How to Help Struggling Students Become Good Language Learners

1. How to Help Struggling Students Become Good Language Learners Anna Uhl Chamot & Jill Robbins National Capital Language Resource Center Summer Institute 2006

2. Who is the Struggling Student? This student has problems with… • keeping up with classmates • organizing him/herself and the work environment • following verbal instructions • longer-term work tasks and need work chunked for them • social and emotional skills

3. CALLA-FL: The Cognitive AcademicLanguage Learning Approach for Foreign Languages • COMPONENTS: • AUTHENTIC CONTENT • SOCIAL & ACADEMIC LANGUAGE • LEARNING STRATEGIES

4. Five instructional principles in CALLA-FL • Recognize and build on students’ prior knowledge. • Provide meaningful learning tasks. • Engage in interactive teaching and learning. • Focus on learning processes and strategies. • Help students evaluate their own learning.

5. DEVELOPING METACOGNITION • Model metacognitive awareness. • Ask students to describe their thinking processes. • Have students take responsibility for their own learning.

6. PREPARATION EXPANSION CALLA’S FIVE PHASES PRESENTATION SELF-EVALUATION PRACTICE

7. PREPARATION • Identify objectives. • Elicit students’ prior knowledge. • Develop vocabulary. • Provide motivation.

8. PREPARATION • How would this help the struggling learner?

9. PRESENTATION • Present new information in varied ways. • Model processes explicitly. • Explain learning strategies. • Discuss connections to students’ prior knowledge.

10. PRESENTATION • What kinds of presentation methods would help the struggling learner? • Are you already presenting with a variety of media?

11. PRACTICE • Use hands-on/inquiry-based activities. • Provide different cooperative learning structures. • Use authentic content tasks. • Ask students to use learning strategies.

12. PRACTICE • What kinds of practice activities would help the struggling learner?

13. SELF-EVALUATION • Students discuss their own learning. • Students keep learning journals. • Students assess their own strategy use.

14. SELF-EVALUATION • How can you help struggling learners to evaluate themselves more accurately?

15. EXPANSION • Students apply information to own lives. • Students make connections between content subjects and the target culture. • Students relate information to first language knowledge of content and culture.

16. EXPANSION • How can what has been learned in FL class help struggling learners in their other classes?

17. CALLA Instruction Summary Teacher Responsibility Changes over time Prepare Present Practice Self-Evaluate Expand Student Responsibility

18. Teacher’s role in . . Preparation Activate Background Knowledge Presentation Explain Model Practice Prompt use of strategies Give Feedback Self- Evaluation Assess strategies Expansion Support transfer Apply

19. Students’ role in . . Preparation Attend Presentation Participate Practice Apply strategies with guidance Self- Evaluation Self-assess strategies Expansion Use strategies independently Transfer strategies to new tasks

20. CALLA-FL Assessment • Use authentic content tasks. • Evaluate content knowledge. • Evaluate language proficiency. • Use self-report for learning strategies. • Use self-assessment and reflection.

21. CALLA-FL Assessment • How can you use assessment to better understand your struggling students? • Can assessment become a more positive experience for your struggling students?

22. CALLA-FL Instruction Is... • Learner-centered • Reflective • Supportive • Focused • Enthusiastic