EA Summer Training Workshop: Helping ELL Students Access Content July 8, 9, & 10, 2008 – 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Kapi‘olani Community College Teacher Preparation Program Shawn Ford and Veronica Ogata, Facilitators

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 TopicMns. Greeting/ Schedule Overview/ Feedback Rating & Comments/ Collect Reflection10 Group Work: Homework Discussion10 Homework Reporting20 Sample Lesson15 Break (snacks)10 Session Topic and Introduction – Maxim 2: Overview of Scaffolding10 Scaffolding Techniques10 Sample Materials/ Reflection25 Break10 Application of Maxim 2: Scaffolding Group Work30 Sharing/ Discussion20 Wrap-up/ Homework/ Feedback10

WELCOME! EA in ESL Teacher Training Summer Workshops Sponsors: Teacher Preparation Program at KCC, funded in part by a federal Perkins grant Audience: Workshops prepared for in-service EAs who work with NEP and LEP students in the DOE Purpose: Provide EAs with additional training, and Provide EAs with knowledge and strategies to facilitate and accelerate the language development of their ESL students We hope you enjoy our program and find it useful for your teaching situations!

Topic: Helping ELL Students Access Content - Language Arts, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences - Primary, intermediate and secondary levels Goals 1. Develop attendee’s individual strategies, and 2. Develop a booklet of sample materials.

During the workshop, please remember to… 1. Actively participate and be open to new ideas. 2. Complete all group, reflection, and “homework” tasks. 3. Stay on task so we can complete the material in each session on time.

Group Roles Leader Responsible for keeping the group on task. Makes sure that all members of the group have an opportunity to participate and learn. Timekeeper Responsible for keeping time and making sure that the group finishes the task on time. Recorder Writes out results of group activities or important discussion points. Also prepares presentation materials for oral reports. Reporter Gives oral responses about the group’s activities or discussions.

Feedback from Tuesday

Start on time, too many breaks, air conditioning too low - but class was great Facilities warm Facilities warm, breaks too long, more time for lecture, thanks for snacks! It would be nice to have a 2-hr. class w/ 1 break It was too long!! Presentations: maybe close curtain due to sunlight glare Group discussions: we need more time Would like more strategies/ scaffolding activities Have student work showing different levels of proficiency This workshop is very knowledgeable. It has much to do to help me in my job. Today's workshop gave us usable information that we can apply in the classroom.

Group Work: Discussion of Content Selection Homework In groups at your tables, take 10 minutes to share your homework with your group-mates. Discuss your reasons for choosing your content and your answers to the three reflection questions. After you have talked with each other about your materials, choose one member at your table to give a brief 3-minute report about her/his materials. For this activity you’ll need a leader, a timekeeper, a recorder, and a reporter.

GROUP REPORT Materials Context What specific strategies would you use to help your students understand the passage? What specific content is necessary to understand the passage? What language needs will your students have?

Sample Lesson Materials: Passage 2- “Desert Lions” Context: 3 rd grade, pull-out, NEP students

What specific strategies would you use to help your students understand the passage? Assessing background knowledge Building background knowledge Flash cards: images and vocabulary Reading aloud Repetition Summarization Production activities: drawing, word and sentence writing, discussion Feedback

What specific content is necessary to understand the passage? Wild animals: lions, porcupines, ostriches, antelope Desert environment: hot, dry, sand, sun, summer Survival: hunger, thirst, hunting

What language needs will your students have? Vocabulary: definitions and recognition Grammar: present-tense verbs Reading: repetition and word recognition Pronunciation: Final consonants (deseRT); r-l (Lion); z-dj (deZert) Writing: vocabulary items and short sentences

10 Minute BREAK

REVIEW: Language Learning Myths and Facts 1. Children learn second languages quickly and easily. FALSE. 2. Children have acquired a second language once they can speak it. FALSE. 3. When learning a second language, it’s best to study grammar and vocabulary first before trying to use the language. FALSE. 4. Children are just like sponges; they absorb the language around them just through exposure to the language. FALSE.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IS NOT SIMPLY MEMORIZATION. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IS COMPREHENSION, APPLICATION & REPETITION.

BICS is the language used in daily interactions with other people: friends, family, store clerks, etc. CALP is the specialized language used in academic settings. BICS: 2 years through daily interactions General language skills: 3-5 years through interactions along with focused attention CALP: 5-7 years of formal study

Content can provide wonderfully abundant opportunities to teach the whole range of language skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and usage.

Feedback is an integral part of any interaction. Feedback can be spoken or written and can be either positive (confirming) or negative (clarifying, rejecting). Feedback includes the strategies of repetition, recasting and expansion.

Language Development Maxims: 1. Language should not be taught in isolation. Language should always be taught in some sort of context, using meaningful content. Any attention to discrete skills should arise from content demands. 2. Learner-directed speech should always encompass BICS and CALP. This can be accomplished by using complete sentences to facilitate interaction. Repetition and recasting, along with expansion of ideas and the encouragement of inquiry should be part of all feedback.

10 Minute BREAK

CURRENT WORKSHOP LANGUAGE IS CONTENT – CONTENT IS LANGUAGE. Content = ideas, information, knowledge. Language = the ability to communicate content.

Survey of your Students Leader - Timekeeper - Recorder 1. What are your students’ native languages? 2. What are 1-2 of the most common pronunciation difficulties for each language group from Q1 above?

Group Activity: Instructor Responsibilities The instructor is responsible for at least half of the language development process. Working with the group at your table, take 5 minutes to brainstorm a list of specific instructor responsibilities within the language development process.

GROUP REPORT

Current Workshop Maxims 1. Our ELL Students need access to the same grade-level content as their native-English peers. In general, content-based instruction seeks to develop the students’ English language proficiency by incorporating information from the subject areas that students are likely to study or from courses they may have missed is they are fairly new to the school. Whatever subject matter is included, for effective content-based instruction to occur, teachers need to provide practice in academic skills and tasks common to mainstream classes. (explanation from The SIOP Model textbook)

2. A range of scaffolding strategies is necessary to help our NEP and LEP students access the content. Scaffolding is the provision of sufficient supports to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students. These supports may include: language resources, a warm-up or background-building task, templates or guides, and specific guidance on the development of cognitive and social skills. These supports are gradually removed as students develop autonomous learning strategies, thus promoting their own cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning skills and knowledge. Teachers help the students master a task or a concept by providing support. (explanation adapted from Wikipedia) learning concepts skills cognitive social skills autonomous cognitive affective psychomotor

3. A range of feedback strategies is necessary to help develop our NEP and LEP students’ understanding and output to more closely resemble the input and academic expectations. Feedback is a process whereby some proportion of the output of a learner is commented on in some manner and passed (fed back) to the learner in order to modify the output or inform the input. Students learn better when they can find out, as soon as possible, whether or not they are understanding a new topic or performing a new skill correctly. This means that a teacher should let each student know, individually, on a frequent basis, which areas of study he is doing well on, and which areas he needs to work harder on. Different types of feedback can be either positive or negative and include correction, confirmation, explanation, elaboration, and diagnosis. (explanation adapted from Wikipedia) process input

Group Activity: Revisit Responsibilities Working with the group at your table, take 5 minutes to add to your list of specific instructor responsibilities within the language development process.

GROUP REPORT

10 Minute BREAK

Group Work: APPLICATION OF MAXIM 1 Leader – Timekeeper – Recorder – Reporter

Main Group Activity: Application of Maxim 1- Appropriate Content Working with the group at your table, assess the appropriateness of the following passages for content knowledge and language development. Choose one passage and discuss what you would do to help your students understand the passage. Determine specific content necessary to understand the passage. Predict language needs that your students will have. Context: NEP students; 3 rd grade; pull-out learning situation

1. What specific strategies would you use to help your students understand the passage? 2. What specific content is necessary to understand the passage? 3. What language needs will your students have?

Report: 3 groups will now share with us the lesson plan that they created, based on their chosen context and teaching approach.

Shawn’s Report: I would choose passage 2 for its academic, grade-level focus. 1. I would simplify the reading, provide background knowledge on the Kalahari, provide pictures or images, provide important vocabulary, read the passage for the student… 2. Wild African animals, desert environment, survival/ hunting 3. Reading (decoding), vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation

Wrap-up and Homework As a follow-up activity, find an appropriate passage that you would use to help develop your students’ content knowledge and language. Make a copy of the passage, provide the context, and answer the following questions. Bring the passage and this sheet on Wednesday to submit when you sign in.

Reflection: Please take 5 minutes to write down your thoughts... What are your thoughts about this approach to language development? What are your thoughts about scaffolding for your students? What will you adapt or adopt for use in your own teaching situation?

Please write your reflection on another piece of paper as a formal reflection on today’s workshop. Include any other thoughts and comments. Bring it on Wednesday to drop off when you sign in. Also, please take 5 minutes to complete today’s workshop feedback form, which is located in your folder. Please leave it on your tables when you are finished. Thank you!