their family. It would be a better result, that's why and to show more and different culture[s] of the children. (Dec. 06, 2004, Mrs. Pasha)
All seven pages from each of the 27 books were returned complete with illustrations and pictures. The pages for each book were then scanned into a computer and 27 CDs of their books were made for the children.
Although the focus of the research team was on the conditions and structures of literacy practice (the research claims) rather than on practice per se, it was apparent that the books provided rich opportunities for language and literacy skills development. Students increased their awareness, not only of English, but also of their home language and other world languages. They practiced, for example, letter formation and vocabulary building, pronunciation and reading comprehension, sentence completion, translation, interviewing each other, storytelling and retelling.
5) METHOD OF DOCUMENTATION
During the early part of the first semester, the research team made regular visits to the classroom for the purposes of developing and maintaining rapport with the school-based researcher, the students, and the families that were part of the study. During these visits the research team assisted in the regular classroom routines and engaged in conversation with the various groups.
Following the decision to implement the dual-language book project, visits to the school were made twice a week from October 2004 to February 2005. The visits were for the purposes of: 1) classroom observation and assisting in the project; 2) interviewing the school-based researcher, administration team, and parents.
The team also often assisted the school-based researcher in her work with the books. The researchers assisted Mrs. Pasha by, for example, keeping track of the pages that had been returned from home and by working with individual students to complete their books.
Observations were made during class times when the children were either in the process of working on creating their dual-language books (first half of the semester) or were actually using the finished product (second half of the semester). These observations took the form of running records.
In the observations the researchers looked for answers to the following questions. How did the teacher introduce the dual-language book to the students? How did the teacher scaffold the activity throughout the process of writing and illustrating the book? What groups were children put into to write the book and what other resources were used (i.e., reading buddies)? When writing the books with another older student did both students share the same home language? What types of talking and collaboration occurred during the process and did communication take place using different languages? How did the students relate to each other during the writing and illustrating of the book and following that the sharing of the finished books? How did the project end and in what ways were the books used in their finished state? Who were the children encouraged to share the books with? Were they shared in groups and if so what languages were represented in the group? What types of sharing was encouraged during this time? How did teachers, parents and volunteers participate in scaffolding this process?
During the second half of the semester, from January 2005 to February 2005, additional visits were made to the school for the purpose of observing children as they worked with the finished books. These observation sessions were frequently videotaped.
It was during this latter stage that we observed that the book had taken on a life of its own, so to speak. The researchers were there to observe the first day that the completed books were introduced to the students. Clearly, the students were excited to see their self-authored books. Mrs. Pasha stressed that they had become both authors and illustrators of their own books.
The books were bound and placed on the bookshelf of the classroom as permanent additions to the classroom library and Mrs. Pasha indicated that even though the books were made by the children in the morning class, the children in the afternoon class frequently rushed to take them out and read them. The children also took their books home. One of them took it to the school where her mother works. Some talked of sending it via email to their relatives back home. The teacher encouraged the children to share each other's books, to look at the letters and trace them.
In early February 2005, the school organized a Literacy Assembly where each of the classrooms showcased their dual-language books. Parents were invited and children were given the opportunity to talk about the books they had authored. Some of the children read their books aloud, one grandfather read his child's books and, at the end, the children's Grade 3 reading buddies joined them and the kindergarten children read their book to their buddies.
We had the opportunity to interview the principal and vice-principal, the school-based researcher (Mrs. Pasha, the kindergarten teacher) and three parents. We also interviewed the librarian, and other teachers in the school, and we had numerous informal conversations with the other two kindergarten teachers, the parents and grandparents. Each interview lasted from 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Two members of the research team conducted the interview with the school-based researcher. The interview was videotaped for the purpose of transcribing and analyzing at a later date. The interview questions were focused on the process of writing the dual-language books. The questions were also focused on the finished product and on what the school-based researcher felt about the end result.
Two members of the research team also conducted the interviews with three parents of the kindergarten children. The interview questions were designed to gather information with specific focus on the ways in which the dual-authoring process acknowledged and communicated respect for the student's home languages. Questions 1 through 3 were designed to gather background information about the family and to develop a rapport between the parent and research team. For example, one question asked was: What language(s) are spoken in your home? Questions 4 through 18 were designed to gather information regarding: 1) the process of writing the dual-language books; 2) how parents felt about this process; 3) what they learnt through doing the project; and 4) what was gained by doing the project. Question 7, for example, asked: How did you feel about participating in this project, did you enjoy it? What did you enjoy about doing this project (the book) with your child? Question 13 asked: As a result of the project, have you and your child talked any more about your background and culture? What was said? Question 17 asked: Overall, what if anything did you or your child gain from being in the project? What components would you like to see expanded?
Each of the three parent interviews was transcribed by the researchers and was then analyzed.
The research team conducted a child-by-child analysis that included the development of themes and patterns for each child. A cross-child analysis was then carried out, which included the identification of common patterns across all children. A set of common themes was identified. The transcribed interviews with the school-based researcher and parents were coded to arrive at a set of preliminary findings (see section 6 below). Further, discussions with several of the families obtained corroborating views on the importance of selected areas.
6) ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS
Our study suggests several different conditions and structures in which teachers working in an English-medium instructional context can use dual language books in innovative ways. We found that teachers can create a highly integrative environment in which the different first languages and cultural backgrounds of students, rather than being rejected, ignored, or treated as merely a sideline interest, can be fully recognized, respected, promoted, and incorporated into the classroom as rich educational resources. Furthermore, our study suggests that in terms of issues such as identity development, self-esteem, and socialization, the creation of such an environment may be particularly beneficial at the early kindergarten stage when children's literacy skills are just emerging.
The premise of the multiliteracies and transformative pedagogy that was part of this project consisted of developing activities where cultural and linguistic knowledge is drawn upon imaginatively and developed and where multilingual/multimedia/multicultural intelligence is used towards achieving curriculum learning objectives.
The dual-language book study was an example of such an activity. The children drew upon their cultural and linguistic knowledge: speaking, comprehending, learning to read and write different languages and were able to do so with various family members and using different community relationships. Through using this linguistic and cultural capital, children also developed concepts of authorship, translation, phonetics, interviewing skills and inter-textual meaning. The following excerpts from our observations and interviews are illustrative of the multiplicity of ways the dual-language book project served the kindergarten children and their families.
Finding 1. Children became comfortable with the signs of their diversity including their L1 knowledge.
As noted above, the first of the 3 school principles cited emphasizes the fact that the children's bilingualism (i.e., their L1 equally as much as English and not merely their ESL success) adds to their academic capacity and makes them "the brightest and the best" This concept was articulated a number of times in our visits to the school. Gerry, the vice-principal, eloquently stated,
All those words are very specifically put down that way. For example, there is no context for the word "acceptance" because that would mean, I'm going to accept you, this is my thing, and I will accept you. Rather, "on common ground", and "added language" says the exact opposite. It is saying, It is my honour to have you join us and hopefully, time permitting, you will also accept me and honour my presence. To go even deeper than that, we talk about added language. We don't talk about ESL. Those aren't just words anymore. Those are fundamental paradigms that are lived at this school everyday. (December 12, 2004, Gerry)
The respect for the home language as educationally significant was also evident in the classroom. Mrs. Pasha often talked about how the book-making project supported her efforts to make the children comfortable with their linguistic and cultural diversity:
Before, I needed for one of my SK's to translate and talk in their language. But when I asked them to translate, then they didn't want to speak in front of the classroom. So they would say, "I forgot." I said, "Go ahead. Say it. You know. You remember. Don't be shy."
Then I modeled for them. And I spoke my language because I am an immigrant and I know how it feels. That's why I want to teach them to be proud of their nationality their---even their food. Sometimes they bring their snack and they hide their snack and they don't want to show other children what they have. I say, No, no. Why that's nice" You know, and I get a sample and I eat it and I say, "Wow, that's delicious! Beautiful!" Because I want them not to be shy or embarrassed about their food. (December 6, 2004, Mrs. Pasha).
In sum, even within the kindergarten classroom's English-language environment, Mrs. Pasha was able to instill a sense of pride in the children. She was able to make use of their linguistic diversity and identity in her teaching. The children were given a safe space in which to then share their linguistic and cultural identity from home.
Finding 2. The dual language authoring project served to promote parent-student communication and family engagement in the project.
The parents, in their interviews with the researchers, expressed great enthusiasm for the dual-language book project and indicated on a number of occasions that this was the first school project in which they felt they had truly been involved.
Mrs. Karim, one of the two parent volunteers in the classroom, describes the way in which the dual-language book project was different than other homework that had been sent home in the ast with her daughter, Zohreh:
In school we are used to getting the homework just like usual. But this was something that was different. So we were quite excited. The book project included me in the process. Like in the school what she does, the outcome, I just see it at home. The homework and all just comes once a week on Fridays and she completes it, gives it back on Monday, and that's it. But this was a thing that I was involved in too. Like I was excited, "Oh where are the pictures?" And, "I have to write it in Hindi!" For a long time I have not been writing in Hindi. (March 03, 2005, Mrs. Karim)
It is clear in the case of both Zohreh and Sarah (Mrs. So's daughter, described below) that family members were not simply involved in the process of authorship, but that their expertise was re-positioned as valued and needed knowledge. Likewise, as holders of such knowledge they were themselves re-positioned as instructors and not simply as observers of their children's education. Above, Zohreh's mother emphasizes the meaningful involvement opened up for her in the process and not simply the product of her daughter's learning.
In the following quote, Mrs. So talks about the other family members that became involved in the dual-language book project:
The biggest advantage that I really enjoyed about this whole project was the sense of interaction between Sarah and my mother- in- law. I'll never forget sitting around the dinner table with the book and relating the picture to my mother- in- law and Sarah telling us what the picture was all about in English. Then I would have to translate it in my Chinese to my mother- in- law. She would have to write it out. And then I would sit down with Sarah and teach her the Chinese. (March 03, 2005, Mrs. So)
For Mrs. So and her family, the process of writing the book became a family event where valuable knowledge was transferred across generations. As such, family literacy events were expanded, enriched, and meaningfully linked to formal curricular learning as valuable learning communities and cultural communities of practice.
Zohreh's mother describes how the project allowed her daughter to be able to conceptualize and identify with the concept of an author:
Actually, at the beginning she wasn't able to understand what was going on. But I made her to understand that this is the book that belongs just to you and you are the author. And now she was like, "Oh, what's a author?" Now one day she was just seeing a cartoon and it was Blues Clues I think. She saw that a person is an author of a book, a character. Then I told her that you will be in the same place, that you will be the author of the book. So she got an idea like a picture, "Yeah, I'm the author and this book is mine." (March 03, 2005, Mrs. Karim)
According to Mrs. Karim, through authoring the book her daughter was able to construct and transfer knowledge between the home and the school and build a deeper level of understanding with regard to her position as an author of her dual-language book.
Finding 3. Students' attitude towards their L1 became more positive as shown in their use of L1 and their pride in such use.
Mrs. So, a parent in the research classroom, describes the enthusiasm her daughter Sarah felt in relation to her self-authored text that centered on her personal history, her family cultural practices, and memories:
When she first brought it [the CD version of the book] home that day, we were both really excited about it. Then we watched it at my school. We have some time together before I bring her into the daycare and it was interesting cause I brought it into a workroom with a whole bunch of other teachers. Sarah generally is a very quiet person, but when her work went up on the computer, she became very animated and all of a sudden very talkative because it was her work and all the teachers walked around and said, "Wow this is great!" (March 03, 2005, Mrs. So)
Mrs. So clearly articulated the confidence that Sarah had in work that was based on identity investment and furthermore that made use of mastery of prior cultural and linguistic knowledge.
In the following quote, Sarah's mother, Mrs. So, talks about the importance of building children's self-esteem through identity investment at an early age:
Identifying with their identity from home has an impact on our child's self-esteem.
I think particularly at the kindergarten stage the most important curriculum expectations should be socialization and feeling safe in a school environment. There are so many years of schooling to come and I think we've already established that a child needs to feel safe and have good self-esteem to be able to take the risks that are part of good learning. And so how better to do that than to bring their culture into their classroom which is foreign? And with a lot of our students in this particular community, they haven't had exposure possibly to care from anyone else other than mom and dad up until the kindergarten stage. Hence, the separation anxiety seems to be greater in a community where parents aren't exposed to Early Years programs and other resource programs that are available because they are not made aware of them. So when it comes to a new environment, to have something familiar [is important]. (March 03, 2005, Mrs. So)
Mrs. So, in her statement, makes a clear connection between the personal and identity investment invited by the dual-language book and the kinds of learning Sarah is challenged to engage in. In emphasizing this, she also draws a connection to the idea that kindergarten children making the transition from L1 and bilingual home contexts to English school contexts experience enhanced comfort, engagement, and investment in L1-supportive classrooms that encourage a positive student attitude towards and use of L1. Therefore, for Mrs. So, Sarah's learning was enhanced with the added element of her L1 being incorporated into her schoolwork.
Finding 4. The use of technology served to amplify the importance of the books and the engagement with them.
Mrs. Karim talks about the CD version of the dual-language book:
Actually, the book, it's good. But still, when you have a CD so that I can show it to others it's better. I can show it to my family and friends and all so it could be a quite exciting thing it will be exciting because the grandparents are there [back in the home country] and they are concerned about what's going on here. Even my parents and my husband's parents both are in India, both families. So it will be good that they can see something exciting going on here. (March 03, 2005, Mrs. Karim)
For Mrs. Karim, sharing the digital books with grandparents and extended family promised to animate and concretize these affiliations as they mediated them. Although she hadn't been able to send pictures yet to relatives in different countries, Mrs. Karim felt as though the CDs enabled her to share her daughter's book with a wider audience. She also expressed enthusiasm in doing so soon.
Finding 5. Children's attitudes toward their own languages became more respectful of diversity. They became aware of different ways ideas are expressed in the different languages.
When children were sharing the content of their books, they were very shy about speaking in their language. Mrs. Pasha, therefore, came up with the activity of having the children interview each other in their home language. Because no one volunteered, she provided a model and began interviewing Mrs. Karim in Arabic and Urdu. All the children's eyes were on them as they engaged in the following interaction:
Mrs. Pasha: I want you to just watch and see what we are doing okay? Good morning Leyla how are you?
Mrs. Karim: I am good thank you. How are you?
Pasha: Good. I am fine thank you."[Addressing children now)] You know what I am saying, Good morning in my language. I speak Farsi and you speak different languages some of you. You speak Chinese, some of you. You speak Urdu, some of you. You speak Indian. Some of you speak just English. So I speak Farsi. Do you know how they say in Farsi, Good morning? [Says good morning in Farsi.] Sobh beh'khayr. What do you say in your language, Leyla?
Mrs. Karim: Good morning is [nervous laugh].
Mrs. Pasha: What language do you speak?
Mrs. Karim: Actually, we greet with Salam Aleikum.
Mrs. Pasha: Salam Aleikum.??And I say, Salam Aleikum too because I am Muslim. And Leyla is Muslim too. And we have some words, okay, because we speak Arabic and most of Muslims speak Arabic and read the Koran in Arabic, right? We say, Salam Aleikum. Salam Aleikum [greeting Leyla]
Mrs. Karim: Valeykum Salam [(answers back)].
This interaction enabled children to understand how even within the school context, meanings and information can be conveyed in a number of languages. They then went on to an activity pretending to be television reporters interviewing each other. This process served to make linguistic diversity a normal part of linguistic interactions in this classroom.
This normalization of linguistic diversity within the classroom context was further explored by Sarah's mother who talks about the dual-language book project and the scope it has for her child:
The vision is to plant the seed and hope that something will flourish from it. But it's interesting because when it comes home it brings the culture that is rich to the classroom home which tends to be more [diverse]. So she'll not identify as much as if she comes home and does the cultural dancing, start mimicking classmates and their language. So she'll say it's Urdu. I think that's very enriching. I think whenever a child gets exposed to other cultures and although she, in terms of representation she's not part of the majority in the classroom, maybe something like this would allow her to share. And so maybe they're going home and doing the same thing. I think that speaks to the teacher representation and population as well who they are and the comfort level of sharing that whether you are a majority representation or a minority representation. (March 03, 2004, Mrs. So)
Sarah's mother is also articulating the rich learning and appreciation that can emerge from the inclusion and development of children's home culture, language, and identity in curricular learning through a project such as dual-language books. Such children come to understand culture and cultural diversity as a lived relationship and practice.
The normalization of cultural and linguistic diversity was able to both enhance and contribute to the comfort that the teachers and children had in sharing who they were. This also added to the spectrum of what counted as knowledge in the kindergarten classroom and through the use of their cultural and linguistic capital a deeper understanding of diversity was fostered. These children were therefore able to engage not only in affectively engaging and meaningful learning, but cognitively challenging enriched learning as well.
Projects such as the one we have described above show potential in affirming students' sense of self, reinforcing the value of their home language, and promoting a broad engagement with literacy. The principal of the school, in the present case, expressed the following hope that we also hold.
People at our school are now articulating multiliteracies as a concept and as a practice. This is an endeavour here in our school and the interesting time to see the effects would be next year in terms of some of the probing and prodding, how that percolates and how that comes out, even though you might see it as initial or fragile, or perhaps not altogether there yet. (Dec. 12, 2004, Virginia)
The first steps toward such a future have already been taken.
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Appendix A
Could you describe the morning children's reactions to the books the first day that they were handed out to them? What did they do? What were some of the things they said? With whom did they share their books?
Could you describe the afternoon children's response to the books? When did they notice them? What did they do? What were some of the things that they said?
Why do you think the children responded the way they did to the books?
Thinking about the children's response, can you give me examples of the sorts of things the children learned from these activities? (in terms of new attitudes, confidence, motivation in school?)
Do you think children's home culture and language can be used in the classroom to help students learn at school? Why (not)?
What educationally significant things did the children learn from making and now using the books?
Have your concerns about the books changed? Would you expand on them and in what way?
What do you feel is the most important aspect of the books for the children? Could you give me examples of things that have happened that show this?
Appendix B
Who are you? Mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother?
What are the language/s spoken in your home?
What is your comfort level with the speaking/reading/writing of English?
Are you aware that your child was part of a dual language authoring project?
How much did you participate in the making of the book?
What did you think when you found out your child would write about their home culture and language for school?
How did you feel about participating in this project, did you enjoy it? What did you enjoy about doing this project (the book) with your child?
Was anyone else involved in making the book? Who?
How did you get materials for the book (pictures, language etc.)? for example, talking to family, friends, internet, church, reference books?
What kind of conversations did this project inspire in your family? Were family members cooperative in the project?
Did your child enjoy the project, what, if anything did the child gain from the project? What did your child learn?
What did you learn by doing this project?
What did you learn about your family background/culture
As a result of the project, have you and your child talked any more about your background and culture? What was said?
How much is your native tongue used in your home and what do you do at home to help your child learn to read, write and understand their home language?
Is it important to you that your child continues to read and write in their home-language? Did the project help your child in that way?
What are the books and written materials (like letters from family abroad) that you read to your child in your native language?
Overall, what if anything did you or your child gain from being in the project? What components would you like to see expanded on?
Would you recommend this project to another family member in Canada who has small children?