powerful literacy practices

Powerful Literacy Practices

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Define Academic Literacy

Define Academic Literacy

listening, speaking, reading, writing

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?

Is the reading proficiency required to construct the meaning of content-area texts and literature

encountered in school

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

Academic Literacy

What is the Role of Vocabulary in Academic Development?

Academic vocabulary is critical to learning higher-level content and to performing well on

achievement tests.

Academic language: explains, informs, justifies, compares, describes, classifies, proves, debates,

persuades, evaluates.

David J. Francis

“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?

The difficulty of your set could be increased

if

you do a jam followed by a peach.

Read the following and put in your own words (paraphrase)

Reading & Writing Task

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

The difficulty of your set could be increased if you do a jam followed by a peach.

means

Multiple word meanings

Lack of background knowledge

Technical vocabulary

Culture of gymnastics

The difficulty of your set could be increased if you do a jam followed by a peach.

SO...

Why Didn't You Use Context Clues?

But you knew the components of academic language: word meanings, language functions, and grammatical

structures.....right?

Sentence Starter

What this tells me about using context clues to infer meaning for unfamiliar vocabulary is that

________________________________

_______________________________

Complete the Sentence Starter

Tell Me Again Why I Should Care About

Bloom’s Taxonomy…

Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Less Demanding Language More 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.

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

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.orgDiane August and Timothy Shanahan: (2006)

http://www.prel.org/

Planning for Purposeful Talk Academic Dialoging

Planning for Purposeful Talk Academic Dialoging

Collaborative tasks

Multiple opportunities for students to talk, question , discuss, clarify, and create new understandings

Meaningful student interactions

Explicitly teach the academic language students need to be able to use in academic discourse

Examining Vocabulary Practices

1. Asking students, “Does anyone know what

The following page lists "unreliable practices" and "research based practices"

Work with your elbow partner to determine which belong in the unreliable group and which represent the research based

group.

Please be prepared to discuss the rationale for your choices

http://www.clker.com/clipart-blank-sticky-note-1.html

Teacher directed, explicit instruction

Provide opportunities to practice using words

Teach word meanings explicitly and systematically

Teach independent word learning strategies (i.e., contextual strategies & morphemic analysis

Represent Research Based Best Practices for Vocabulary Instruction

Did You Say?

Vocabulary Practices – What’s unreliable and what is research-based?

Asking students, “Does anyone know what _____ means?”

Numerous independent activities without guidance or immediate feedback

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

Relying on context based guessing as a primary strategy

Asking students, “Does anyone know what _____ means?”

Numerous independent activities without guidance or immediate feedback

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

Relying on context based guessing as a primary strategy









Vocabulary Instruction for Upper Elementary and Middle Grades: Strategies for Success

"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

Thoughts about Writing

Learning to write precedes writing Both reading and writing can only be learned in

the course of reading and writing

Writing is to communicate

with others Can be...but the first reader of writing is the

writer himself or herself

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 should be right the first time Something all experienced writers know is that

writing usually requires many drafts and revision

Writing is a solitary activityWriting 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

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 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

Beginning with the End in Mind

Beginning with the End in Mind

Planning to Write with English Language Learners

What is it? -A Framework for Planning Instruction

How do I use it?

Answers the Question

-What enduring understandings do my students need to develop?

- To determine how 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

Understanding by Design

Knowledge and skills needed

Teaching and learning experiences

Demonstration of targeted understandings

What knowledge and skills will be needed for success?

What knowledge and skills will be needed for success?

Which learning experiences will help to promote these skills and

understandings?

Which learning experiences will help to promote these skills and

understandings?

How will students demonstrate proficiency?

How will students demonstrate proficiency?

How Do I Plan Learning Experiences Using Backward Design?

Comparing and Contrasting

How are Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies

alike and different?

Ritz Cracker Oreo Cookie

[Both]

Venn DiagramIt 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 .

Using the graphicorganizer to write

descriptors

The Venn Diagramcan serve as a brainstorming

activity

This graphic organizercan also serve as the prewrite

Using a Graphic Organizer to Generate Adjectives

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

Vocabulary Tool Kit Signal words for Compare/Contrast Text Structure

Compare Contrast

same different

both unalike

alike on the other hand

similar instead of

compared to in contrast to

resembles rather than

Students use the signal word toolkit as a resourcefor reading and writing to identify author's purpose...

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

http://www.readwritethink.org/

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..

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

However, ____________and________________ also differ in some

ways. First, _______________________, whereas______________

___________________. Furthermore, they are unalike because

_______________. These differences between___________________

and ______________________________________________________

help us to see ____________.


Chant Frame for ComparisonExcuuuuuuuuuse me, I was wondering somethingCan 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 _________________________________________________________________


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)

Reading Comprehension is an Interactive Process

RAND Model, 2002

Today’s Session

What Strategies Do You Use?

Reading Comprehension Strategies

• Inferring• Using background knowledge to hypothesize,

interpret, or draw conclusion from the events, information or clues in the text.


• 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.


• Questioning• Asking questions to clarify meaning, wonder

what will happen, or speculate about the author’s intent, style, content or format.


• Making connections• Connecting information or events to personal

experience• Text-to-self• Text-to-text• Text-to-world


• Visualizing• Creating mental pictures of what is happening

in the text.


• 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


• Inferring• Predicting• Questioning• Making connections• Visualizing• Self-monitoring

Last Thoughts On…

• Strategies are a means to an end• Potential pitfall• Strategy as scaffold for comprehension.• Recall notes

Gradual Release of Responsibility

• Journal• Active listening/creating a metaphor

“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.”

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.


Explicitly

TaughtModeled Shared Guided

Independent

Gradual Release: Explicitly Taught

Naming and explaining the strategy gives students knowledge of the strategy.

Gradual Release: Modeling

• Modeling explicitly gives students comprehension of what the strategy looks like.

• Think Aloud

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.

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.

Gradual Release: Independent

• Independent reading gives students the chance to practice it by themselves with new text.


Explicitly

TaughtModeled Shared Guided

Independent

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

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.

What have you added to your toolkit?

powerful literacy practices

Education

academic vocabulary

academic language students

academic language learning

academic language practice

academic discourse

academic literacylistening

language functions

reading proficiency