Most classrooms are decorated with students’ work, info graphs and posters. Unfortunately they are static and are rarely used for learning. A way to make your displays more interactive is by making sure to leave space for translations for students’ own languages
The photo below is a great example of a multilingual display from my classroom.
Every year I ask my students to come up with their own set of rules for the classroom. They then take a photo that represents that rule and write down the rules in their home language. This activity is great because:
- as a teacher I then know that they clearly understood the rules.
- the students love to see their language represented in the classroom.
- a display like this can be interactive for years as each year new students with different home languages join the school.
- it requires minimal effort, it doesn’t have to happen within a lesson and students can come up with their own ideas for displays that would support their learning
IDEAS: For example, on a display like this you could write down History quotes, Science measurement units, laws of physics , CEO quotes, geographical features, musical terms, grammar rules (if you really have to 😉 ) etc…….
EAL-time 