All Teachers are Language Teachers: Matching Curriculum Content with Language Objectives Courtenay Comiskey Anna Kmiec Matthew Lane Leipzig International School

“All LIS teachers are language teachers as well as content teachers” LIS Literacy Handbook p. 1 “All staff share responsibility to develop language” LIS staff handbook p. 68 “All teachers are language teachers.” Frankfurt International School “At DISV language is central to learning and all teachers are language teachers.” Danube International School Vienna All Teachers are Language Teachers: Are You Ready to Transform Teaching at Your International School? ISS Course, “all educators need to be prepared to instruct students who are in the process of acquiring English.” EdCentral “…all teachers share the responsibility for fostering language development.” Berlin Brandenburg International School “every teacher within the school is considered a language teacher.” Bavarian International School

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher At ISD we believe that all teachers are language teachers.

Reflection 1 What does the statement “We are all language teachers” mean to you? What does this look like in a lesson or classroom? What impact does it have on planning?

What does the research say?

“Language objectives are important for all learners; however they are critical for ELL students and many low-literacy students.” “Language objectives are crucial for ELLs. English language learners can more easily master content when teaching practices incorporate strategies for language learning, like the use of language objectives.” (Robert Wandberg and John Rohwer, Teaching Health Education in Language Diverse Classrooms.)

WIDA “WIDA advances academic language development and academic achievement for linguistically diverse students through high quality standards, assessments, research, and professional development for educators.” (

WIDA “WIDA’s Framework for Language Development Standards …consist of a set of interactive and interdependent components that exemplify WIDA’s vision for academic language development” Amplification of The English Language Standards Kindergarten – Grade 12 (WIDA)

IB Conference of the Americas 2015 Exploring How Language Development Standards Can Work With IB Content Statements for ELL Development

Reflection 2 Think about your subject area. What type of explicit language skills do your students need for academic success in your subject? How do you teach this? How do you differentiate for differing language levels?

What is the SIOP ® Model? “…a framework for organising instruction, The SIOP ® Model supports teachers in planning and delivering high-quality instruction for all students” Key features of SIOP ® Model support academic success of English Learners through: Inclusion of language objectives in content lesson planning Development of background knowledge Emphasis on academic literacy practice

SIOP Lesson – Comprehensible Input

How do we plan for language and content? Helpful lesson planner Effective strategies and practical resources to match language and content

Using SIOP for Planning

Individual planning

Reflection 3 Compass Points? What does the statement “We are all language teachers” mean to you? What does it look like in a lesson or classroom? What impact does it have on planning?

Comments and Questions