BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project

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BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project
http//www.bestcluster.openlab.net.au/2007web/Lit-
numhomepage.htm
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BEST Literacy and Numeracy Project
http//www.bestcluster.openlab.net.au/2007web/Lit-
numhomepage.htm
Literacy
Numeracy
Name (s) Level(s) School(s) Email address
Jan Kaur LOTE (Indonesian) Eumemmerring College



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1. What is the teaching and learning challenge to
which you are responding? Which PoLT principle?
The Project Whats in a Name? was designed to
encourage students to investigate something about
themselves and how culture influences their
lives. In a class of 20 there were students from
different cultural backgrounds who wanted to talk
about their own customs and traditions. Students
are living in two worlds the culture of their
parents and the culture outside their homes
including school. Unit 1 is on greetings in
Indonesian and also introducing themselves. To
add interest to the lesson I designed an activity
where students had to investigate the meanings of
their names. POLT 4.1 Students are challenged and
supported to develop deep levels of thinking and
application. In learning environments that
reflect this principle the teacher 4.1 plans
sequences to promote sustained learning that
builds over time and emphasizes connections
between ideas.
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2. What will the student be assisted to do? i.e.
Understanding Performance Essential Question
Understanding Goal / Standard (VELS)

• As students worked towards the achievement of
  Level 4 (Pathways 2 in LOTE), they consolidate
  and extend their expanding knowledge of
  Indonesian to compose, comprehend and respond to
  tasks in class.
• Through this project, students were assisted to
  develop an understanding of change and the
  problems of transition especially from one
  culture to another.
• Students were asked to find out about baby naming
  ceremonies in their culture, find out how they
  were named, what their name meant in their
  language. For example, were names inherited?
• They had to interview their parents asking how
  they were named. In class we wrote up questions
  for the interview about the meanings of their
  names, baby naming ceremonies in their culture
  and also why they were given the name they had.
• They had to research on the Internet to find the
  meanings of their names and read headlines from
  newspapers published on their birthdates.

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3. What can the student already do alone? eg
KWHL, Pre-test c.

• Students are able to speak of their own
  experiences with enthusiasm. They were also
  directed to use the Internet to find out as much
  as they could about the meanings of their names.
  They were to research the cultural background and
  language their names originated from.
• On the Internet students read the newspapers
  published on the day they were born. What were
  the headlines? What was the world news? The most
  important thing that happened on that day.
• They interviewed their parents/guardians about
  the meanings of their names, why parents chose
  the name they did? Were there any baby naming
  ceremonies followed? They were encouraged to
  describe the ceremony and explain its
  significance.

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4. How will the student be assisted? i.e.
scaffolding eg modelling, questioning, mind map
c. Show or list resources required length of
learning sequence
Interpreting the information The newspaper
archives went back for 12 months or so but going
back 12 or 13 years to get headlines on the birth
days of each student in class was a big problem.
In the end the students wrote up some questions
for the interviews with their parents/grandparents
or guardians asking if anything important or
significant happened on the day they were born.
Very few students could get information on this
part of the assignment. I expected parents to
know more about the meanings of their childrens
names but that was not always true. The Internet
turned out to be the major source of information.
Parents however gave good information about the
ceremonies they had performed for their children
at birth or shortly after when naming them.
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5. Review. How well did the learning sequence
work or not work? What next?
Evaluation The investigation went quite well and
there were positive results. The students got an
insight of what started out as a seemingly
superficial assignment which led to deeper
meaning and an understanding of others. The
Internet research for news on the students
birthdates was a disappointment but the
interviews with parents about the students and
baby naming ceremonies were brilliant For
students it was a way to relate the cultural
experiences to themselves and it was an
opportunity to tell their stories with the help
of mum and dad! As for the Indonesian students
learned, they use vocabulary to say their names,
where they came from, when they were born and
describe the baby naming ceremony in Indonesian
and English.
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