Academic Language Support for Limited English Proficient Students

Session Objectives

Content Objectives: Participants will review background knowledge of why language objectives are an essential part of lesson delivery for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students.

Participants will be able to describe how language objectives differ from content objectives.

Language Objectives: Participants will orally discuss objectives.

and categorize content and language Participants will create and record Skills for Science.

language objectives using TEKS Participants will demonstrate their knowledge of language objectives by sharing with the group.

Content and Language Objectives

Content Objectives: Language Objectives:

Content Objectives: The What

• Content objectives are statements that identify what students should know and be able to do in the science classroom.

• Content objectives support school district and state content standards and learning outcomes.

• Content objectives guide teaching and learning in the classroom.

Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004

Language Objectives: The How

• Language objectives are statements that identify what students should know and be able to do while using English (or another language) as a vehicle for reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

• Language objectives support students’ language development by focusing on vocabulary, signal words (cause and effect, because, since, therefore, as a result, sequence, etc), questioning, articulating predictions or hypothesis, reading, writing, and so forth.

Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004

Examples of Content and Language Objectives

Topic: Water Cycle

Content Objective – Students will be able to demonstrate the stages of the water cycle through labeled drawings and an explanatory paragraph.

Language Objective – Students will be able to use content specific academic vocabulary such as precipitation, condensation, and evaporation in discussing and writing about the water cycle.

Activity: Sentence Sort

• Work in pairs • Sort sentences into three categories: - Big Idea (1) - Content Objectives (3) - Language Objectives (2 for each Content Objective)

Activity: Objective Sort

• The Big Idea is the statement of essential learning that explores the relationships among key concepts within a topic.

- Taken directly from TEKS - Provides the focus for all planning and instruction - The Big Picture

Creating Language Objectives

• Work in pairs • Use the content and language objectives template • Create content and language objectives for the model lessons presented: - 1 Content objective - 2 Language objectives

Be prepared to share with the group. (15 minutes)

References

• Carr, J., Sexton, U., & Lagunoff, R. (2006).

Making science accessible to English learners: A guidebook for teachers

. San Francisco, CA: WestEd Publications.

• Echevarria J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2004).

Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model

. Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.

• Freeman, Y., & Freeman, J. (n.d.). Developing academic language for school success. Retrieved on January 3, 2007, from http://www.taraconference.org/handouts2006/freemansDeveloping% 20Academic%20Language%20for%20Success.htm.