Transcript CM Day 2 - Monterey County Office of Educ

A Focused Approach
Constructing Meaning
Explicit Language for Content Area Instruction
An Institute for Secondary Content Teachers
MCOE Executive Overview
February 28th, 2008
I believe….
Children grow into the intellectual life
around them.
- Lev Vygotsky
2
Constructing Meaning
Institute Overview
Day One
A Focused Approach to Constructing Meaning
Day Two
Academic Strategic Lesson Design
Day Three
Academic Language Production
page 1.1
3
Our goals for the institute
Understand the role that academic
language plays in content learning
Learn to determine language knowledge
essential for accessing content
Learn to plan and deliver focused content
specific language instruction
page 1.1
4
Recurring CM Themes
Knowing our students
Identifying discipline-specific language
Connecting reading, writing, listening,
and speaking
Building receptive and expressive
language
5
Access to the Core
After adolescent ELs acquire the basic skills,
they need to become active readers and
writers who use reading and writing
processes. Using these processes, learners
can examine a text, make conclusions about
it, articulate and incorporate those
conclusions.
Double the Work, 2007
6
Access to the Core (cont.)
The process creates awareness about the
functions of language, and the reflection
inherent in the process helps students
practice the kind of highly abstract thinking
that is essential to succeeding in high
school and beyond into college or the world
of work.
Double the Work, 2007
7
Day One Agenda
The Challenge
Effective Reading Practices
Defining Academic English
A Focused Approach: F, F & F
Analysis of Comprehension Task
handout
8
In Other Words
In schools, we could virtually say that
“language is the curriculum.”
Beverly Derewianka
Language is very difficult to put into words.
Voltaire
9
The Focused Approach
A Focused Approach
Features of Language Instruction
Function
Forms
Fluency
Represent cognitive
tasks
Needed Tools
Ease of comprehension
and production
Purposes for
expressing thinking
Vocabulary and
Word usage
Accuracy
Informs text
structure
Appropriate to context
Sentence structure
and grammatical
features
page 1.8
11
Thumbnail Sketch
How can we use the
information in this
thumbnail sketch to
better:
1. Teach the functional
language of our
content areas?
2. Move students along
a continuum of
specific and precise
language use?
page 1.16
12
Day Two Agenda
Knowing Our Students
• Common Backgrounds
• Levels of English Proficiency
• Previous Coursework
Strategic Lesson Design
• Lessons of Adolescent Literacy
• Planning Tool
• Functions Tool
Vocabulary Instruction
• Determining Which Words to Teach
• Direct Instruction
Agenda Handout
13
Getting to Know Our
Students
In the absence of information…
…we are in danger of committing
“assumicide”
-Kelly Gallagher
“Although adolescent English learners share a
designation based on their limited English
proficiency, they arrive at school via diverse
paths and with a wide range of experiences.”
-Norm Gold (LMRI, 2006)
Factors that affect EL experiences
Length of time in American schools
Literacy and content knowledge in
primary language
English proficiency level
Life experiences
Previous coursework
16
Deepening Our Understanding
page 6
Consider one of your
students who is learning
English as a new
language.
First column for jotting
what you know about
your student
Second column - note
the instructional
implications of that
information
17
Function Tools
Overarching Functions
page 8
Cause and Effect
Compare and Contrast
Elaboration
Proposition & Support
(Problem/Solution)
Sequencing
19
The Function Tools
page 2.22
page 2.23
20
Strategic Lesson
Design
Rationale for Constructing Meaning
Role of motivation and engagement
Actively construct meaning from text
Interconnectedness of reading, writing,
speaking, listening and thinking
Need to use both general literacy
strategies as well as discipline-specific
literacy strategies
22
Lessons of Adolescent Literacy
Infused into Lesson Design
The CM Analysis tool is designed with these
recommendations in mind:
– The prompts focus on linguistic complexities of
content-specific instructional materials
– This results in a clear picture of what students will
need to access the content.
The CM Planner suggests a sequence and
strategies for delivering a tailored lesson aimed
at increased fluency of oral and written
academic English.
23
CM: Infusing Lessons of Adolescent Literacy
page 10
page 11
24
Gradual Release of Responsibility
page 12
25
I Do, We Do, You Do
In the gradual
release model, what
are the additional
roles and
responsibilities
– of the teacher?
– of the student?
26
Vocabulary
To expand a child’s vocabulary is to
teach that child to think about the
world.
Stahl & Stahl, 2004
Being selective
Determining Which Strategy to Use
To support students in
becoming independent
word learners, consider:

explanations, not
definitions
 different kinds of
context clues
 recognizing cognates
To provide in-depth,
explicit instruction,
consider using:
 word sorts
 concept maps
 word cards (Frayer)
 word forms
Day Three Agenda
Building on Recurring Themes
• Debriefing the Reading
Entering the Academic Dialogue
• Comprehension & Production
• Structured Oral Language Practice
• Writing to Learn
A Genre Approach to Writing
• Notetaking Tool, Crafting a Prompt, & Summarizing
• Genre Templates & Rubrics
29
Entering the Academic
Dialogue
page 3.3
Nine Routines
Structured Oral Practice
1.
Talking Stick
2.
Talking Chips
3.
Think, Pair, Share
4.
Numbered Heads
5.
Three Step Interview
6.
Give One, Get One
7.
Clock Partners
8.
Lines of Communication
9.
Whip Around
What is a Genre?
Genres are goal-oriented; they are
meant to serve a purpose.
Genres have an expected overall
structure; they rely on well-established
patterns.
Genres are marked by specific linguistic
features, such as vocabulary and
syntax.
33
The Common Academic Genres
Narrative (story, autobiographical event)
Expository (cause & effect, compare & contrast)
Persuasive (problem/solution, opinion)
Response to Literature (fiction/non-fiction analysis)
34
A Note-taking Tool
Expository
page 14
35
Genre Drafting Template
page 3.24
36
What are we asking for…
….when
we ask students to
“use their own words”?
37
The Skills of Summary
Summarizing requires the ability to
Condense information
Consolidate information
Discern essential details
Simplify language
Restate language
38
One teacher’s stated goal:
To equip students with the language
they need to express the
sophistication of their thinking for
academic and real life purposes.
page 1.2
39