Supporting English Learners with Academic Content in the ...
Transcript of Supporting English Learners with Academic Content in the ...
Supporting English
Learners with Academic
Content in the ClassroomLesly Wade-Woolley
University of Alberta
• Conversational Language • Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)
• Used daily to communicate with others
• Context-Embedded
• Fluency acquired relatively quickly
• Academic Language • Cognitive Academic language Proficiency (CALP)
• The language of text and content areas
• Context-Reduced
• Fluency acquired significantly later than BICS
Dimensions of Language
BICS/CALP Trajectory
iris.vanderbilt.edu
• Students need BICS for social interactions with peers, teachers, broader community
• However, good conversational skills may be accompanied by poor academic language skills.• Caution - overgeneralizing one dimension of language to the other:
risk of over-identification of problems
• Good BICS does not mean equivalent level of CALP
• Students need to develop CALP to deal with academic content in school• Caution - insisting on 5 – 7 years before intervening : risk of under-
identification of problems
• Sometimes slow or no progress at acquiring CALP (and BICS) can be a sign of language-related learning problems
Academic Language and School Success
Today I will share four recommendations for teaching academic
content and literacy English learners
Overall recommendations from the Institute for Education
Sciences bolstered by specific examples
These recommendations have been recognized by the What
Works Clearinghouse as being supported by research evidence
My goal today is to give you some things to think about and try in
your classroom with your students.
So what do we need to know about helping our ELs
acquire CALP?
1. Select a set of academic vocabulary words and teach
them intensively over several days in several different
contexts.
2. Use content-area teaching as an ideal place to
integrate oral and written English language instruction.
3. Make available to your students regular, structured
opportunities to develop written language skills.
4. Intervene in small groups with instruction to support
students who struggle in literacy and English language
development.
1. Select a set of academic vocabulary words and teach
them intensively over several days in several different
contexts.
2. Use content-area teaching as an ideal place to
integrate oral and written English language instruction.
3. Make available to your students regular, structured
opportunities to develop written language skills.
4. Intervene in small groups with instruction to support
students who struggle in literacy and English language
development.
1. Select a set of academic vocabulary words and teach
them intensively over several days in several different
contexts.
2. Use content-area teaching as an ideal place to
integrate oral and written English language instruction.
3. Make available to your students regular, structured
opportunities to develop written language skills.
4. Intervene in small groups with instruction to support
students who struggle in literacy and English language
development.
1. Select a set of academic vocabulary words and teach
them intensively over several days in several different
contexts.
2. Use content-area teaching as an ideal place to
integrate oral and written English language instruction.
3. Make available to your students regular, structured
opportunities to develop written language skills.
4. Intervene in small groups with instruction to support
students who struggle in literacy and English language
development.
Select a set of academic vocabulary words and teach
them intensively over several days in several different
contexts.
What is academic vocabulary?
Words that are used primarily in academic content areas,
used more frequently in essays, readings and discussions
in these areas than in informal and social conversation
• General academic vocabulary (factor, exhibit, tangential)
• Domain-specific vocabulary (commutative, diode, atom)
Recommendation 1:
• Be brief, interesting and engaging
• Contain a variety of target words you could choose from
• Connect to the unit of study and build students’ knowledge
• Provide detail and examples to promote understanding
• Contain ideas that can be discussed from a variety of
perspectives
• Be at grade level, even if you need to scaffold the text so ELs
can access the ideas and learn new words.
1.1 Start with an engaging, content-rich text. It should:
• Plan the instruction over several days – this promotes depth
of knowledge
• Select 5 – 8 words (the exact number will depend on your
students’ grade). More than 10 will result in superficial
learning
• Wide reading and language-rich environments by themselves
are unlikely to be sufficient for ELs’ needs.
1.2 Pick a small set of academic vocabulary words for
in-depth instruction
Pick words for instruction that…
.. are central to understanding the text
… are frequently used in the text
… are likely to appear in other contexts
… have multiple meanings
… have affixes
… have cognates across languages
1.2 Pick a small set of academic vocabulary words for
in-depth instruction
Pick six words that you might choose for
instruction.
Be prepared to say why you chose them!
Make sure the words you choose meet at least
two of the criteria
So let’s try it!
Provide student-friendly definitions
1.3. Use multiple modalities to teach academic
vocabulary in depth:
Merriam-Webster online
Pursuit (noun) 1. The act of trying very hard to achieve
something. After winning the first playoff game, our
team continued our pursuit of the championship.
2. The act of following or chasing someone or
something. My dog is in pursuit of my neighbor’s cat as
it runs across the street.
3. An activity, hobby, or interest. Mario spends most of
his free time on outdoor pursuits like riding his bike and
playing football.
A definition from a student-friendly dictionary
Provide student-friendly definitions
Explicitly clarify and reinforce definitions using examples,
non-examples and concrete representations where
possible
1.3. Use multiple modalities to teach academic
vocabulary in depth:
ENORMOUS
definition
antonyms
non-examples
examples
synonyms
Can you fill this in?
Provide student-friendly definitions
Explicitly clarify and reinforce definitions using examples,
non-examples and concrete representations where
possible
Provide opportunities for students to respond to questions
where they have to show their grasp of subtle differences in
meaning
1.3. Use multiple modalities to teach academic
vocabulary in depth:
A show or
display that is
meant for a lot
of people to
see
To show or
express
feelings
exhibit
The exhibit we saw at the zoo
really helped the children
understand how animals play
together.
After coming back from our
trip to the zoo, some of the
children exhibited anger and
sadness at the way that
animals were treated.
Provide student-friendly definitions
Explicitly clarify and reinforce definitions using examples,
non-examples and concrete representations where
possible
Provide opportunities for students to respond to questions
where they have to show their grasp of subtle differences in
meaning
Embed the targets words in writing assignments
1.3. Use multiple modalities to teach academic
vocabulary in depth:
Writing prompt:
If you were visiting a zoo, would you rather see animals
exhibited in a natural environment, or in a caged
environment?
Students will encounter a large number of new word as
they progress through school; it is not possible to provide
explicit instruction for all of them
Context clues
Word parts
Cognates
1.4. Teach word-learning strategies to help students
independently figure out the meaning of words
Read the sentence containing the unknown word and look
for helpful information in the sentence. Also look at the
previous and following sentences.
A natural environment for a gorilla has grass and trees,
while an unnatural environment is a cramped cement area.
Context clues
Morphological word study helps students understand how
related words share bits of common meaning
Work with the selected word to identify their part of speech
and how prefixes and suffixes can turn them into other,
related words.
Word parts
Provide sentences from the original text containing the target
words and have students re-write the sentences to keep the
same intent but using a new form of the target words.
Use content-area teaching as an ideal place to
integrate oral and written English language instruction
As students move into higher grades, they are expected to
read, comprehend, and articulate the meaning of
increasingly complex and abstract texts, and participate in
discussions with their peers.
This can be challenging for many students, especially
English learners.
Recommendation 2:
Use short video clips or other visuals to anchor the content; they are
engaging, hey provide background knowledge, and provide a shared
learning context in which to facilitate discussion.
At the same time, use graphic organizers to scaffold organization of
material around a common text structure.
These make apparent the patterns and relationships among facts,
terms and concepts
Consistent use of graphic organizers can increase comprehensibility
of content and also serve as source material for writing and speaking
activities.
2.1 Strategically use instructional tools to anchor teaching
After reading watching a video about zoos back in the day
and reading the zoo text, students complete a graphic
organizer showing similarities and differences between zoos
now and then. Teacher support will be needed at first.
Teacher can
model while
doing a think-
aloud, or provide
a partially-
completed
graphic
organizer and
guide to
completion.
This cause and effect organizer can be completed with
material from the video and text. This organizer can be
used to plan and organize for a written assignment or an
oral presentation.
Explicit teaching of academic vocabulary should be embedded
in content area instruction.
Think about technical terms like photosynthesis, but also the
more general words convert and process.
Students who are learning about the House of Commons in
socials will need to know the words election, representative,
and government.
2.2 Foreground the teaching of content-specific and
general academic vocabulary during content-area
instruction
These sessions do not have to be long, but they should be frequent.
Consider pairing students with heterogeneous levels of English
proficiency
Students get to rehearse and practice their responses before
sharing with the whole class – building preparation and confidence
Ensure that any questions or prompts allow ELs to respond to
inferential as well as factual questions
Any opportunity is valuable to build language: read/discuss short
passages, role play a concept’s meaning, think-pair-share, etc.
2.3 Provide daily opportunity for students to talk about
content in pairs and small groups
Provide regular, structured opportunities to develop
written language skills
As students move up through the grades they increasingly
need to respond to material through writing. The writing
expectations are progressively longer and more complex.
Recommendation 3:
3.1 Provide writing assignments that are anchored in content
and focus of building academic language as well as writing
skills
As well, consistently use a set of instructional routines that
support students as they plan and organize their ideas for
writing.
Routines should guide students through the process of
moving from notes/graphic organizers, to complete
sentences, to a paragraph, then to a complete composition
and editing/revising.
Explicitly teach and review transition and linking phrases
3.1 Provide writing assignments that are anchored in
content and focus of building academic language as
well as writing skills
Language based supports include graphic organizers and
sentence starters.
They facilitate students’ entry into, and continued
development of, writing. They provide specific help as
students begin their writing assignment, e.g., summarizing
and analyzing material for writing.
They provide sustained support to prevent students’ from
defaulting to more conversational topics, grammatical
structure and vocabulary
3.2 For all writing assignments, provide language-
base supports
Student collaboration and dialogue can focus on all aspects
of writing, from spelling and sentence structure to quick-
writes and larger research projects.
This approach allows students to engage in critical,
collaborative dialogue with peers.
3.3 Provide opportunities for small groups and pairs to
work and talk together on varied aspects of writing
Regular use of formative assessment of student work is a
productive way to determine instructional targets.
English learners may have many areas that need
improvement. Focus on giving feedback on the areas that
were the instructional objectives
Consider periodically employing a formal writing rubric
which assesses a broad range of skills including
transcription, knowledge of text structure, knowledge of
content, and accurate, flexible use of words and phrases.
3.4 Assess students’ writing to identify instructional
needs and provide positive, constructive feedback
Provide small group instructional intervention to
students struggling in areas of literacy and English
language development
Some students require instructional support beyond that
provided by typical classroom instruction. Small group
intervention in phonemic awareness, decoding skills,
listening and reading comprehension may be needed.
Recommendation 4:
All currently available assessment measures can provide
information about who needs additional support, including district
benchmarking assessments, progress monitoring English
language assessments and standardized tests.
While caution is strongly urged in the use of standardized tests
with English learners (except in the rare case where they are
reflected in the norming sample), some of these instruments can
provide informal information when skillfully used by an
experienced educator or clinician. Norms are often not applied.
4.1 Use available assessment information to identify
students who demonstrate persistent struggles with
aspects of language and literacy
English learners who struggle with foundational reading skills will
need intervention devoted to accurate decoding and fluent reading
of connected text. (These students may also need instruction in
English language development and comprehension strategies.)
Other English learners may have foundational reading skills but
struggle with comprehending grade level texts (and sometimes
passage fluency). They will need no decoding instruction, but a
srong emphasis on comprehension strategies, listening
comprehension and vocabulary
4.2 Design the content of small-group instruction to
target students’ needs
Divide instructional activities into small, manageable units,
especially for complex tasks like listening comprehension. Focus
on simpler tasks like recall and summarization before moving to
inference
Importance of modeling and thinkalouds so that students can see
the processes – a gradual release of responsibility fades the
scaffolding and promotes independence
Check for understanding frequently and provide immediate
corrective beedback
4.3 Provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and
review newly learned skills and concepts in various contexts
over several lessons to ensure retention
These recommendations
and the research that
supports them can be
found in the IES practice
guide shown here!
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