Starting Strong

Developing Oral Language and Academic

Discourse:

Strategies for Success

Kim Kellogg Shanna Brooks

Regional Literacy Coordinator Regional Literacy Coordinator

Northwest Educational Service District North Central Educational Service District

Goals for Today…

• Understand what the WA State Learning Standards

(ELA CCSS) require of our students in the areas of

speaking and listening and academic vocabulary and

language.

• Learn developmentally appropriate strategies to

implement in our classrooms that will develop students’

speaking, listening, and vocabulary skills.

• Leave with several resources to implement in the fall.

Essential Question

How can I support my students’

development of oral language skills

and increase their understanding

and use of academic language?

Strategies & Resources

•Back to Back and Face to Face

•Academic Discourse scaffolds

•Partner Talk (A & B)

•Language Stems

•Accountable Talk Toolkit

•Textproject.org ~ Word Pictures

•Science Talk

•College Talk

“Early childhood classrooms need to become laboratories for

language.” -International Literacy Association

“The early childhood years represent a ‘critical period’ for

vocabulary learning (Farkas & Beron, 2004). Teachers in early childhood

classrooms play a crucial role in strategically supporting children’s

language development.” -Academic Language in Early Childhood ClassroomsBarnes, Grifenhagen, & Dickinson, 2016

“Writing floats on a sea of talk.” –James Britton

LINK to video

Protocol: Back-to-Back & Face-to-Face

Speaking & Listening Standards #1, 2, & 3Comprehension and Collaboration

Standard # 1

Kindergarten: Participate in collaborative conversations with

diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers

and adults in small and larger groups.

a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion (e.g. listening to others

and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under

discussion).

b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Speaking & Listening Standards #1, 2, & 3Comprehension and Collaboration

3rd Grade- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

(one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners, on grade 3

topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material;

explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about

the topic to explore ideas under discussion.

b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful

ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the

topics and texts under discussion.)

c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on

topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.

d. Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

Language Standards # 4, 5, & 6Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Standard #6

Kindergarten-Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

3rd-Acquire and use accurately grade-level conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them.)

WaKIDS

Objective 8: Listens to and understands increasingly

complex language.

Objective 10: Uses appropriate conversational and

other conversation skills.

Why oral language?

The point of learning language and

interacting socially, then, is not to

master rules, but to make connections

with other people and to make sense

of experiences. (Wells, 1986)

What skills can be enhanced through oral language?

● listening comprehension

● expressive language

● vocabulary

● phonological knowledge

● grammatical knowledge

● social language skills

● using language to learn and to communicate effectively

● storage and retrieval of information in and from long-term memory

● perception and attention to spoken language.

What is Academic Language?

“...the specialized language, both oral and

written, of academic settings that

facilitates communication and thinking

about disciplinary content.”-Nagy and Townsend (2012)

Academic Language

Includes…

• sophisticated or academic vocabulary• complex syntax or the manner in which sentences are

constructed• high density of information• specific grammatical features of language that may differ

depending on setting and purpose• decontextualized talk that relies on language rather than

gestures or context

Example

“All bugs and spiders have a hard casing on the outside of their bodies called an exoskeleton.”

• 35% of words are nouns

• Challenging vocabulary: “casing” “exoskeleton”

• High density of information

• New concept (exoskeleton)

Why is providing

students regular and

explicit instruction in

academic discourse

important?

Considerations…

● Who should I partner together for the best support/success?

● How long should partners stay together?

● Should I consider different partners for different subjects and/or times of day (i.e. writing and math or carpet time and desk work)

Video: Academic Discourse in Social Studies

LINK to video

Accountable Talk

“Accountable Talk

sharpens students’ thinking

by reinforcing their ability

to build and use knowledge.”

~ The Accountable Talk Toolkit

Word Pictures: TextProject.org

Core Vocabulary: 4,000 word families that

account for 90% of words in written EnglishLiterature Words: Pictures of concepts critical to

comprehending particular literature textsContent Area: Content-area Tier 3 words vital to

understanding conceptsQuick Reads: Vocabulary pictures to support

TextProject.org’s Quick Read texts

Using Language Stems in the classroom

• model the use of the language

~ (I do, We do, You do)

• create anchor charts

• display sentence strips with question

stems and sentence frames

• have index cards for small group work

Video: Science Talk Protocol

LINK to video

Video: College Talk- Improving Students’ Vocabulary

Video LINK

Resources

Teaching Channel Videos:https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos?default=1

EL Education Videos:https://eleducation.org/resources/library?typeCategory=29

EL Education Protocols:http://commoncoresuccess.eleducation.org/sites/default/files/curriculum/grade

s/ela-5/eledappendixprotocolsandresources0616.pdf

Content Area Conversations: Ch. 5 excerpt, “Procedures for Classroom Talk”

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108035/chapters/Procedures-for-

Classroom-Talk.aspx

Accountable Talk Toolkit: (stems start on page 8)

http://rpdp.net/admin/images/uploads/resource_11524.pdf

Math Talk 101:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/math-talk-101/

Text Project.org:http://textproject.org/

Thank you!Kim and Shanna