1. Building Academic Language through Quality Talk
NDNU
Originated from Welton Kwong
Administrator for English Learners
Fremont Union HSD

2. What are the Targets today?
Demographics
Understanding context of Academic language and quality talk
Demo lesson

3. Country of origin for a majority of students in U. S
Country of origin for a majority of students in U.S. schools who are designated“Limited English Proficient”?
markers

4. The United States

5. English Learners in Public Schools: 1998 to 2015
Definition: Number of public school students identified as English Learners, a term used to describe students with a primary language other than English and who lack the defined English language skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing necessary to succeed in a school's regular instructional programs.
Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Dept. of Education, DataQuest (May 2015).

6. Number of English Learners in SF Bay Area, 1998 - 2016

7. English Learners in Public Schools, by Top 10 Languages Spoken: 2015
(Language Spoken: All)
Definition: Number of public school students who are English Learners, by top 10 languages spoken. English Learners are students with a primary language other than English and who lack the defined English language skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing necessary to succeed in regular school instructional programs.
Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Dept. of Education, English Learners by Grade and Language Data Files (May 2015).

8. English Learners in Public Schools, by Top 10 Languages Spoken: 2015
(Language Spoken: All)
Definition: Number of public school students who are English Learners, by top 10 languages spoken. English Learners are students with a primary language other than English and who lack the defined English language skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing necessary to succeed in regular school instructional programs.
Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Dept. of Education, English Learners by Grade and Language Data Files (May 2015).

9. English Learners in Public Schools, by Top 10 Languages Spoken: 2015
(Language Spoken: All)
Definition: Number of public school students who are English Learners, by top 10 languages spoken. English Learners are students with a primary language other than English and who lack the defined English language skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing necessary to succeed in regular school instructional programs.
Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Dept. of Education, English Learners by Grade and Language Data Files (May 2015).

10. English Learners in Public Schools, by Top 10 Languages Spoken: 2015
(Language Spoken: All)
Definition: Number of public school students who are English Learners, by top 10 languages spoken. English Learners are students with a primary language other than English and who lack the defined English language skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing necessary to succeed in regular school instructional programs.
Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Dept. of Education, English Learners by Grade and Language Data Files (May 2015).

11. Academic Language
English language learners
And...

12. Academic Language
just
vocabulary

14. Learning, practicing, and using academic language Thinking
Learning content knowledge and skills

15. Lev Vygotsky ( )
the primacy of linguistic mediation in the development of higher mental processes
language is the main vehicle of thought and that all language use is dialogic
thought is restructured as it is transformed into speech, and completed in the word
Language does not stand alone; it is a representation of ideas. The way to appropriate academic language AND learn new ideas is by producing it, using it, exercising it, wrestling with it and trying it out.

16. Success in school and beyond Acquisition of academic language
Substantive academic conversations

17. ?
What is
academic
language

18. The grass got burned up, so the grasshopper has nothing to eat; now the birds have nothing to eat and the animals that eat birds have nothing to eat.
A sudden decrease in the population of one type of organism in the food chain will affect all of the other organisms in the food chain.
Provide Gebhard handout.

19. Text 1 There was no rain for a very long time
Text 1 There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had planted crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people.
What genre of writing does this sound like?

20. Text 2 The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.
What genre of writing does this sound like?

21. Text 1
There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had plated crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people.
Text 2
The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.
Academic Language: diction, or use of words. “Drought” is more concise wording than “There was no rain for a very long time.”

22. Text 1
There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had plated crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people.
Text 2
The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.
Same thing here. Overall feature is that it looks precise.

23. So…
What do we do?

24. Substantive speech/dialog Acquisition of academic language
Increased literacy

25. Percent of talk that should be done by students
50%-66%
Percent of talk that should be done by students

26. Type and percentage of talk in English by English Learners

27. Not just talk…

28. …QUALITY talk
So it all goes back to the importance of talk….

29. Base Group KWL What do you know about the Seven Isles?
What would you like to know about the Seven Isles?
What have you learned about the Seven Isles?
KWL chart. K stands for “know.” What you know already? (prior knowledge)
W stands for “would.” What would you like to know?
L stands for “learn.” This is the summative part, done at the end of the lesson. You ask the students what did you learn.
Info from Chronicles of Narnia series

30. One thing I know about the Seven Isles is…
One aspect of the Seven Isles I am familiar with is…
One thing I want to learn about the Seven Isles is…. I wonder why/how…
One aspect of the Seven Isles that I am curious about is (noun)…. I find it interesting that…
Base Group KWL Round Robin
Base Group. KWL Round Robin.

31. This part is tricky, but I think it means….
Take turns reading a section of your assigned text aloud. After reading your section, say:
This part is tricky, but I think it means….
I’m not sure what this is about, but I think it may mean….
The main points of this section are….
Two questions I have about this section are….
Base Group KWL Round Robin
NOTE: ASK 4407 STUDENTS THAT FOR THE REST OF THIS DEMO THEY ARE NOT TO USE THEIR MOBILE DEVICES OR COMPUTERS. RELY ONLY ON THE ARTIFACTS GIVEN TO THEM BY ME, AND EACH OTHER.
Expert Group. Interacting with the Text.

32. My reading contains several important points
My reading contains several important points. First, the author explains…. S/he subsequently describes…. Lastly, s/he informs the reader that….
The author of my reading first explains X. After his/her explanation of X, s/he describes…. Before s/he concludes her article, s/he informs the reader that….
Base Group KWL Round Robin
Base Group. Summarizing the readings..

33. Question Sentence Starter
What is it?
I think it is a….
It appears to be a….
What color is it?
It has a…color.
It has a similar color to….
What shape is it?
It is in the shape of a….
It has the shape of a….
What do you think it is made of?
It appears to be made of….
It seems that … is used to make this object.
What details do you see?
Some details I notice are….
What are some other aspects you notice?
Other aspects about the artifact I notice are….
Other aspects about the artifact I find interesting are….
Expert Group Describing the Benin artifacts
Collect pictures
Changing the questions into sentence starters to help with quality talk. This also fits well with ELL students.
Expert Group. Describing the artifacts

34. The item I examined was a(n)…, a(n)…, that has a…color similar to….
It was in the shape of a…. It appeared to be made of….
It appears to be made of….
Some details that I noticed were…. For example, on the left….
I also found interesting….
Base Group KWL Round Robin
Base Group. Reporting artifact details.

35. Guidelines for your short story
Stories have a title.
There is a central character and others. In your story, Aravis Tarkheena is the central character.
The setting is the Seven Isles.
Something happens to the character.
The event transforms the character.
All artifacts must be interwoven into the story.
Including 3 or more academic sequence words (e.g., subsequently, after…).
Use past tense verbs.
Base Group KWL Round Robin
NOTE: ASK 4407 STUDENTS THAT FOR THE REST OF THIS DEMO THEY ARE NOT TO USE THEIR MOBILE DEVICES OR COMPUTERS. RELY ONLY ON THE ARTIFACTS GIVEN TO THEM BY ME, AND EACH OTHER.
Base Group. Writing short story.

36. Base Group KWL What do you know about the Seven Isles?
What would you like to know about the Seven Isles?
What have you learned about the Seven Isles?
KWL chart. K stands for “know.” What you know already? (prior knowledge)
W stands for “would.” What would you like to know?
L stands for “learn.” This is the summative part, done at the end of the lesson. You ask the students what did you learn.
Info from Chronicles of Narnia series

37. SDAIE Strategies Used in Lesson
Background building
Graphic organizers
Modeling
Manipulatives and hands-on materials
Active participation and quality talk in various group and individual configurations
Print-rich environment
Authentic and meaningful tasks
Opportunity for reflecting and verbalizing thoughts with academic language models

38. Why Cultural Competency?
It is most important to know about lives that seem, on the surface, unlike our own.
--Naomi Shihab Nye (Palestinian poet)
Unless the schools of the world can engage in a common effort to rebuild the spirit of common understanding of mutual sympathy and goodwill among all peoples and races, to exorcise the demons of prejudice, isolation and hatred, the schools themselves are likely to be submerged by the general return to barbarism, which is the sure outcome of present tendencies if they go unchecked by forces which education alone can evoke and fortify.
--John Dewey (1934)

39. Crucially important…
students engage in quality talk. Working in small groups, students solve problems together, struggle, and make mistakes as they “apprentice to the language” and eventually “own the language.”

40. For Further Reading…
Gibbons, P Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom.
Gibbons, P English learners academic literacy and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone.
Krashen, S The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications.
Long, M. and Porter P “Group Work, Interlanguage Talk, and Second Language Acquisition.”
Swain, M “Three Functions of Output in Second Language Learning.”
Swain, M “The Output Hypothesis and Beyond: Mediating Acquisition through Collaborative Dialogue.”
Vygotsky, L Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Process.
Zwiers, J Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms.