Personalised learning
A personalised approach supports students from refugee backgrounds by looking at their strengths, interests and specific learning and wellbeing needs.
A comprehensive assessment of each student is necessary. It is recommended that input is obtained from all personnel involved and includes the English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) teacher, school counsellor, School Learning Support Officer (Bilingual), year adviser or stage coordinator, and student welfare coordinator. A personalised approach is best coordinated through the school learning and support team.
Collect information about students
Collecting information about a student's background and life experiences, family situation, health and wellbeing, interests and talents can help the school plan appropriate support. Information about a student's English language proficiency, literacy and numeracy levels and prior schooling can inform the school about the need for modifications to school routines, programming and assessment practices, additional learning support programs and curriculum options. It can also inform schools about professional learning needed by teachers about the impact of refugee experiences on learning and behaviour, effective pedagogy and strategies for differentiating teaching and learning.
Plan the support
Many students from refugee backgrounds have emotional, welfare and other educational support needs as a result of their refugee experiences and disrupted or limited prior schooling. Developing personalised learning approaches can help ensure that information about students is collected and support is provided by people with the appropriate expertise and area of responsibility.
The following templates may assist schools to develop student learning plans for students from refugee backgrounds:
Watch the video on individual learning plans which shows how schools can develop targeted support through personalised approaches to learning.
Speakers:
Laura Roby, ESL Teacher, Bossley Park High School
Miss Toomah, School counsellor
Kim Cootes, Assistant Principal ESL, Fairfield Primary School
Peter Flowers, Principal, Blacktown Girls High School
Karin Harrison, ESL Teacher, Blacktown Girls High School
Nerida Cracknell, Learning and Support Team, Blacktown Girls High School
Sue Mayhew, ESL Teacher, Marsden Road Public School
Kerry Cheeseman, ESL teacher, Auburn North Public School
[Gentle music]
Student: This is the counsellor. Come in.
Teacher: Thank you.
Laura: For every student who comes under the learning support umbrella, particularly our refugee students, we do individual learning programs. We sit down with all the teachers that work with them in the classroom and the school counsellor, and the parent. The student is also there so they're are aware of what the teachers are feeling they need support in but they can also say well, this is what I feel I need support in.
Teacher: I might introduce the teachers that we have here today.
[Arabic translation]
We have Miss Roby who is our ESL teacher, Miss Toomah who is our school counsellor.
Laura: We fill out the school proforma which looks at setting goals, and the strategies to go about achieving those goals. And then we set a review date.
Teacher: Miss Roby as our ESL teacher has conducted a progress report.
[Arabic translation]
Kim: Refugee students have unique needs. A teacher needs to know those students really well, and then develop a teaching and learning program for those individual students. The school learning support team may also be part of that, and of course the school counsellor.
Miss Toomah: We have also been working on her confidence as far as her speaking goes, and just the other day, Adira was in charge of the refugee week presentation.
[Arabic translation]
Laura: We look at things like literacy and numeracy development, we look at their vocational pathways. It's a very big process. There could be up to 15 teachers sitting around a table discussing a child. In reviewing, we feel that Adira is meeting the targets of her IEP.
Peter: Blacktown girls has a really strong learning support team. We've got a wide range of staff who are part of that team. We're really looking at getting the important information on each student and then making sure that the rest of the staff are aware of that information
Karin: On these plans we have their background, the amount of language literacy they have in their first language.
Teacher: Her behaviour, in class that I observed, was actually quite confronting at times.
Karin: If we have any relevant information regarding previous schooling then that goes on to the plan as well, and we work with the teachers to establish programs and learning activities that suit those particular students. A lot of it is to cover up her difficulty in learning
Teacher: Ok
Nerida: The learning support team meet twice a term for a very big meeting where we invite also heads of each of the faculties.
Teacher: So she's on the defensive?
Teacher: All the time
Teacher: So she likes steps.
Teacher: So scaffolding's going to be really important.
Peter: The staff get to know their students as quickly as possible, and then teach towards those individual needs.
Teacher: We're going to use this way of figuring out how we're going to work together. I think in planning learning for students from a refugee background a priority is knowing all about the students that I'm going to be teaching. I rely on my colleagues in our learning support team for anecdotal information about the individual students that I'll be working with and that often includes information about their family.
And then "shhh" - don't share yet. That basically means don't sort of say to the person next to you: "What did you write?" Also I look at their academic situation, so I use the learning support team for that as well, and we have individual learning plans that kind of concisely draw all this information together. But I also use things such as their NAPLAN data if it's available, real work samples that they're doing in a variety of their classes.
Teacher: The reason we had to put a personalised learning plan together for William was because he was experiencing difficulty with his reading.
Sue: Individualised learning programs have become a focus in our school and it's up to the teachers, working with the parents, and maybe the ESL teacher to formulate these learning plans.
Kerry: She's got some great ideas, and what would you like to work with her on?
Teacher: Her structure I think.
Kerry: Yeah Before meetings we will do assessments, we might do work samples, look at some reading levels, and the classroom teacher, ESL teacher, the school learning support officer in Dhari Arabic, the school counsellor, AP may be involved in the meeting, and together we develop a program, we share ideas, and it's so great, because everyone's on the same page. We'll team teach that together
Teacher: I'll particularly focus on the social stuff with her.
Teacher: We are pinpointing the reading and spelling to work on at the moment.
Teacher: The second page there, building up her public speaking skills and her confidence.
[End of transcript]
Communicate with relevant staff
Communicating relevant information about students from refugee backgrounds assists their teachers to better understand the behaviours and learning needs of their students.
A distribution list for essential information about newly enrolled students is recommended and could include school counselling staff, school executive, wellbeing team, year advisor, class teachers, EAL/D teachers and careers advisor.
Before distributing information, it is important that schools establish procedures to ensure that information is treated confidentially and the privacy of students and their families is protected.
Differentiate teaching and learning
All teachers share responsibility for developing understanding of their students’ learning, emotional and social support needs and should consider the impact of English language proficiency on academic progress.
School executive and all classroom/subject teachers will benefit from understanding the issues that impact students and their ability to engage with learning and to consider ways of differentiating assessment, programming and teaching for students from a refugee background for a period of time. In some cases it may take considerable time for students to participate actively in learning – they may require a ‘settling in’ period.
Students who can communicate well in informal situations but who have limited listening, speaking, reading or writing skills in academic English, can face difficulties participating in learning and assessment across the curriculum. Lack of previous education or disrupted schooling can mean that some students operate at literacy and numeracy levels well below their peers. They may also have considerable gaps in their understanding of curriculum concepts, school routines and expectations.
Teachers may need to differentiate assessment tasks and activities within their teaching and learning programs to allow students to access and demonstrate understanding of stage appropriate outcomes despite differing levels of language and literacy.
See how teachers provide authentic learning contexts for students from refugee backgrounds and differentiate teaching and learning in the video below.
Speakers
Laura Roby, ESL Teacher, Bossley Park High School
Jacquie Browne, ESL Teacher, Blacktown Girls High School
Karin Harrison, ESL Teacher, Blacktown Girls High School
Sue Mayhew, ESL Teacher, Marsden Road Public School
Sean Grady, Learning and Support Team Coordinator, Mt Druitt Public School
Barbara Colreavy, ESL Teacher, Mt Druitt Public School
Laura: Today we're going to continue on with our lesson from yesterday, can anyone refresh our memory, what we were looking at?
Student: Um, heroes.
Laura: Rich tasks are a great learning instrument for any child, but particularly for a refugee child.
Jacquie: Ok, ladies, in your interviews you told me that you love girl magazines.
I think a rich task is very very beneficial for refugee students because it's not really textbook based, it's not really worksheet based, it's actually, real life learning.
Laura: What would we define a villain to be?
Student: Well, villains are bad people.
Laura: There's always language being thrown around the classroom, so the exposure to different terminology and vocabulary, and just other people's points of view, it's just a wonderful experience.
So who is the person that we're studying in this unit?
Jacquie: Rich tasks tend to be collaborative.
Laura: Ned Kelly - is he a hero or a villain?
Jacquie: They usually involve experiential learning, they work towards an authentic end product.
Why did you choose that one?
Student: Um, cause Vanessa's in it, and Chris Brown and Rhianna.
Jacquie: Sometimes their problem based so they might include skills and content knowledge from different curriculum areas. They really are engaging, interesting, challenging, and real world, and that's what makes them rich.
Who would the audience be for these magazines?
Student: Girls?
Jacquie: Girls.
Karin: The girls are very interested because it's something that they see as coming from their own interests, and also having a very practical application.
(Uplifting music)
Sue: Marsden Road Public School celebrated 50 years last year of being in existence, so we thought as a rich task, we would produce a book of games that were played in Marsden Road, 50 years ago.
What was the game we were talking about, last lesson?
We taught these games to the students. We played games like hopscotch, and a game called fly, we played marbles. As we played the games there was lots of language happening, you could see how they enjoyed it.
All right, first of all, throw it into number 1.
As they acquired these skills, we took photos of them, and then they had to write up a little description of the game, and we actually produced a hardcover book.
Sean: The rich learning tasks incorporate so much, and it really engages the kids, the use of technology, the different focus you can have on different areas. The focus for our IEC for example was bushrangers. So Barbara came up with the idea of well let's make a movie about a bushranger called, I think it was Moonshine Joe.
(Guitar music)
Barbara: It gave them a real world and real life experience, but it developed the language, it developed their understanding of the context, it was fun, and it was appropriate at all different levels because there were children that had minimal English that were able to be a part of it.
(Guitar music)
Sean: It culminated in parents being invited up, the principal's invited to sit down and watch the premiere of the movie Moonshine Joe.
Student: Please Moonshine Joe you have to help me!
Barbara: So whatever goes with a movie premiere: popcorn, tickets, seating, they all had a role.
(Guitar music)
Laura: OK, we've done our research. We may need to do a little more, but this is the beginning. Soon we're going to go away and you're going to become the lawyers. And you're going to have to stand up, and prove Ned Kelly a hero, or a villain.
He was arrested so that makes him...guilty?
Student: he was arrested
Laura: 'A', double 'R', 'E', 'S', 'T'.
Narrator: Rich learning tasks can provide an authentic context for curriculum and language learning. However high levels of scaffolding are necessary to ensure success.
Jacquie: So, when I say to you what would the purpose of these magazines be? What does the word 'purpose' mean to you?
Students: Purpose...the reason?
Jacquie: Good. A rich task needs to be highly scaffolded to cater for the needs of students, building opportunities for success over time, and suddenly you've got kids doing things that you'd never thought they'd do.
Sue: Now, remember I was telling you about the games played in the playground 50 years ago?
Whole class: Hopscotch!
[End of transcript]
Monitor student learning and wellbeing
The school’s learning and support team should assess and monitor students’ requirements and progress.
Some refugee background students adjust quickly and easily to life in Australia while others take longer. It is important to allow time for this. During this period of adjustment, students may appear withdrawn and distant, unresponsive, moody and easily provoked to anger or aggression. They may also be often absent from school. They may have other physical symptoms such as headaches, skin conditions, intermittent nausea or respiratory ailments such as asthma.
These reactions may be linked to trauma in the past or to current anxieties about loved ones who are not in Australia. They could also result from the stresses of resettlement in a new country, or may be linked to adolescence and inter-generational conflict. Any of these concerns and responses can disrupt students’ ability to concentrate on learning at school.
The capacity to cope with past traumatic experiences varies greatly from student to student. The degree to which the learning and wellbeing of a student is affected by previous trauma depends on:
- the severity of previous experiences
- the number of traumas and the length of time they were suffered
- whether parents or close family members were killed, injured or disappeared
- the resilience of the individual in adjusting to new environments
- how well the student's carers are coping with their trauma, resettlement and anxieties about family members in the home country
- how well the individual student is being supported in their new country at home, at school and in the local community.