ELL+Methods+-+Agenda+-+9.11.14

Today's Targets:

 * I can explain the intended purpose of the ELP Standards and identify ways I could use the standards as a tool in my classroom.

2:10 - 2:20 - Welcome and LCM (Devon)
 * Notetaker: Grace
 * LCM - Tues: Abbie

2:20 - 2:50 - Discuss [|reading]

2:50 - 3:50 - Introduction to ELP Standards (Continued from Tuesday) - [|Handout]

[|reference material]
 * A. Logic of ELP Standards - **
 * What would you say are the "top two" challenges ELLs face? (4)
 * What is "academic language"? (18)
 * Create a one-word summary for each item on slides 10-11
 * Choose slide 19 or 20. Examine it. What word or concepts are you uncertain about?
 * How could this visual representation help you in your teaching?


 * B. [|Language Proficiency Descriptors] **
 * Highlight the key distinctions between levels
 * Video samples - What level do you think this is and why?
 * []
 * []
 * [|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzKEejU9_h0#t=49]
 * []


 * C. Activity Exploration **
 * [|Elementary plan]
 * What would this look like at [|levels 2 and 4, grades 2-3]? Choose three standards to apply to the activity.


 * [|Secondary plan]
 * What would this look like at [|levels 2 and 4, grades 6-8]? Choose three standards to apply to the activity.


 * Housekeeping: **
 * For Tuesday: **
 * Explore ELP Standards in action -- as you are reading/watching, pay attention to the following:
 * Language demands - What are students being asked to do with language?
 * Scaffolding - How is instruction designed to make it accessible/comprehensible to ELLs?
 * Support - What is the nature of the support provided for ELLs?


 * 1) Watch this [|overview video]
 * 2) Read your assigned [|lesson]
 * 3) Take notes on the language demands, scaffolding, and support built into the lesson.

9-11-14 Notes

LCM: KaRen Language by Devon

__ELP Standards:__

-How is this different than good language teaching in general?

-How is this different than sink or swim?

__Keep in mind:__

-Lesson plans assume students have “at least intermediate English language proficiency”

-Intermediate is enough to get by in the world, but not advanced education

-If we don’t help students get beyond intermediate, then we are creating long term ELL. Still need explicit attention

__Article: Language and Common Core__

__Key idea:__

Language is at the heart of everything. It should be integrated into every subject. What can I do with this language? (Language in Action). Different types of languages (Mexican Spanish vs. Spain Spanish). Teachers should look at how they look at language and how they teach/use it.

Our language classes in high school weren’t designed to make us proficient; therefore we cannot use those techniques to teach our students because we want them to become proficient.

__Questions:__

-How does it relate to Common Core Standards?

These new standards have tremendous language demands, and it’s an opportunity (and emergency) for teachers to change their ways of teaching.

ELL students move around a lot, which can be challenging because ELL teachers focus on different standards.

-Why would Common Core lump ELL students with regular students?

There are policy problems around it, but the idea is to have intermediate English speakers be able to grow and move on, with the right amount of support.

__Insights:__

-Should we teach with monolingual ideologies?

-Language in Action: have plenty of hands on activities and field trips

-Can’t teach English the same way you teach a foreign language

-The way language is taught can affect people’s opinion of the language (Language as Relationship)

-People can lose their original language and that would be a tremendous loss of culture and identity (We should be adding English, not replacing)

-Always an English teacher (even not in ELL)

-Understand multiple forms of the same language (Leg work as a teacher to understand your students’ languages)

-Idea of “perfect” language and native speaker. Perfect language doesn’t exist

-It’s more than just speaking. It’s also understanding.


 * Definitions**


 * __Register:__ The appropriate form of language for a given situation. Level of formality (formal, professional, casual).


 * __Genre:__ Predictable pattern of communicating (lab report, 5 paragraph essay, diary).


 * __Types of Linguistic Input__: One-on-one, one-to-group, one-to-many.


 * __Receptive Language:__ Anything you have to interpret or understand


 * __Productive Language:__ Language you produce.


 * __Discourse:__ Language in use in larger chunks than sentences (paragraphs, pages, etc.)


 * __Syntax:__ Sentence Structure


 * Differences between small group and whole class**

Small Group: casual register, talk more?, feel more comfortable sharing ideas(might not feel more comfortable), a lot more personal/vulnerable, etc.

~Different students will feel more comfortable in different situations.


 * Language Proficiency Descriptors**

Level 1: Simple, limited (initial) in amount, common/frequent words and sentence structures

->begin to gain control of language, more consistent, and more known words/language

Level 2: More precise, control, sequenced, cohesion, repetitive/frequent, longer strings of language, concrete (not yet abstract)

->becomes more complex, abstract, connected, and vocabulary is subject specific/abstract/academic

Level 3: Linking thoughts/words, complex sentence structures, area specific vocab (beginning academic language), grammatical complexity [At this level could survive at school]

Level 4: Broader range of academic language, figurative language, increasingly complex, broaden ability to deal with abstract levels, increasing precision

->Increased variety, complex to sophisticated, complex to elaborate, and a lot of fluency

Level 5: At or near grade level, wide variety of vocabulary/sentence structures/tenses, sophisticated, opaque idioms, elaborated, metaphorical complexity3o