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Let’s Think in English (LTE) significantly raises attainment in Reading and Writing after one year!
I write this article as Head of EAL who has been responsible for introducing LTE to BIS Ho Chi Minh City; however, the LTE programme is not an EAL teaching technology. It is a mainstream resource, aimed at mainstream classes so that it benefits all learners.
In March 2018, Alex Black from The Inter- Community School in Zurich published his results of an action research project using cognitive acceleration Let’s Think in English lessons fortnightly for a year.
Using the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) test, the ICS Zurich study demonstrates students’ increased attainment in Reading, Narrative and Expository Writing comparable to the top 14 International Baccalaureate schools in the control sample (effect sizes of +0.30, +0.12 and +0.42 respectively). In addition, students also achieved significant increases in their scientific reasoning ability as measured by Piagetian science reasoning tests and mathematical literacy as gauged by ACER (in simpler terms, a 36% increase in the mean cognitive development of the sample children). In short, Let’s Think in English lessons also have an impact on other school subjects. For further evidence of Let’s Think success, click here.
LTE provides fully planned fortnightly lessons for KS1, KS2, KS3 and GCSE. A wide variety of short texts – poems, fiction, non-fiction, drama and film – are explored intensively using a structured staging process. To use this approach, teachers need to be fully trained by the Let’s Think team.
At BIS, we have been using LTE lessons with Years 5, 6, KS3 and some GCSE classes since January 2017. Although we have not, as yet, conducted any formal research on its impact on student performance, feedback from the teachers and students remains very positive. For example, teachers in Years 5 and 6 have observed how the students are using the skills from LTE and applying them to the Debates unit.
Students look forward to the lessons and “have expressed disappointment if a lesson is delayed to a later day” (James Hornby, Head of Year 6). Here is what some of our children and teachers have said about LTE: “It helps me to change my mind… when other people present their ideas” (Year 5 student). “I get confidence… with ideas and articulation” (Year 8 student). “The texts are so well chosen that they ensure engagement and my students are often really engaged because of this” (Nesta Lanyon-Jones, Secondary English Teacher).
Apart from developing reasoning skills, LTE also provides opportunities for genre exposure through working with unseen texts. Some of our teachers are now beginning to plan their own LTE lessons using the LTE pedagogy and style of questioning.
Further training will take place in November 2018 when we hope to invite Nord Anglia schools in the South East Asia region for a day’s introduction delivered by LTE head trainer, Michael Walsh (King’s College, London). For more on LTE, click here!
Shaheena Pall
EAL Leader
British International School HCMC, Junior Campus
Let's Think in English (LTE)