ACADEMIC LANGUAGE: Essential for ALL- Critical for ELL

1. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE:Essential for ALL-Critical for ELL Title III Fall Conference September 20, 2010 MSU-Kellogg Center

2. Goals for the Session: • Reaffirm the need for Academic Language Especially for English Language Learners • Recognize the Importance of Strategic Teaching/Learning (Direct Instruction) • Reflect on Practice- and Consider CHANGE!

3. Robert Marzano: • “When students are not well prepared academically and also lack academic literacy skills, the challenge can seem overwhelming.”

4. INTENT: What is The learner Expected to know, Understand or be Able to do? CONTENT: Which materials will Lead to mastery For learners? (ALL FORMS!) Best practices that Will lead to MASTERY? ASSESSMENT: What evidence will I accept that The intended Learning has taken Place? Ralph Tyler, 1949

5. UNIVERSE OF POTENTIAL SCIENCE OBJECTIVES/EXPECTATIONS Michigan Content Area Expectations Assessed by MEAP Local district curriculum?? Intent Factors…

6. Content Factors Local district selected textbook series, software Teacher selected Material/content Contributions from learners And serendipity

7. Methodology Factors: Professional learning Graduate Study Teacher training Colleagues/self study Teachers: Academic vocabulary By Content Area And Grade Level

8. Before I teach and they learn! • Analysis of available assessment data… • Do they know the language of the content area and the learning process? • Have I identified and shared this essential language with learners? • How will I assess academic language formative/summative? • What study skills do I embed in my teaching/their learning? Assessment Factors

9. SCIENCE TERMS Evolve Origin Natural Selection Genus Species Prototype Environment Adaptation Progenitor LESSON LANGUAGE Condylarth Eohippus/mesohippus/miohippus/pliohippus/megahippus Equus caballus Eocene-Oligocene Domestication Primitive Herbivore Migratory Science/5th-Academic Language:Evolution of the Horse Students are encouraged to add new words they encounter in the teaching learning process.

10. Graphic Organizer: Equus Caballus Today 75 million yrs. ago

11. Encourage learners to call unknown words to your attention or post them in a special place Explanation of unknown academic language is part of instructional time Establish an Academic Language board/electronic file with access for all Assess learners on critical academic language Acknowledge it when YOU encounter a new word- then model the behaviors you expect of the learners Integrate academic language into learning activities (cooperative learning, panel of experts, power point presentations) Student Academic Language Logs Differentiate instruction and recognize learner performance Our teaching behaviors… Reading and writing must be a part of every Content Area!

12. Include in your teaching/learning… • Comparing and Contrasting • Reading/ Listening and Retelling • Explaining • Persuading/Documenting • Hypothesizing • Justifying • Analyzing From TESOL

13. Pre-Lesson, Unit, Chapter • Provide Academic, Content and Context Language • Plan specific classroom instruction that focuses on all three language areas • Create assessments for those language areas to be used continuously and as part of summative evaluation • Plan lessons that require speaking, listening and writing USING academic, content and context language

14. Research shows:(Marzano & Pickering) • Students at the 50th percentile in terms of ability to in a comprehend the subject matter, with NO DIRECT INSTRUCTION in VOCABULARY… contune at the 50th percentile • The same students, after specific content-area vocabulary has been taught through direct instruction, raise their comprehension to the 83rd percentile

15. Common Agreement on Academic Language… • Six basic steps, the first three steps introduce, develop initial understanding. The second three shape and sharpen understanding.

16. Describe, explain give an example Students restate/write the new term in their own words Students create a non-linguistic representation of the term/context First Three:

17. Next Three… • Scheduled instructional activities that add to understanding and use of the word • Assign completion of analogies using the new language • Bone is to skeleton as word is to _______. • Chinese is to food as Hip-Hop is to _____. • Group discussions/concentric circles, panel of experts, charades… • Integrate uses of the terms into daily lessons/student work

18. Classroom Activities…. • Academic Language Logs may be kept electronically or in writing. May count for as much as 20% of grade. • Power point presentations on the lesson topic, that require integration of academic language and narration • Word of the day-posted when class starts-learners are required to be prepared to use it in whatever form assigned in first few minutes of class • Cooperative Dictionaries- teams maintain pronunciations/definitions/usage of academic language and publish them to share with other teams • Graphic organizers for essential information and academic language supportive material

19. Direct Instruction of Academic Language is Critical to ELL!! • Requires increased planning for teachers • Requires grade level/content area collaboration to identify essential academic language • Requires persistence (teachers and students) for direct instruction, assessment, and impact • Requires district-wide collaboration as an instructional priority (school improvement)

20. Good News!! Direct Instruction of Academic Language benefits ALL LEARNERS and improves the ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE for ALL LEARNERS!!

21. Resources: • Building Academic Vocabulary, Teacher’s Manual Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering (ASCD) • Stanford University- http://suse-step.stanford.edu/resources/Language/AcademicLanguage Association for Academic Learning and Language http://aall.org.au/

22. More… The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, Anna Uhl Chamot and J. Michael O’ Malley, Addison-Wesley, 1994 http://calla.ws/overview.html

23. Thank you for your attention, Rachael E. Moreno, Consultant morenofarm1@frontier.com 1-517-651-6286