1. Gearing Up for Academic Conversations
Christina Carlson and
Megan Anderson Reilly

2. Welcome!

3. Opinion Continuum Plaza or Parking lot?
Uniforms for YSD kids or no Uniforms for YSD kids?
Page in Academic Conversations
Opposing sides. Sheets meet with other sheets
Elaborates and justifies opinion with examples. Sign sheets.. NOT with middle.
After 3 plus signatures holder must sign his/her name on the continuum and provide elaboration/justification.
Share out what their partners argued and whether they were swayed by the conversations.
Then do on the white board
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?
Do this, debrief activity and then write the strategy on their recording paper

4. Objectives Develop a deeper understanding of language acquisition
Gain a practical understanding of ELPS #2
Identify key SKILLS to teach your kids to increase academic conversation
Determine how to ASSESS your kids with oral language
Gain effective STRATEGIES

5. Project
Work collaboratively to design a video on something presented in this professional learning that will benefit your own classroom or other teachers.

6. Yakima School District
16,782 students
5,376 ELL (32%)
7608 students K-5
3770 ELL (50%)
YSD= Sheltered Instruction District
Every class is supporting academic content and English language development

7. Academic Conversations
Content, Thinking, Language

8. Developing language requires:
Input and Output
Input:
Output:

9. Input As we make meaning, words and grammar stick in our brain
Language is reinforced as it is used multiple times

10. output Try new ways of constructing and clarifying messages
Put ideas into words and sentences
As we succeed in communicating meaning to others, language used sticks

11. Academic Speaking 13/340 3.8% 6/340 1.8%
Evidence of the Dire Need for Structured Verbal Engagement in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
Academic Speaking
Number of times
Percentage of total time
Student to another student
13/340
3.8%
Student to small group
6/340
1.8%
This is YSD data. What might your data look like? How might you collect data now for next year?
What does this tell you about some classrooms in the YSD? What do you think the teachers here thought about their classrooms and the interactions?

12. Percentage of total time Student to student 19/340 5.6%
Evidence of the Dire Need for Structured Verbal Engagement in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
Academic Listening
Number of times
Percentage of total time
Student to student
19/340
5.6%
Student to teacher
77/340
23%
Student to small group
1/34-
0.3%

13. Focus for YSD Sheltered Instruction
Language Objectives and English Language Proficiency Standards
Structured Interactions
Language Assessment

14. Receptive Productive Interactive Language Modalities
Academic Conversations

15. focus: ELPS 2
An ELL can participate in grade- appropriate oral and written exchanges of information, ideas, and analyses, responding to peer, audience, or reader comments and questions.
Vote, ccss speaking and listening standards,

16. How often do you have conversations that do these things
How often do you have conversations that do these things? How often do your students?

17. ELPS 2
What do you notice about this standard across the proficiency levels?
What does this mean for your instruction?

18. Sheltered Classrooms=
Content AND language objectives
Read
Write
Speak
Listen
CHRISTINA: What is the intentional reading teaching piece that you want students to do related to the content

19. Break!

20. Why academic conversations?
Strategy:
Quotation Café
Predict, synthesize, interpret
Quotation Café page 122 from Academic Conversations
Strips of quotes on paper or notecards
Same quote, same color
Form an idea about the text will be about as they talk. Find 3 partners with different quotations and one with same. After the initial circulation, get into pairs to analyze, synthesize their ideas. Predictions and inferences will improve as they hear more quotations and predictions from others.
Sequence of the quotes?
Conversation Map Card
Half quotes where students need to find the other half.
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?

21. Creating Conversation Tips Chart
Action steps!
1. Setting up Norms for Academic Conversations or better yet…
Creating Conversation Tips Chart
Page for Kinder
Page for grade 4
After reading these… what are the implications or action steps you could ‘try out’ this year in preparation of getting bugs out prior to next year. Think about the first time you do a new strategy, does it work out the way you had intended?
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?

22. 2. Model constructive conversations and their skills
Fishbowl
Video
Observations
Page 30-31, in Academic Conversations
Create strips that include:
wild tangent
gossip
criticize an idea
one do the work
one check your phone, be distracted
look around the room
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?

23. 3. Teaching Academic conversation skills
How to start academic conversations
Annotate
Reciprocal Read
Article titled How to Start Academic Conversations
Partner read

24. Lunch!

25. Three minute opinion share
What’s better…
Staying home and resting
Going on an adventure

26. Dialogue Read the dialogue
Where do you see students using skills of academic conversation?
Do these conversations happen in your classroom? Why or why not?

27. Teaching the skills of Academic conversation
Front of card:
TEACHER:
Elaborate/Clarify
Can you elaborate on…?
What do you mean by…?
Why is that important…?
Include hand motions

28. Teaching the skills of Academic conversation
Back of card:
STUDENT:
Elaborate/Clarify
I think it means that….
In other words…
It is important because…
Include hand motions
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?

29. Now Use Your Card Two lines:
Practice New Language Patterns and get repetition of grammar and vocabulary.
What are the implications of this article for my classroom?
Use your card to elaborate and clarify
Two Lines
Page 28 29
Conversation Lines and Circles
Go back and add to your strategy chart. Is this what you are going to videotape for your project later today?

30. View conversations as workshops, workouts, windows
Basic ideas and pieces are built up to ideas that didn’t exist before.
It will be messy and loud!

31. Workouts
opportunities to practice language, thinking, pushed by others

32. Windows
Thinking
Conversation skills
Content
Language
Engagement

33. assessments of conversations and provide feedback
Self assessment Teacher assessment Peer assessment
Eye to eye Page 45, page 91- conversation self evaluation checklist, teacher assessment

34. What level of proficiency are the students?
ELPS 2 Assessment
Watch the video.
literacy/video_list_lecture_components/714710/lect ure_videos/11408
What level of proficiency are the students?
What would be your next steps as the teacher to develop students’ skills?
Christina and I model this for everyone- evidence based terms, page 64

35. Your classroom How are you going to assess ELPS 2 in your class?
Which ELLs are you going to focus on?
Name
How are you going to assess ELPS 2 in your class?
What will be your next steps?

36. Project
Work collaboratively to design a video on something presented in this professional learning that will benefit your own classroom or other teachers.

37. Share out: What’s next What are your next steps? What do you need?
What did you get?

38. Objectives Develop a deeper understanding of language acquisition
Gain a practical understanding of ELPS #2
Identify key SKILLS to teach your kids to increase academic conversation
Determine how to ASSESS your kids with oral language
Gain effective STRATEGIES

39. Thank you!