Language Targets at the Heart of Your Discipline Using Sentence Stems to Foster Academic Understanding

Rita & John Rita Platt is a Nationally Board Certified teacher. Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergarten to graduate student. She currently is a Library Media & Reading Specialist for the St. Croix Falls SD in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and consults with local school districts. John Wolfe is a teacher on special assignment for the Multilingual Department at the Minneapolis Public School District. He has worked with students at all levels as well as provided professional development to fellow teachers. His areas of expertise include English Language Learners, literacy, and integrated technology.

Relax … Everything (and more) is on The Wiki PD must be : Continuous, Collaborative, Communicative

An invitation to a conversation! Conversational Collaborative Continuing

Ike & Tina Turner (in reverse) First we’re going to it nice and hard – then we’re going to ease it up a little.

Content Teaching: The Challenge

ABC = Always Be Closing

Always Be Closing

Always Be Closing for Teachers of ELs Everything you do … Everything you ask your student to do … … is designed to support the student in – achieving the key conceptual learning in your “power standard” … and – demonstrating that learning in level-appropriate, supported language

Example: Minnesota Science Standard # GradesStrand Sub- strand JW's Summary Standard "Understand that... Standard (no grade, no benchmark) The Nature of Science and Engineering 1. The Practice of Science What is science? Gr 1, 3: Scientists work as individuals and in groups to investigate the natural world, emphasizing evidence and communicating with others. Gr 5, 7, 8: Science is a way of knowing about the natural world, is done by individuals and groups, and is characterized by empirical criteria, logical argument and skeptical review. empirical criteria = careful description of process careful records of observations (descriptions, drawing, measurement) skeptical review = “if I do the same experiment, I get the same results”

Visual support to demonstrate conceptual understanding

Gr 1, 3: Scientists work as individuals and in groups to investigate the natural world, emphasizing evidence and communicating with others. “How was this science?” “Science is a way of understanding the rules of nature. This time, we wanted to understand balance.” Our investigation was to make the mobile balance. For evidence, we had the drawings & measurements. We found out that to balance, when the distances are the same, the weights can be the same. When the weights are different, the distances have to be difference. Scientists communicate … and when we talked to another group, they agreed.

Visual support to demonstrate conceptual understanding Gr 1, 3: Scientists work as individuals and in groups to investigate the natural world, emphasizing evidence and communicating with others. Science: learn about nature evidence communicate 1.learn about nature is balance 2.evidence is this & ruler & pictures 3.if same, then same long  short, then little and big that’s balance 4.communicate = talked to next table. same answers. Is okay.

Heresy: You have to know what you want your students to say. And you have to know what it will sound like in “broken English” for each of your English Learners That’s what your expertise consists of … ABC = Always Be Closing … you have a laser focus on your goal … students demonstrate key conceptual learning set forth by the standard.

John Hattie Hattie’s 4 Keys (LICENse) Teacher must know 1. L earning I ntention, 2. C riteria for success, 3. E ach students’ towards the goal, 4. Where to Go N ext

What about Constructivism & Discovery Learning? “The Case for Fully Guided Instruction” (2012)

Ed Source (Hakuta)

Claude Goldenberg (2012) 1.Clear goals and objectives 2.Appropriate and challenging material 3.Well-designed instruction and instructional routines 4.Clear input and modeling 5.Active student engagement and participation 6.Informative feedback to learners 7.Application of new learning and transfer to new situations 8.Practice and periodic review 9.Structured, focused interactions with other students. 10.Frequent assessments, with reteaching as needed 11.Well-established classroom routines and behavior norms There is a vast literature on effective teaching practices. Educational research over more than a half-century has yielded a number of reasonably consistent findings about the features of teaching likely to result in improved student learning. 2 These include 2

Novelty vs. Continuity Novelty – new content, new terms, new language … will tend to play to English Learners’ weaknesses Key Conceptual Learning … staircased through the curriculum … will focus both student and teacher on their strengtsh

Key Idea: This is a hugely difficult intellectual task.

Key Idea: Hard Work

Study Your Standards Wisconsin K-4 Science Standards … 8 Standards 45 “performance standards” Wisconsin K-8 Science Standards … 8 Standards 109 “performance standards” Minnesota K-8 Science Standards … 30 Standards 100’s of “benchmarks” (roughly equal to your performance standards)

Knowing Standards means … Science Social Studies Reading (Informational Texts) Writing (Information Texts) Speaking, Listening WIDA Standards (for modification & support) Often at multiple grade levels!

And… Learning targets supported by text book and other materials (probably CA, TX or some set of National Council Standards.) Building or District version of curriculum Learning targets assessed on state tests Co-teachers & colleagues (the “taught” curriculum”) District-level statements of learning targets

Tact

First Steps …

Visual support to demonstrate conceptual understanding Gr 1, 3: Scientists work as individuals and in groups to investigate the natural world, emphasizing evidence and communicating with others. “How was this science?” “Science is a way of understanding the rules of nature. This time, we wanted to understand balance.” Our investigation was to make the mobile balance. For evidence, we had the drawings & measurements. We found out that to balance, when the distances are the same, the weights can be the same. When the weights are different, the distances have to be difference. Scientists communicate … and when we talked to another group, they agreed. Science: learn about nature evidence communicate 1.learn about nature is balance 2.evidence is this & ruler & pictures 3.if same, then same long  short, then little and big that’s balance 4.communicate = talked to next table. same answers. Is okay.

Or … those key sentences

You can’t do it alone …

An invitation to a conversation! Conversational Collaborative Continuing

The Old Way

The New Way + The Surgical Model

Sentence Stems Do your students know what the purpose of the stem is?

Standards-Based Instruction Embrace the Common Core Embrace the MN Content Standards Only Do What’s MOST Important! You Can’t Do it All! (Ed Source/Hakuta & Dutro)

Common Core Standards

Minnesota State Standards

Wisconsin State Standards