TAILORING ACADEMIC LANGUAGE EXPECTATIONS TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY Rusty Bresser & Kathy Melanese, UCSD

OUTCOMES Share what we have learned about how to support candidates in the area of academic language Use math as a context to model activities we do to develop candidates’ competency in teaching English language learners

SUPPORTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN MATH CLASS Development and organization of the resources: Resources for teachers include books for grades K-2, 3–5 and a video Books include lessons from a variety of math strands Use in teacher education Vignettes Lesson Plans Lesson Plan Template Step by Step guide to writing lessons Video and Facilitator’s Guide

A LOOK AT THE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE RUBRICS What elements of the rubric are critical for candidates’ success in the academic language portion of the Teaching Event? EM 11: Understanding Academic Language Demands EM 12: Supporting Academic Language Development

WHERE TO BEGIN? Candidates study documents that provide descriptors of each proficiency level ELD Standards CELDT resources (cde.ca.gov) Additional resources from readings Candidates collect data for Context for Learning about numbers of ELs in their classroom and their corresponding proficiency levels

Modeling the “Build a Shape” activity 1. Find a partner. 2. Get a baggie with pattern blocks 3. Each partner should take one of each pattern block: 1 green triangle 1 blue rhombus 1 red trapezoid 1 yellow hexagon 1 tan rhombus 1 orange square

RUSTY’S SHAPE:

IDENTIFYING ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DEMANDS OF A LESSON – “BUILD A SHAPE” Play “Build a Shape” with a partner What language did you need to understand and use in order to play the game? What language would you expect to hear/see in order to assess whether or not students are meeting the objective? THESE ARE YOUR LANGUAGE DEMANDS~ LINGUISTIC TASKS AND VOCABULARY STUDENTS WILL NEED IN ORDER TO FULLY ENGAGE IN THE LESSON

BUILD A SHAPE Math Goal/Objective: Students will be able to describe location and movement using common language and geometric language Language Goal/Objective: Students will be able to use prepositions to describe the location of specific geometric shapes. Key Vocabulary: above, below, on, to the left/right of, sides, vertex/vertices, rhombus, hexagon, trapezoid, square, triangle

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH THE LANGUAGE DEMANDS o Identify and explicitly teach key vocabulary o trapezoid, square, triangle, rhombus, hexagon o sides o vertex/vertices o above o below o on o to the left/right of

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH THE LANGUAGE DEMANDS Create frames for identified proficiency levels: All students : Put the ____________ above (any preposition) the _________. Beginning : The _________ should touch. Intermediate/Advanced : The ________ of the __________ should touch the _________ of the ____________. Use familiar topics/content when introducing frames

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH THE LANGUAGE DEMANDS Have students practice frames and vocabulary Modeling Guided practice Independent practice with lots of feedback Leave frames posted for students to use throughout the lesson

DURING THE LESSON – SCAFFOLDS AND SUPPORTS Sentence frames posted for student use Concrete objects Vary number of blocks used in building shapes Game format – high motivation Language use is required to play the game Visual with object names and traits posted in classroom Partner work

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE Played “Build a Shape” for two days Second day, added sequence words Students played with partner Created new shape they had to describe in writing Swapped papers and had to read to recreate partner’s shape LANGUAGE WAS AN ESSENTIAL PIECE OF THE ENTIRE LESSON SEQUENCE

VIDEO CLIPS: EXAMPLES FROM REAL CLASSROOMS Lessons taught by authors of books Provide authentic classroom contexts for observation and analysis Lesson excerpts allow an in-depth look at some of the instructional strategies and practices 4 th grade classroom Identifying and Describing Polygons (3-5) 2 nd grade classroom Capture – A game of finding sums (K-2)

VIDEO CLIP 1: USING SENTENCE FRAMES TO SUPPORT LANGUAGE USE AT DIFFERENT PROFICIENCY LEVELS After watching the video clip, talk with a partner about the following prompts: What did you notice about how the teacher modeled and facilitated student use of the sentence frames? What evidence did you see that the frames provided support for students in using language to communicate their math thinking and understanding?

VIDEO CLIP 2: ASKING QUESTIONS AND USING PROMPTS TO DIFFERENTIATE BY PROFICIENCY LEVEL After watching the video clip, discuss the following questions with a partner: What questions were used to engage students in talking about their learning? How did the questions vary in terms of their support for students? What other strategies/scaffolds did you notice the teacher using

RESOURCES Bresser, Melanese, & Sphar (2009). Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class Peregoy & Boyle (2008). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL Garcia, E. ed. (2003). English Learners: Reaching the Highest Levels of Success Cloud, Genesee & Hamayan (2009). Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners Helman, L. ed. (2009). Literacy Development with English Learners California Reading and Literature Project (2008). RESULTS and RESULTS for English Learners Echeverria, J., Vogt, M, & Short, D. (2008). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model

TO CONTACT US: Rusty Bresser, UCSD Kathy Melanese, UCSD