1 Academic Literacy Community of Practice Webinar 1: Effective Science and Social Studies Instruction for ELLs Hosted by the Center on Instruction February 9, 2010 We will begin promptly at 3:00 pm Eastern Time. To access the audio portion of this event, please call (866) Meeting number: Your caller/user ID can be found in the box that popped up when you logged in, or by clicking on the “Info” tab on the upper, left-hand area of your window.

2 The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC Research Corporation in partnership with the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University; RG Research Group; the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston; and The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin. The contents of this PowerPoint were developed under cooperative agreement S283B with the U.S. Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government The Center on Instruction requests that no changes be made to the content or appearance of this product.

3 Housekeeping For technical assistance, please dial Mute/unmute your phone by right-clicking on your name or using mute button on your phone Q&A feature for specific questions Chat feature for informal comments, etc. QA feature forlarifying questions relatedresentation. Session will be recorded and posted on the COI website

4 Academic Literacy Community of Practice Webinar 1: Effective Science and Social Studies Instruction for ELLs Hosted by the Center on Instruction February 9, 2010

5 COI Staff Angela Penfold, Director Ruth Dober, Deputy Director of Communications Andrea Reade, Research Associate David Francis, Director (ELL Strand) Mabel Rivera, Deputy Director (ELL Strand) Debby Miller, Deputy Director (Reading Strand) Christy Murray, Deputy Director (Special Ed Strand) Erika Soucy, Technical Assistance

6 Academic Literacy Community of Practice PURPOSES: –Present latest research on academic literacy across a variety of content areas in grades 4-12 – Assist with interpretation of research, including implications for practice –Help RCCs apply new knowledge to their work with SEAs –Provide a forum for discussion and sharing of ideas, challenges, successes, and lessons learned by RCC colleagues

7 Academic Literacy Community of Practice ACTIVITIES for CoP MEMBERS: –Participate in monthly CoP calls/webinars –Read, review, or become familiar with recommended readings prior to each webinar –Invite representatives from SEAs from both general education and special education to participate in webinars with you (if desired) –Participate in “next steps” in between CoP webinars, including follow-up with SEA colleagues –Take advantage of coaching calls This will be explained at end of today’s webinar

8 Academic Literacy Community of Practice Schedule of Events Academic Literacy for ELLs in Science and Social Studies Classrooms Tuesday, Feb. 9 3:00 - 4:30 ET David Francis Leticia Martinez Colleen Reutebuch Academic Literacy in Social Studies Classrooms (non-ELL) Thursday, March 11 3:00 - 4:30 ET Cynthia Shanahan Adolescent LiteracyFriday, April 30 1:00 - 2:30 ET Don Deshler Academic Language and ELLs Tuesday, May 11 3:00 - 4:30 ET Robin Scarcella Current and Ongoing Research on Secondary RTI Thursday, June 10 3:00 - 4:30 ET Greg Roberts

9 Today’s Agenda Formal presentation Question and answer session with our featured speakers Discussion among webinar participants, featured speakers and COI staff Next steps Evaluation

Introduction to CREATE David Francis, Director CREATE

11 About CREATE CREATE –A National Research and Development Center –Funded through the U.S. Dept. of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) National Center for Education Research (NCER) –Mission is to address specific challenges in the education of EL learners in the middle grades (Grades 4-8)

12 About CREATE CREATE is a partnership of researchers from several institutions: Texas Inst. for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, Univ. of Houston Texas Inst. for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, Univ. of Houston David J. Francis, Coleen D. Carlson California State University at Long Beach California State University at Long Beach Jana Echevarria, Catherine Richards Center for Applied Linguistics Center for Applied Linguistics Diane August, Deborah Short Harvard University Harvard University Catherine Snow University of California-Berkeley University of California-Berkeley Elfrieda Hiebert The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, UT - Austin The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, UT - Austin Sharon Vaughn, Sylvia Linan-Thompson

Center Work Scope 13

Problem Focus of CREATE Inadequate research base on Middle School EL learners –Short & Fitzsimmons (2006) Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners Inadequate knowledge base on effective practices regarding comprehension and vocabulary instruction Limited understanding of the features of instruction that facilitate EL learners content knowledge Need for more effective models for delivering instruction to EL learners Need for the dissemination of information on Effective Practices

Focused Program of Research Program of research to address challenges in the education of EL learners in the middle grades (Grades 4–8) in science and social studies. –Develop research-based interventions –Test these interventions in controlled experiments/randomized field trials with classroom teachers –Combine them into a comprehensive package –Test the effectiveness of the combined package in randomized experiments

Focused Program of Research Area 1: Enhancement to Instructional Practice and Literacy Materials General objective is to take interventions that have proven effective with non-EL students and provide enhancements that should make them more effective for EL learners –Studies / Interventions have been conducted in: Teacher-guided methods to enhance vocabulary and comprehension in Science (August) Peer Collaborative Group Work in Social Studies (Thompson and Vaughn) Enhanced vocabulary instruction (Snow)

Focused Program of Research Area 2: Studies of SIOP General Objective is to rigorously test the SIOP model and develop an integrated instruction model –Studies 1 & 2 (Short and Echevarria) Test SIOP model when implemented with real teachers provided model lesson plans in Middle School Science Studies to be carried out in multiple locations Outcome focus is on concept formation in science and language and literacy development

Leadership and Dissemination Today, you will learn about our current study that integrates the research across these two strands. Recent special issue of Journal of Research on Education Effectiveness featured the research of CREATE Webcasts offered in collaboration with WestEd Electronic Publications –CREATE Website ( –CREATE Newsletter Professional Connections –Participation in professional meetings (IRA, AERA, TESOL, NABE) –Annual CREATE Conference

19 Enhancing Vocabulary and Concept Learning in Grade 7 Social Studies and Science Content Classes Colleen Reutebuch Leticia Martinez Project Coordinators Sharon Vaughn & Sylvia Linan-Thompson, Co-PIs

20 Agenda Social Studies Intervention Science Intervention Q &A

21 English as a Second Language Techniques Builds on best practices from SIOP –Lesson preparation –Building background –Comprehensible input –Strategies –Interaction –Practice/application –Lesson delivery –Review and assessment

22 The Social Studies Intervention Overarching activities: –focus on big idea and concept learning –use of peer mediated learning –provide opportunities for student discourse Four intervention components: –explicit vocabulary/concept instruction –strategic use of video and purposeful discussion to build concepts –use of graphic organizers and writing to build big ideas –use of peer pairing

23 Vocabulary Instruction for ELLS Vocabulary development is especially important for ELLs because they are less able to comprehend text at grade level than their English-only counterparts (August et al. 2005) Strategies used with English-only students are also effective with ELLs, although we do have to adapt to their language needs

24 Vocabulary Strategies There are several strategies that are especially valuable for building ELLs’ vocabulary: Take advantage of students’ first language Have students become engaged with the word Provide multiple exposures to words August et al., 2005

25 Prioritizing Vocabulary Not all vocabulary are of equal significance Before teaching a lesson, identify about 4 words that have utility and importance

26 Choosing Words to Teach Beck, McKeown, and Kucan, 2005 Tier 1 words are the most basic words that the majority of students know Examples: state, past, war Tier 2 words are high-frequency words that are critical for content understanding Examples: annexation, colonist, emancipation Tier 3 words are not frequently used across a variety of domains Examples: nullification, status quo

27 Parsing of Text by Teacher Parsing of text and selecting the most important content should be done during planning. Try to select and condense text by eliminating unnecessary information. While segmenting and parsing the text you can decide where to stop the reading in order to initiate a discussion to construct meaning

28 When you prepare for a lesson: Select text to be used (and make sure to eliminate unnecessary information) Write a very brief summary of the content (connected to the big idea) for sharing with students before lesson Select key vocabulary for pre-teaching and plan on using them in reading and follow-up activities Decide if you can use a video clip to support your lesson Formulate questions for drawing on background knowledge. Write questions that students will use before, during, and after reading.

29 Lesson Preparation (cont.) Decide how you will model reading comprehension strategy for students during read-aloud Plan on how to assess students learning through review activities such as completion of graphic organizers, summary statements, and class discussion as a way to wrap-up the lesson

30 Social Studies Lesson Framework Daily- 1.Start the lesson with an overview that incorporates the big idea 2.Prioritize and explicitly teach concepts/vocabulary 3.Use brief video clips to build concepts 4.Read-aloud by teacher or with student partners 5.Generate and answer questions. 6.Wrap-up with discussion, graphic organizer or activity Weekly- 1. Review and progress monitor 2. Whole class review of quiz items and clarification/re- teaching/re- enforcement of concepts, if necessary

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32 1. Talk about the big idea of the lesson

33 2. Teach pre-selected concepts/vocabulary 1. Show students concept/vocabulary transparency. 2. Pronounce the word, give Spanish cognate or translation, and define it. 3. Ask or tell students how the illustration is representative of the word. 4. Use word in two sentences. 5. Use Turn & Talk prompts to help students make connections between the unit of study and what they know. 6. Give students opportunities to encounter the word repeatedly throughout instruction.

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35 3. Watch video clip to provide access to text 1. Introduce the video clip either before students have read the textbook passage. 2. Preview what students will watch in the video and set the purpose. 3. Students watch the video clip. 4. Conduct a brief discussion about the video.

36 4. Paired/teacher-led read aloud to promote academic and linguistic performance

37 5. Generate and answer questions questions from assigned reading Who are the people living in Texas in 1835, right before the Texas Revolution begins? How did they get here? Why did Mexican government officials issue stricter laws on Texas settlers? Do you think the Texas settlers were right to go to war against the Mexican government? Why or why not?

38 6. Review/Assessment 1. Introduce the activity. 2. Explain how students will use the activity. 3. Direct students to work on this activity in their notebook (if the activity involves a graphic organizer, display it and clarify how to complete it). 4. Remind students that graphic organizers and other activities are used to organize the most important information (main ideas) from their lessons. 5. Make time to review students’ responses and provide feedback.

39 Clarifying Questions Regarding Social Studies Instruction?

40 QuEST Quality English and Science Teaching Center for Applied Linguistics Diane August, PI

41 QuEST: Quality English and Science Teaching NSF model of science instruction that includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation Language and literacy development, including writing Student learning strategies Word learning (cognates, word roots, base words) Comprehension (generating questions, summarizing) Motivation (based on work of Guthrie--provide lots of hands-on experiences, give students choices) Teacher collaboration Professional development and mentoring

42 Engagement (warm-up) Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration Hands-on science activities Guided reading Language arts Evaluation QuEST Framework

43 Methods to Develop Academic Language in the Content of Science Guided Reading Writing Word-learning strategies –Cognates –Base words –Root words Academic and technical vocabulary –glossaries and assessments Cooperative group and partner work

44 Language and Science Objectives

45 Guided Reading–Teacher Guide

46 Guided Reading–Student Guide

47 Writing Activity–Student Guide

48 Word Learning Strategies

49 Example of a Word Learning Strategy–Cognates: Letter Differences Read the Spanish words in the list below. Next to each Spanish word, write its English cognate and circle the letters in the English word that are different than the Spanish cognate. Spanish Cognates English Cognates 1. astronautas__________________________ 2. momento__________________________ 3. planeta__________________________

50 Selection of Vocabulary Use the Academic Word List to select the highest frequency general academic words

51 Academic Glossary

52 Technical Glossary

53 Teacher Review Cards

54 Vocabulary Assessment—Student Guide

55 Differentiating Instruction/Scaffolding Partnering with high and low proficient students working together, while teacher pulls group of struggling learners Guided reading where teacher reads the text Use of on-level supplementary materials for students who are more advanced Lots of teacher modeling –Written examples of what students have to produce –Use of visuals prior to reading the text

56 About CREATE Find out more about CREATE’s projects and activities at Subscribe to the announcement list to receive regular updates from CREATE:

57 Additional Resources National Literacy Panel –August, D. & Shanahan, T. (2007). Developing literacy in second-language learners. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. –August, D. & Shanahan, T. (2008). Developing reading and writing in second-language learners. Routledge, IRA, and CAL Optimizing Outcomes for English Language Learners: Project SAILL SIOP

58 Questions?

59 Discussion How do we: (a)equip content area teachers with the skills necessary to utilize academic literacy practices in content area classrooms? (b)encourage content area teachers to embrace the use of academic literacy strategies in their classrooms?

60 Next Steps Your Challenge: RCC/SEA Dialogue Guide Optional Coaching Calls –Provided as an extra support to CoP members

61 Thank You! Next webinar is March 3:00 - 4:30 ET –Topic is Social Studies instruction (non-ELL) with Cynthia Shanahan: What Social Studies Teachers Can Do to Help All Students Understand (and Like) History. Evaluation available at: