APPLYING THE TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO THE FRAMEWORK AND PRINCIPLES BY STANDARD
This section guides the user in exploring how the guiding framework and place-based educational principles can be applied to the VLA standards and learning outcomes. It does so by sharing a selection of teaching and learning strategies. The strategies are color-coded and correspond to the key elements of the framework and principles: place, culture, students/community, and thinking. This list is neither complete nor exhaustive—its potential is limited only by your creativity and imagination. Use it as a starting point to inspire new strategies, adapt ideas, and explore ways to apply them in your schools and communities.
Guiding framework
- Cultivating a strong sense of place through language arts
- Building language arts skills to perpetuate culture
- Strengthening community with language arts practices
- Developing critical and systems thinking using language arts as a tool
Place-based educational principles
- Our place is our teacher and textbook.
- Our culture is the main bank of skills.
- Our students are a source of creativity.
- Our school and community are where students apply critical and systems thinking.
Standard 1: Listening and speaking
Students will be competent speakers, listeners, and viewers in the vernacular, able to construct literal and interpretive meaning from what they hear and view and communicate effectively for various purposes and to different audiences.
| Strategies | |
|---|---|
| Listening to elders telling myths and legends in local languages. | Retelling the myths and legends to other students, using the local language and in their own words. |
| Interviewing elders about the history of the place/islands. | Creating plays for younger children about the history of the place/island. |
| Listening to elders use honorific terms and practice speaking these terms. | Explaining the reasons to use these terms to younger students. |
| Observing nature and then sharing about the observations. | Discussing what was observed with elders in order to make more sense of the observations. |
| Interviewing and observing those working on island conservation. | Communicating about climate resilient cultural practices to the community. |
| Debating the pros and cons of certain fishing practices in the light of changing environmental conditions and sea level rise. | Communicating ideas to community elders about climate change adaptations. |
Standard 2: Reading
Students will demonstrate competence in applying relevant skills and strategies to read various printed materials in the vernacular for social, academic, and career-related purposes.
| Strategies | |
|---|---|
| The content and settings of the reading materials for the students are place-based. | The vocabulary and artwork in the reading materials promote specific cultural practices. |
| Reading and understanding texts set in different situations and using honorific language. | Using nature as a textbook with local language as the medium of communicating about nature. |
| Older students read culturally significant stories and articles to younger students, passing along knowledge and skills. | Students read what they have written to their families practicing respectful ways of communication. |
| Reading and understanding cultural regulations and laws. | Reading and understanding political regulations and laws. |
| Students read aloud to elders in the community who may no longer be able to read due to failing sight. | Reading and understanding complex instructions. |
| Reading place-names and wondering about their meanings. | Students read aloud to each other. |
Standard 3: Writing
Students will demonstrate the ability to write, applying the general skills and strategies of the writing process, to communicate effectively for a variety of purposes and to different audiences.
| Strategies | |
|---|---|
| Retelling traditional legends, myths, and historical events in their own words. | Writing new stories about their places using specific place names, plants and animals including sea creatures, cultural practices and other local elements. |
| Creating reference books about their own culture that builds their vocabulary and grammar skills. | Writing and performing plays based on traditional stories and cultural practices for the community. |
| Writing speeches using honorific terms. | Writing short articles about new concepts using newly coined terms and words, such as in science. |
| Writing and sharing about climate resilient cultural practices to the community. | Writing and sharing about culture to visitors coming to the FSM. |
| Writing well in local languages brings real-world benefits to governance, society, and the economy. | Writing as a way to express ways of thinking and ways of knowing. |
| Writing and publishing a weekly newspaper for the school and/or community. | Writing and posting signs to support conservation and preservation of special places. |
Standard 4: Literature response
Students will study oral and written literature from their own culture as well as selected literary works from other cultures and will develop the ability to gain insights into their own culture while understanding and relating to others.
| Strategies | |
|---|---|
| Reflecting on the names of places and any tales and legends tied to them can increase appreciation of place. | Comparing and contrasting local stories with stories from elsewhere increases the ability to understand and relate to others. |
| Reading and analyzing articles about the effects of climate change globally. | Comparing and contrasting local stories with stories from elsewhere supports critical thinking. |
| Analyzing traditional stories for themes and morals supports cultural practices. | Knowing and using different culturally based language skills such as poetry, specific speech patterns, specific high language vocabulary is crucial. |
| Applying the themes and morals from traditional stories can help to strengthen communities. Knowing and using different culturally based language skills will perpetuate community practices. | Knowing and using different culturally based language skills will perpetuate community practices. |
| Analyzing modern or contemporary stories for themes and morals can build self-identity. | Comparing and contrasting current depictions of places with historical depictions of places. |
| Comparing and contrasting local laws and regulations with national and international laws and regulations. | Analysing local laws and regulations to understand their implications for conservation. |