html5-img
1 / 38

MCOE Executive Overview February 28th, 2008

A Focused Approach. Constructing Meaning Explicit Language for Content Area Instruction An Institute for Secondary Content Teachers. MCOE Executive Overview February 28th, 2008. I believe…. Children grow into the intellectual life around them . - Lev Vygotsky.

kuper
Download Presentation

MCOE Executive Overview February 28th, 2008

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. A Focused Approach Constructing Meaning Explicit Language for Content Area InstructionAn Institute for Secondary Content Teachers MCOE Executive Overview February 28th, 2008

  2. I believe…. Children grow into the intellectual life around them. - Lev Vygotsky

  3. Constructing MeaningInstitute Overview Day One A Focused Approach to Constructing Meaning Day TwoAcademic Strategic Lesson Design Day Three Academic Language Production page 1.1

  4. Our goals for the institute • Understand the role that academic language plays in content learning • Learn to determine language knowledge essential for accessing content • Learn to plan and deliver focused content specific language instruction page 1.1

  5. Recurring CM Themes • Knowing our students • Identifying discipline-specific language • Connecting reading, writing, listening, and speaking • Building receptive and expressive language

  6. Access to the Core After adolescent ELs acquire the basic skills, they need to become active readers and writers who use reading and writing processes. Using these processes, learners can examine a text, make conclusions about it, articulate and incorporate those conclusions. Double the Work, 2007

  7. Access to the Core (cont.) The process creates awareness about the functions of language, and the reflection inherent in the process helps students practice the kind of highly abstract thinking that is essential to succeeding in high school and beyond into college or the world of work. Double the Work, 2007

  8. Day One Agenda • The Challenge • Effective Reading Practices • Defining Academic English • A Focused Approach: F, F & F • Analysis of Comprehension Task handout

  9. In Other Words In schools, we could virtually say that “language is the curriculum.” Beverly Derewianka Language is very difficult to put into words. Voltaire

  10. The Focused Approach

  11. A Focused Approach Features of Language Instruction Function Forms Fluency Represent cognitive tasks Purposes for expressing thinking Informs text structure Ease of comprehension and production Accuracy Appropriate to context Needed Tools Vocabulary and Word usage Sentence structure and grammatical features page 1.8

  12. Thumbnail Sketch How can we use the information in this thumbnail sketch to better: • Teach the functional language of our content areas? • Move students along a continuum of specific and precise language use? page 1.16

  13. Day Two Agenda • Knowing Our Students • Common Backgrounds • Levels of English Proficiency • Previous Coursework • Strategic Lesson Design • Lessons of Adolescent Literacy • Planning Tool • Functions Tool • Vocabulary Instruction • Determining Which Words to Teach • Direct Instruction Agenda Handout

  14. Getting to Know Our Students

  15. In the absence of information… …we are in danger of committing “assumicide” -Kelly Gallagher “Although adolescent English learners share a designation based on their limited English proficiency, they arrive at school via diverse paths and with a wide range of experiences.” -Norm Gold (LMRI, 2006)

  16. Factors that affect EL experiences • Length of time in American schools • Literacy and content knowledge in primary language • English proficiency level • Life experiences • Previous coursework

  17. page 6 Deepening Our Understanding • Consider one of your students who is learning English as a new language. • First column forjotting what you know about your student • Second column - note the instructional implications of that information

  18. Function Tools

  19. Overarching Functions page 8 • Cause and Effect • Compare and Contrast • Elaboration • Proposition & Support (Problem/Solution) • Sequencing

  20. The Function Tools page 2.22 page 2.23

  21. Strategic Lesson Design

  22. Rationale for Constructing Meaning • Role of motivation and engagement • Actively construct meaning from text • Interconnectedness of reading, writing, speaking, listening and thinking • Need to use both general literacy strategies as well as discipline-specific literacy strategies

  23. Lessons of Adolescent LiteracyInfused into Lesson Design • The CM Analysis tool is designed with these recommendations in mind: • The prompts focus on linguistic complexities of content-specific instructional materials • This results in a clear picture of what students will need to access the content. • The CM Planner suggests a sequence and strategies for delivering a tailored lesson aimed at increased fluency of oral and written academic English.

  24. CM: Infusing Lessons of Adolescent Literacy page 10 page 11

  25. Gradual Release of Responsibility page 12

  26. I Do, We Do, You Do • In the gradual release model, what are the additional roles and responsibilities • of the teacher? • of the student?

  27. Vocabulary To expand a child’s vocabulary is to teach that child to think about the world. Stahl & Stahl, 2004

  28. Being selectiveDetermining Which Strategy to Use • To support students in becoming independent • word learners, consider: • explanations, not definitions • different kinds of context clues • recognizing cognates • To provide in-depth, explicit instruction, consider using: • word sorts • concept maps • word cards (Frayer) • word forms

  29. Day Three Agenda • Building on Recurring Themes • Debriefing the Reading • Entering the Academic Dialogue • Comprehension & Production • Structured Oral Language Practice • Writing to Learn • A Genre Approach to Writing • Notetaking Tool, Crafting a Prompt, & Summarizing • Genre Templates & Rubrics

  30. Entering the Academic Dialogue page 3.3

  31. Nine RoutinesStructured Oral Practice Talking Stick Talking Chips Think, Pair, Share Numbered Heads Three Step Interview Give One, Get One Clock Partners Lines of Communication Whip Around

  32. What is a Genre? • Genres are goal-oriented; they are meant to serve a purpose. • Genres have an expected overall structure; they rely on well-established patterns. • Genres are marked by specific linguistic features, such as vocabulary and syntax.

  33. The Common Academic Genres • Narrative(story, autobiographical event) • Expository(cause & effect, compare & contrast) • Persuasive(problem/solution, opinion) • Response to Literature(fiction/non-fiction analysis)

  34. A Note-taking ToolExpository page 14

  35. Genre Drafting Template page 3.24

  36. What are we asking for… ….when we ask students to “use their own words”?

  37. The Skills of Summary Summarizing requires the ability to • Condense information • Consolidate information • Discern essential details • Simplify language • Restate language

  38. One teacher’s stated goal: To equip students with the language they need to express the sophistication of their thinking for academic and real life purposes. page 1.2

More Related