418+Agenda+1.30.12

What is academic language? What are features of academic language in my subject area? How can I support students’ academic language development?
4:30 - 4:40 - Welcome, good news, announcements
 * Signing up for the wiki
 * Discussion posts

4:40 - 5:00 - Group discussions of //Holler//

5:00 - 6:00 - Academic Language
 * Video Examples of Academic Language
 * -Learning a whole new dialect
 * -The way we talk, communicates something about our culture or our education
 * -Kids will say things in a different style and it won't be considered academic language
 * -Prejudices can be created from a persons language or from how a person talks
 * -Kids are judged the moment they speak or open their mouths
 * -"power of words"
 * -words can define a group
 * -language is the way we form boundaries, the way we include/exclude
 * -If we reject a person language, we are rejecting their culture, home and individuality
 * -said vs meant
 * -as teachers, our words can influence and affect the students
 * -"words are the window to our souls"
 * -Students reveal themselves through their words
 * -Certain types of english essentially give people access to a much broader spectrum of the world. People tend to be more acceptable towards these types of english than other forms.
 * -question of currency or appropriateness
 * How is "academic language" a social justice issue?

Content-specific Academic Language "Academic English?" - Academic english tends to have longer sentences? - use passive voice? - passive is not always bad - depends on style - discipline specific
 * vocabulary ("brick" and "mortar" terms)
 * grammar
 * style
 * organization
 * genre
 * ways of thinking

Using Standards to Uncover Academic Language - Look at standards and ask "what is really going on here?" - __analyze__ (brick terms) - suggests (mortar terms) - acts as (mortar terms) - something portrays (mortar term) - this means (mortar term) __P.E. specific__ - affects (brick term) - if__, then__ _ - mortar terms sometimes can be simple as pronouns - taking a standard and looking for key terms - mortar terms help a lot
 * http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/EALR_GLE.aspx
 * Pull out key language, especially verbs. This will probably give you some brick terms.
 * Ask yourself, "What do I say when I am asked to do this?" (e.g. when I //compare,// I say, "in contrast," "on the other hand," "similarly," etc.) . This should yield some mortar terms.

- pick out brick and mortar terms In subject area groups: 1) highlight the academic language used/required in your lesson plan, 2) In the lesson plan, how are students working with texts of any kind?, 3) Compare and compile a list of academic language from your discipline, 4) Look at 3 standards in your content area and distill the academic language from each one Health and Fitness 1 Health and Fitness 2 History Math English & Music English
 * writing vs illustrating
 * Record your answers on the wiki.

6:00 - 7:00 - Teaching strategies for supporting students' academic language development
 * Key Concepts
 * Identify a language focus (3-5 brick terms and associated mortar language)
 * Identify any relevant academic genres and the necessary language and organization
 * Teach the language focus (mini lesson)
 * Post key terms, definitions, and language frames/sentence starters
 * Integrate the language into the lesson
 * Practice
 * Assess both content and language

Seven Useful Strategies
 * [|Word Walls]
 * [|Word Webs]
 * [|Language frames/sentence starters]
 * [|Personal Academic Language Dictionaries]
 * [|Graphic Organizers]


 * Sample Text**

The Battle of Lexington
After the passage of the Stamp Act, tensions between the colonists and the British government continued to rise, and the colonists began to organize militias. On April 19, 1775, British troops marched from Boston to the nearby towns Lexington and Concord to arrest the militia’s leaders, John Hancock and Sam Adams, and to confiscate their weapons. The militias learned in advanced that the British were coming, and about 70 militiamen, also called minutemen, assembled before dawn on the central green of the town of Lexington. As dawn was breaking, a shot rang out which set off the first battle of the American Revolution. But who fired the shot? The historical sources disagree. http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/chapter/2667


 * How could you add an academic language component to the lesson plan?

Module 2
 * To Do for Next Class**