1. The CALLA Model in Curriculum Design
Behind The Scenes:
The CALLA Model in Curriculum Design
Senabil Al-Hussaini
Institute of Applied Technology
March, 2010

2. Cognitive Academic Language
CALLA
Cognitive Academic Language
Learning Approach
“Instructional Model Designed to Meet The Academic Needs of English Language Learners” (Chamot, 2009, P.1)

3. Who Are English Language Learners (ELLs)?
Learner Types
Description
New to English with adequate schooling
New to learning the language and/or less than 5 years in an English speaking setting.
Adequate schooling in mother tongue.
Soon catch up academically.
May still score low on standardized tests given in English.
New to English with limited formal schooling
Interrupted or limited schooling in mother tongue.
Limited mother tongue literacy.
Poor academic achievement.
Long term ESL learner
7 or more years in an English speaking setting.
Have had ESL or bilingual instruction, but no consistent program.
Below grade level in reading and writing.
Mismatch between student perception of achievement and actual grades.
May get adequate grades but score low on tests.
(Freeman & Freeman, 2002; Olsen & Jaramillo, 1999)

4. Overview of CALLA
Effective instructional model for ELLs from beginning to advanced levels.
Based on research on learning strategies and academic language and content instruction.
Informed by cognitive and sociocultural learning theories.
Composed of three integrated components.

5. Academic Language Development
Learning Strategies
Academic Language Development
Academic Content
CALLA
Model

6. Academic Content How to Select Content
Select core topics and skills for your grade level.
Study professional Content Standards and TESOL Standards to see how the selected topics are sequenced over several grades.
Analyze the school’s adopted textbooks for different subjects.
Identify major components of content: Concepts, Processes, and necessary Prior knowledge.
Help students connect content to their own cultural backgrounds.

7. How to Teach Content, a glimpse:
Identify and share content and lesson objectives.
Link lesson topic to students’ prior knowledge.
Provide hands-on and minds-on experiences with content.
Address different learning styles by presenting content visually, aurally, and kinesthetically.
Present and encourage students to use the technical vocabulary appropriate to the content subject.

8. Why Teach Academic Language?
Academic Language is a key to success in core subjects (for e.g. math, science, social studies).
Not learned outside of the classroom setting.
Core subject teachers may assume that all their students already know appropriate academic language when in fact they have acquired mainly social language skills.
Provides students with practice in using English as a medium of thought.
English learners need assistance using learning strategies with academic language, just as they do with content knowledge and skills.

9. How to Select Academic Language
Observe and record language used in content classrooms.
Analyze language used in content textbooks.
Select authentic language tasks that target language skills and functions to Read, Write, Understand, Talk and Think About Content.

10. Learning Strategies Why Are Learning Strategies Important?
All thoughts and actions that students use to complete a task successfully.
Why Are Learning Strategies Important?
Self Knowledge
Task Knowledge
World Knowledge
Strategy Knowledge
Planning.
Monitoring.
Identifying problems
Evaluating
METACOGNITION
Knowledge
Declarative
Procedural

11. Academic Language Development
Learning Strategies
Academic Language Development
Academic Content
CALLA
Model

12. PREPARATION EXPANSION PRESENTATION SELF EVALUATION PRACTICE
CALLA’s Five Phases
PREPARATION
EXPANSION
PRESENTATION
SELF
EVALUATION
PRACTICE

13. Location/ Emphasis Evaluation Design Instrument Outcomes Arlington/
Math
Pre-Post Non-Equivalent Comparison Group
CAT Form 5: grades in post-project academic courses; uses of learning strategies.
Statically & educationally significant gains of NCEs.
CALLA graduates maintained C average in math courses.
Significantly more students in high implementation CALLA classrooms used metacognitive strategies.
Science
Post-Tests only with Non-Equivalent Comparison Group
Grades in post-project academic courses; progress in English skills.
CALLA students made significantly higher percentage of course grades than non-CALLA students at both middle and high school levels.
86% of CALLA s students progressed to next English proficiency classification.
Boston/
Math, Science,
Social Studies
One Group Pre-Posttest Design
Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs); course grades
CALLA students made statistically & educationally significant pre-post gains on 16 out of 16 CRTs used.
For high school students, 87% passed their courses and 58% received C or better.
Fargo/
WLMS (Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey)
70% of CALLA students had educationally significant gains.
New York City/
Language Assessment Battery (LAB)
78% of students progressed at least one level in English proficiency
(Chamot, 2007, P.326)