Task 2: What are the language demands of your content area? (Essential Question B)
Academic language, broadly defined, includes the language students need to meaningfully engage with academic content within the academic context. This should not be interpreted to suggest that separate word lists and/or definitions of content-related language should be developed for each academic subject. Rather, academic language includes the words, grammatical structures, and discourse markers needed in, for example, describing, sequencing, summarizing, and evaluating — these are language demands (skills, knowledge) that facilitate student access to and engagement with grade-level academic content. These academic language demands are different from cognitive demands (e.g., per Bloom’s taxonomy). Although there may not be just one accepted definition of academic language, there are a good number of resources available that address the issue of academic language and may be considered in the development of state ELP standards and assessments. For example: Aguirre-Munoz, Parks, Benner, Amabisca, & Boscardin, 2006; Bailey, 2007; Bailey, Butler, & Sato, 2007; Butler, Bailey, Stevens, Huang, & Lord, 2004; Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Cummins, 1980; Cummins, 2005; Halliday, 1994; Sato, 2007; Scarcella & Zimmerman, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2001.
Pre-Posting –
Part A - Watch the video/PPT on Content Objectives and Language Objectives (See below). Think about the work we have completed already (What does it mean to read? Who are we as readers? Who are adolescent readers? What does research tell us about learning from texts) how does this build the foundation of rethinking how we plan for instruction in our content areas.
Now. . . Think about what it means to be literate in your specific discipline (e.g., what does it mean to read, write, speak and listen within your discipline).
Pre-Posting-
Part B - Conduct an internet search and see if you can find any sites/information on what it means to be literate in your specific discipline.
Initial Posting – After viewing the ppt. on content objectives versus language objectives I invite each member within your small discussion group to share their specific discipline and what it means to be literate within that discipline (e.g., What does it mean to be mathematically literate?). Think about the types of texts (oral and written) you need to read and comprehend. Think about the tasks that you are asked to do within your discipline and how is language used to support and complete these tasks. Post your interpretation of what it means to be literate within your discipline include any information you located in your web search (don’t forget to cite your sources or provide links for others to view).
Fri. November 8, Initial posting
Response Postings – Everyone should respond at least once to each group member with a question, clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their specific information. You might consider other information, questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
Response Postings:
By Sunday, November 10: 11:59 PM. Response postings
Literacy in the content area of ELL is probably the major focus within the field; oftentimes, language objectives are content objectives as well. In ELL, literacy seems to be a jack-of-all-trades; we must teach literacy in all content areas in a K-12 setting. In fact, the ELL standards reflect this fact. There are only five ELL standards that teachers are required to meet and they all have to do with literacy in each content area (math, science, language arts, and social studies, as well as “other” academic and social language). Therefore, content objectives and language objectives are commonplace in ELL—we create them in every lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe first domain of literacy ELL teachers must focus on is reading. As ELL teachers, we have to help students navigate texts in all content areas. Therefore, it is important that we are in contact with our students’ content teachers to know what they are working on in class. Because the language of each content area is so specific, we must continually gauge students’ knowledge of academic and content words when teaching language for each subject area; this is much more involved than simply figuring out students’ language (and more specifically, reading) proficiency levels before deciding what to focus on in ELL class. We must show them how the same content words can have different meanings depending on the context and subject area. For example, students may learn the word table when they first arrive in the United States to mean a thing people sit around when they eat or work. They can likely apply this same meaning when they hear the word in Language Arts class, but when they are in Math or Science class, table most likely means a chart filled data. Yet another meaning for table can appear in Social Studies class if they hear a statement like “the politicians tabled the issue and will return to it later.” These multiple meanings can confuse all students, but ELL students especially.
A word like table is not necessarily even an academic word. ELL teachers must also describe how academic words like analyze, describe, compare/contrast, evaluate, etc. give them clues about what they should actually do depending on the subject area. Furthermore, ELL teachers must look at the bigger picture when it comes to academic reading and writing by teaching students about different discourse norms in various subject areas. Texts in Language Arts are going to look very different than texts in Science. Therefore, with ELL students, I would expose them to various types of texts in class and teach them how to find meaning in them. It is important to not overwhelm students with a text that is way above their proficiency levels; however, teachers can still expose students to texts from various content areas at proficiency levels that are more appropriate for language learners.
My online search in ELL literacy mostly yielded results for adult learners. The literacy emphases in these websites were practical ones that can definitely apply to younger learners as well. The first website, the ESL Literacy Network (http://www.esl-literacy.com/), featured the concept of financial literacy and numeracy literacy for adult learners. This is so important for adult learners with financial responsibilities in a new country and culture. The concept of financial and numeracy literacy can be applied to younger learners in content areas of mathematics, accounting, practical life skills, and college readiness. My second online search brought me to the Seattle Public Library (http://www.spl.org/audiences/literacy-and-esl), which devotes some of their resources to ELLs and offers them free courses through library. Again, this was more geared toward adult learners, but the type of literacy they emphasize, computer literacy, is equally applicable to younger learners in the K-12 system. The Seattle Public Library offers courses to ELL adults on basic computer skills, word processing skills, and Internet/email navigation. The ELL standards for K-12 learners has also expanded their definition of literacy to include computer literacy, so ELL teachers must follow Seattle Public Library’s example and include explicit teaching of computer skills so that ELL students are computer literate.
ReplyDeleteRachael,
DeleteI was surprised that you only have 5 standards! Do you have to look at the other subjects standards then too? The class that I am mainly observing in Le Sueur has three ELL students and 6 special education students. We have one helper in the class to work with all these students. She seems very organized, but how do you stay organized and keep all the students straight and all their needs? I also never thought about the financial literacy and numeracy literacy, thanks for bringing that up! It is something I could definitely use in the math classroom. I also liked that the second website provided free courses through the library. What a great opportunity!
Holy cow, Rachael! I feel kind of ignorant saying this, but your posting gave me great insight into the world of ELL teachers. I didn't realize how much you have to juggle. I can definitely see how you will be a jack-of-all-trades. I also agree with Sara in that I would've never thought about numerical and financial literacy. I can see how that would benefit adult learners, as well as younger learners. Thanks for your post!
DeleteHey Rachael,
DeleteI can relate to your having to deal with a variety of content areas as an ELL teacher. One of the principal foci for foreign language education is to teach by having students use the language in other content areas rather than just for the sake of using the language. That said, I understand where you’re coming from with being a jack-of-all-trades. Honestly, I think this would be even more difficult in ELL than it would be in Spanish because of the linguistic differences.
Also, I would like to learn more about what is focused on in the fields of financial and numeracy literacy. These are new terms for me as well, and they do seem very important for any level of learner.
Thank you, Rachael.
Throughout my years in schooling with mathematics, I was never aware of literacy in the subject. We read the book if we didn't understand the material, or were supposed to read the material before class. I don't recall ever having to read a book other than a textbook or have to write a lot of papers. So I don't have a lot of experience of how I could incorporate literacy in the classroom. So it will be important for me to work with the ELL or other teachers to help get ideas on how I could incorporate literacy in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteFor math, students read the examples and theorems and definitions. They need to be familiar with terms, so they can understand the theorems or definitions. The students also need to be able to read a question and know what they are asked to do, so they need to understand what is happening in the question in order to answer the question. I think this is really crucial for non English speaking students. In my observation, I have had a few of the ELL students ask me what certain words mean in the question and once they know what the word means, they know how to answer the question. In mathematics, students also read tables and graphs. They look at tables and graphs and need to be able to see what is happening in them and be able to interpret what is happening and pull information from them. Which graphs can be difficult for students to read. In mathematics, we do problem solving and try to relate what we are learning to real life examples. So students are reading the problem and at times can relate it to themselves. The students need to be able to decide what information from the problem is useful and what is not useful. There are many times when the word problems have a lot more information than what the students need to pay attention to.
I think with math, there are very different types of reading that students are doing. They can read the text to learn about topics, they read definitions and use those definitions to understand theorems, they also read tables and graphs and they also read the questions and need to understand what is happening and what they need to do to answer the questions. So it is important for math teachers to help students learn how to read all the different forms.
The first website that I found is how I could incorporate literacy into the math classroom. (http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/kosiak/projects/talks/wsraslides.pdf) I really liked this website because they talked about how I could incorporate literacy but they also showed examples. The first example is of a book that the students would read and then they connected what they were reading to math, the book was on gardening and so they connected it to length and width. They also had a talking drawings. So they first picture in their mind what they think it would look like, they then tell their peers what they got and then they write down what was different or the same. The other idea that I really liked is two of a kind. Here the students look at words that are said the same way but have different meanings. This would be a really good one to do to help show the differences between the different subjects.
ReplyDeleteThe second website is http://www.teachthought.com/featured/10-ways-literacy-can-promote-a-deeper-understanding-of-math/. Here this is 10 ways literacy can promote a deeper understanding of math. This gives examples of what I could do to help bring literacy into the math classroom. Some examples are having discussions, having students explain their thinking and have students look at other students work and help them work through the problem.
The third website helped explain literacy in mathematics. The website is http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105137/chapters/Reading-in-the-Mathematics-Classroom.aspx. What I really liked about this website is that they gave strategic reading ideas. What the student should do before the reading, during the reading and after the reading.
Thanks for pointing out that students need to be able to read graphs and charts in the math content area. Normally when I think of literacy, I think of reading words on a page from left to right, but it is clear that students need to read and interpret numbers in a "non-traditional," left to right reading sense. Math has the unique ability to reach some students who might not like what we typically think of as reading, but rather prefer to interpret and analyze numbers. Giving them the tools to be able to do so is really important! I hope to do some co-teaching with math classes in the future.
DeleteSara,
DeleteI saw so many similarities between our two posts. I was glad you chose to include reading graphs and tables in your mathematical literacy. I can relate well with your personal experience in math classes. I remember looking through the chapter and turning to the example problems as models for the homework I was working on. I would try to work through the problems and understand how the authors of the text solved them. I do remember in high school having to do internet searches for other mathematical texts. We would have to do side research projects in order to think about real world problems.
Thanks for your post!
Hey Sara,
DeleteLiteracy in your classroom may not involve a lot of book reading, it may be a different language entirely. (This is my hypothesis and may be off-target.) Tables and graphs - as you mentioned in your post - are definitely a component of literacy in your field. Along with that, you also have symbols, equations, calculator-literacy, and all other things (over my head) involved in the practice of mathematics. Not only words and symbols, students in mathematics need to be literate when reading lines, angels, patterns etc.
What do you think about this? Would you agree or have I mis-interpreted mathematical literacy? (feel free to disagree :)
David,
DeleteYou are correct. Students do read text books. But a lot of the reading in math is symbols and graphs and tables, etc.
What does it mean to be literate in Spanish?
ReplyDeleteLiterally, it means to be literate in Spanish. The text types they will need to read, write, interpret and understand are texts that use the Spanish language. The complexity of these texts will vary depending upon the level of the student. For example, beginning students in Spanish (most secondary-level students) will be at a very beginner stage of literacy and will be expected to be able to understand texts that would be considered “elementary” in English.
As students progress further into the discipline the texts they interact with become more and more complex. A main focus of teaching Spanish is to do exactly what this course is advocating: To teach leaners new to the language strategies for reading, writing, speaking and comprehending graduated levels of texts in Spanish.
A couple of the resources that I found discuss the differences between teaching literacy in Spanish and in English. The first resource is directed directly at teachers and administrators. It describes and exemplifies the differences between the literacies of Spanish and English in the areas of phonics, spelling, writing and structural analysis.
The second article is about teaching literacy specifically in Spanish. It describes many of the modifications from English to Spanish that second language learners need to be aware of when learning Spanish. This article also points out the importance of recognizing that teaching learners to be literate in Spanish requires a different mindset than it does in English because the language is structured differently.
The two articles can be found here:
1. http://ell.dpi.wi.gov/files/ell/pdf/spanish-literacy-handouts.pdf
2. http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/teaching-literacy-spanish
Our goal as Spanish teachers is to teach literacy in Spanish from the very beginning stages. As students progress into university-level courses, we continue to teach them strategies for navigating increasingly complex texts. These strategies change depending on the nature of the texts they are interacting with.
David,
DeleteI agree with the second article that to be literate in Spanish requires a different mindset than it does in English because the language is structured differently. I had difficulties in high school when learning Spanish and I think this is why I struggled! A question that you may not be able to answer, but does someone then need to be fluent in English or be literate in English in order to be literate in Spanish? Or since they have different mindsets, can you be fluent in one and not the other?
I have always thought that teaching ELL and teaching Spanish have a lot of similarities despite the different contexts (second language learning vs. foreign language learning). I'm curious about your take on the idea of teaching Spanish phonics to young learners. I have heard some ELL teachers say they prefer not to teach phonics when it comes to vowels in English to native Spanish-speaking students in an ELL classroom; some prefer to do this because they think it will confuse young students who don't necessarily have a grasp on the vowel phonics of their native languages yet. It is particularly confusing between Spanish and English because the vowel sounds are almost all the same, but they sounds are associated with different letters. Have you ever discussed this in any of your Spanish teaching classes?
DeleteI also can see many similarities between David's and Rachael's content areas (second language learning vs. foreign language learning). I thought you chose some good resources in your web search. Also, I'm assuming that your comment on a previous post of mine is also true in your Spanish class? Do you plan on using short, frequent comprehension checks in order to ensure understanding? I cannot imagine trying to teach someone a new language! You and Rachael are godsends :)
DeleteThanks for the post!
I think the questions involved in this 669 course are important for me, like others, to think about. Honestly, how many people throughout our world think that chemistry and math teachers need to create lessons on how to read/understand for their individual content area. So many people think that lessons on literacy take place in a language arts or communications classroom, and that is it. We, as teachers, need to realize that the reading and comprehension involved in each of our subjects is much different compared to the skills gained from other content classes.
ReplyDeleteSo, what does it mean to be literate in the chemistry classroom? My content area involves a mix of both science and math skills. Students entering the chemistry classroom should have taken math classes through at least the algebra level. Some students may even be taking Pre-Calc or Calc I. Students will need these math literacy skills such as the theorems and definitions Sarah mentioned in her post. Algebra skills are extremely important in chemistry so students should have an understanding of variables and how to manipulate them in order to solve a problem. These variables bring a whole new language to the table! Someone without these literacy skills might walk into the chemistry classroom and think we were talking gibberish. Before, I wouldn't have thought a thing about the literacy skills within my content area. We really are creating a whole new "chemistry language" that students must comprehend before success in this classroom.
Chemistry is also, obviously, a science classroom. Chemistry textbooks combine these math skills I have already discussed with scientific history, concept explanation, and sample problems. Chemistry isn't a class in which you can sit down with the textbook, read through the definitions and history, and automatically understand everything involved. One practice I've used throughout my schooling is sitting down with a few practice/sample problems each day and walking through how to come to a solution. Re-reading and re-solving problems is a good strategy for success. Like they say "practice makes perfect".
With these chemistry textbooks comes a whole new set of scientific vocabulary. Like we discussed in a previous post, students may think they know certain vocabulary words, when in fact these words may come with a whole new definition. Students will be introduced to the scientific method and the practices involved in data collection and scientific reporting. I cannot even begin to explain the amount of literacy involved with these practices. I think this is why many students struggle as they enter into chemistry. Usually, chemistry is the first extensive science class a student takes beyond the general biology and science classes. Chemistry extends the knowledge they should already have gained in previous years, but what happens if they didn't gain these basic science literacy skills before entering my classroom? This point reaffirms the fact that all teachers should put some focus on literacy and comprehension skills.
In my web research, I found a PDF called Walch Science Literacy Series. This PDF is on Chemistry. It looks like there is a bunch of different sets of activities and such to improve your students' literacy within the science classroom. I really enjoyed this activity set because it speaks to both the student and the teacher. It begins down at the basic level of scientific literacy such as posing a question and forming a hypothesis. I don't even know how many times during the day at Owatonna HS I'm asked, "Why are we doing this?" or "Why should I care about the mass of this?". I really think if we started out with basic chemistry literacy and understanding many of these questions would be answered. Due to time constraints and many outside variables, many teachers skip over these skills and strategies and jump right into material, and this may be one reason we get "What's the point?". Just a thought!
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy the packet and thanks!
http://walch.com/samplepages/050485.pdf
Dani,
DeleteYou mentioned the link between the math and chemistry. I agree with this, I think this is why I enjoyed chemistry was because it had a lot of math involved. When I got to higher chemistry, I didn't enjoy it as much because it didn't have math! Which if the students are struggling with math, they will have difficulty in chemistry as well. So it is important for math teachers to teach literacy and for the science and math teachers to work together to connect the two. Also, there are many times when students ask me as well why should I learn this? or why are we doing this? or when am I going to use this? So teaching them the literacy skills and linking them to the real world can help with these questions.
I am definitely one of those people who walks into a chemistry classroom and feels like I don't understand the language in the room! What could be helpful for a student like me could be to take a little time to explain how how science texts are laid out. Like we've talked about in class before, the texts students are probably most accustomed to reading are written more story-style. By pointing out how science text is laid out, like for example, saying how at the beginning of the paragraph usually come the definitions or introduction of main ideas, followed by concrete examples on the latter part of paragraphs (I think), it might help them know specifically what to look for in their readings.
DeleteHey Dani,
DeleteYou’ve brought up a good point that all of us need to spend some time thinking about as future teachers. We are all going to be asked hundreds of times ‘why any of this matters’ or ‘why should I care about ______’. I think it is important for us to be prepared with real, personal reasons why. (Unfortunately, I don’t have any quick answers to help you with this question.)
Regarding literacy in chemistry, I like that you’ve related it to literacy in math. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I would be interested to see the ways in which the two literacies differ later on in this course.
Thanks, Dani.
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ReplyDelete