Teaching Young Learners in a Superdiverse World

Multimodal Approaches and Perspectives

Heather Lotherington, Cheryl Paige

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317233909
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book documents a collaborative action research project in one school where researchers and practitioners worked together to develop multimodal literacies and pedagogies for diverse, multilingual elementary classrooms. Following chronologically from Lotherington's Pedagogy of Multiliteracies (2011), this volume picks up after teachers and researchers have learned how to work efficiently as a learning community to offer project-based learning approaches. This edited collection relates how teachers and students of different grade levels, language backgrounds, and abilities developed a shared agenda and created a framework for effective and inclusive practices. Contributors demonstrate that collaboration, creative pedagogical solutions and innovative project-based learning are all essential parts of learning and teaching socially appropriate and responsive literacies in a multimodal, superdiverse world.

Part I
Contextualizing Our Learning Community

1 Creating a Culture of Success at Joyce Public School

Cheryl Paige

Introducing Joyce Public School

In 2001, I became principal of Joyce Public School (JPS) in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the third largest school board in North America with 542 schools and a quarter of a million students. The school had a population of 300+ children, and it offered serious challenges: high poverty, limited parental formal education and minimal parental experience with Canadian education. In one school board survey, 20% of mothers reported that their highest educational level was elementary school, though there were also parents who had received professional training in their home countries.

The JPS community came from every corner of the world. Over 90% of parents had been born and educated outside of Canada in countries such as China, Laos, Vietnam, Bolivia, Mexico, Philippines, Guyana, Jamaica, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey, Albania, Croatia and Russia. In that intake year, 68% of children came from homes where English was not spoken as a first language, if it was spoken at all. A high percentage of children had special needs.

The students at JPS experienced realities imposed by poverty: limited opportunities to pursue enriching experiences or after-school activities in their early years as well as limited parental involvement in their education (due to work schedules). The school consistently tried to support and involve parents in the education of their children, but it was an uphill battle for a variety of reasons.

During the early years of my principalship at JPS, the children were not performing well on the yardstick then (and now) most consistently used to evaluate the academic success of public schools: the annual provincial assessment measure. Each year in Ontario, school children in grades 3 and 6 participate in a standardized assessment protocol stretched over six days, supervised by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).¹ The children’s level of achievement was weak: less than a quarter (24%) of the students achieved the expected provincial level in reading (level 3). Mathematics achievement was a little better, with 39% achieving at the expected provincial level. Notably, not a single child at the school achieved excellence (level 4).

The overwhelming feeling among the teachers and parents was that the percentage of children achieving at grade level was the best we could expect, given the high numbers of English as a Second Language (ESL) students, the impact of poverty and the number of special needs learners. Research, though, does not support this notion. As Reeves (2006, p. xxiii) states, “poverty and ethnicity are not the primary causal variables related to student achievement: leadership, teaching and adult actions matter more.”

School results on the annual EQAO assessment are published in newspapers around the city as well as on all school board and Ministry of Education websites. I felt that the published low scores diminished the children’s potential in the eyes of the teachers and importantly, in the eyes of the parents and the children themselves. I knew the children were more capable than what was indicated by such defeating scores. However, demonstrating the children’s innate potential presented a formidable challenge.

Despite the challenges—or maybe because of them—Joyce Public School was the school of my dreams. The story of JPS becoming an international success story parallels my steep learning curve as school leader, the professional development of the school’s teaching staff and the investment of our local community, research colleagues and business partners. Together, we created a culture of innovation and excellence. This chapter describes our collective journey transforming a school of high poverty, enormous cultural diversity and low achievement into a success story.

What Makes a School Successful?

I was fearless in my belief that Joyce Public School could be a successful school. But how is success determined? My impressions were that successful schools created a buzz of excitement. They attracted students; parents clamoured to enrol their children in successful schools, fee-paying or not. To determine what success would look like at JPS, I accumulated knowledge about the practices of highly successful schools by researching the characteristics of successful schools nationally and internationally; talking with teachers, parents, and other school principals; reading inspirational articles on student achievement; attending independent school fairs; and investigating how schools marketed themselves.

I discovered that successful schools aim high, and publicize their successes, creating an aura of pride among their students, parents and teachers. Successful schools research and implement practices correlating with high achievement. They continually evaluate their current programming and direction, questioning how to improve. They offer their students enriching programs and opportunities, such as fairs, chess competitions and performance experiences. They seek out events and occasions to champion and demonstrate the successes of their students and teachers beyond their own walls. In short, successful schools create a culture of success; they focus on excellence, relevance and continuous improvement by identifying, valuing and enhancing children’s inherent strengths.

As a means of reinforcing a culture of achievement, successful schools market themselves as successful and thereby gain the buy-in of teachers, parents and children. They cultivate strong community engagement as well as university and business partnerships to support their drive for success. Most notably, successful schools cultivate outstanding teachers and provide them with the best teaching tools possible.

Transforming Joyce Public School into a Successful School

He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

(Sun Tzu, 2003, p. 12)

I set out as principal to determine what direction and programs would most benefit the children at JPS, given the existing strengths of the community. The school had a staff complement of 16 teachers with a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, experience, expertise and philosophies. It was important to determine, combine and focus our strengths.

I held discussions with staff and community members about the overall goal of providing every child with the best learning opportunities possible to foster responsible, caring citizens capable of critical thinking, aware of global perspectives, comfortable with evolving digital technologies and capable of effective communication. Everyone agreed with our overall school goal, but I knew that to achieve this we had to identify specific actions. As a staff, we reviewed data on school achievement at Joyce, both from the point of view of what the tests measured, and by identifying and addressing gaps in children’s learning. My experience as a teacher in the school helped me to understand the strengths and limitations that JPS children presented. My experience as a school board language consultant and researcher helped familiarize me with language acquisition processes, valuable reading practices and multilingual challenges, and their impacts on learning.

A pivotal direction emerged from an opportunity to be involved in a provincial research initiative at the turn of the 21st century. The goal of the Ontario government Pathfinder project was to evaluate the impact of technology on teaching and learning. As a result of the school’s participation, we received funding to purchase state-of-the-art digital technology.

I was also passionate about the importance of music as an enrichment opportunity for children, particularly given how few opportunities children at JPS had for musical learning. We initially set out on our journey to build children’s successful learning by concentrating on providing digital music instruction to all children in the school, beginning in grade 1; addressing learning gaps, particularly in the area of language; and using technology resources effectively to support teaching and learning. Over time, these foci were expanded, modified and refined.

Building a Strong School Identity

In a community of high poverty, teachers, parents and community members held the belief that children were doing the best one could expect at school. It was critically important to change this mindset, and to develop a set of positive expectations for children’s achievement: to expect great things of children, deserving the best of teaching. We needed an identity makeover.

An ideal vehicle for developing a public identity for JPS dropped in our laps when the school council approached me with the idea of implementing a school uniform. Uniforms are not traditional in Canadian public schools. However, many parents had come from countries where a school uniform was part of their school experience, and they were in favour of JPS developing a uniform. Regulations required me to have the vote of 80% of the school population to do so. We had a community meeting, and sent out a ballot; 90% of the population agreed.

A small committee comprising interested teachers and community members and myself designed a JPS uniform that was flexible, low cost and easily available: white top (any) and blue pants (any) with an optional purchased blue school vest emblazoned with a school logo, which our tech whiz, Brian, designed (see Figure 1.1). Though wearing the uniform was optional, 95% of families participated and Joyce Public School became visible on the street.

Championing Success

Building a logo and uniform helped to forge and promote a sense of identity, and wearing the school uniform made Joyce students stand out on the street. But having a visual identity does not equate to school excellence. So how do you get people to believe you are a successful school?

The marketing psychology of the independent school is masterful. Private schools consistently publicize their school’s strengths to the community by highlighting students’ and teachers’ successes. This draws fee-paying students. Public schools, on the other hand, don’t have to market their successes in order to attract students in Ontario because children are zoned for school attendance. With few exceptions, children do not select the schools they attend. And schools do not select their students. Nor do public schools have to compete for essential funding, as private schools do.

Figure 1.1 JPS school logo on school uniforms

The historical culture of public schools reinforces uniformity. Public schools are not expected to compete with each other as they form a collective whole. This creates an understanding that one school does not outshine another. Building JPS into a successful school meant, therefore, challenging the overall expectations of the public system to not stand out. I wanted the community to know that we had outstanding students as well as teachers.

It was crucially important to build our reputation for academic excellence. This meant excelling at the annual EQAO standardized provincial assessments. People remember outcomes! We had to change the school’s historically low results.

I studied the teachers’ strengths, and in discussion, we mutually determined what position(s) they should take to have the strongest impact in the school. We targeted children’s inherent strengths, heritages and languages, and involved parents in enrichment activities for their children. Gradually we made an upward trajectory in EQAO scores.

Capitalizing on Technological Innovation

Our involvement in the provincial initiative Pathfinder provided teachers with what were at the time cutting edge digital teaching tools: laptops for each teacher, digital cameras, a school computer lab with SMART boards and up-to-date computers and a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) lab with 13 stations using Cubase software. This was a tremendous boost to a school in an area of high poverty, which had previously relied on castaway keyboards the caretaker had strategically picked from a closing high school dumpster.

Utilizing new digital technologies for innovative learning had more than a few challenges in the early days. Not all teachers reacted to our targeted initiatives with equal enthusiasm. There was a great deal of work enticing teachers with a variety of personalities, experiences and opinions to work collaboratively. Problems inevitably led back to the fact that I hadn’t communicated well, telling me what I had to work on personally.

I had assumed that the challenge in learning to use new technologies to support learning effectively was exciting for all of us. I was certainly sold on the potential of digital tools to support learning. However, I recognized my limitations in leading a technology-enhanced learning initiative, and turned the leadership over to teachers who had the passion, drive and technological knowledge to help us grow.

The tech team, led initially by the school librarian, Leon, was open to anyone who wished to join. Weekly optional after-school meetings were set up to explore the use of technology for teaching and learning. Most teachers attended the meetings voluntarily. But it became obvious that some teachers viewed the technology initiative as an added burden imposed on them on top of all other expectations.

Teachers believed they were already providing a high quality education. Indeed, they were doing a pretty good job, but my mission was to challenge and inspire them to be outstanding. This meant using the best tools for the job. At the turn of the 21st century, tools for teaching and learning were in rapid flux.

Resentment developed. I heard comments in the hall such as “I don’t have time for technology, I have to teach.” It got to the point where a small group of teachers felt that if they supported the technology-enhanced learning initiative, they would be supporting the demise of teachers.

In a unionized environment such as ours in Ontario, the strongest power a principal has is persuasion. I was excited about discovering ways of using technology to improve our teaching practices and student outcomes but I needed the whole staff to buy into the vision and the challenge. I met with the staff and talked passionately about why I thought this was an amazing opportunity for us: why I felt it would really make a difference for the children, and why I felt the technology-enhanced learning initiative was worth the effort. I then put out a challenge for the teachers to come together and discuss the technology initiatives, both the pros and the cons, and then decide on whether they as a school team were committed to exploring technology for teaching and learning—or not. I then left.

In the meeting teachers had a chance to voice their beliefs, fears and concerns, which were acknowledged and explored. If the majority of the staff did not believe in our direction to explore technology for learning, I was prepared to return all the technology we had received to the government. (I confess, I was not sure if this was even possible and I definitely knew it would be a career changer for me.) I feared that teachers might vote against this wonde...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Contextualizing Our Learning Community
• Part II Multimodal Project-Based Learning for Superdiverse Learners
• Part III Learning in the Globally Shifting Educational Landscape
• Afterword
• References
• Notes on Contributors
• Index