Task 2: What are the language demands of your content area? (Essential Question B)
Academic language, broadly defined, includes the language students need to meaningfully engage with academic content within the academic context. This should not be interpreted to suggest that separate word lists and/or definitions of content-related language should be developed for each academic subject. Rather, academic language includes the words, grammatical structures, and discourse markers needed in, for example, describing, sequencing, summarizing, and evaluating — these are language demands (skills, knowledge) that facilitate student access to and engagement with grade-level academic content. These academic language demands are different from cognitive demands (e.g., per Bloom’s taxonomy). Although there may not be just one accepted definition of academic language, there are a good number of resources available that address the issue of academic language and may be considered in the development of state ELP standards and assessments. For example: Aguirre-Munoz, Parks, Benner, Amabisca, & Boscardin, 2006; Bailey, 2007; Bailey, Butler, & Sato, 2007; Butler, Bailey, Stevens, Huang, & Lord, 2004; Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Cummins, 1980; Cummins, 2005; Halliday, 1994; Sato, 2007; Scarcella & Zimmerman, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2001.
Pre-Posting –
Part A - Watch the video/PPT on Content Objectives and Language Objectives (See below). Think about the work we have completed already (What does it mean to read? Who are we as readers? Who are adolescent readers? What does research tell us about learning from texts) how does this build the foundation of rethinking how we plan for instruction in our content areas.
Now. . . Think about what it means to be literate in your specific discipline (e.g., what does it mean to read, write, speak and listen within your discipline).
Pre-Posting-
Part B - Conduct an internet search and see if you can find any sites/information on what it means to be literate in your specific discipline.
Initial Posting – After viewing the ppt. on content objectives versus language objectives I invite each member within your small discussion group to share their specific discipline and what it means to be literate within that discipline (e.g., What does it mean to be mathematically literate?). Think about the types of texts (oral and written) you need to read and comprehend. Think about the tasks that you are asked to do within your discipline and how is language used to support and complete these tasks. Post your interpretation of what it means to be literate within your discipline include any information you located in your web search (don’t forget to cite your sources or provide links for others to view).
Fri. November 15, Initial posting
Response Postings – Everyone should respond at least once to each group member with a question, clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their specific information. You might consider other information, questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
Response Postings:
By Sunday, November 17: 11:59 PM. Response postings
"WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LITERACY DEVELOPMENT" http://faculty.washington.edu
ReplyDelete"Research has taught us a great deal about how children be- come literate. Some of the most powerful lessons we’ve learned are these:
• reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking develop in an integrated manner (Au, 1998);
• language and thought are socially constructed
(Vygotsky, 1987);
Watts-Taffe and Truscott draw on the latest research in language learning and ESL to offer guidance to our readers for teaching second-language learners in integrated settings.
L A N G U A G E
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J A N U A R Y
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FOCUS ON RESEARCH
• language learning proceeds best when children use language for meaningful purposes (Au, 1998);
• what constitutes meaningful language use is
influenced by an individual’s prior experience, culture,
motivation, and goals (Delpit, 1995);
• language learning proceeds best when children are
encouraged to take risks, experiment, and make
mistakes (Wells, 1986); and
• modeling and scaffolding are critical to successful
language learning (Roehler & Cantlon, 1997; Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976)".
Watts-Taffe and Truscott;
http://faculty.washington.edu/smithant/Watts-Taffe%20and%20Truscott.pdf
The academic article I posted above is pretty broad and wide ranging in its scope, but this is largely due to the fact that in ESL/ELL education, we have a large range of academic literacy that we are trying to teach and this is because we are there to teach English literacy across disciplines. So, what does that mean exactly? Well, it means many things and we receive this question as ESL teacher candidates all the time; what do you do and how can you teach English to someone when you don't speak the language? Honestly, it comes down to scaffolding and activating any prior knowledge that you and the students have about each other's languages, in order to help them language a second language.
DeleteTo do this, we must first have standards to follow as do all teachers and in many ways I would consider SpEd standards to be very similar to ESL standards because they both strive to meet a wide range our academic goals across content areas. Therefore, we must address each lesson with different goals when it comes to academic language because every lesson will have different language goals. For example, if you were teaching a lesson on the language of science as I am for my thematic unit, you would need to be able to define what language is needed to understand the content being focused on and decide which way is best to teach that language. For some ESL teachers they may spend a large amount of time just developing mastery of vocabulary and grammar on a specific content area, while others may focus on the language through a lesson that also addresses the content and while either work, it is always best to teach the language through the content so students are acquiring English literacy and content knowledge at the same time.
I agree with you Jonathan, that the language goals each day may be different. It is really important to know the lingo for each content area that we are in plus have a wider knowledge span of other various content areas so that we can help students learn and remember. In our music classes, we may incorporate simple math equations into a rhythm or musical phrase. Students are reiterating their math skills plus they are learning about rhythm or maybe pitch at the same time. The academic language of each content area becomes important as it often crosses over to another content area. Gaining different techniques on teaching the academic language is important to the success of our students, as there are various learning types in each room full of students. Teachers need to be strong on the academic language of their own content area so that they can incorporate other content areas as needed.
DeleteEspecially in ESL I can see how important it is to teach the vocabulary in the content. You can go to another content class and use the same word, but have it mean something completely different. I would guess that can get confusing to students at times. It can be challenging to explain why a word has so many different meanings.
DeleteWhat does literacy mean in the world of music? It means language structure and grammar according to Dr. Al Balken (www.tuneuptoliteracy.com). In an article he wrote for the Massachusetts Music News, Dr. Balken talked about how literacy in the music classroom is conveyed through reading, writing, talking, listening, thinking, and creating (Massachusetts Music News, 2000). Literacy is everywhere in our classroom as the students are reading words from a very young age to lyrics as they progress. They are learning sounds and how to pronounce words in English, Spanish, German, and Italian plus may other languages. Students are seeing visuals of objects and words in their classrooms. This week in our first grade group, we are learning about thanksgiving and what that word means. The students see the word, flip it around to define that it means “giving thanks” and then learn many words associated with this holiday. They learned to spell ‘November’ by doing a rhythm activity with drums and looking at the overhead projector image. Then, students had a sentence that they read and were able to drum the rhythm as they read the words. As we use the whiteboard in our classroom, we are able to keep the visual image up of the words we are learning. The students learn by doing activities such as clapping the rhythm pattern and saying it’s matching musical notation (example: one quarter note gets one beat, or ‘ta’ and two eighth notes are ‘ti ti’). Students are seeing, doing, listening, singing, reading, and demonstrating literacy every day! Last week we used a flip book (large book that the whole class can see) and read a story. First the children had to listen to the song and identify the animals that the farmer sang about, then they had to identify the picture of those particular animals on the flip book, followed by reading the words. At the end, they were able to put it all together as they sang the lyrics which were present on the flip book. In thirty minutes, the students were listening, identifying, reading, and having a blast! I believe students of all ages (adults included) should experience music in a way that creates enthusiasm. By creating enthusiasm in the classroom, students learn so much more than they realize. We can tie in social studies, historical events, math equations, phonics, and characteristics of science or any other content area. I find that students learn lyrics quickly especially if they can relate to them. Simple songs about brushing teeth can help children remember that this is a very important task each day. Complex songs that involve a story that is touching or funny can also leave an impact. Literacy is for all classrooms and I find in music there are so many ways to expose students to literacy as a whole. I’ve had students of all age levels journal their thoughts on a song or about their day. We have composed music and created lyrics based on journals, stories, thoughts, and experiences. Students have many visuals in the classroom and are often reading words and stories. Music isn’t just for making noise…
ReplyDeleteI love your examples about literacy in music. You make a good point about making a song about something you do everyday to make it relatable to what the kids are doing at home. I remember making up a song for most things I did with my kids when they were little. I was teaching them things about literacy without even knowing it! It is amazing to me as I'm reading all these posts just how easy it is to incorporate some type of literacy into whatever we are teaching. At first it can seem like we have to think hard about how we are incorporating literacy, but after just a few moments thinking about it, it is apparent how much we are using it.
DeleteGreat examples to tie music and literacy together. Personally I am always trying to find ways to tie curriculum from other disciplines to Social Studies. There is so much history tied to music, do you think there could be coordination with a music and soc stud teacher to bring together a unit? I think it would be cool!
DeleteActually I definitely think that can be done... I know waaaaay back when I was in school, our social teacher played Bach and Beethoven pieces when he was talking about that era of time. He did a couple lessons on the characteristics of the music and how it related to the environment in that time period. I guess I never realized it then, but that was one part of the class that I actually paid attention to!
DeleteI always had a hard time learning to read music and to be truthful I never really became fluent in reading music, so the fact that you can teach this is very impressive to me. The nice part about music and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's an international system, correct? By this, I mean it's a language of sorts that can be interpreted by people with many different language backgrounds and in many ways this can be very comforting to ELLs. In fact, for many highly educated ELLs, math and music can be outlets for them because it's a familiar text, which cannot be said for their content courses.
DeleteI found it extremely challenging to find articles about literacy in Family and Consumer Science. Here is one link I found that talks about a few things - (http://www.education.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/family___consumer_sciences_education/7535/value_of_family_and_consumer_sciences/508305). It talks mostly about the value of Family and Consumer Sciences, however, it also talks about the critical thinking skills that are needed in our classes. There is a lot of comparing and contrasting as well as problem solving built into our curriculum.
ReplyDeleteIn Family and Consumer Science we think about things like financial literacy which is teaching students how to balance a checkbook, get a car/home loan, how to manage credit, etc. We can also talk about recipe literacy. There are some math skills that are needed in order to double or half a recipe and figure out those fractions. In a fashion class where there is a sewing project, there will be literacy involved in how to read a pattern and its directions. Also, (I think this would be considered literacy) knowing how to read children's expressions/reactions in a preschool lab classroom. Maybe knowing how to read family members in a family and social living class would fit under a literacy heading. Health literacy is important in a nutrition and/or foods class. Knowing what amount of food should be eaten or how to figure out how many calories are good to take in to remain healthy.
There is a lot of vocabulary that falls under the Family and Consumer Science umbrella due to the amount of different topics we cover in our classes. To be literate in Family and Consumer Science will depend on which type of class the student is taking within the content area. There are many ways students can learn in our classes that will help reinforce literacy skills they will learn in other classes. I think sometimes it is hard for people to think about Family and Consumer Science classes being an academic class, especially if it is a foods class, however there are so many way to include literacy in what we do in our classes. Our job as FCS teachers is to make sure that we highlight this to both our administrations, other faculty, and definitely the parents.
It is my goal to teach economics, in the new state standards for econ there is a lot of personal finance content. I thought this was because it was not addressed elsewhere. I am so happy to hear it is a concentration in your field! Yet another chance to cross teach similar content. Do you think that would work?
DeleteI like that you are teaching the financial responsibility in your content area. Makes me wish they would have taught that when I was young! Crossing information over from our content area to other areas can be tough - but like you said, you were teaching your own children literacy skills without even realizing it. Singing to them to get them to clean up, or singing math equations, or language skills can be helpful. Remember 'Conjunction junction, what's your function?' I can still remember the rules of nouns and verbs when I think of those songs.
DeleteYour content area with sewing and cooking really do cross over into math. That was always one reason I hated increasing or decreasing a recipe! Who wants to divide fractions?? Thank goodness for recipes.com - it does it for me!
I can understand how this may seem difficult to apply to FACS and I would have a hard time figuring out what the content language really is because it could be almost anything. For me, the content language in FACS would be anything that isn't common knowledge for the students, so this means finding out where students are with the content and then moving on from there. So, if students have never seen or touched a sewing machine, it might be necessary to go step by step in explaining all the parts and what they do and why they do it. You could explain different techniques and genres of sewing and weaving as well (i.e. knitting, quilting, pleating, threading) because it would allow you to show examples and expand students background knowledge on the subject.
DeletePaul - I think it would be really cool to do a co-taught consumerism class with a social studies teacher. Both teachers could pull different aspects in - social students more economics and FACS more of the day-to-day life skills. Cool idea!
DeleteKris - you are right! We can cross into math quite a bit with some of our classes. Last year in my placement I taught a lesson on recipe conversion with fractions to middle schoolers (8th graders) and they did a great job. I taught the same lesson this fall to high schoolers (10-12 graders) and they did not do nearly as well. Not sure exactly why, but it was interesting to see how that played out.
Jonathan - I agree with you - there is a lot of figuring out where the students are at before getting too deep into a new unit or lesson. I feel like we have to do many pre-assessments to find out where the students are at before we proceed. Sometimes that can mean being ready to teach two different lessons depending on what was figured out during the pre-assessment.
Being literate in a Social Studies content is incredibly broad. I don’t want to sound over dramatic, but moving through time and space as we do in the Social Sciences really encompasses skills from every discipline. Texts books in this subject matter can be as difficult as an encountered in mathematics or science, subject specific jargon and academic language is demanding. Using primary sources brings on an entire new set of challenges. Changes in language over time, and dealing with translations only add to the possible difficulty in understanding the text for meaning, and setting up context for documents has its own set of needs. The discipline is also awash in symbols, from maps to math driven data sets, to symbols used in such areas as economics would rival in volume those used in music or the arts. Giving students a framework to deal in all the varied aspects of the discipline is a never ending task for the Social Studies teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe tasks asked of students in Social Studies are as varied and numerous as any discipline. Students can be asked to describe, to compare and contrast, codify, order, analyze, synthesize, find causations of, identify effects of, summarize, classify, relate, extrapolate, the list is seemingly endless. In asking students to climb this unending mountain of possible tasks in the discipline they are gaining knowledge and skills to conquer hurdles in several disciplines.
In an article written by Emily M. Schell, Ed.D. (https://www.herffjonesnystrom.com/index.cfm?fa=Teachers.07February), she indicates that integrating literacy into the Social Studies curriculum makes sense since in everyday life we integrate inter-disciplinary skills to navigate life. She further states, “Integrating literacy and social studies will help students see the natural connections between and across subject matters presented in their school curricula.”
The need to literate in every subject area is vastly important to students, but in my humble opinion it has added importance in Social Studies, as it informs every other discipline at some level.
Social studies does have a very broad spectrum of language. You have to know a little about everything... The students can learn about so many different aspects in their social studies courses. Is there ever one specific focus area with a certain age group? The comment you posted about integrating literacy is so true in any content area. I think students begin to see connections as they become more involved in the subject at hand. Even my little kindergarteners say "Oh! We talked about this in Mrs. so and so's class!!" They get all excited! I'm sure with high school or junior high kids, the big deal would be if you see them make any connection whatsoever... I agree with you, the need to be literate in every subject is vastly important. Social studies seems to be an area that you do need to be sort of ambidextrous. You need to know a little about a lot of things.
DeletePaul,
DeleteIt is so true that social studies is such a broad subject matter and I do agree that there does need to be a focus within that area to really cover everything in great enough detail. Students in these subject areas need clearly defined expectation and guidance because as I'm sure you know, it can be easy to get off track when you have such a broad content area (TESL is very much the same in that regard). I also understand the importance of making connections across content areas and as you say, success for most students depends upon a strong understanding of many different social studies subjects, just as it does within every other content discipline. So, what can we do to enhance the depth and complexity of every student's understanding in this board expanse of academia? I think graphic organizers, vocabulary keys, mapping and other diagrams are the most important way to organize the information being taught.