1. Powerful Literacy Practices balbed@bellsouth.net

2. Define Academic Literacy listening, speaking, reading, writing

3. Essential Questions What are some challenges English language learners experience in academic language learning and literacy? How can we support English language learners' academic language proficiency?

5. Encompasses the kind of reading proficiencies typically assessed on state-level accountability measures, such as the ability to - make inferences from text - learn new vocabulary from context - link ideas across texts - identify and summarize the most important ideas or content within a text (Torgesen et al., 2007) Francis, Center on Instruction

7. Academic language: explains, informs, justifies, compares, describes, classifies, proves, debates, persuades, evaluates.David J. Francis

8. “Of the many compelling reasons for providing students with instruction to build vocabulary, none is more important than the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. Indeed, one of the most enduring findings in reading research is the extent to which students’ vocabulary knowledge relates to their reading comprehension.” Anderson & Freebody, 1981; Baumann, Kame’enui, & Ash, 2003; Becker, 1977; Davis, 1942; Whipple, 1925) Why Focus on Vocabulary Instruction?

9. Reading & Writing Task Read the following and put in your own words (paraphrase) The difficulty of your set could be increased if you do a jam followed by a peach.

10. The difficulty of your set could be increased if you do a jam followed by a peach. The point values you can earn on your gymnastics routine can be bigger if you include, in sequence, two particular skills on the uneven parallel bars: the “jam,” which leaves the gymnast sitting on the high bar; and the “peach,” where the gymnast moves from the high bar to the low bar. cited from: www. readingquest.org/bkgd means

11. The difficulty of your set could be increased if you do a jamfollowed by a peach. SO... Why Didn't You Use Context Clues? Multiple word meanings Lack of background knowledge Technical vocabulary Culture of gymnastics But you knew the components of academic language: word meanings, language functions, and grammatical structures.....right?

12. Sentence Starter Complete the Sentence Starter What this tells me about using context clues to infer meaning for unfamiliar vocabulary is that ________________________________ _______________________________

13. Tell Me Again Why I Should Care About Bloom’s Taxonomy…

14. Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create Less Demanding LanguageMore Demanding Language The degree to which a task is context-embedded depends on the number of channels of information available to the student. The more context embedded, the more manageable. Bloom’s Taxonomy offers a way of determining whether a task is demanding or undemanding

15. Read and Remark The research suggests that the disparity between word-level skills (decoding, word recognition, spelling) and text level skills (reading comprehension and writing) among language minority students is oral English proficiency. Word Level oral English proficiency Text Level What this tells me about academic language practice is that................. “A Focus on Vocabulary” www.prel.org Diane August and Timothy Shanahan: (2006)

17. Multiple opportunities for students to talk, question , discuss,

18. clarify, and create new understandings

19. Meaningful student interactions

22. Provide opportunities to practice using words

23. Teach word meanings explicitly and systematically

24. Teach independent word learning strategies (i.e., contextual strategies & morphemic analysisRepresent Research Based Best Practices for Vocabulary Instruction Did You Say?

26. Numerous independent activities without guidance or immediate feedback

27. Directing students to “look it up” then use it in a sentence

28. Relying on context based guessing as a primary strategy

29. Teacher directed, explicit instruction

30. Provide opportunities to practice using words

31. Teach word meanings explicitly and systematically

32. Teach independent word learning strategies (i.e., contextual strategies & morphemic analysisVocabulary Instruction for Upper Elementary and Middle Grades: Strategies for Success

33. "Learning to write well, especially for academic purposes, is difficult in a first language. For English learners, the process is even more complex." Hadaway and Young, Negotiating Meaning Through Writing

34. Thoughts about Writing Writing involves transferring thoughts from mind to paper Can be...but when you write you often generate and create new ideas as you write Writing is to communicate with others Can be...but the first reader of writing is the writer himself or herself Learning to write precedes writing Both reading and writing can only be learned in the course of reading and writing

35. Writing is learned from instruction Not even skills such as spelling, punctuation or captitalization can be learned solely from lectures or reading about how to do it You must have something to say in order to write -You often have to write in order to have something to say -Thought comes with writing Writing should be right the first time Something all experienced writers know is that writing usually requires many drafts and revision Writing is a solitary activity Writing generally requires other people to stimulate ideas, to listen to choice phrases, to help with word selection and spelling, etc. From: Writing and Writing Strategies, Lynda Stack

36. Planning to Write with English Language Learners Beginning with the End in Mind

37. What is it? -A Framework for Planning Instruction How do I use it? Understanding by Design Answers the Question -What enduring understandings do my students need to develop? - To determinehow students demonstrate their understanding when the lesson is completed -To determine how I will ensure that students have the skills and understand the concepts required on the summative assessment

39. Teaching and learning experiences

40. Demonstration of targeted understandingsWhich learning experiences will help to promote these skills and understandings? How will students demonstrate proficiency?

41. Comparing and Contrasting How are Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies alike and different?

42. Venn Diagram It is frequently used as a prewriting activity to enable students to organize thoughts or textual quotations prior to writing a compare/contrast essay. This activity enables students to organize similarities and differences visually .

43. Using a Graphic Organizer to Generate Adjectives Using the graphic organizer to write descriptors The Venn Diagram can serve as a brainstorming activity This graphic organizer can also serve as the prewrite

44. VOCABULARY TOOLKIT ADJECTIVES – SAMPLE list COLOR TASTE TEXTURE NUMBER SMELL SHAPE golden tasty crisp bunch sweet round brown delicious rough few fragrant curved dark bitter chewy plenty spicy oval dim creamy crusty several stale thin shiny luscious dry two fresh thick dull salty hard enough smoky wide Provide adjective lists as a resource to increase vocabulary and encourage the use of descriptors in writing

45. Vocabulary Tool Kit Signal words for Compare/Contrast Text Structure Students use the signal word toolkit as a resource for reading and writing to identify author's purpose...

46. Model Compare/Contrast Paragraphs You already know that there are major differences between a house and a nest. In contrast to a house, a nest is small and only has one room. Another difference is that a house is typically for humans while a nest is for birds. However, you might be surprised to find out that nests and houses have some things that are the same. For instance, both nests and houses provide shelter. Another similarity is that both use trees in their construction. Birds use sticks and twigs while humans use lumber from trees. Lastly, they are alike because they both take up space, although a house usually takes up more space than a nest. Does it surprise you that they share so much in common? Downloaded from www.readwritethink.org

47. Model Compare/Contrast Paragraphs You already know that there are major differences between a house and a nest. In contrast to a house, a nest is small and only has one room. Another difference is that a house is typically for humans while a nest is for birds. However, you might be surprised to find out that nests and houses have some things that are the same. For instance, both nests and houses provide shelter. Another similarity is that both use trees in their construction. Birds use sticks and twigs while humans use lumber from trees. Lastly, they are alike because they both take up space, although a house usually takes up more space than a nest. Does it surprise you that they share so much in common? Use the model text to read aloud to students; they can listen for the signal words and say them as you read. Model text elements by putting on overhead or power point and model locating and underlining the signal words as well as the transition words, if appropriate at this time. Additionally, students can read text to each other in pairs and call out the signal words to each other. These are some ways this text could be used as a listening and/or speaking objective for the standard..

48. Sentence Frames for a Compare/Contrast Paragraph Paragraph Frames for Scaffolding Comparing _____________________ and ___________________ are similar in several ways. They both___________________ _______________________________________________ . In addition, they are also _________________________. These similarities_______________________________________. From Developing Academic Skills, Jeff Zwiers

49. However, ____________and________________ also differ in some ways. First, _______________________, whereas______________ ___________________. Furthermore, they are unalike because _______________. These differences between___________________ and ______________________________________________________ help us to see ____________. From Developing Academic Skills, Jeff Zwiers

50. Chant Frame for Comparison Excuuuuuuuuuse me, I was wondering something Can you help me compare the following things? One is __________________________________you see And the other is___________________I believe Tell me, what are the characteristics they share? It's time to break them down and compare They both _________________________________________________ And they____________________________________ Furthermore they________________________________________________ And they share___________________________________________________ Tell me, how can I distinguish one from the other? Like the contrast of two different brothers? Well, the ___________________________________________________________________ While the _________________________________________________________________ From Developing Academic Skills, Jeff Zwiers

51. The Myth of Age or Grade Level Vocabulary Students do not learn vocabulary words based on their age or their grade. They learn words based on their experiences. (Beck, et al, 2002)

52. Reading Comprehension is an Interactive Process Today’s Session RAND Model, 2002

53. What Strategies Do You Use?

54. Reading Comprehension Strategies Inferring Using background knowledge to hypothesize, interpret, or draw conclusion from the events, information or clues in the text.

55. Reading Comprehension Strategies Predicting Anticipating what will happen next in the story or what will be described next in the informational text based on knowledge of genre, character type, or familiar sequence.

56. Reading Comprehension Strategies Questioning Asking questions to clarify meaning, wonder what will happen, or speculate about the author’s intent, style, content or format.

57. Reading Comprehension Strategies Making connections Connecting information or events to personal experience Text-to-self Text-to-text Text-to-world

58. Reading Comprehension Strategies Visualizing Creating mental pictures of what is happening in the text.

59. Reading Comprehension Strategies Self-monitoring Recognizing when you understand what is going on and when you are confused. Recognizing when you have stopped paying close attention to the text and therefore need to re-read

60. Reading Comprehension Strategies Inferring Predicting Questioning Making connections Visualizing Self-monitoring

61. Last Thoughts On… Strategies are a means to an end Potential pitfall Strategy as scaffold for comprehension. Recall notes

62. Gradual Release of Responsibility Journal Active listening/creating a metaphor

63. “I read it, but I don’t get it.” This is really an invitation… More often a pitfall: “Just read it again.” “Pay better attention.” “Find the main ideas.” “Try harder.”

64. Framework as Mental Model We must anticipate this comment Set Big Goals to address it Plan Purposefully to explicitly teach it Execute Effectively to empower our students to read it and get it.

65. Gradual Release of Responsibility Explicitly Taught Shared Guided Modeled Independent

67. Gradual Release: Shared Shared reading gives the students the opportunity to do part of the work of using the strategy with support from teachers and peers.

68. Gradual Release: Guided Guided reading gives students the chance to do more of the work of using the strategy with teacher feedback. Alone or in small groups.

69. Gradual Release: Independent Independent reading gives students the chance to practice it by themselves with new text.

70. Gradual Release of Responsibility Explicitly Taught Shared Guided Modeled Independent

71. I Do, We Do, You Do With a partner, model a strategy The tool: Think Aloud Our conversations: How explicit the think-aloud was How student-friendly the think-aloud was Whether there might be more to say in thinking-aloud with this strategy

72. Review of Mindset Just as students will rise or sink to meet our expectations in other ways, students will respond to the purposes and goals for reading that we set for them. If we expect our students to read like Scientists, Historians, Engineers, Mathematicians, Writers and Literary Critics – and if we teach them the strategies to do it – they will be able to reach those goals.

73. What have you added to your toolkit?