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ACADEMIC LANGUAGE INTERDISTRICT ELA ARTICULATION DAY APRIL 7, 2009

The achievement gap in action!. California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park$25 admission for Adults$15 (ages 7-11)$20 (ages 12-17)0r $150 family membership.

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ACADEMIC LANGUAGE INTERDISTRICT ELA ARTICULATION DAY APRIL 7, 2009

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    1. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE INTERDISTRICT ELA ARTICULATION DAY APRIL 7, 2009 Patrick Hurley, Mountain View High School

    2. The achievement gap in action!

    3. Academic Language What would you like for kids to be able to think, say or write about the concepts you taught in any given lesson?

    4. Academic Language Our goal: “To equip our students with the language they need to express the sophistication of their thinking for academic and real life purposes.” Susana Dutro, EL Achieve (elachieve.org)

    5. Academic Language From Building Academic Language by Jeff Zwiers Functions of academic language (to describe complexity, to describe higher order thinking, to describe abstraction) Features of academic language (figurative expressions, being explicit for “distant audiences, detached from message, supporting points for evidence, conveying nuances of meanings with modals, softening message with ‘hedges’, Features of academic grammar (long sentences, passive voice, nominalization, condensed complex messages, clarity)

    6. Academic Language “Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers” by Yvonne S. Freeman and David E. Freeman English Learners are a more complex group than often labeled. (Long-Term English Learner, Limited Formal Schooling, Standard English Learner from historically marginalized group, SEL not from historically marginalized group, new arrival with adequate formal schooling) Relationship between oppression, power, status and language development Sociolinguistic competence Academic Registers of schooling

    7. Academic Language Far more complex than any one book or strategy can adequately cover My experience and research suggests: Academic Language can be explicitly taught It is far more ‘written-like’ than ‘spoken-like’ It is best developed through oral interactions I have to create oral interactions that are more ‘written-like’ than ‘spoken-like’ (looks fake!) Vocabulary is the most urgent need and something I can do something about

    8. Academic Language Academic Vocabulary has several labels that are being used in our profession.

    9. Academic Language Content Specific Vocabulary (Bricks) These are the words that are found in Marzano’s “Academic Vocabulary” program that is used to build background. The list in the Marzano book is divided into content areas (including visual arts, health, PE) and each content area has four levels of words with the 4th level intended to be taught in the 9th and 10th grades. Marzano suggests a six-step process for teaching these words explicitly. There is a process for selecting which words to teach and they are generally taught only in the content area to which they belong. (Power Standard process) There is sufficient research that this method is effective for Content Specific Vocabulary

    10. Academic Vocabulary General Academic Vocabulary (mortar) These words appear on a list called “Academic Word List” compiled by examining academic texts, journals, etc. (widely accepted as accurate) There are 570 word families with 3000 total words. Example: Abstract (head word) Abstraction (member of the word family) Abstractly (member of the word family)

    11. Academic Vocabulary General Academic Vocabulary (cont.) Though many of these words do not appear on the list, discourse connectors are also considered to be part of General Academic Vocabulary or mortar words (first, whereas, nevertheless, frequenty, as a result of) There is not as much research supporting explicit teaching of General Academic Vocabulary as there is Content-Specific Vocabulary, though there are projects exploring this

    12. Academic Language Teaching General Academic Vocabulary Freemans write “Although we don’t advocate the direct teaching of general academic vocabulary, teachers may find it useful to have a list of the terms that occur most frequently across the content areas.” They suggest that this vocabulary is best taught by: Extended reading (SSR) Effective bilingual classrooms Allowing ELL to discuss content in their L1 Oral interactions

    13. Academic Language Teaching General Academic Vocabulary (cont.) General Academic Vocabulary becomes the responsibility of no single department. May not be included in curriculum An examination of the training papers for Academic Vocabulary (both Bricks and Mortar terms) suggests that Academic Vocabulary played a role in the score

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    15. Academic Vocabulary on Benchmark Papers

    16. Academic Vocabulary on Benchmark Papers

    17. Academic Vocabulary on Benchmark Papers

    18. Academic Vocabulary Suggestions for improving academic language of struggling readers and writers Continue to use the Marzano list to determine important academic vocabulary (use Power Standards) and the six-step process A new effort to teach and reinforce the use of General Academic English in ELA classrooms, especially targeting those scoring 1-3 on the writing prompt, ELLs. Perhaps a collaborative effort between departments to teach General Academic Vocabulary

    19. Academic Vocabulary What seems to work for General Academic Vocabulary Word Generation from the SERP Institute (Strategic Educational Research Partnership) (Downloadable) Designed for middle-schools 3 year program Engages students in “Joining the National Conversation” around interesting, controversial, “kitchen table” conversations that many of our students do not engage in but are affected by 15 minutes a week for each content area teacher reinforcing the same General Academic Vocabulary (5 words a week for 20-24 weeks for 3 levels = 340 words) Videos of professional development, teachers-in-action, researchers, discussions about the program.

    20. Academic Vocabulary Free Webinar on Word Generation via schoolsmovingup.net Tuesday, April 28th at 10:30 All you need is a computer and a phone line if you want to participate Word Generation only asks that you provide pre- and post-data to contribute to their research

    21. Academic Vocabulary Accountable Talk and Supporting Support Discourse Free professional development resource on the web that focuses on creating classroom discussions that Focus on academically important issues Identifies and labels “Teacher Moves” that facilitate better discussions Hold students accountable for creating a safe community Emphasizes academic language Facilitates discussion based on correct knowledge Reinforces rigorous reasoning.

    22. Academic Vocabulary Kate Kinsella’s “Mediated Discussions” Process that draws on correct content knowledge and requires students to write “written-like” sentences that will be shared orally and lead to academic discussions. Easily differentiated for students at different language levels Students use sentences as discussion starters Give away, take ideas from others Quickwrite (10 minute paper), that can be turned into process essay.

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