BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project

1. BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project http://www.bestcluster.openlab.net.au/2007web/Lit-numhomepage.htm

2. BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project http://www.bestcluster.openlab.net.au/2007web/Lit-numhomepage.htm Literacy Numeracy

3. 1. What is the teaching and learning challenge to which you are responding? Which PoLT principle? The Project “What’s in a Name?” was designed to encourage students to investigate something about themselves and how culture influences their lives. In a class of 20 there were students from different cultural backgrounds who wanted to talk about their own customs and traditions. Students are living in two worlds – the culture of their parents and the culture outside their homes including school. Unit 1 is on greetings in Indonesian and also introducing themselves. To add interest to the lesson I designed an activity where students had to investigate the meanings of their names. POLT 4.1 Students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and application. In learning environments that reflect this principle the teacher: 4.1 plans sequences to promote sustained learning that builds over time and emphasizes connections between ideas.

4. 2. What will the student be assisted to do? i.e. Understanding Performance; Essential Question; Understanding Goal / Standard (VELS) • As students worked towards the achievement of Level 4 (Pathways 2 in LOTE), they consolidate and extend their expanding knowledge of Indonesian to compose, comprehend and respond to tasks in class. • Through this project, students were assisted to develop an understanding of change and the problems of transition especially from one culture to another. • Students were asked to find out about baby naming ceremonies in their culture, find out how they were named, what their name meant in their language. For example, were names inherited? • They had to interview their parents asking how they were named. In class we wrote up questions for the interview about the meanings of their names, baby naming ceremonies in their culture and also why they were given the name they had. • They had to research on the Internet to find the meanings of their names and read headlines from newspapers published on their birthdates.

5. 3. What can the student already do alone? eg KWHL, Pre-test &c. • Students are able to speak of their own experiences with enthusiasm.They were also directed to use the Internet to find out as much as they could about the meanings of their names. They were to research the cultural background and language their names originated from. • On the Internet students read the newspapers published on the day they were born. What were the headlines? What was the world news? The most important thing that happened on that day. • They interviewed their parents/guardians about the meanings of their names, why parents chose the name they did? Were there any baby naming ceremonies followed? They were encouraged to describe the ceremony and explain its significance.

6. 4. How will the student be assisted? i.e. scaffolding eg modelling, questioning, mind map &c. Show or list resources required & length of learning sequence Interpreting the information The newspaper archives went back for 12 months or so but going back 12 or 13 years to get headlines on the birth days of each student in class was a big problem. In the end the students wrote up some questions for the interviews with their parents/grandparents or guardians – asking if anything important or significant happened on the day they were born. Very few students could get information on this part of the assignment. I expected parents to know more about the meanings of their children’s names but that was not always true. The Internet turned out to be the major source of information. Parents however gave good information about the ceremonies they had performed for their children at birth or shortly after when naming them.

7. 5. Review. How well did the learning sequence work or not work? What next? Evaluation The investigation went quite well and there were positive results. The students got an insight of what started out as a seemingly superficial assignment which led to deeper meaning and an understanding of others. The Internet research for news on the students’ birthdates was a disappointment but the interviews with parents about the students’ and baby naming ceremonies were brilliant For students it was a way to relate the cultural experiences to themselves and it was an opportunity to tell their stories with the help of mum and dad! As for the Indonesian students learned, they use vocabulary to say their names, where they came from, when they were born and describe the baby naming ceremony in Indonesian and English.