Fortifying Academic Language Skills - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Fortifying Academic Language Skills

Karen Caddoo/Diane Rosen

CoTESOL November 6, 2015Slide2

Objectives

To provide an understanding of why explicit language instruction is essential for ELLs

To suggest examples of how we can provide opportunities for students to deconstruct and construct complex academic languageSlide3

Setting the Context

Given

the language diversity in our schools and in our classrooms, any effort to make the CCSS

attainable

for these and many other students must go beyond vocabulary, and should begin with an

examination

of our beliefs about language, literacy and learning.

Fillmore

, Lily Wong.

What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority

Students? Stanford Universtiy. Web. Slide4

Two Ways to Fortify Language

Deconstructing

complex text: Breaking down or

pulling

apart text into comprehensible chunks in order to

examine

language structures and meaning

Constructing

complex language: Building academic discourse by crafting connected sentences using

specific

language forms and structures for academic purposes Slide5

Deconstructing Complex Language

Provide the keys to unlocking complex text

Whole

texts

SentencesSlide6

Attributive or Enumerative

Problem/Solution

Chronological

Purpose

Present information

To identify a problem and provide possible solutions leading to an outcome

To explain a series of events and their relationships to each other

Organizational Structure

Main idea followed by details

Topic, problem, possible solutions, outcome

Sequence of events

Cohesive Devices

in addition, moreover, alsoif . . . then, therefore, as a result, given thatfirst, second, after that, finally

EXPOSITORY TEXT STRUCTURESSlide7

Steps to making sense of whole textSlide8

Deconstructing sentences

In

a lonely lighthouse, far from city and

town

, far from the comfort of friends,

lived

a

kindhearted cat named Pandora

.

Rylant, Cynthia. The Lighthouse Family:The Storm. Illustrated by Preston McDaniels. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.Slide9

In a lonely lighthouse, far from city and town, far from the comfort of friends, lived a kindhearted cat named Pandora.

Subject - cat - Pandora is the cat’s name. She is kindhearted

.

Verb - lived - (in the past

)

Where - in a lighthouse - It was lonely

.

Where - the lighthouse is far from any city or

town

Where - the lighthouse is far from friends -

Friends

give comfort.Slide10

Your

turn. . .

By

the time Harriet Ross was six

years

old, she had unconsciously

absorbed

many kinds of knowledge,

almost with the air she breathed.

Petry, Ann.

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

New York: Harper Collins, 1983. (1955) From Chapter 3: “Six Years Old” Slide11

Constructing

complex

output

“

Students must be able to

use

language

that is authoritatively

presented, informationally

dense, and highly structured.”

Vanessa

Girard and Pam Spycher, 2007A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity….(organized & cohesive)Slide12

What makes language complex?Slide13

Perfect Tense

Present perfect

unnamed time before present

Past Perfect

before another action or specific time in past

Future Perfect

Will happen before another…

Pres./Past/Future Progressive Perfect

Conditional Perfect Slide14

Example:

perfect tense

(have/had + participle) -

unspecified time before now

experience:

I

have taught

students from other countries for decades.

change over time:

ESL instruction

has evolved

over time.accomplishments: ESL in some districts has become ELD.an uncompleted action you are expecting: By the time I retire, the field will have mastered explicit language instruction.multiple actions at different times: We have had many iterations of ESL instruction over the years

.Slide15

How do the perfect forms affect meaning?

“He

stated with a good deal of formality that had we not been ‘of the same profession,’ he would have kept the matter to himself without regard to consequences

.

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph

C

onradSlide16

What makes language complex?

Examples of sentence level grammatical features that enhance complexity:

prepositional phrases

transitions

subordinating conjunctions

adverbs

dependent clauses

appositives

relative pronouns

gerundsSlide17

Levels of Complexity

People moved

.

People

moved

away

.

People moved

to America

in search of freedom.In order to

find freedom, people moved to America.

Consequently, people migrated to America in search of freedom.Certain people, who were not able to practice their own religion, moved to America in search of freedom.People, the oppressed, migrated to America in search of religious freedom.Searching for religious freedom, many oppressed people migrated to America.Slide18

Your Turn...

Work

with a

partner,

choose a

sentence,

and

make more

complex sentences using additional grammatical features:English is difficult.

It’s Friday!Slide19

Strategies for fortifying

language output

Slide20

Pro-Con Improv

Slide21

Because, so…

3rd

grade

ELLs of varying proficiency levels:

using

familiar

content

to

practice

using academic language snow tornado Because _____, ______________. ___________ , so _____________.

weather

resul

t

w

ear boots and a coat

d

estroy homesSlide22

Complex sentence frames

PROMPT: Using evidence from the text, explain how Tom enticed his friends into painting the fence for him.

FRAME: On page ____, Tom enticed his friends to paint the fence by _____________; therefore, he __________.Slide23

So what?

Explicit

instruction and practice with

constructing

and

deconstructing

the components

of

language including a focus

on grammar points and their

purposes, syntax, and complexity will fortify the students’ ability to access, comprehend, respond to, and produce complex discourse.Slide24

Wrap-up!

Do you have any questions?

Thank you!Slide25

Bibliography

Fillmore, Lily Wong.

What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students? Stanford Universtiy. Web.

Girard, Vanessa and Spycher, Pam.

Deconstructing Language for English Learners.

Santa Rosa, CA: Sonoma County Office of Education, 2007

.

Petry, Ann.

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

New York: Harper Collins, 1983. (1955) From Chapter 3: “Six Years Old

.

Rylant, Cynthia.

The Lighthouse Family:The Storm. Illustrated by Preston McDaniels. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.Spycher, Pamela. Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts for English Language Learners.

Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press, 2014

.

Zwiers, Jeff, O’Hara, Susan, and Pritchard, Robert.

Common Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms: Essential Practices for Developing Academic Language and Disciplinary Literacy.

Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2014.