The teaching and learning cycle graphic describes effective practice in planning programming, teaching and assessing in an integrated and systematic manner in this EAL/D enhanced teaching and learning cycle another layer has been added to support the particular learning needs of EAL/D students.

What do I want my students to learn?

As we plan from our syllabuses we need to ask what language literacy and background knowledge are required for EAL/D students to access this learning.

How can I identify students prior knowledge and link to this?

How will I build the field to set them up for success with this learning?

Clarifying exactly what we want students to learn under pins planning and programming EAL/D students in particular need explicit and achievable steps with a clear purpose in order to achieve larger objectives

Have you explicitly built in opportunities to talk to learn?

EAL/D students need to rehearse and experiment with target language while exploring ideas.

How much students get there with this learning?

Are you using message abundancy?

Is new information and language presented and consolidated in multiple ways?

Is visual support plentiful?

How could you provide even more message abundancy?

EAL/D learners learn best when we have high expectations of them, offering high levels of support to meet high levels of challenge.,

What opportunities are there in your classroom practice to ensure high levels of both challenge and support?

How do I know when my students get there?

What scaffolding of language and literacy knowledge and skills is in place so students can get there and demonstrate this?

How could both designed in and contingent scaffolding be maximised

When considering assessment feedback and reporting is the assessment mode appropriate to the students level of English language proficiency?

Are there other ways to assess this learning?

So where are my students now?

Have I scaffolded and differentiated to success gaining an accurate reflection of growth in English language skills and content understanding?

What EAL/D data should inform my analysis?

What do the EAL/D learning progression and the ESL scales suggesting terms of next steps in the students language and literacy development?

How will this inform future planning?

Underpinning the EAL/D enhanced teaching learning cycle is the sequence of controlled, guided and independent learning.

We begin with controlled learning with the teacher controlling input and modelling content and English language used.

We then move to guided learning where students are supported to practice skills and consolidate new language and learning.

Finally students moved to independent work.

In practice we often shuttle between control, guided and independent, especially when formative assessment indicates a need for more controlled or guided activities.

The controlled guided independent framework and depends much of the EAL/D enhanced teaching and learning cycle.

The cycle sets out the steps for successful planning programming teaching and assessing students with consideration for the needs of EAL/D learners.

The teaching and learning cycle graphic describes effective practice in planning programming, teaching and assessing in an integrated and systematic manner in this EAL/D enhanced teaching and learning cycle another layer has been added to support the particular learning needs of EAL/D students.

To cater to EAL/D students' learning needs, we must consider English language proficiency prior schooling and background knowledge. We must also consider students' understanding of academic literacy, subject content and skills as elaborated within the NSW curriculum.

What do I want my students to learn?

As we plan from our syllabuses this question needs to be framed around what language, literacy and background knowledge are required for the EAL/D students to access the new learning.

Does this learning assume knowledge that my EAL/D students may not have?

How can I identify my students' prior knowledge in relation to this learning?

How can I plan and sequence learning activities to build the field for my EAL/D students?

How can I link the new learning to the students background knowledge, including cultural and linguistics experience?

Doing so demonstrates valuing of, and interest in, the students and their backgrounds and contributes to students and understanding and retention of new knowledge and skills by activating rhetoric and content schema. Clarifying exactly what we want students to learn and depends planning and programming.

Have I made explicit the learning objectives and steps for achievement?

How can I make the purposes for both the overall learning and each individual task clear to EAL/D students?

Breaking tasks into achievable, discrete steps will help ensure students success.

Are there opportunities for my students to ‘talk to learn’?

Have I built indistinct oral learning opportunities?

EAL/D students should be given opportunity to explore new content through rehearsing and experimenting with target language.

How are my students get there with this learning?

Is new information and language presented to students through multiple language modes?

Message abundancy. Repeating target language in multiple ways on multiple occasions is crucial. Message abundancy includes significant visual support with ideas represented through images diagrams and the like, but ask yourself, how can I add to this message abundancy and visual support? Are key terms always highlighted or scribed on the board? Does the layout of document use of colour, spacing, grouping of information, numbering, build on the students visually at the same time assist in scaffolding learning?

EAL/D students learn best when we have high expectations of them. Offering high levels of support to meet high levels of challenge.

Do I explicitly communicate high academic expectations for EAL/D learners?

Is the task of unit of learning of high challenge?

Note: this does not mean that every activity within the unit is expected to be a high challenge.

How am I offering high support?

How could the level of support be increased?

How do I know when my students get there?

How have I scaffolded language and literacy knowledge and skills during my programming and planning.

Can I add to this in the classroom through the use of our oral language support teacher to student, peer-to-peer and use the first language.

Graphic organisers, sentence stems, word walls word passages and so forth will also be a benefit here.

Long blocks of teacher talk can be challenging for EAL/D learners. Can I support breakup or replace explanations with other practices such as visual support using talking to learn or interspersing blocks of teacher talk with opportunities to practise skills or consolidate ideas.

When considering assessment, feedback and reporting, is the assessment mode appropriate to the students level of English language proficiency?

Are they other ways to assess this learning? Perhaps the students have understood the learning but is unable to communicate in the current assessment for the learning be assessed differently such as orally, through a different type of text visually or through demonstration. Conduct the science experiment rather than write the procedure for example.

Do my assessments reflect learning and understanding other than mostly measure aid students language proficiency and literacy levels?

So where am I students now?

Have I gained an accurate understanding of growth in English language skills and content understanding?

In what ways can I scaffold or differentiate summative assessments to foster success and more accurately reflect growth in language skills and content understanding? This includes providing sample answers providing choices and how the final assessment will be presented or what it will contain or giving explicit scaffolds and structures for responses.

What EAL/D data should inform my analysis?

Throughout the unit of teaching and learning, am I considering a wide range of assessments that measure language learning and adjust my strategies accordingly?

Assessments include formative, informal and observational class tasks, summative assessments plus diagnostics such as the EAL/D learning progression ESL scales national literacy learning progression and Scout data.

What are the next steps in the students' language and literacy development?

How were these informed planning for upcoming units of work underpinning the EAL/D enhanced teaching and learning cycle?

Is the sequence of controlled, guided and independent learning we begin with control learning the teacher controls input explicitly teaching both language and subject knowledge and doing so modelling English language use and building academic vocabulary?

We then move to guided learning where students are supported to practice skills and consolidate new language and learning.

Finally students moved to independent work.

In practice we often shuttle between control guided and independent especially when formative assessment indicates a need for more controlled or guided activities.