Transcript How to Plan and Implement CALLA

How to Help Struggling
Students Become Good
Language Learners
Anna Uhl Chamot & Jill Robbins
National Capital Language Resource
Center
Summer Institute 2006
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
CALLA-FL: The Cognitive
Academic Language Learning
Approach for Foreign Languages
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COMPONENTS:
AUTHENTIC CONTENT
SOCIAL & ACADEMIC
LANGUAGE
LEARNING STRATEGIES
Five instructional principles
in CALLA-FL
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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.
DEVELOPING METACOGNITION
Model metacognitive awareness.
 Ask students to describe their
thinking processes.
 Have students take
responsibility for their own
learning.
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PREPARATION
EXPANSION
CALLA’S FIVE PHASES
PRESENTATION
SELF-EVALUATION
PRACTICE
PREPARATION
 Identify
objectives.
 Elicit students’ prior
knowledge.
 Develop vocabulary.
 Provide motivation.
PREPARATION
 How
would this help the
struggling learner?
PRESENTATION
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Present new information in varied
ways.
Model processes explicitly.
Explain learning strategies.
Discuss connections to students’
prior knowledge.
PRESENTATION
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What kinds of presentation methods
would help the struggling learner?
Are you already presenting with a
variety of media?
PRACTICE
Use hands-on/inquiry-based
activities.
 Provide different cooperative
learning structures.
 Use authentic content tasks.
 Ask students to use learning
strategies.
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PRACTICE
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What kinds of practice
activities would help the
struggling learner?
SELF-EVALUATION
Students discuss their own
learning.
 Students keep learning journals.
 Students assess their own
strategy use.
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SELF-EVALUATION
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How can you help struggling
learners to evaluate themselves
more accurately?
EXPANSION
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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.
EXPANSION
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How can what has been learned in
FL class help struggling learners in
their other classes?
CALLA Instruction Summary
Teacher Responsibility
Changes over time
Prepare
Present
Practice
Self-Evaluate
Expand
Student Responsibility
Teacher’s role in . .
Preparation
Activate Background Knowledge
Presentation
Practice
Explain
Model
Prompt use of strategies
Give Feedback
Self- Evaluation
Expansion
Assess strategies
Support transfer
Apply
Students’ role in . .
Preparation
Presentation
Practice
Attend
Participate
Apply strategies with guidance
Self- Evaluation
Expansion
Self-assess strategies
Use strategies independently
Transfer strategies to new tasks
CALLA-FL Assessment
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Use authentic content tasks.
Evaluate content knowledge.
Evaluate language proficiency.
Use self-report for learning
strategies.
Use self-assessment and reflection.
CALLA-FL Assessment
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How can you use assessment to
better understand your struggling
students?
Can assessment become a more
positive experience for your
struggling students?
CALLA-FL Instruction Is...
Learner-centered
 Reflective
 Supportive
 Focused
 Enthusiastic
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