Multilingual Moments at TIS

“ Poetry  is the mother-tongue of the human race.” -Johann Georg Hamann In grade three, the students recently wrapped up its fourth unit of inquiry,  How We Express Ourselves .  The central idea behind this learning is that we use the arts to communicate messages. Against this backdrop, just before the spring break, the boys and girls in grade 3P had a “ poetry   slam ”, or a recital of  poetry , but from their home language or mother tongue.  Each student researched and chose a  poem  from their language, and practiced for a few days.  In many cases, they were getting support from home, from parents and grandparents with pronunciation, intonation and inflection.  The students were also encouraged to use gestures and actions to “perform” their  poem .  What parents and their teachers witnessed was a very animated display of cultural pride and enthusiasm.  The  poems  were re...

The World Economic Forum has published an article on how being multilingual can alter your experience of time.  We have known for some time that bilinguals go back and forth between their languages rapidly and often unconsciously – a phenomenon called  code-switching . But different languages also embody different worldviews and different ways of organising the world around us. The way that bilinguals handle these different ways of thinking has long been a mystery to language researchers. To read more, follow the LINK

Our grade 4 team at TIS has been using translanguaging for accessing the academic content for learners.  During their Where We Are in Place and Time Unit students have been inquiring into human migration. Ms.Julie Morris (Grade 4 ELL teacher) has shared with us some examples of multilingual moments which happen in grade 4. Central Idea: Human migration is a response to challenges, risks, and opportunities. Lines of inquiry: Reasons for migration Risks of migration Consequences of migration Below please find the LINK to their Unit Letter, as well as the LINK to questions to be discussed at home with family in students' home languages. Thank you for facilitating the discussions through the use of home languages and for encouraging the bilingual/multilingual approach for teaching and learning!