1. How to Help Struggling Students Become Good Language Learners
Anna Uhl Chamot & Jill Robbins
National Capital Language Resource Center
Summer Institute 2006

2. Who is the Struggling Student?
This student has problems with…
keeping up with classmates
organizing him/herself and the work environment
following verbal instructions
longer-term work tasks and need work chunked for them
social and emotional skills

3. CALLA-FL: The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach for Foreign Languages
COMPONENTS:
AUTHENTIC CONTENT
SOCIAL & ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
LEARNING STRATEGIES

4. Five instructional principles in CALLA-FL
Recognize and build on students’ prior knowledge.
Provide meaningful learning tasks.
Engage in interactive teaching and learning.
Focus on learning processes and strategies.
Help students evaluate their own learning.

5. DEVELOPING METACOGNITION
Model metacognitive awareness.
Ask students to describe their thinking processes.
Have students take responsibility for their own learning.

6. CALLA’S FIVE PHASES PREPARATION EXPANSION PRESENTATION SELF-EVALUATION
CALLA Five Phases
PRACTICE

7. PREPARATION Identify objectives. Elicit students’ prior knowledge.
Develop vocabulary.
Provide motivation.

8. PREPARATION
How would this help the struggling learner?

9. PRESENTATION Present new information in varied ways.
Model processes explicitly.
Explain learning strategies.
Discuss connections to students’ prior knowledge.

10. PRESENTATION
What kinds of presentation methods would help the struggling learner?
Are you already presenting with a variety of media?

11. PRACTICE Use hands-on/inquiry-based activities.
Provide different cooperative learning structures.
Use authentic content tasks.
Ask students to use learning strategies.

12. PRACTICE
What kinds of practice activities would help the struggling learner?

13. SELF-EVALUATION Students discuss their own learning.
Students keep learning journals.
Students assess their own strategy use.

14. SELF-EVALUATION
How can you help struggling learners to evaluate themselves more accurately?

15. EXPANSION Students apply information to own lives.
Students make connections between content subjects and the target culture.
Students relate information to first language knowledge of content and culture.

16. EXPANSION
How can what has been learned in FL class help struggling learners in their other classes?

17. CALLA Instruction Summary
Teacher Responsibility
Changes over time
Prepare
Present
Practice
Self-Evaluate
Expand
Student Responsibility

18. Preparation Presentation Practice Self- Evaluation Expansion
Teacher’s role in . .
Preparation
Activate Background Knowledge
Presentation
Explain
Model
Practice
Prompt use of strategies
Give Feedback
Self- Evaluation
Assess strategies
Expansion
Support transfer
Apply

19. Preparation Presentation Practice Self- Evaluation Expansion
Students’ role in . .
Preparation
Attend
Presentation
Participate
Practice
Apply strategies with guidance
Self- Evaluation
Self-assess strategies
Expansion
Use strategies independently
Transfer strategies to new tasks

20. CALLA-FL Assessment Use authentic content tasks.
Evaluate content knowledge.
Evaluate language proficiency.
Use self-report for learning strategies.
Use self-assessment and reflection.

21. CALLA-FL Assessment
How can you use assessment to better understand your struggling students?
Can assessment become a more positive experience for your struggling students?

22. CALLA-FL Instruction Is...
Learner-centered
Reflective
Supportive
Focused
Enthusiastic