During our first LERI webinar, the Language Friendly Lessons were shared by teachers of the LERI project. The LERI project commenced in 2021 and is a joint effort between the Rutu Foundation and the University College of Teacher Education of Vienna (PH Wien) to make use of blended digital learning to design language friendly lesson plans. Teachers create language friendly lesson plans, share them amongst each other and develop language friendly pedagogies. The aim is to strengthen cultural and language inclusion in schools through peer learning, and so far the Language Friendly School and the voXmi network of schools in Austria are seeing meaningful results!
The first results were presented during our webinar on 13 April 2023. Three Language Friendly Lesson Plans were shared by our wonderful teachers who are part of the LERI project:
Human Rights- Starter Pack by Vera-Sophie Horwarth
This lesson plan is a language friendly module introduction to the Declaration of Human Rights. This starter pack encourages students to explore human rights by visualising the universality of human rights, incorporating the potential of multilingualism, and making use of their mother tongues. It is for teachers who are looking for ways to discuss human rights with their students but might be overwhelmed by the scope of the topic. This starter pack makes it easy and provides different activities that you can adapt to the needs of your class.
The objectives are:
- Raising existing knowledge on the topic of human rights.
- Gaining a simplified overview of the contents of the human rights declaration by working with keywords and creating visual links and support.
- Visualise the universality of human rights by incorporation the potential of the multilingualism existing in the classroom and visual elements in creative work.
- Transferring human rights to everyday life and detect social injustices.
Vera-Sophie Horwarth is a teacher at the Konstanziagasse in Vienna, Austria.
Weather Report by Onno Visser
The aim of this lesson is to design a broadly defined language production task. The example used here is to create a weather report. In this lesson, students create their own weather report based on extreme weather conditions, making use of different words in their own languages and igniting an interest in different parts of the world. The students learn how to report on the weather, the different climate zones in the world and to verbalise a weather report in different languages (including in their mother tongue).
The lesson was created by Onno Visser, teacher at the St. Janschool in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Technology and Traditional Meals
by Tracy Zagers-Johnson and Gerit Brunner
This lesson plan highlighted combining technology and connection with the family and traditions. The lesson asked students to interview their families (in their mother tongues) for traditional meal recipes that would be made and shared with the class, while making use of digital blended learning tools.
The children will learn interview skills, video making skills and presentation skills while making use of school and mother languages!
The lesson was jointly created by Tracy Zagers-Johnson, teacher At Saba Comprehensive School, Saba, Dutch Caribbean and Gerit Brunner, teacher at Msi Konstanziagasse, Vienna, Austria.
Discussion
The webinar ignited discussion on language friendly pedagogies, critical thinking, the importance of daring to be different for the benefit of students and other teachers and tackling harmful policies.
Teachers also made use of the network of teachers present, to share learning and teaching practices. For example, one question was based on teaching hard-of-hearing children and the link between school and home languages. We love that our network is so supportive of each other! Those present also expressed a desire to see the work of the students based on these lesson plans. So, keep up with the LERI project on our website and socials to catch any updates.
Future webinars will feature more Language Friendly Subject Lessons. Register here and join us during the next webinars on:
- 11 May 2023, 17:00-18:30 (Amsterdam time)
- 13 June 2023, 17:00-18:30 (Amsterdam time)
The LERI Project is super proud of all the courageous teachers who dare to envision a world of cultural and language inclusion. We look forward to seeing you next time!