Academic Discourse and Text Complexity in the Classroom

1. Academic Discourse and Text Complexity in the Classroom Shelley Hartford Julia Lara Erin Sullivan JLara Educational Consulting, LLC

2. Module I:Overview of Common Core

3. Chunk and Sort the CCSS • Form groups of 4. • Read each standard in the envelope. • Discuss the standard with the members in your group. • Categorize the grade level standard under each anchor standard.

4. Gallery Walk • Write key components of your standard on your large sheet. • Post the sheet on the wall. • Go around the room and add statements on each standard by completing one of these sentence frames: • One challenge for ELs that I have encountered within the __________ standard is _________________. • One challenge for Els that I anticipate within the __________ standard is _________________. • One benefit for ELs I have encountered within the __________ standard is _________________. • One benefit for Els I anticipate within the ___________ standard is _________________.

5. Common Core State Standards • Define what students should know and be able to do for college and career readiness • Address K-12 in English/language arts and mathematics • Have been adopted by 45+ states • Were developed by states with leadership from Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governor’s Association (NGA)

6. Key Features • Standards are research-based • Foster the independent reading of complex texts that are crucial for college and career readiness, • Emphasize importance of informational texts. • Standards are aligned with the expectations of employers and colleges • Address concern that adult reading levels are disturbingly low • Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order skills • Are internationally-benchmarked

7. Limitations Standards do not specify: How students should be taught Nature of advanced work to be provided to above average students Interventions for students below grade level Supports to ELL students

8. Common Core Standards K-5 • English Language Arts/Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects • Math • Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Language and Standard 10 Rang, Quality and Complexity • English Language Arts • Math • Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects • Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Language and Standard 10 Rang, Quality and Complexity 6-12

9. What are the implications of the CCS for ELLs? Student performance expectations within the Common Core are very high. Educators of ELLs will be challenged to identify materials and methods that support ELLs in meeting the standards. Districts will be challenged to develop methods of validly and reliably assessing the progress and performance of ELLs toward meeting the standards. Districts must build the capacity of teachers to support ELLs toward meeting the standards.

10. ELLs Need Support • Predictable, clear, and consistent instruction • Extended explanations • Opportunities to practice and expand language • Visual cues • Opportunities to build and connect background knowledge • Targeted vocabulary instruction • Explicit language instruction

11. Anticipation Guide • Read the statements. • Select if you agree or disagree. • Justify your response. • Divide into jigsaw groups. • Read the article. • Share out within your jigsaw group.

12. What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students? Lily Wong Fillmore Charles Fillmore

13. Anticipation Guide (cont.) • Confirm your original response. • Justify your response by citing the appropriate paragraph.

14. Module 2:Academic Discourse

15. "Reading and writing float on a sea of talk.”

16. Self-Assessment • Read the statements. • Indicate whether this applies to you or your classroom : often, sometimes, seldom, or never. • Give yourself the following points per item: • Often = 3 • Sometimes = 2 • Seldom = 1 • Never = 0

17. Teachers face two tasks in language classrooms: 1) Offer enough high-quality English language input 2) Offer more opportunities for students to meaningfully use the target language.

18. Teacher talk makes up around 70% of classroom language. (Cook, 2000; Chaudron, 1988; Zhao Xiaohong, 1998). Silent Response: Place your fingers on your chest to rate the accuracy of this statistic for classrooms in your school. Show 1 finger (highly accurate), 2 fingers(somewhat accurate), 3 fingers (not accurate)

19. Turn and TalkWhen the teacher speaks less… Students know the information is important. Students listen more attentively. Students work harder to process the information. Students have added opportunity for interest and challenge.

20. Turn and TalkWhen students speak more… They have increased opportunities to become familiar with the new material. They have more chances to experiment with and personalize the language. They develop better communication skills. They must work together to repair the miscomprehension.

21. Student Talk Time Teacher Talk Time Should be 20% of the lesson. The teacher must speak more when providing explanations and examples early in the lesson. Elsewhere he may speak less as students need ample opportunity to practice the new material. Should be 80% of the lesson. Student language use should promote qualitative thought. Students need some drills to become familiar with and absorb the target language. Too many drills result in students who fail to critically observe, analyze, and practice with the new language.

22. Too Much Student Talk Can Be Problematic Wong-Fillmore found that successful SLA occurred in teacher-dominated classes. In contrast, little SLA took place in classes with too much interaction among students. Fillmore explained these results in terms of the type of input which was received in the different classrooms.

23. Too Much Student Talk Can Be Problematic In successful classrooms the teachers serve as the main source of input. In student-centered classrooms, the pupils did not receive as much teacher input, and tended to use the L1 when talking among themselves.

24. Too Much Student Talk Can Be Problematic Fillmore argued the amount of teacher talk time should not be decreased blindly. These two conditions must be met for successful SLA to occur with reduced teacher talk: • The students must have a high enough level of language proficiency to communicate with their teacher and among themselves. • There must be enough students who want to communicate in class.

25. Moving from Input to Intake Swain’s (1985) Output Hypothesis argues that comprehensible input is not a sufficient condition for SLA. It is only when input becomes intake that SLA takes place. The need to produce output encourages the learner to develop the necessary grammatical resources, which are referred to as “pushed language use”.

26. Moving from Input to Intake Output provides the learner with the opportunity to try out hypotheses to see if they work. Production helps to force the learner to move from semantic to syntactic processing. It is possible to comprehend a message without any syntactic analysis of the input it contains. Productionis the trigger that forces learners to pay attention to the means of expression.

27. The role of interaction (Van Lier, 1988:93)

28. Remedies for the Talkative Teacher Build Daily Routines for Interaction Vobackulary Shades of Meaning Information Gap Listen and Write Digital Oral Storyboarding

29. Vobackulary HORSES

31. horseshoe

32. saddle

33. stampede

34. foal

35. mane

36. hooves

37. tail

38. trot

39. canter

40. gallop

41. Vocabulary Practice Quizlet

42. Shades of Meaning Select a word. Ask students to brainstorm other words with similar meaning. Guide students in ranking the words in order of greatest specificity, detail, or impact. Write the words in order on a paint sample.

43. Microscopic Plankton Put words in order of size. Use in oral sentences. Small “My feet are small.” Little “My sister is little.” Tiny “A baby is tiny.” Itty Bitty “A snail is itty bitty.” Microscopic “Plankton are microscopic.” “Plankton no can swim.” “Plankton can float.” “The fish eat the plankton.” Describe Plankton

45. Information Gap • Look at the picture • DO NOT SHOW YOUR PARTNER YOUR PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO PEEKING!!!!!!!!!! • Partner A: Use the words in the box to describe picture A to your partner. • Partner B: Draw the picture that your partner is describing to you. • SWITCH!!!!

46. Listen and Write Mr. Ed

47. Digital Oral Storyboarding

48. Go Digital! • Windows Movie Maker • Photo Story 3 • PowerPoint • iMovie

49. Horses Write a short story describing the interaction between two people who are negotiating the sale of a horse. Include: • at least 6 vocabulary words that describe characteristics of the horse • drawings or photos • dialogue

50. Directions • Create storyboard by drawing pictures and writing story. • Choose program. • Take pictures, videos, or scan drawings. • Record voice on computer. • Add titles. • Publish!