In March of this year I tried a new idea for communicating or representing what was happening in Room 203, Division 15 at Sir Matthew Begbie Elementary School. I called the new idea - an Open House. This is not a new name but it was a new manner in which to communicate or represent for me, the class and the community.
My idea was to have groups of students prepare representations of their learning which other students would then share with their parents. Every student would prepare one presentation but all of the subject areas would be covered because different groups would have prepared different presentations, myself included.
When the students showed their work to their parents they would be showing work that other students had prepped. Each presentation would represent learning of the whole class but would be prepared by one group and be presented by every student to their parent.
Presentations of Term Two Learning
The presentations demonstrated many, many things. They demonstrated the level of understanding the students had of the concepts they worked through together. They demonstrated the diverse and attuned strategies they had for representing the knowledge they built together. They demonstrated how the knowledge we amassed is communal, we know what we know together - we can talk other people's projects, well! When you look closely at the projects you can see the students at times used their First Language in the text or audio.
Many of students have a First Language other than English, as do their parents. Our audience for the Open House were parents and through my guidance they made their projects more welcoming to their parents by including any First Langauge they could within their group. When creating the groups I ensured each had at least one person with a First Language other than English, not a difficult task as this is the case for 24 of 27 student in the class.
By asking the students to include First Languages in this way I ask them to extend their First Language into academic discourse. I ask them to be ready to discuss their learning with their parents, in their First Language, in the same academic discourse that I ask them to discuss it with their peers in English.
When we get ready to present we often practice by ourselves and then with a partner. In this video Wendy is practicing her presentation of the Open House with Jason, Wendy is the student, Jason is the parent.
She begins with the French video, moves to the French poster, views the Math patterns and ends by leading Jason to the computer for the PE presentation.
Apparently, parents and students nod a lot when presenting and viewing.
Later that afternoon Wendy's mom came to view her work. This is a video of her sharing one of the Math presentations with her mom. Notice in this clip, unlike the first clip, Wendy speaks Cantonese. With Jason Wendy spoke English.
Students in the class are required to 'flip' between English and Cantonese, (or other First Languages), at times to explain their learning to their parents.
This 'flipping' between languages requires a sophisticated understanding of the languages as well as the concepts. I encourage students to practice explaining the academic concepts in both languages to ensure their First Language is expanding with their English.
This video begins with Helen welcoming her mom into the class. With her mom Helen speaks Cantonese. Helen's mom was impressed by all of Helen's work, but especially by the way Helen included Cantonese in her 'Zack' project.
The video shows a progression of the afternoon. Parents, visitors and students came and went freely over the several hours that were the Open House.
Students easily talked their learning through the different presentations in which ever language was most comfortable for them with their parent. I saw parents pointing out language that they recognized, as well as English, and showing added interest in the inclusion of the other languages. Most importantly, I saw parents and students talking about their learning.
Parents were impressed. Students were proud. An unqualified success.