1. Academic Language, edTPATM
Academic Language, Academic Language Proficiency, and Academic Language Supports are terms that are being bandied about in teacher preparation programs, teacher work rooms, and faculty meetings across the country as teachers work to determine tools and strategies that will facilitate student learning. These are likely terms that you have heard. As you begin to work with edTPA, you will begin to see the conceptual framing of academic language and how it threads through the tasks. How do you define academic language? Likely you have heard and read multiple, possibly contradictory definitions of what it is.
People talk about it as though we all know exactly what it is. That’s where I want to start today—with establishing a definition
Academic Language, edTPATM
Melanie Hundley, Vanderbilt University

2. Academic Language 101 Today’s goals: Define academic language
Examine academic language in the edTPA
Discuss ways to support the candidates
Our focus for this morning is on academic language as a construct both in our classrooms and for edTPA.
We are going to define academic language, break it into separate components, and then discuss the way you are supposed to use it in edTPA.

3. Academic Language
School is where you go to learn a secret language but they don’t tell you that it’s there. You have to figure it out on your own. It’s like an initiation to a secret club. Maya, 8th grade.
Student Voices
Our focus for this morning is on academic language as a construct both in our classrooms and for edTPA.
We are going to define academic language, break it into separate components, and then discuss the way you are supposed to use it in edTPA.
What I’d like you to do now is write your current definition of academic language. How do you define it at this point?
What do you do in a new class to learn the “academic language” of the class? What about when you first came to the university? How did you learn to negotiate school? Classes? Clubs? Organizations?

4. Academic Language
Language is the primary vehicle for learning, instruction, and overall intellectual development. It is not only a means for communicating information, it is also a vehicle for deepening their understanding of important ideas. Kersaint, Thomspon, & Petkova, 2009, p. 46.)
School and content areas have specialized language that students may struggle to learn.
As teachers no matter our content area, we are deeply aware that words matter.
Words matter in listening, speaking, writing, reading, and learning.
We talk about building student vocabulary or focus on building student understanding of the content-specific terms we use.
We focus on improving their listening and speaking skills, and help them develop strategies for reading and writing.
We do all this and often miss the language that connects the tasks that we ask our students to do in our content area. We miss, ignore, or overlook the need for academic language development in our classrooms.
Language is tool– a vehicle for learning and we must consider the language our students need in order to engage in and participate in our content areas.
Research Voices
Kersaint, G., Thompson, D. R., & Petkova, M. (2009). Teaching mathematics to English language learners. New York: Rutledge.

5. Academic Language Definition
the language of the discipline that students need
to learn and use to participate and engage in meaningful ways in the content area
the oral and written language used for academic purposes
the means by which students develop and express content understandings
This is the definition of AL that we are going to work with—we need to consider all the language that students need in order to participate in our content area.
As teachers, we have to help students figure out how academic language works so that they can use language to engage with the content in meaningful ways

6. Challenges of Academic Language
The more experience we get with our content area, the more expert we become; the harder it is to “see” academic language.
blind spot
familiarity
Academic Language is hard for us to see—it’s all around us. We are so immersed in it that it is invisible to us.

7. Cathy Zozakiewicz
Academic Language is hard for us to see—it’s all around us. We are so immersed in it that it is invisible to us.

8. Academic Language
Zwiers’ describes academic language as “the set of words, grammar, and organizational strategies used to describe complex ideas, higher-order thinking processes, and abstract concepts” (p. 20).
The struggle for many teachers is to see the content area tasks through the eyes of a novice. Burke (2004) explained that some terms, ideas, and concepts are “so embedded in our minds that we cannot easily notice them and thus do not think that we should have to explain them” (p. 37).
What do we want students to do when we ask them to discuss? Does discussion look different in English class than it does in history or science or math?
Academic language includes the oral and written language structures used in the content area, the “thinking” structures used to organize and connect complex ideas, and the meaning-making strategies used to understand and communicate. Learning to discuss the complex ideas of a content area requires more than just vocabulary of a content area—it requires students to be able to think with the ideas of a content area, use the communication structures that allow people to share content, and build connects within and across the content area.
 Zwiers’ describes academic language as “the set of words, grammar, and organizational strategies used to describe complex ideas, higher-order thinking processes, and abstract concepts” (p. 20).
This definition focuses on the forms and functions of the language of a context (school & classroom) and content area (discipline).
Zwiers futher breaks academic language into function (purpose), features (ways of using language) and grammar (structures that are part of how language is built—sentences, voice, tense, etc.)
Wilhelm (2007) provides a useful metaphor for thinking about academic language; arguing that academic language “is a part of a cognitive toolbox for undertaking real content area tasks in the same or analogous ways to experts” (p. 44).
Looking at academic language as a toolbox with tools and skills that allows us to code and decode the content tasks using the same tools that experts use.
Research Voices
Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

9. Definition
Academic language is the oral and written language that students need in order to
understand (read, listen, think)
communicate (listen, speak, write, connect)
perform (think, read, write, listen, speak, solve, create)
Academic Language is necessary to participate in the content
think
question
talk
learn
If we think about academic language as the oral and written language that students need in order to understand (read, listen, think), communicate (listen, speak, write, connect), and perform (think, read, write, listen, speak, create) in the specific subject areas taught in schools, we realize that it is complex and complicated. We are teaching our students ways of participating in the content—how to think about it, how to question or talk about it, how to learn it.
They are novice learners of our content and we are supposed to mentor them into the field.

10. Common Core State Standards
Academic Language
Language of the discipline
Argumentation in the discipline
Emphasis on texts & writing across content areas
Developmental
vocabulary of discipline
tools
trajectory
The emphasis on language and the structures of language needed to be a part of a community of learners is finding its way into the national conversation. This emphasis is threaded throughout the Common Core. Whatever we think about the limitations of the CCSS, one key idea threaded throughout the CCSS standards is the need for a developmental, conceptual understanding of and use of the language of the discipline in order to support the development of disciplinary learning. The focus on learning the communication structures for reading and writing in the content areas puts academic language in the forefront of what is needed in order to participate in the content area.
CCSS Writing Standards
CCSS 3 Text Types

11. Teacher Candidate Voices
Academic Language
“What I realized as I worked with my content was that I really had to show my students how to organize the stuff they were learning. ” (Scott, 2011)
Teacher Candidate Voices
Teacher candidates are often overwhelmed by the change they have had to make from students in a content area to teachers of that content area.
As they think about the content area and HOW to teach it to their students, they often realize how much about the language and thinking structures of the discipline they have to make visible.
Social Studies
Language Arts
Science

12. Teacher Candidate Voices
Academic Language
I was wrong. I thought that y’all were just over-emphasizing something that students really just knew if they just paid attention. So, I assigned a writing prompt and the students wrote almost nothing. It was like they didn’t understand what I was asking them to do. (Ben, 2010)
Teacher Candidate Voices
Some teacher candidates don’t come to the realization that students need academic language support until they are reflecting on their instruction and considering instructional next steps.
For example, Ben, a graduate student said “I was wrong. I thought that y’all were just over-emphasizing something that students really just knew if they just paid attention. So, I assigned a writing prompt and the students wrote almost nothing. It was like they didn’t understand what I was asking them to do.”

13. Writing Prompt Discuss Steve and Frankenstein.
Ben’s writing prompt was “Discuss Steve and Frankenstein.” This is a prompt that I see in countless lesson plans whether it is Language Arts or Science or Social Studies.
Discuss is the problematic word here—what does it mean to Ben? To his students? For this students, it is likely a word that is used in multiple ways in multiple contexts.
The academic language use here is vague—Ben hasn’t articulated what discuss means in this particular context. Discuss what? How? With what tools?
Ben hasn’t been clear about his expectations; this will be reflected in the work his students produce. Some will guess “right” but others will be confused.

14. Student Work They are books.
Monster is about a boy. Frankenstein is about a monster.
We read them in school.
Vague and unclear prompting leads to short and relatively unsophisticated responses that don’t necessarily demonstrate content understanding.
Ben recognized that this was not the work he wanted his students to produce.
His next steps involved a revision of the prompt.

15. Teacher Candidate Voices
Academic Language
I revised the prompt thinking that just doing that would solve the problems. I was careful about the verbs I chose to replace discuss. I wanted to be more specific about what they were actually going to do in the writing.(Ben, 2010)
Teacher Candidate Voices
He explained that he revised the prompt that he gave the students, replacing discuss with compare and contrast.

16. Writing Prompt Discuss Steve and Frankenstein.
Compare and contrast Steve in Monster and the monster in Frankenstein.
The new prompt produced work that gave him more of what he was looking for but he noticed that the students still struggled. His next steps included using tools to help support student thinking.
This “data” about what was working and not working for students provided Ben with assessment evidence along the way.
Specifically he wasn’t getting the outcomes that he wanted—not matching goals he set and he realized that the problem was in what and how he was asking the students to perform.
These pieces became assessment data for him—and based on his analysis of what worked and what didn’t, he determined his next instructional steps.

17. Teacher Candidate Voices
Academic Language
The response was better. The students kind of knew what to do but there was still something missing. So, this time I used several scaffolds to help the students. A Venn Diagram. Sentence frames. Sentence Combining. (Ben, 2010)
Teacher Candidate Voices
Ben realized that although the responses improved, there was still work that needed to be done. So, he included tools to help the students gather their ideas and shape them into an academic product.
Venn Diagram
Sentences

18. Student Work
Steve in Monster got no future in the world he in. He broke the law got caught in a store spent jail and on trial. His future done gone away tho he ant convcicted. It don’t matter that he might notta done it. He got nothin now jail done shaped him. He cant escape his maybe action. Like the monster in Frankenstein he got no choice in what people do. Both Steve and the momster shaped by they society.
His use of tools—a graphic organizer and sentence frames supported the students’ use of the academic language of the content and helped them produce content that provided Ben with assessment evidence that he could use to determine what the students knew and could do. The ideas and understanding of the texts they are reading is evident in this draft; however, it is easy for the meaning to get lost in structural and mechanical issues. Returning to his sentence frame tool and using it explicitly with the students helped them revise their work and reshape the ideas they had into a form helped others understand what they were trying to communicate.

19. Revision
Steve, the main character in Walter Dean Myer’s novel Monster, was not convicted of the crime he was accused of but he still has no future because of the appearance of being a convict. He is in a world that judges young men by the color of they skin. News stories about them. It will not matter to society that he was not convicted; he will always be a monster because of who he is. As a young, black man who has been in jail and on trial, he will be judged as monstrous because of how society will see him. He will always have the stigma of both trial and jail and won’t be able to escape that. Similarly, the monster in Frankenstein will always be judged by his outward appearance. He looks scary and people don’t know what to expect from him. Both Steve and the monster are products of their society and are judged and condemned by their society. It doesn’t matter that they may be innocent; they have the appearance of being monsters by society’s standards. Neither one of them will be able to escape the views of society.
You don’t need to read this whole thing—what I want you to notice is the difference in response length and organization.
The response shows a level of understanding of both texts and provides some evidence of commonly used language structures in Language Arts. It also shows evidence that the student writer is making connections between the texts and the themes they had been discussing in class. Ben’s realization that he needed to be specific about the task, provide a tool for students to use to organize their ideas, and possible structures for them to use reshaped his understanding of what it takes to mentor students who are novice learners of a content area into more expert and sophisticated understandings of the content area.

20. Academic Language
“When we teach a subject, or any topic or text within that subject, we must teach the academic vocabulary for dealing with it—not just the words, but also the linguistic processes and patterns for delving deeply into and operating upon that content” (Wilhelm, p. 44).
We are aware that our students don’t use the same language at home or with their friends that we expect them to use in our classrooms. We are also aware that we need be explicit in our teaching of the language of our content area.
As teacher educators, we are working with a dual set of academic languages—the language of our discipline and the language of teaching and schools.
The language of our content area is much more than vocabulary; the ways in which we USE the language in our discussions, our thinking, and our interactions with and among our students help shape their understanding of and engagement with the content.
Wilhelm (2007) explained, “When we teach a subject, or any topic or text within that subject, we must teach the academic vocabulary for dealing with it—not just the words, but also the linguistic processes and patterns for delving deeply into and operating upon that content” (p. 44). In order to do this, we often have to see past our expert blind spot to recognize that the novices with whom we are working do not necessarily have the same tools in their repertoire that we do. We will have to be more explicit and make the tools and structures visible to them.
We have to do this for our own education students as well. For example, observation is a term that we bandy about but don’t necessarily define for our students. This is something that we have considered. The observation handout here describes what we mean by observation, provides a framework for writing up an observations, and provides sentence stems and starters for the students. Sentence stems and starters are tools that can be used with novices as they learn the structures of the discipline. Variations in sentences frames or other structures can be used as students become more sophisticated at expressing what they know and can do.
Research Voices
Wilhelm, J. D. (2007). Imagining a new kind of self: Academic language, identity, and content area learning. Voices from the Middle, 15: 1,
Observation Notes

21. Ideas & Structures in Science
Although hydrogen is explosive and oxygen supports combustion, a compound of them puts out fires.
Unless hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they are explosive.
If hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they lose their original properties of being explosive and supporting combustion.
Tyre, P. (2012). The writing revolution. The Atlantic.
For example, in a recent article in The Atlantic, the reporter described a science classroom in which the students were asked to express their understanding of a science concept using the words although, unless, and if.
These three words are used differently in sentences and require writers to rearrange text and ideas in order to “fit” the ways in which these words are routinely used. The student, cited in the article, presented her understanding of the chemical bonding and reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in these 3 sentences.
Both the science content understanding and the linguistic structures support the student’s increasingly sophisticated understanding of the science content. The student clearly understands the content and is able to demonstrate her understanding in multiple sentence structures.

22. This graphic from the edTPA handbook provides a visual representation of the ways in which Academic Language flows through the assessment. There is evidence of academic language in all three tasks—this vision of academic language foregrounds its importance to a vision of good teaching and supported learning.

23. Academic Language in edTPA
Academic language development is making the language of the school, content, and classroom explicit to expand students’ control over language and improve their language choices according to the purpose (FUNCTION) and audience for the message.
Explicit and consistent attention to academic language development to support student content learning is a necessary part of good teaching. We have to, as teachers, consider how language works in our classrooms—what is its purpose or function? What is the work we want the language to do in developing students’ understanding and communication of the content? What will the students use language to do?
We use language for many purposes, we use it to inform, explain, compare, contrast, order, classify…the purposes for language use in the classroom are varied.
© SCALE 2012

24. Academic Language Function
Language used for specific purposes
Inform
Identify information
Report information
Describe information
Solve problems
Define problem
Represent problem
Determine solution
For example, language is used to inform.
Students are asked to identify, gather, collect, report, or describe information in classroom contexts in order to use it to inform themselves or others. We ask students to do tasks such as retell, represent, summarize, explain or give information (gathered from information presented in a text or by the teacher or from class discussions) in their own words. We use specific words to signal that we are recounting information,
The story says…
In our discussion, a student said…
According to…
On page…, the book says…
Another example of language at work and used for a specific purpose is language used to solve a problem.
Students are asked to define and represent a problem. The representation may be in text but it may also be in a graph, table or other form of mathematical representation. We ask students to solve a problem and determine the best solution. A task like that asks students to do more than provide an answer for the problem; it requires that students reason to solve the problem, represent their problem and the solution, AND explain why the solution they chose was the best solution of the possible solutions. We expect to see specific words that signal their processes and their reasoning:
Because
Since
Therefore
So that
Consequently
As a result
Research Voices
Clyne, S. (2006). Academic Language Functions. Reprinted with permission on
Chart

25. Example
A group of students measured the circumference of an exercise ball. Here are their measurements in inches:
42, 46, 45, 47, 43, 46, 46
Find the median, mode, and mean and enter your answers below. Show your work:
The median is _____. The mode is _____. The mean is _____.
42, 43, 45, 46, 46, 46, 47 42 46 45 47 43
315
The math knowledge needed to solve this problem, to represent the work the student did is important. What is also important is how language functions both to reinforce the solution and to adjust the student’s understanding of the task as new information is added. 46 46 45 45 7
315

26. Example
Tom forgot to put his measurement on the list. When the students added Tom’s measurement to the list the mean and median decreased, but the mode stayed the same. Which value is most likely to be Tom’s measurement? Circle your choice: 43 45 46 47
Adding additional steps to the math problem makes it richer and more complex and also provides opportunities for students to use their developing math reasoning skills.

27. Academic Language Functions
Explain why you chose this measurement.
The answer can’t be 47 or 46 because the mean and the median decreased, so Tom’s measurement had to be less than those. Also, it can’t be 45, because the mean would have stayed the same. It had to be 43.
This explanation develops the mathematical reasoning used to solve the problem and requires to students to include the information that helped them formulate their solution.

28. Academic Language Functions
content and focus of the learning task
represented by action verb within the learning outcome (describing, comparing, summarizing, etc.)
Social Studies
Math
Science
The planning task in the edTPA handbooks asks candidates to identify the language function in their learning segment. Within this commentary prompt are suggested language functions for the content area.

29. Learning Segment A set of 3–5 lessons coherent set of lessons
build on each other
toward a central focus
clearly defined beginning and end
Candidates in different content areas organize their units or sets of plans in different ways; however, your students organize their plans (by unit or by skill or concept or by some other organization, they will need to be able to identify a learning segment.
A learning segment is a set of 3–5 lessons that build one upon another toward a central focus, with a clearly defined beginning and end.

30. Learning Task Includes: Learning tasks for segment activities
discussions other modes of participation that engage students
to develop, practice, and apply skills and knowledge
Learning tasks for segment
related to a specific learning goal
connected to language function for learning segment
Within the learning segment, there will be learning tasks that include activities, discussions, or other modes of participation that engage students to develop, practice, and apply skills and knowledge related to a specific learning goal. Learning tasks may be scaffolded to connect prior knowledge to new knowledge and often include formative assessment

31. Language Demands
Specific ways that academic language is used by students to participate in learning tasks
reading
writing
listening and/or speaking
demonstrate/perform
Specific ways that academic language is used by students to demonstrate their disciplinary understanding.
What do they know?
What can they do?
What can they use language to demonstrate?
Once a candidate has focused on the language function and language tasks for the learning segment, he or she needs to step back and consider the language demands these tasks place on students. Will these tasks place high or low demands on the students? Reading, writing, listening, speaking, and demonstration place different levels of demand on students.
In order for students to participate in these tasks, there may need to be tools and scaffolds put in place to support their learning.
From handbook: Specific ways that academic language (vocabulary, functions, discourse, syntax) is used by students to participate in learning task through reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking to demonstrate their disciplinary understanding.

32. Language Demands
There are language demands that teachers need to consider as they plan to support student learning of content, which include:
Vocabulary
Language Functions
Syntax
Discourse
The tasks in the edTPA ask candidates consider the language demand and focuses on vocabulary, language function, syntax, and discourse.

33. Central Focus
A description of the important understandings and core concepts that you want students to develop within the learning segment. The central focus should go beyond a list of facts and skills, align with content standards and learning objectives, and address the subject-specific components in the learning segment.
The central focus is
A description of the important understandings and core concepts that you want students to develop within the learning segment.
The central focus should go beyond a list of facts and skills, align with content standards and learning objectives, and address the subject-specific components in the learning segment.

34. Vocabulary
includes words and phrases (and symbols) that are used within disciplines including:
words and phrases with subject specific meanings that differ from meanings used in everyday life (e.g., table, ruler, force, balance);
general academic vocabulary used across disciplines (e.g., compare, analyze, evaluate); and
subject-specific words defined for use in the discipline.
vocabulary: Includes words and phrases that are used within disciplines including:
words and phrases with subject-specific meanings that differ from meanings used in everyday life (e.g., table);
general academic vocabulary used across disciplines (e.g., compare, analyze, evaluate); and
subject-specific words defined for use in the discipline.13
Discourse includes the structures of written and oral language, as well as how members of the discipline talk, write and participate in knowledge construction.
Discipline specific discourse has distinctive features or ways of structuring oral or written language (text structures) that provide useful ways for the content to be communicated.

35. Example
Annotate
In English—you add notes and/or comments to a text, usually explaining something or going deeper into the specific meaning, make connections, identify and/or explore key literary elements
In Science—add brief notes to a diagram or graph
Subject specific vocabulary is fairly easy for candidates to recognize; however, words or terms that are used differently in content areas that may be challenging for students are more challenging.

36. Syntax
Set of conventions for organizing symbols, words and phrases together into structures (e.g., sentences, graphs, tables)
Examples from mathematics:
Syntax, like discourse, has multiple definitions and conceptual frameworks depending on your discipline. For the purposes of the edTPA, syntax is being defined as the set of conventions for organizing symbols, words, and phrases together into structures. It is the conventions used by disciplines to order symbols, words, phrases—data—into structures that can be communicated and worked with by participants. The syntax structures help make content recognizable both to experienced others and to novices.
Cathy Zozakiewicz
Cathy Zozakiewicz
Cathy Zozakiewicz

37. Syntax
Grammar consists of set rules regarding language and sentence structure, such as no splitting infinitives and no hanging prepositions.
Syntax, in reference to sentences, is how a sentence is worded and structured and in ways that can create, extend, or change meaning.
types of sentence (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, imperative) and
word order (passive vs. active voice),
length of sentences (short vs. long).
The set of conventions for organizing symbols, words, and phrases together into structures (e.g., sentences, graphs, tables, in music – a staff, etc).

38. Discourse Discourse English Math Science Social Studies
Structures of written and oral language
How members of the discipline talk, write, and participate in knowledge construction
Discipline-specific
Distinctive about features/way of structuring language (text structures)
English
Math
Science
Social Studies
The handbook provides some discipline specific examples.

39. Discourse
Common Core Text Types
Argument
Expository
Informational
Narrative
Writing requires something to say, the words to say it, and the structure with which to write it (McCracken & McCracken, 1986).
Discourse and text structures are threaded through the CCSS as well. The focus on argument, for example, is consistent across all content areas although the structures for how arguments develop, get supported, and are communicated change depending on the discipline.
To paraphrase McCracken and McCracken, whatever the content area, the students who are participating in the oral and written structures are expected to have something to say, the discipline specific words to say, and the discipline specific text structures and patterns for using language with which to communicate it.

40. edTPA Planning Commentary (4a-d)
Teacher candidates must identify a language function essential to the central focus.
English Example
Math Example
Science Example
Social Studies Example
Identify a key learning task that provides students with opportunities to practice using the language function
As we move forward with edTPA, we are going to talk about the specific prompts and rubrics that focus the candidates on academic language. We’re going to look at the prompts and talk about ways to support candidates as they work to incorporate academic language into their teaching. edTPA asks for a snapshot of their attention to academic language.
In the planning commentary, candidates are asked to
Identify the learning segment where they are going to focus their attention.
They must identify the central focus of their learning segment.
Within that learning segment, they must identify a language function essential to the central focus of their learning segment. The edTPA handbooks offer suggestions for which language functions, candidates might choose.
After they have identified the language function, they then choose a KEY learning task that provides the students an opportunity to practice using the language function. It is not enough to define the language function, they need to USE the language function.

41. edTPA Planning Commentary (4a-d) Additional language demands
Given the language function & identified task, identify associated language demands
Vocabulary
Syntax
Discourse
Language Supports
Instructional supports that will help students UNDERSTAND and USE language function & identified language
The commentary questions in planning continue their focus on academic language by asking the candidates to consider :What do students already know? What is new to them? What are they struggling with?
After candidates identify a task in which the students will be using the language function, they must then:
5. Consider the language demands of the task—look at vocabulary, syntax, and discourse for this task.
6. Once those are identified, candidates must develop and implement language supports or scaffolds that help students understand and use the language function. The supports and scaffolds should help students develop fluency with the language and communication structures of the content area.

42. Scaffolds and Supports
Learning Segment
Vocabulary
Practice
As candidates plan for academic language in plans, instruction, and assessment, there should be a clear relationship between the central focus of the learning segment, the language function, and the scaffolds put in place to support student participation and learning.
Central Focus
Key Learning Task
Syntax
Scaffolds and Supports
Language Function
Discourse

43. Pre-Service Teachers are asked to:
Select one key language function essential for students to learn within the central focus.
Identify a key learning task from plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function.
Language Demands (consider language function & task) describe the language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use.
Language Supports: Describe instructional supports that will help students understand and use language function & additional language demands.
Assessments: What formal and informal assessments will provide evidence of students’ understanding and fluency?
To review, candidates are asked to identify a key language function, key tasks, language demands, and language supports. Additionally, they are asked to consider what assessment evidence they will collect across the learning segment.

44. Academic Language in edTPA
Planning Task 1
Prompt 4
Rubric 4
Assessment Task 3
Prompt 3
Rubric 14
The prompts and the rubrics in the handbook will help guide the teacher candidates as they work to demonstrate and discuss the ways in which they have supported student learning with academic language.

45. edTPA Variations in Academic Language
Some content areas address academic language differently.
Early Childhood: vocabulary (as developmentally appropriate sounds, words, sentences, etc.)
World Language (does not address academic language)
Math: added “precise language” (CCSS)
Special Education: Academic Language Communication
The majority of edTPA handbooks use the same academic language conceptual framework. A few content areas have adapted the conceptual framing to better support learning in their content areas.
a. Early Childhood only addresses AL as vocabulary (as developmentally appropriate sounds, words, sentences…).
b. World Language does not address AL
c. Math – added “precise language”
d. Performing Arts – added “gestures”
e. Special Ed – refers to it as Academic Language Communication.

46. Academic Language in Commentaries

47. References/Tools
As we thought about academic language for our students, we thought about ways in which our students were exposed to the specific academic language of our program and the schools in which they were placed. Here are some of the tools that were developed:
Context The Program
Context The School
Observation Notes
Task Practice
Student Notes for Academic Language

48. References/Tools
Examining content area learning for academic language often required a specific focus on content, textbooks, or instruction. These are some of the tools that were created to help students think deeply about the language they were observing or planning to teach.
Academic Language Purposes blank
Academic Language Purposes Mandy example
Analyzing Textbooks or Readings
Language Task Blank
Task Practice

49. References/Tools
Planning for instruction is a hard concept for novice teachers to understand. Here are some of the tools created to help them think through planning and academic language in their lessons.
Bloom Expanded Chart
Lesson Plan Example Writing Methods
Lesson Plan Example Teaching Seminar
Lesson Plan Template
Academic Language Questions for Planning ELA
Academic Language Questions for Planning Math

50. References/Tools Helping candidates think through the
Bloom Expanded Chart
Lesson Plan Example Writing Methods
Lesson Plan Example Teaching Seminar
Lesson Plan Template
Academic Language Questions for Planning ELA
Academic Language Questions for Planning Math

51. References/Tools
We collected lists of terms, command terms, and other tools that might be useful to our students. These are a few of those.
Burke Academic Language List
Command Terms IB program
Chart
They Say I Say Templates

52. Readings
Brown, D. W. (2009). In other words: Lessons on grammar, code-switching, and academic writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 
Burke, J. (2004). Learning the language of academic study. Voices from the Middle, 11:4,
Gebhard, M. & Willett, J. Social to academic. Journal of Staff Development, Winter, 2008, 29 (1),  
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst R. (2012, 2nd edition). They Say I Say: Moves that matter in academic writing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 
Jennison, N. (2011). Integrating test prep into reading & writing workshops. New York: Scholastic.
Kersaint, G., Thompson, D., & Petkova, M. (2009). The nature of mathematics language. In Teaching mathematics to English language learners. New York: Routledge. Pp ) 
Knapp, P. & Watkins, M. (2005/2009). Genre, text, grammar: Technologies for teaching and assessing writing. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.

53. Readings
Wilhelm, J. D. (2007). Imagining a new kind of self: Academic language, identity, and content area learning. Voices from the Middle, 15: 1,
Zwiers, J. & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic conversations: Classroom talk that fosters critical thinking and content understandings. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Zwiers, J. & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic conversations: Classroom talk that fosters critical thinking and content understandings. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Zwiers, J. (2004/2005). The third language of academic English. Educational Leadership, 62: 4,
Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

54. Thank you!
Questions? Contact:

55. Resource Slides

56. Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks
English
Analyze
Argue
Describe
Evaluate
Explain
Interpret
Justify
Synthesize
Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks

57. Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks
Social Studies
Analyze
Compare/Contrast
Construct
Describe
Evaluate
Examine
Identify
Interpret
Justify
locate
Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks

58. Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks
Math
Compare/Contrast
Conjecture
Describe
Explain
Prove
Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks

59. Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks
Science
Analyze
Explain
Interpret
Justify with Evidence
Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks

60. Teacher Candidate Rephrase
What are the key words and phrases my students will need to understand, read and use in the learning activity?
Which of these words/phrases will be new to my students? 
Which of these words/phrases have different meanings in other contexts? Which might be confusing for students?
Is there a non-jargon, student-friendly way to explain this to students?
English/
Language Arts Terms & Phrases
Adapt Handout
Handout

61. Teacher Candidate Rephrase
How (i.e., for what purpose) will students be using language in the learning activity?
What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to follow the directions in the learning activity?
What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to work with texts in the learning activity?
What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to
talk about the texts?
write about the texts?
create similar texts?
Teacher Candidate Rephrase
Terms
Phrases
Using Language
What are you doing with language in the lesson?

62. Math Example (Emily)
What are the key mathematical words and phrases my students will need to understand and use in the learning activity?
Which of these words/phrases will be new to my students?
Which of these words/phrases have different meanings in informal/non-mathematical conversations?
What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing each of these?
Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations
Handout
Emily’s Notes

63. Math Example (Emily)
Which new mathematical representations (including notation) will students need to learn to “read” and use in the learning activity?
What “non-mathematical” words or phrases will my students need to understand in order to make sense of the task scenarios in the learning activity?
Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations

64. Math Example (Emily)
How (i.e., for what purpose) will students be using language in the activity?
Which key words/phrases will my students need to understand in order to follow directions during the learning task, and which of these will be new to my students?
Write some sentences (to develop into sentence frames) that capture how you expect students to be using academic language to achieve a particular purpose during the learning segment.
What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing each of these?
Genre (i.e., Purpose) and Linguistic Features

65. Academic Language Tools
Sentence Frames are tools that can help give students the words and the structures to use as they are initially developing fluency.
Since the square root of __ is __, then __ squared must be ___. (Math)
The __ is an important symbol for __ because __. (ELA)
In the experiment, the __ acted on the __ and caused a __ . (Science)
The war was caused by __ , __ , and __ because __ .(Social Studies)
Sentence Frames
Sentence Stems
Phrases
Sentence frames can give

66. Write a short essay in which you make an argument about Macbeth’s purpose in killing Banquo.
What is it that students are being asked to do? What knowledge does the prompt assume that a student has?
What is it that students are being asked to do? What knowledge does the prompt assume that a student has?
The task is to write an essay.
The prompt assumes that students know the form and structures of an essay; the prompt also does not specify the type of essay (analytical, explanatory, persuasive, narrative, etc.).
The prompt asks the students to make an argument but does not explain what an argument is or how it works within the body of an essay. The prompt then specifies the character about whom the students will be writing and asks them to do something with Macbeth’s purpose in killing Banquo.
There is a great deal of work embedded in the task the students are being asked to do.
In order to construct an argument about Macbeth’s purpose, students have to identify his purpose or purposes, construct a claim statement about why he did what he did, find support from the text and from their own ideas, organize the support into a reasoned series of claims supported by evidence from the text, and then write the argument in a form that uses the appropriate conventions for the type of essay they are writing.
There are multiple places in this one prompt for students to misunderstand what is being asked of them.

67. The task is to write an essay.
Write a short essay in which you make an argument about Macbeth’s purpose in killing Banquo.
What is it that students are being asked to do? What knowledge does the prompt assume that a student has?
The task is to write an essay.
The prompt assumes that students know the form and structures of an essay; the prompt also does not specify the type of essay (analytical, explanatory, persuasive, narrative, etc.).
The prompt asks the students to make an argument but does not explain what an argument is or how it works within the body of an essay. The prompt then specifies the character about whom the students will be writing and asks them to do something with Macbeth’s purpose in killing Banquo.
There is a great deal of work embedded in the task the students are being asked to do.
In order to construct an argument about Macbeth’s purpose, students have to identify his purpose or purposes, construct a claim statement about why he did what he did, find support from the text and from their own ideas, organize the support into a reasoned series of claims supported by evidence from the text, and then write the argument in a form that uses the appropriate conventions for the type of essay they are writing.
There are multiple places in this one prompt for students to misunderstand what is being asked of them.
What is it that students are being asked to do? What knowledge does the prompt assume that a student has?
The task is to write an essay.
The prompt assumes that students know the form and structures of an essay; the prompt also does not specify the type of essay (analytical, explanatory, persuasive, narrative, etc.).
The prompt asks the students to make an argument but does not explain what an argument is or how it works within the body of an essay. The prompt then specifies the character about whom the students will be writing and asks them to do something with Macbeth’s purpose in killing Banquo.
There is a great deal of work embedded in the task the students are being asked to do.
In order to construct an argument about Macbeth’s purpose, students have to identify his purpose or purposes, construct a claim statement about why he did what he did, find support from the text and from their own ideas, organize the support into a reasoned series of claims supported by evidence from the text, and then write the argument in a form that uses the appropriate conventions for the type of essay they are writing.
There are multiple places in this one prompt for students to misunderstand what is being asked of them.