Research has identified Interactive Groups as a very successful form of inclusion. In Interactive Groups classrooms are organized in small and mixed-ability groups of students who collaborate through dialogic interactions to solve learning activities. There are adults in each small group. These adults are most of the time volunteers from the community. The classroom teacher is in charge of managing the classroom dynamics and provides extra support when necessary. Interactive Groups improve academic achievement and solidarity among students (INCLUD-ED 2009, p. 67)

- INCLUD-ED. (2009). Actions for success in schools in Europe. European Comission Web 24 May 2014. http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/INCLUDED_actions%20for%20success.pdf

Intercultural education emerges in response to major social issues, (demographic changes, mass migration, population movement due to war, political persecution, corruption or famine, integration of large groups of economic migrants and the subsequent realignments in the economic, social and cultural life). If these issues are not treated promptly and effectively they may lead to future problematic and intractable situations in modern societies. Intercultural Education aims to go beyond passive coexistence, to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living together in multicultural societies through the foundation of understanding of, respect for and dialogue between the different cultural groups (PEAP e-book: Intercultural activities).

It is about interaction, understanding and mutual respect, while cultural diversity is acknowledged and actively supported.

It means inclusion for all cultures by theory, design, planning and practice http://www.slideshare.net/jamespenstone/what-is-intercultural-education

Working together as a community, co-constructing knowledge that draws on multilingual and multicultural resources and enables children to develop multilingual identities

(Kenner & Ruby, 2012, Interconnecting worlds)

The creation of meaning in texts requires the use not only of the verbal but also of the visual way, while understanding the text needs to understand the messages expressed verbally and visually, such as photographs, diagrams, charts, maps, sketches play a significant role.

Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. (2001) Πολυγραμματισμοί (Multiliteracies)

http://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/studies/guide/thema_e2/index.html

Kress and van Leeuwen have noted that visual communication is becoming so critical in the field of public communication, that inevitably attracts visual literacy is not just social approval, but is now a matter of survival. To learn to understand texts essentially means learning to "read" verbal and visual messages.

http://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/studies/guide/thema_e3/index.html

In its most basic sense, multimodality is the mixture of textual, audio, and visual modes in combination with media and materiality to create meaning. The collection of these modes, or elements, contributes to how multimodality affects different situations, or opportunities for increasing an audience's reception of an idea or concept. Everything from the placement of images to the organization of the content creates meaning.

Lutkewitte, Cl. (2013). Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's.

While multimodality as an area of academic study did not gain traction until the twentieth century, all communication, literacy, and composing practices are and always have been multimodal.

Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. New York: Routledge.

In a seminal 1986 study, McMillan and Chavis identify four elements of "sense of community":

1. membership,

2. influence,

3. integration and fulfillment of needs,

4. shared emotional connection.

McMillan & Chavis (1986) define sense of community as "a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together."

McMillan, D.W., & Chavis, D.M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14(1), 6-23.

Translanguaging is a powerful mechanism or a strategic language option of bilinguals to express experiences, to construct understandings and to interpret their bilingual reality through the daily use of the two languages (Garcia, 2009).

García (2009; 2011) views translanguaging - “or engaging in bilingual or multilingual discourse practices” (2009, p. 44) - as an approach to bilingualism that is centred not on languages, but on the observable, natural communicative practice of bilinguals and, if properly interpreted and understood and practiced in schools, as a means to enhance pupils’ cognitive, language and literacy abilities:

Translanguaging includes code-switching, the shift between two languages in context, and it also includes translation; however it differs from both of these simple practices in that it refers to the process by which bilingual students perform bilingually in the myriad ways of classrooms – reading, writing, taking notes, discussing, signing etc.

Translanguaging is not only a way to ‘scaffold’ instruction, to make sense of learning and language; rather, translanguaging is part of the metadiscursive regimes that students in the twenty-first century must perform (García, 2011, p. 147)

References

García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: a global perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

García, O. (2011). Educating New York’s bilingual children; constructing a future from thepast. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 14, 2: 133-153