Passports & Poster Art
Created 2021
Design team: Maria Fernanda Feltes, Elena Moreno
Guiding Question
How might we build an inspiring linguistic landscape in our school? What languages are part of your life and family heritage?
Materials and Resources
- Multilingual Language Passports (Can be adapted from exemplar below)
- Internet and books to find inspiration for the creation of their own phrase or quote
- Access to platforms such as Canva or Piktochart for poster design
- Paper to print poster art
- Colour printer
- Lockers and/or bulletin boards
Description
This whole-school creative intervention was initiated in a bilingual middle school during April’s Multilingual Month. Close to 700 students were given Multilingual Passports, an adaptation of the European Language Portfolio’s Language Passport, that aimed to acknowledge and value the linguistic diversity of the school community (see passport exemplar below). The passport prompts students to take note of the languages they are in contact with and what they are able to do in those languages. It also challenges them to identify ways to enhance their knowledge and communication in the languages they are learning.
The second aspect of the creative multilingual intervention was to engage students in a poster art project that transforms metallic locker faces into a canvas for a vibrant multilingual gallery. In this activity, students produce posters with their own phrases in Spanish (the target language of the school) and any other language of their choice.