ANA SAINZ DE LA PENA: Good afternoon and welcome to our webinar number five, Quality Vocabulary Instruction for ELLs in Tiers One, Two, and Three. My name is Ana Sainz de la Pena. I am an educational consultant with PaTTAN. And with me are the ESL RtII facilitators, Paula Zucker and Dr. Connie Cochrane. So we will be your three presenters for today.
We have a couple of very important announcements before we start our webinar. And thank
you for joining us. If you have questions about the content that we will be presenting, please either email them to us so we can post them in a Q&A document in our website, at the PaTTAN website. There is a change in the order of presentation of our webinars. Please take note, due to many questions regarding assessment and progress monitors -‐-‐ monitoring for ELLs in RtII, we will present this topic on February 9 focusing on elementary ELLs, and February 10th focusing on secondary ELLs.
The Culturally Responsive Secondary and Elementary Instruction: Working with ELL Families and
Multicultural Communities webinar will be presented on March 15th. All of those changes will be reflected in our PaTTAN calendar. We will also present an all-‐day workshop on the topic of research-‐ based literacy instruction and assessment practices for ELLs in RtII. This will happen in April. The dates and sites will be posted soon. We will present this workshop at all three PaTTAN sites, so keep on checking the calendar to find out the dates and also the sites.
We apologize for the delay at posting our handouts and also for a couple of minutes that we
have been delayed. There are several handouts on the website: the PowerPoint document that accompanies the presentation; there are also extended activities. It’s a PowerPoint for facilitators or IU presenters or any other presenter that would like to build on the information that we have at this webinar. That will assist you at putting also some more engaging activities.
There’s also an implementation checklist to assist you in putting this information into practice,
and a resource sheet with information of sites where you can find video clips and other resources to help you understand some of the steps, and also to demonstrate, you know, with children some of these strategies that we will be presenting.
With that said, we will start our webinar now. Our PaTTAN mission is on the screen. We know
we here, our mission is to support the efforts and initiatives of the Bureau of Special Education. We also have as a goal to ensure individualized education IEP teams to begin with a general education setting for all children.
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These are our outcomes. We have two outcomes that are very much tied to the content of the
webinar in relation to teaching vocabulary to English language learners and how to analyze the role of sustained interactions with teachers and peers to develop vocabulary usage in all three tiers.
We will work a little bit on the area of language development, and to understand that language
development and language acquisition for English language learners are concepts that need to be part of our webinars because there’s always this question that comes over and over about, so, how do these skills develop when the student is learning English as a second language? There are several factors that affect second language acquisition. As we all know, age is always one that comes up over and over, but sometimes we have to understand that second language acquisition is the process of learning another language in addition to one’s native language or first language. Estimates of times required to acquire proficiency in a second language vary considerably with little empirical data to form a definite answer to this question. I was at another presentation and one of the questions that was pressing from the audience was, so, how long is like the average time for children to develop a second language? And you know that we cannot give blank answers about that because it all depends about these factors: age; proficiency in first language, either if they are literate in first language or not; their abilities to really, you know, learn another language; and also the intensity of instruction and opportunities to learn. And that part for me is crucial when we talk about second language acquisition. Are we giving children enough opportunities to acquire the language and to learn content in that second language? Are we providing children with the right tools and the right instruction so they are building their language abilities in English, and at the same time acquiring academic language so they will have access to content? Reading is also another aspect of language acquisition. And as we know, the fundamental relationship between reading and learning is always a topic of conversation, especially because here in the United States, the concept really is that if you want to learn, you have to be a proficient reader. And we have to understand that that doesn’t -‐-‐ it’s not really the same concept in other cultures. And yes, literacy is very important, you know, in our -‐-‐ in the way that we deal with teaching and learning here, but we may have students who are ELLs who come from different ways of interpreting, you know, how you learn.
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For example, there is a lot of emphasis in some cultures to learn by memory. So they memorize characters; they memorize sentences; they memorize poems. And that is the style of learning. And many times, you know, these children really show a tremendous ability to memorize words. But then when we get to the interpretation of a passage, that’s when the challenge really begins. Because in as much as they might sound even very fluent at oral reading because they have memorized the words, they might not be that proficient when they have to analyze or develop something by comprehending what they have read. So students with reading difficulties or challenges are likely to have sometimes, you know, insufficient vocabulary base to comprehend text. So we will be looking at that issue of comprehension and reading also. Reading comprehension is the goal of reading instruction here in the United States, and that is why we always give many assessments to reflect whether they are reading at grade level or whether they are really, you know, learning concepts in different content areas through reading passages and answering questions. We know that our PSSA reading section, especially for the upper grades, is really based in mostly reading ability. Difficulties in key reading components, such as word reading, accuracy and speed, vocabulary breadth knowledge, text structures, the ability to manipulate language, or to make inferences from text would cause significant delays in the development of progress towards reading proficiency. The same issue is brought over and over because if we think about many of the ELLs who come already literate and how they really express their comprehension when they read something that is in a different language. So that issue of reading comprehension will come over and over in many of the assessments implemented throughout the nation. And you will see that English language learners really have a gap in that area. And that gap is, you know, something that we need to start looking at because we need to start looking at not only the results, but looking at how we can close that gap. And if reading comprehension is really the goal, we need to be using many strategies and many ways to introduce and grow that academic language at all grade levels. And more specifically because we know that vocabulary is definitely an area that we need to tackle when we talk about reading comprehension. Language is central to learning. There is many areas where -‐-‐ in which a language development occurs at different rates and at different points in students’ lives. In school, students are called upon to use language in specific ways. Teachers scaffold students’ language development and use structural strategies to improve language outcomes for ELLs. ELLs face challenges in gaining content knowledge
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while developing proficiency in English. Language development facilitates content area knowledge acquisition by focusing on the concepts behind the words, building breadth and depth in vocabulary. So this is why we are focusing today in vocabulary knowledge. There’s many, many researchers that not only for ELLs, but also for native speakers, who have been talking about how can we develop more vocabulary and academic language to really support achievement in all content areas. Principals of vocabulary instruction. First of all, there are several principals that you will read according to different authors. And one thing that is very important to take a look at is that whenever we’re going to select the words for vocabulary instruction or look at text and really decide which words will be the most important to really build that vocabulary across content areas, we need to look at words that would be found in many of these content areas. So we have this academic word list that is part of the resources and references that we have cited in this webinar. And it is important that -‐-‐ you know, to look at these words. And when we have to make decisions, when we look at text, at the context, let’s see if these words are represented in this list. Because this list has been designed with the idea that, okay, where can we find these high utility words to be able to build that vocabulary that is so important for our ELLs? For example, here in this slide you have the word analyze. Analyze is, you know, present not only in science, but it’s also present in literature, in math, in many other content areas. Contrast, differences, you know, fundamental, equivalent. So all of these words are important for children to not only learn how to spell them, but also how to use them in their writing, how to use them in their conversation, how to use them when they are deciding to present or they are presenting something to others. So our goal here is really to make you look at vocabulary from the perspective of interaction with the words. So it is not about having a word list and going over the word list so children can copy them and find the meaning of the word or look them up in the dictionary. This goes beyond that. We know that we have been doing that, but it’s not working. So what we are trying to do here is really looking at, in this case, the academic word list to see whether these words are present in that text that I have to teach and maybe select those words to be part of my instruction. This is an example of, you know, how you need to present definitions and examples of use in context. Vocabulary is not really, you know, learned. It has to be acquired. Children need to appropriate these words. And they are only going to do that if they see them in text, if they talk about the words, if they use them, you know, in different ways. And this is, you know, a typical example of engaging your 4
students, in connecting with them. This is also -‐-‐ this text here is an example of culturally responsive instruction. You know, I can just see us, an ESL teacher, or when I used to be an ESL teacher, I would look at a soccer game, for example, here. And I would say, wow, this could make a connection with several of my ELLs, especially if they came from Latin American countries or Asian countries or even African countries, where soccer is, you know, a sport that most children play. So I will start from that kind of engagement in text. And then from there I can work with other parts. So here we have the other pieces of this text where, you know, there is the discussion about community, service, tolerance, because those are the words that we are going to discuss first. Not copy them, not finding right away look at a form or a format to draw them or -‐-‐ talk about the words. Talk about the words in small groups. Then I will have my target words. Those will be the words also that I will look them up in text and talk about them before we even continue with the instruction. Provide multiple exposures to meaningful information about the word. So if I already know that I am going to have these words as, you know, my platform for discussion and I am going to have target words, where else I am going to find these words? You know, if I am teaching elementary, sometimes it is easier because we, you know, teach all content areas. But again, this also could promote -‐-‐ this instruction of vocabulary should promote some collaboration among teachers when we are at the secondary level. Where else can our -‐-‐ you know, can I use these words in another content area? And let’s talk about how can we somehow have some conversations about targeted vocabulary for different secondary grades? We also have another very strong research-‐based suggestion is use cognate knowledge. Cognates are very important. These are words that, you know, very much come from the same root. They are used in different languages, but in the English language, if we have words that come from Latin, words that come -‐-‐ that have, you know, that Greek root, usually we will find them in most Romance languages. So if you speak a Romance language, if your students speak a Romance language such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, they would be able to know these words, especially the ones that come from that Latin root. And as we have here, a very good example is, you know, the word insect. And in Spanish, it’s insecto. And you know, that would be a word that a Spanish speaker would right away identify. As opposed that in more ordinary English, we will use the word bug, which comes from the Anglo-‐Saxon. So this is important to know. So in many instances, knowing these words, maybe the pronunciation is a little different, maybe the ending is different, but basically, you know, they mean the 5
same as in the native language of most students who speak Romance languages. And this I found very important to share with all of you. So it says here, you know, 30% to 50% of English academic language has lots of these cognates. So we are able to read, you know, words that come -‐-‐ that are multisyllabic and that come from Latin roots, and comprehend, you know, most of what we are reading. So it is important to consider, you know, when we get ELLs in the upper grades. They are already literate in first language, and so these cognates can actually assist us in teaching this new vocabulary. Another piece that is also very important is that cognates are not only a resource for students who speak Romance languages. There are other languages such as Vietnamese that also have -‐-‐ has cognates. Because Vietnam was a colony of France, so many of the Vietnamese -‐-‐ I mean, the Vietnamese language has many French words or words that are very similar to the French counterparts. So that could be a good way to support, you know, a good way to find that kind of support when we find words that have these roots. The same way for Arabic. As we know, the Arabs were in Spain for 400 years, so that’s a long time. They have influenced the Spanish language, so many of the words that we have in Spanish also come from Arabic words. So that helps a lot when we think about cognates. Besides that, we were discussing here with my colleagues, Paula and Connie, that the language of technology is global. So there are many words in technology that are used that they are in English, but they are used in all of these other countries. So we are really getting, through technology, really, you know, some supports at developing more vocabulary. It is also important to know that if we are going to teach vocabulary, we have to plan for -‐-‐ to teach analysis and other word learning skills. Like in this case, the word discrimination. You know, maybe teach children that there are parts in words, that they might not know the whole word, but if they look at certain parts of the word, they might be able to find out the meaning. Be word conscious. For example, in this example, when they are explaining the word distinction, they are discussing about something that they saw, something -‐-‐ you know, so the word distinction in this case, what does it mean in this particular context? Maybe the word distinction is going to be used in a different context, but they start with the one that maybe could be an easier way to explain the meaning of the word in that particular context.
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Also, you know, look at multiple meanings. And that is also important when you discuss words. That’s when the multiple meanings will come up. And we will be looking at some other strategies in which we, you know, can provide very simple formats to go deeper into word analysis. When we talk about vocabulary development, we need to talk about engagement of students. Students acquire a language and make it theirs only when they are using that language, when they are invited, when they are -‐-‐ they feel comfortable at taking risks. But it is also part of our job as teachers to use the language, when children need to use the language by comparing, by analyzing, by learning more about that language. And where do we find this as ESL teachers? Well, we have a very good document that we need to share with everybody. But sharing the document doesn’t mean to make a copy of the document and just hand it to a teacher. Sharing a document means to sit down and discuss how you can use this in looking at a lesson that is going to be taught maybe next week, maybe two days from now. The Can Do descriptors is the document I’m talking about. If you take a look at your Can Do descriptors that they are presented in different clusters, in different groups of grades, and what you’re going to see is excellent ways to develop activities or tasks for your ELLs to use vocabulary in context and through conversations, through structured group activities. So please take a look at your Can Do descriptors from the perspective of engagement as well as your English language proficiency standards in the model performance indicators sections that we have for every standard and for every domain. And you know that the document is extensive, but it is very useful to create tasks, to engage students. It is important to remember that speaking is a productive skill, as well as writing. And let’s not forget that when we assess our students with the access for ELLs, we are assessing their ability to listen, speak, read, and write. And that speaking test is challenging, so we have to start looking at our ELLs from the perspective of really developing strong academic language, because access for ELLs measures that: academic language development. With that said, we’re going to move into, so, how do I use these Can Do descriptors and the ELP model performance indicators? This is just a sample that I pulled from the literacy model curriculum lesson that you will be -‐-‐ that you can find in the SAS website. I am sure that if they haven’t been loaded yet, they will be loaded soon. Maybe, you know, by the end of this month. And I can tell you that because we have worked on this document to add the component, so how does it look like? So how does a lesson in content areas, especially math and literacy, look like for English language learners at
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different levels of English language proficiency? In this case, I’ve pulled an example that -‐-‐ from a seventh grade lesson. What is stereotyping? That was the name of the lesson. And in the lesson, there was a set of vocabulary words that needed to be understood as well as used for writing and also for reading passages and coming up with some answers to questions. So as part of the lesson, so what can we do as we are addressing the goal of the lesson with a level one? So the words were bias, generalization, and stereotyping. What we did was we looked at our Can Do descriptors and we looked at the section of speaking. There’s a whole section for speaking, another one for reading, writing, and listening. So we really targeted speaking because that’s what our children need to do the most. They have to produce language. Okay, so we look at level one: ask and answer questions. That piece is the function. So what can these children do at level one? They can ask and answer Wh-‐ questions. We know that it’s the who, what, where. So that piece is for your level one. About what? About the specific vocabulary of the lesson. But they needed supports because they are level one, so the supports are using illustrations and simple examples with a partner. So if they are working, children who are at level one, if they are given this task to work with native speakers because, remember, we don’t want ELLs to be sitting just with ELLs, we want them to be with native speakers, they will be able to really work -‐-‐ they will be able to discuss using the academic language. And maybe they won’t be able to interact that much, but at least they will be able to show what they are learning by using those illustrations and simple examples. If you go to level two, you see that it’s the same vocabulary, but the function and the supports change. So you can look at this from the perspective of providing the supports, using the same vocabulary as everybody is using, and also the language function. How are they developing language? So this is going to be on at the SAS -‐-‐ I mean in the SAS website as the model curriculum lesson. And it is going to be for math and also for the literacy component. Vocabulary comprehension in the upper elementary grades, and I am talking about specific that group of students. there was a study that was done, and what they looked at was at the results of tests and observing children as they will really, you know, work with those tasks. So what they found out is that native English speakers often depend on background knowledge and inferential skills when reading text. Yes, they use their background knowledge and their, you know, like familiarity with the cultural context in which the text has been developed to come up with inferences. 8
But when we look at ELLs, they have seen that they rely more on that vocabulary knowledge. And I can tell you this from firsthand experience. I am a speaker of English as a second language myself, and so when I answer questions in tests, I rely a lot on that vocabulary knowledge. And my answers will come up, you know, fine, but not because I was connecting with the background knowledge. Or I didn’t have a lot of background knowledge when I answer the questions, but I knew the vocabulary. And that helped me really come up with the schema that I needed to comprehend that text, and being able then to answer the questions. So it is true, and that is why it is so crucial, specifically for our ELLs, that we spend a considerable amount of time working with those -‐-‐ with vocabulary. And there is also another study that shows that ELLs’ reading comprehension can be improved with targeted vocabulary interventions. And when we talk about interventions here, we are not just talking about interventions as they relate to tiers two and three. Interventions can happen in tier one. And maybe those are the most important interventions because we are looking at tier one as being robust instruction, rich, targeted, and very, you know, inviting kind of instruction for all children who are sitting in that classroom. And that’s why they talk about long-‐term interventions. Because when we talk about interventions, specifically when we talk about vocabulary, we need to understand that learning, specifically about terminology or learning of concepts or skills, do not happen at the same rate, at the same time for all children who are sitting in our classroom. So we need to consider that when we are planning. Yes, indeed there is going to be some children that are going to acquire the skills faster than others, but yes indeed that we will have children who will need our supports. The expectations should be the same for all children, high expectations, but at the same time we need to think about, so, what kinds of high supports these children need. This is what this slide is about. It’s what supports do we need to provide? Because definitely vocabulary instruction is very important for ELLs. From this part, we’re going to move on and we’re going to have Connie Cochrane presenting on academic language. CONNIE COCHRANE: Thank you, Ana. So the question is, what exactly constitutes academic language? And we’re talking about four areas: vocabulary knowledge, both the breadth and the depth of understanding of words; plus complex sentence structures or syntax; and recognizing that written text is usually distinct from oral speaking. The higher academic language exists in written text. Understanding the structure of such things as argument, academic discourse, and expository texts. It’s the structural differences that exist in academic language that are distinct from spoken language.
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Students need to know the vocabulary that are used across texts, words such as analyze,
therefore, however, identify. These words can cause students difficulty if they have not received explicit instruction in both academic vocabulary and in the use of academic language. The role of the vocabulary in language development includes classroom and content vocabulary. Academic vocabulary is critical to learning higher level content, this is the middle school and high school content, and to performing well on achievement tests.
Academic language is a constellation of linguistic features used in professional writing in an
academic discipline. But it also encompasses the kinds of language used even in elementary tasks like summarize, define, describe, explain. Spoken English often has special stress, intonation, sound patterns, but academic language uses special vocabulary both across disciplines and within disciplines. It often has special grammatical features like passive voice as opposed to active voice. And it uses language functions that are not typical in conversational English.
So how do I know when students are demonstrating academic language? Students can explain,
inform, justify, compare, describe, classify, prove, debate, persuade, evaluate. This is -‐-‐ these are the activities students should be doing, and these are the look-‐fors that administrators should be monitoring to see that academic language is present in a classroom.
So, knowing a word. Vocabulary knowledge requires both breadth and depth of knowledge. So
can you label something, know the word as a label? Or do you have an understanding of the concept? This pyramid shows five levels of word knowledge or word understanding, and it represents tasks that will elicit discussion about academic words such as the next slide, which shows students deciding their knowledge of the word evidence. I don’t know the word, I’ve heard the word before, I think the word means blank, or I’ve used the word in another class.
So having students complete this small checklist and then discuss in small groups their
understanding of evidence or their experience with the word evidence so that they have come to some understanding and conclusion about how well they know this word. They are able to get a deep conceptual knowledge of the word from a sustained discussion about their background with it. And it’s the conceptual knowledge that students need in order to develop their vocabulary and their background to access text at the higher levels. So right now I’m going to give you a really quick spelling test. I’d like you to find a piece of paper and a pencil to write with, and I’m going to give you some words to spell. Ready? Word one, authority. 10
Two, assume. Three, traditional. Four, select. Five, philosophy. Six, access. Seven, ethnic. Eight, liberal. Nine, minimum. Ten, release. 11, survive. 12, ideology. 13, inevitability. 14, coherent. 15, persist. Well, on the next slide check your work, see how you’ve done. This slide shows the words you were given as examples from the academic word list by Avril Coxson from the year 2000. Most of you understand that the academic word list was made up of about 570 words taken from university level academic textbooks in the areas of arts, business, law, science, mathematics for university students. The most frequently used words from those combination of textbooks are in the first tier of academic words on the word list. Authority and assume are both from tier one of the academic word list. That means they occur most frequently in those textbooks. And generally with this little quiz, it’s assumed -‐-‐ or it’s understood that students will be most familiar with the words from the first tiers. And so the expectation is that spelling of these words would be more simple or less challenging because these words occur frequently. Traditional and select are in tier two of the word list. Philosophy is in tier three. Access and ethnic are tier four. Liberal is tier five, minimum tier six. Release, survive, ideology are all tier seven and become less familiar to students because they occur somewhat less frequently, but are still academic words. Inevitably, tier eight. Coherent, tier nine. And persist, tier ten. We need to help students become familiar with these words on the academic list, but not as isolated lists of terms the way we just had a spelling quiz a minute ago. Students need to use these words, hear them, see them, spell them, write them, say them in context. They need explicit instructions to help them relate to fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Research in this area is still emerging. It’s not very robust. But there are similarities in the developmental and cognitive processes that underlie English literacy skills for ELLs and for native speakers. So we recommend the use of explicit instruction for teaching fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. What do ELLs need to become proficient readers in L2? They need to develop a sophisticated vocabulary knowledge. Scarcella has said that. In order to give ELLs access to content area curriculum and increase their academic achievement, vocabulary instruction should be frequent, intensive, systematic, and complex. Vocabulary instruction in all classrooms from K through 12 consistently and intensively. Teachers should focus on the words used in their academic discipline, such as analysis, hypothesis, evidence, and not only on the technical discipline terms.
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So in ESL instruction for an RtII program, we need to see planned instruction or interventions that considers the function of that instruction. When planning for instruction or intervention, the function is key to when it will be used with students. If the purpose is prevention or to avoid a possible learning gap, this should occur at tier one. If the purpose is augmentation to boost skills with supplemental instruction, this should happen at tier two. And if the purpose or the function is remediation to correct existing deficiencies, this should happen at tier three. So your answer to the function or the purpose of the instruction should drive decisions about how this intervention is delivered, such as to the whole class, to a small group, or to an individual. But at all three tiers and daily there should be explicit, systematic, extensive, and intensive vocabulary instruction. ESL and literacy instruction in kindergarten and through grade two, the primary level, should focus on books that are read aloud and discussed. This gives ELLs the opportunity to practice, develop, extend language, and talk about these academic words. Teachers use modeling and explicit comprehension strategies such as predicting, monitoring, and summarizing. At the upper elementary grades, where vocabulary becomes more complex and reading more sophisticated, there’s a focus on productive academic language and sentence structure. Are students speaking and are they writing? At the middle school and high school levels, increase the variety of sophistication of the literature, but the strategies remain the same. So there need to be many opportunities for discussion, debates, and oral presentations at the higher level. Now Paula will talk to us about teaching vocabulary and the four domains. PAULA ZUCKER: Thank you, Connie. So how do we teach vocabulary? We must include all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing in our ESL and content instruction by targeting depth of word knowledge using high utility words, teaching word learning strategies anchored in text, and providing multiple planned exposures in all content areas. Amplify opportunities to appropriate the new language. ESL instruction needs to focus on production, speaking and writing, and interaction. Academic language learning is facilitated, as stated, through production and interaction. It depends on the ability to practice and produce language and is optimized when connected to reading and writing activities. It must be modeled and, as Connie mentioned, taught explicitly.
As we look at structured discussion, reading aloud and shared readings provide necessary
practice and modeling in effective language use and appropriate expression. Provide the platform for structured discussion with -‐-‐ please provide it with scaffolds to promote language development. And
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amplify opportunities to appropriate the new language. Provide ample opportunities for our ELLs to read orally.
Small group oral reading, ESL instruction. Students read aloud. They stumble, receive corrective
feedback, and then keep going. Our students practice to read -‐-‐ practice reading with appropriate phrasing and expression, and are able to process for meaning and understanding. Students must be given opportunities to discuss comprehension, including their new vocabulary, within small groups. This strategy is generally used today in early elementary school special ed settings, but is beneficial for ELLs and upper grades as well. In other words, ELLs need to read more rich, engaging, interesting text in small groups, in pairs, triads, and with the teacher individually. Make sure that the sophistication of readings increases as the year progresses. Intervention where students practice reading expository or narrative passages orally. Repeated reading has been found to be successful in improving fluency and comprehension for ELLs. Through repeated readings, students continue to read the same passage several times until they meet their oral reading fluency goals, read the passage with very few errors, and read with appropriate phrasing and expression. Remember that ELLs benefit from oral discussions. Scaffolding through questions. In doing so, we maintain student engagement. We promote comprehension strategies and vocabulary development, provide opportunity to clarify doubts and explore different angles for meaning. In a prior webinar, we discussed the importance of asking questions that were classified as coaching questions such as, what do I mean by that? Facilitating questions: can you explain that a little more? Collaborating questions: which story is your favorite? If you’re interested in downloading the article that addressed scaffolding through questions, which was entitled Scaffolding Through Questions in ELL Learning by Youb Kim in 2010, you can retrieve it on our website from webinar three, which took place on November 10th, entitled Foundations of SAS and RtII. Two frequently used instructional strategies include questioning and the use of sentence stems. We look here at different types of generic questions. These are commonly used charts that you may find in textbooks, and sometimes they are made into posters. They are, however, sometimes not explicit for ELLs. It is better to have students work in pairs, giving them opportunities for oral discourse. Specific questions tied to specific instructional contexts and learning objectives usually work better than generic questions according to Scarcella, such as, why is one inch larger than one centimeter? Why do you use 13
inches to measure your desk instead of centimeters? How do you know that two times four is the same as two plus two plus two plus two? As we continue, we can see that in this chart, we can view examples of the utilization of sentence stems, focusing on firs the language function as found in the first column, with the explanation and then the corresponding sentence stem. On this slide, we can see some examples of sentence stems. We see here the sample questions that students can ask each other when comparing two shapes. For example, this use of sentence stems will promote oral speaking. The importance of using the oral component in your teaching and in the learning process. Use the words in context. This is an organizational scheme for doing this. On the next slide, you can see the sample sentence stems that are used as responses for the previous slide’s questions. The development of academic language with ELLs focus on the natural discourse of the discipline, linguistic and conceptual amplifications, building increasingly complex connections, tolerance of different levels of understanding, and performance by students in one class. We must focus on culturally responsive instruction here. We must note the differences between the students’ levels of understanding. And our goal is high expectations with high supports for all students. Doctor Aida Walqui’s research on the developing of academic language provides us with a summary of all we have discussed. We find information regarding this topic in her book, Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners, and also in WestEd’s Quality Teaching for English Learners. WestEd proposes these components in the process of English language development. Keep in mind that there will be various levels of understanding during your instruction. Our job is to create scaffolded tasks in order for all students to reach the instructional goals. Again, we must hold high expectations with those high supports. The development of academic language with ELLs requires speaking, reading, and writing by the students from day one, considering their English language proficiency level in an English subject matter class, modeling disciplined, specific language, bringing to students prior knowledge in relevant ways, constantly encouraging our learners by supporting them, inviting them to take risks and holding high expectations with those high supports. Lessons must offer tasks that motivate students to continue to move forward to reach success. And careful planning of how you’re going to teach vocabulary is
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required to reach our goal. When addressing vocabulary instruction, don’t remain at student-‐friendly definitions and stop there. Address multiple meanings of words and concepts. You will see a list of references used for today’s webinar and you can find more resources, of course, with a Google search. But if doing that Google search -‐-‐ in doing so, please be sure your resources actually address your specific goal, making sure that you use instructionally relevant resources for your students. We thank you so much for joining us today. Again, as mentioned earlier in earlier webinars, questions can be mailed to us or posted. We will answer them at the end of the webinar and post them in a Q&A document on the PaTTAN website. I’d like to repeat there’s a change in the order or presentations of our webinars. Again, due to many questions regarding assessment and progress monitoring of ELLs in RtII, we will present this topic on February 9th, focusing on elementary ELLs, and February 10th, focusing on secondary. The Culturally Responsive Secondary and Elementary Instruction: Working with ELL Families and Multicultural Communities webinar will be presented on March 15th. We will present an all-‐day workshop on the topic of research-‐based literacy instruction and assessment practices for ELLs in RtII in April. These dates and sites will be posted shortly and we will present this workshop at all three PaTTAN sites. Thank you again for your participation in today’s webinar. We wish you continued success.
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