Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations at New Mexico Highlands University - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Presentation Transcript

Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations

at New Mexico Highlands University

Academic Language and Thinking

December 16, 2010

Overview

What is Academic Language and Thinking?
Why should students engage in purposeful, focused and extended academic talk?
What are key features of academic language and academic conversations?
How can we support academic language and thinking?

Academic Language and Thinking?(3 min.)

What is academic language and thinking?
What does academic language and thinking “look like” and “sound like”?
How can district and school leadership support academic language and thinking?

Defining Academic Language and Thinking: What the Researchers Say

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP): CALP is the language students are exposed to during content lessons, in course materials, textbooks, and standardized assessments. Cummins suggests that it generally takes an ELL student up to 2 years to acquire BICS and 5-7 years to acquire the linguistic skills associated with CALP (Cummins 1981).

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL 2007) define academic language as, “Language used in the learning of academic subject matter in formal schooling context; aspects of language strongly associated with literacy and academic achievement, including specific academic terms or technical language, and speech registers related to each field of study”.

Defining Academic Language and Thinking: What the Researchers Say

Zwiers (2005) defines academic language as, “…the set of words and phrases that describe content-area knowledge and procedures; language that expresses complex thinking processes and abstract concepts; and language that creates cohesion and clarity in written and oral discourse”.
Scarcella (2008) defines academic language as the language of power. Students who do not acquire academic language fail in academic settings.

“Brick and Mortar”Dutro and Moran, 2003

"Brick"words are the vocabulary specific to the content and concepts being taught and include words such as: government, mitosis, metaphor, revolt, arid, revolution, etc….
"Mortar"words are the words that determine the relationships between and among words.

Content vocabulary(bricks)

What is Academic Language?

Terms that travel across disciplines

Grammar & organization

Hypothesize Evidence Analyze Justify CritiqueCompare

AcademicMetaphors

~300/hour!

Text structure Transitions Pronouns ClausesWord orderU-turn termsPunctuation

AcademicMetaphors

~300/hour!

Students need chances to authentically talk about:

Abstract concepts

Higher-order thinking processes

Complex ideas

Watching for Academic Language

By the 1880's, steam power had dramatically shortened the journey to America. Immigrants poured in from around the world. They came from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada.

The door was wide open for Europeans. In the 1880s alone, 9% of the total population of Norway emigrated to America. After 1892 nearly all immigrants came in through the newly opened Ellis Island.

Families often immigrated together during this era,

although young men frequently came first to find work. Some of these then sent for their wives, children, and siblings; others returned to their families in Europe with their saved wages.

Academic Language and Thinking Strategies Where?

3 Ingredients for Acquiring Language

Input

VisualsGesturesVerbal

Input

Input

Output

Input

Output

Sentence stemsPair-shares PresentationsImprovs (pro-con) Questions (build)

Input

Output

Co-construction of Meaning

The Need for Meaningful Talk

85% of class time was devoted to lecture, question and answer, and seatwork. (Nystrand, 1997)
Teachers encouraged elaborations, but only 16% of the paired interactions were beneficial to learning. (Staarman, Krol & Vander Meijden, 2005)
English learners spent only 4% of the school day engaged in talk; and 2% of the school day discussing focal content of the lesson. (Arreaga-Mayer & Perdomo-Rivera, 1996)

Academic Language in Action

Using Our New Language Standards

Academic English is nota natural language.It must be explicitly taughtnot merely caught.( Kinsella, 2006)

Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations at New Mexico Highlands University

Content Objectives

Understand the concept of sheltered instruction
Understand the importance of lesson preparation and the integration of content and language objectives
Develop a working knowledge of the new ELD Standards

Language Objectives

Participants will recall and list topical information from readings, previous trainings and personal experiences.
Participants will articulate and listen to various points of view related to the day’s topic.

Language Objectives

Individually and in groups begin to synthesize the day’s information through dialogue and reflection.
Participants will work in groups to apply the knowledge of the day in the creation of a lesson plan that takes into account the realities of the classroom.

What is Sheltered Instruction?

“Sheltered instruction is an approach for teaching content to English Language Learners in strategic ways that make the subject matter concepts comprehensible while promoting the students’ English language development.”

Echevarria, Vogt and Short, Making Content Comprehensible for

English Language Learners, 2004, 2007, 2010

Why is it necessary?

In many of our classrooms the level of the textbook we are teaching from does not match the academic language level of our students.
The academic content and language of the text is difficult for students to negotiate.

Watering down the curriculum allows students to read the curriculum.

…but

The richness of the content concepts are lost.

“Sheltered Instruction

is good for ALLstudents

but it is IMPERATIVE for students

with a language or learning challenge!”

Mary Ellen Vogt, 2004; 2007

Eight Core Componentsof High Quality Sheltered Instruction

Preparation
Building Background
Comprehensible Input
Strategies

Interaction
Practice / Application
Lesson Delivery
Review / Assessment

Lesson Preparation

What:

For maximum learning to

occur, planning must

produce lessons that enable

students to make

connections between their

own knowledge and

experiences, and the new

information being taught.

Why:

Lesson planning is critical to

both a student's and

teacher’s success.

When:

Every lesson

How:

Adaptation of content

Meaningful activities

Supplementary materials

Plan for language

Content Objectives

What are they?
Why use them?

Language Objectives

What are they?
Why use them?

Weaving Academic Language into Instructional Planning

Content Objectives: Focus of the Lesson (What students should know and be able to do.)

Language Objectives: Focus on Language Development, Language Needs & Language Use for the Lesson (HowListening, Speaking, Reading and Writing will be incorporated into the lesson.)

Content and Language Objectives

Content objectives

are the

Language objectives

are the

HOW

WHAT

Verbs for Language Objectives

recall
recite
list
elaborate
define
apply
infer
justify

revise
pre-write
draft
publish
predict
write
identify
negotiate

compare
contrast
listen
respond
interpret
describe
observe
sequence
synthesize

Language Domains

Listening: process, understand, interpret, and evaluate spoken language in a variety of situations
Speaking: engage in oral communication in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and audiences
Reading: process, understand, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols and text with understanding and fluency
Writing: engage in written communication in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and audiences

New Mexico ELD Standards 2009

Language Domains

Why are the language domains important?

Remember

“Children are capable of high level thinking regardless of their language level.”

Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., WIDA Lead Developer, 2009

Content & Language Objectives

Who gets to see them?

Objectives

Should be:

Stated clearly and simply in student friendly language; and
Posted and referred to before, during and after the lesson.

Sample Content and Language Objectives9th Grade Geometry

Content Objective:

9-12.G.1.2 Find the area and perimeter of a geometric figure composed of a combination of two or more rectangles, triangles, and/or semicircles with just edges in common.

Language Objectives:

With your learning partner you will use mathematical vocabulary to explain the process for finding the area and perimeter of geometric figures.

During a carousel activity, your group will construct a Venn Diagram to contrast and compare the area and perimeter of one geometric figure to another.

Work in pairs to solve and justify statements about the area and perimeter of geometric figures.

NM English Language Development Standards

What is our schema related to standards?
What have you heard and what do you know about the NMELD Standards?

nm english language development standards2

The NMELD Standards are unlike anything we have experienced in New Mexico.

They are first and foremost language standards.

Social and Instructional Language
The Language of Language Arts
The Language of Mathematics
The Language of Science
The Language of Social Studies

Meant to be flexible and adaptable.

nm english language development standards3

English language development standards are the bridge to enable learners to access the content requisite for academic success through language (Academic Language and Thinking).

Let Me Throw Some Bricks and Mortar at You!

Framework
Formative
Summative
Language Proficiency Level
Entering
Emerging
Developing
Expanding
Bridging

Let Me Throw Some Bricks and Mortar at You!

Language Domain
Grade Level Cluster
Genre
Model Performance Indicator (MPI)
Language Function
Example Topic
Support
Transformation

Supports

Model Performance Indicator

Transformations

Organization of the Standards

2 Frameworks
5 English Language Proficiency Standards
5 Grade Level Clusters
4 Language Domains
5 Levels of English Language Proficiency
200 Example Topics and Model Performance Indicators (MPIs)

Using the Standards

No numbers but rather an emphasis on language, content and support. (Mindfully prodding you towards Content and Language Objectives)
Make it topic or subject specific. Make it real for you! Make it work for you!
You are never held to what is in the box – this can change!

Using the Standards

Step 1: Determine English Language Learners’ current language profiles
Step 2: Analyze the language demands of a content topic
Step 3: Match ELD standards to language demands, and decide whether and which transformations are necessary.
Step 4: Develop content and language objectives.

Using the Standards

Step 5: Differentiate instructional and assessment activities by the students’ levels of English language proficiency.
Step 6: Plan for instructional supports and vary the supports used.
Step 7: Review evidence of language learning and decide next steps.

What is the intent?

What part of our professional routine(s) are the new ELD standards intending to affect?
How?
For whom?
Is this extra?

Lesson Planning Through a Different Lens

For whom? All children!
How? Consider the language demands of the content of the lesson.
Why? Content and language have had and will continue to have an inseparable relationship that is rooted in the fundamental use of language as the means of sharing information.
When? Always!