518+Agenda+-+1.20.12

**What is academic language? Why does it matter?**
12:00 - 12:05 - Welcome and Good News
 * Who will take notes today?
 * **Aimee!** The __//reliable//__ volunteer, of course.
 * Anny is going to revisit the key assessment and get back to us (possibly adjust planning and commentary part). Be sure to do a run through of your video-taping and analysis of lessons before you do it for the TPA, but know your classroom requirements first.
 * TPA is like flying on an airplane while you're building it.

12:05 - 12:30 - Review criteria for engagement
 * Share observations in small groups.
 * Four criteria for student engagement: active, intellectual, connected, rigorous.
 * Active: deceptively simple; does it mean doing something every minute of class? Or can you be active just sitting there? It's not the activity, it's what's happening with the activity.
 * Kinsey's example of active engagement: students are doing the work; teachers set them on the task and then students do it themselves (//students are doing the doing//); active mind and active body (so you can be //active cognitively// without moving physically); self-directed aspect///ownership//; actively //constructing knowledge// and //creating understanding//.
 * Anna's example of non-active engagement: movie and lecture. No student involvement with the movie, students were //passive// and //receptive// throughout movie viewing; //not interacting// with the material.
 * Intellectual:
 * John's example of intellectual engagement: CBA. Student's asked themselves, "how can I do that?" "why should I do that?" and were engaged with their topic. More than just superficial meaning; involves //meaning making//. Elements of //complexity// in the meaning making that has a //degree of depth//. //Interpretation// and //critically// bring together the past and the present (higher order thinking). Lots of //support// for any assumptions. //Disciplinary integrity// -- a certain process and logic that is honors certain disciplines (e.g. English, lit critics don't just repeat the plot of a story). Have your opinion, but support it well; it all depends on how it's set up (re: Brittney's CBA about dropping the atomic bomb).
 * Jeremy's example of non-intellectual engagement: yes/no game-show review. Anything goes, you can guess. No requirements of knowledge of understanding. Active, but not intellectual. //Content empty// and too obvious. You can fake it, but still achieve.
 * Connected:
 * Jeremy's example of connected engagement: story problems that students can relate to (buckling your seat belt + physics). //Prior knowledge// and instruction, //relatable life experiences// (in and out of school).
 * //Curriculum connection// across time, manifested to the students.
 * Drawing upon //culture// (pop, heritage, local, etc.).
 * Any out of school experience/knowledge.
 * Drew's example of disconnected engagement: CBA, student's didn't know what research was. //Necessary foundational knowledge is missing//; important unfamiliarity. "We haven't learned it."
 * Josiah's example of disconnected engagement: verb conjugations. Whole discussion //out of context//, was like deciphering a secret code.
 * Disconnected engagement - "When are we ever going to use this?" "This doesn't matter to me." "I don't care."
 * Rigor:
 * Key words: //balance of challenge and support//; //appropriate//; goes beyond surface level; flows through everything (every time you ask the students to think, not just accept information and regurgitate). It is absolutely subjective and //context dependent// (from student to student, from class to class). Necessitates individualized attention. //Willingness to rise to the occasion// and having an occasion to rise to (teachers have high expectations, believe their students can rise to the occasion and demand that they do). Children are not robots to be programmed.
 * Non-rigorous: boring; rote; way too hard or way too easy/off the target/not grade level appropriate. //Overwhelming///student's think it's "impossible." Something that doesn't require any thinking at all; content empty.
 * Rigor implies that it can be done (as opposed to challenge).

12:30 - 1:00 - Is //English// a language? (activity)
 * Vernacular.
 * Cultural.
 * Formality.
 * "Correctness."
 * Education.
 * Socioeconomic.
 * Age.
 * E.g. swag, dude.
 * Audience.
 * Adapt your language/speech to your audience; certain people expect specific types of language.
 * The way you talk to the principal is different from the way you talk to your buddies - and you know the difference.
 * Appropriate.
 * Etiquette and social norms.
 * Regional pronunciation.
 * Gender.
 * Evolution over time.
 * Social status.
 * Dialect.
 * Standard English: What is it? vs. Black vernacular: What it is?
 * National or geographic variation (American English, Australian English, etc.).
 * Idioms.
 * Hierarchical/class.

Given all of this ^^^, is English a language?
 * We're going to operate under the assumption that English is languages (//Englishes//). People use English in different ways, in different stages of life, for different purposes, etc. There is not just one English.
 * E.g. Go to rural Georgia. People there use English very differently than people in the Northwest do, but both people still speak English.
 * Language is living and constantly changing. We must adapt to it, and educate students that their language is not acceptable in every setting. //Appropriateness// and //leverage// - students can be held back or move forward based on their language.
 * Zwiers, Chapter 1: difference between home language and school language. Not just an issue of politeness, but academic language vs. language of peers or family; those are two very different things.
 * //Language of power vs. language of school//. Kids that grow up in middle/upper class homes with educated parents are flooded with language that has become the language of power, status, and clout in this country (as is the case in all countries); this puts kids that did not grow up this way at a huge disadvantage in school, it's like they have to be bilingual. This is almost invisible to us, so we must become aware of this as we teach.
 * Anny's "the only book in our house" example. Second example: her husband never knew to bring kids to the library until he saw their friend at a library with her two children.
 * Is the goal to eradicate the home language? NO. There is nothing more personal than home language. The goal is to help kids be bilingual, to be able to operate in both worlds. Adding rather than subtracting. We have to meet students where they are.
 * Recognize that ideas and language are different.
 * Language and content are separate but are inextricably connected. You have to be able to express the content.
 * Teachers and students act on this invisible criteria that can get in the way of learning.

Introduction to Academic Language
 * Video examples
 * Definitions
 * Why it matters
 * Social Justice Issues

1:00 - 1:10 - Break

1:10 - 1:30 - Academic Language (continued)

1:30 - 1:50 - Preparing for Monday
 * Create journal on Google Doc
 * Discussion groups
 * Do "Module 1"


 * For Next Class**
 * Complete Module 1 by 9:00 a.m. on Monday. (You will do the work on Google Docs and the Discussion Board.)