Dr. Melanie Hundley Vanderbilt University Academic Language 101 Austin Peay State University September 28.2012

Dr. Melanie HundleyVanderbilt University

Academic Language 101

Austin Peay State

University

September 28.2012

2 Questions

Task

How do you define academic language?

How do you learn the “academic language” of your classes?

Agenda

Two Questions

Setting the Stage—Student Voices

What is Academic Language? Multiple areas of academic language Academic Language in planning Academic Language in assessment

Resources for Academic Language

Overview of Academic Language in edTPA

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.

Secret Language

Student Voices

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.)

Language of School

Research Voices

I knew I was gone fail that test when I got to the third question and I didn’t even know what they was asking me. Karah, 11th grade

Secret Language

Student Voices

It ain’t that I don’t know nothin’, it’s that I can’t say it right. Mitch, 7th grade

So the test question asked for my hypothesis about the character’s behavior and I got confused cause I hadn’t done no experiment. Emmet, 10th grade

Secret Language

Student Voices

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, create)

Academic Language is necessary to participate in the content thinkquestion talk learn

Set of wordsGrammarOrganizational Strategies

Purposes of Language

Language Usepurposeful intent

Language is usedto accomplish something

in formal & informal settings for social & academic purposes.

What are the languagepurposes at work here?

Task

Social Purposes for Language

Exchanging greetings

Making jokes

Indicating agreement/disagreement

Retelling stories

Participating in personal conversations

Persuading

Social Purposes:

Exchanging greetings

Making jokes

Indicating agreement/disagreement

Retelling stories

Persuading

Choose one of the social purposes listed here.

Select a social language purpose from the list.

What are some ways to express it?

Write a “sentence frame” for this social purpose.

Task

Chamot and O’Malley, 1974

Academic Language Purposes

Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how

Inform - recount information or retell

Compare & Contrast – identify similarities & differences

Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle

Classify - describe organizing principles

Analyze - describe features or main idea

Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes

Justify & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is important

Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures

Synthesize - summarize information cohesively

Evaluate - identify criteria, explain priorities, etc.

Academic Purposes:

Seek Information

Inform

Compare & Contrast

Order

Classify

Analyze

Infer

Justify & Persuade

Solve Problems

Synthesize

Evaluate

Choose one of the academic purposes listed here.

Select an academic e purpose from the list.

What are some ways to express it?

Write a “sentence frame” for this academic purpose.

Task

Language to participate

another facet of academic language

15

Instructional Language

Teachers and students use language in specific ways to participate in learning and assessment tasks:

discussing ideas and asking questions

summarizing instructional and disciplinary texts

following and giving instructions

listening to or presenting a mini-lesson

explaining something

giving reasons for a point of view

writing essays to display knowledge on tests

communicating behavioral expectations (“raise your hands”)

15

If we accept that teachers & students use language in specific ways to participate in learning and assessment tasks, what are some ways to express the following?

Discussing ideas and asking questions

Summarizing instructional and content texts

Giving instructions

Listening to or presenting a mini-lesson

Explaining something

Giving reasons for a point of view

Communicating behavioral expectations

Choose one of the classroom practices from the list.

Create an example from your content area.

What are the key structures (words, phrases, punctuation, etc.) that are part of this?

Task

TermsLinguistic ProcessesPatterns

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).

Set of words

Grammar

Organizational Strategies

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).

What are the words & structures that students need to know to understand & make meaning in your content area?

Verbs

Instructional Language

Terms used in directionsBlooms Expanded Chart

“Command” Termsexample

Student Voices

Making Academic Language VisibleI can do the work for a class as

long as I know what the teacher means by what she says and what she asks. When a teacher makes things clear for me, I think I am a good student. Leah, 12th

grade

Student Voices

Making Academic Language Visible

Most of the time I don’t even know how to start or what to do. It’s more than just sometimes not knowing the words in the directions. It’s knowing what I am supposed to use when I talk in the class or when I write something for class. Matt, 12th grade

List command terms that you might use in your classroom that could cause students problems.

Annotate In English—you add notes and/or commentary to 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

Think about when you were in middle and high school. What words in the directions caused you problems?

Think about your content area. What words could cause student problems?

Task

Student Notes Example

Developing Academic Language

Academic language development is making the language explicit to expand students’ control over language and improve their language choices according to the purpose and audience for the message.

Academic language also involves

discipline-specific vocabulary and language structures for understanding and expressing, explanations, evaluations and analyses.

Providing purposeful opportunities for students to develop and use academic language. This provides access to the “language of school” and supports academic success.

Academic Language in Planning and Assessment

So?How do we put it

together?

Vision of Teaching

edTPA

Planning Use knowledge of students Build content understanding Design assessments to monitor

student learning

Instruction Student engagement Student thinking Subject-specific pedagogy

Assessment Analysis of student learning Provide feedback

Academic

Language

Justifying

instructional

decisions

Academic

Language

Analyzing

Teaching

Academic

Language

Using data to

inform

instruction

Focus on Student Learning

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Academic LanguageOral and written language used for academic purposes

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

DiscourseStructures 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)

Elementary MathematicsEnglishMathScienceSocial Studies

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Language DemandsSpecific ways that academic language is used by students to participate in learning tasks readingwriting listening and/or speakingdemonstrate/perform

Are the language demands high or low?

High = lecture, writing a paragraph, reading from a content text or primary source document.

Low = dramatization, illustration, filling in a graphic organizer or labeling with a word bank

Language Demands

In order to demonstrate their understanding of terms that can be used to describe geographical features, the learners will write a paragraph summarizing the geography of Italy.

The learners will find the roots of a quadratic equation by factoring.

Given a word problem with a quadratic equation, the learners will be able to find maximum or minimum values.

What supports might a student need?

Sample Objectives

If the language demand is high, you will need to state specifically how you are going to provide scaffolding and support for students who need it.

For example: Re-write text or condense text Provide sentence frames or stems Provide graphic organizers Provide a template or model for

students to imitate CLOZE note-taking guide for lecture

What are some other ideas?

Scaffolds

In order to demonstrate their understanding of terms that can be used to describe geographical features, the learners will write a paragraph summarizing the geography of Italy, using both words from the vocabulary worksheet and a list of adjectives they will have generated.

Sample Objectives

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Language Functionscontent and focus of the learning task

Represented by action verb within the learning outcome (describing, comparing, summarizing, etc.)

EnglishMathScienceSocial Studies

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

SyntaxSet of conventions for organizing symbols, words and phrases together into structures (e.g., sentences, graphs, tables)

Purpose: Compare/Contrast

Marine Mammals

Ocean Fish

Have lungs

Live births

Warm blooded

Mothers produce milk

Have gills

Hatch from eggs

Cold blooded

Do not produce milk

Vertebrates

Excellent swimmers

Live in groups

Content-Specific vocabulary

Linguistic Features - sentence frames

Providing sentence frames will allow students to express compare/contrast.

________ have __________, whereas________ have _____________.

Marine mammals have lungs, whereas ocean fish have gills.

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.

Building Words/Structures

Yet another consideration of

language demands…

Characteristics of textual resources

In social studies, long sentences with multiple embedded clauses are common.

Frequent use of pronouns it and they as referents.

Cause and effect statements are frequent. Because there will be more people in

the world in the future, we will need more land on which to build towns and cities.

Various verb forms are used: “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it

a city of marble.” Augustus is supposed to have spoken these words as he lay dying. He was Rome’s first emperor, and started the first of its great building programs. He claimed that he had had over 80 temples rebuilt.

Social Studies

Use of passive voice

Multiple embeddings

Long noun phrases serving as subjects or objects

If…then constructions and logical connectors (if, because, however, consequently)

The Calvin cycle is sometimes referred to as the “light-independent reactions” because, unlike the light reactions, it does not require light to begin. However, this does not mean that the Calvin cycle can continue running in a plant kept in the dark. The Calvin cycle requires two inputs supplied by the light reactions, ATP and NADPH.

Science

Comparatives: 6 is greater than 4 María earns six times as much as Peter Lin is as old as Roberto

Prepositions: (divided) into, divided by, 2 multiplied by 6 and X exceeds 2 by 7

Passive voice: X is defined as a number greater than 7.

Reversals: The number a is five less than b.

Logical connectors: if…then If a is positive then -a is negative.

Mathematics

Vocabulary Text, character, plot, theme, thesis,

characteristics, genre, metaphor, simile, gerund

Narrative Structures Quotatives Descriptors

Inferential language in metaphors The use of “like” or “as” in similes

Literary Response Generating/Justifying an opinion Citing evidence

English Language Arts

English/Language Arts Terms & Phrases

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?

Handout

TermsPhrasesUsing Language

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?

Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations

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?

Emily’s NotesHandout

Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations


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?

Genre (i.e., Purpose) and Linguistic Features


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?

Sentence FramesSentence StemsPhrases

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)

Looking at one taskSentence Frames

Academic Language Tools

Generate hypothesisLanguage ArtsMathSocial StudiesScience

In order to do this task for each content area, requires that studentsKnow what a they are being asked to do

Have something to sayHave the words to say it, orHave the structures to write it

Textual tools

Sentence Frames

Identifying Cause/Effect in Language Arts

I think the character did that ________ because ________.

Even though many people thought that the cause was ________, I believe it was ________.

Each ________ played a key role. First, ________ did ________. Then, ________ did ________.

Premises Restated

Teacher candidates must reflect on how language is used for a range of purposes in their lessons.

Teacher candidates need to identify the essential academic language purpose/genre required of students in order for them to access texts and express their developing understanding of the newly learned content.

Students must be provided with opportunities to use and practice the new language in order to develop fluency.

Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Focus of edTPA Assessment

A meaningful chunk of instruction around a big idea or essential question for the students in the class

Support for both content and academic language development

Strategies and materials tailored to the students in the class

Conceptual Framework of Assessment

What? – candidate describes plans or provides descriptions or evidence of what candidate or students did

So what? – rationale for plans in terms of knowledge of students & research/theory, explanation of what happened in terms of student learning or how teaching affected student learning

Now what? – what candidate would do differently if could do over, next instructional steps based on assessment, feedback to students

Academic Language—edTPA

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. Vocabulary Syntax Discourse

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?

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Resource Slides

Discourse—English

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language serve a particular function within each subject area.

In English-language arts, language forms include expository, narrative, poetic, theatric,

journalistic, film, and graphic print materials; video and live presentations.

Language forms can be at the sentence level, paragraph or genre level. If the function is to interpret character development, then appropriate language forms could include literacy essays or a set of sentence frames like “The author used (action, dialogue, and/or description) to introduce (main character). One example of (action, dialogue, and/or description) was ________, which suggested that the character was __________.”


Discourse—Elementary Mathematics

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language to serve a particular function within each subject area.

In mathematics, language forms include symbolic representations such as numbers,

equations, and two-column proofs (which can be translated into words),

tables and graphs (which are shorthand language for summarizing complex sets of data),

and narrative (e.g., explanations of problem solutions). If the function is to compare, then appropriate

language forms could include Venn diagrams or pattern sentences like “The _____ is longer/larger/heavier than the ______.”

If the function is to explain, then students might use sentence starters like “First, I…”, “Then I…” to structure the explanation, and use “Finally I…” to signal the conclusion.


Discourse—Science


In science, language forms include symbolic representations such as chemical

equations (which can be translated into words), graphic and tabular representations (which is

shorthand language for complex sets of data), lists (e.g., materials lists), and narrative (e.g., analysis and conclusions sections

in a lab report).

Language forms can be at the sentence, paragraph, whole text, or symbolic levels. If the function is to draw conclusions, then

appropriate language forms to structure the content could include charts of investigative results or sentence starters to structure an analysis such as “The results of the investigation show…” “This suggests that…”


Discourse—Social Studies

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language to serve a particular function within each subject area.

In the history-social studies, language forms include expository, narrative, journalistic, maps, and other graphic print materials; presentations of data in text, charts, and graphs; video and live presentations.

Language forms can be at the sentence level, paragraph or symbolic level. If the function is to develop a document-

based argument, then appropriate language forms could include written essays with specified formats and pattern sentences like “The two main causes of _____________ were ____________ and____________. For example, the (author of) (document) stated that _______________ (citation).”


Discourse—Math


In mathematics, language forms include symbolic representations including numbers,

equations, and two-column proofs (which can be translated into words),

graphic representation (which is shorthand language for complex sets of data), and narrative (e.g., to describe or compare). If the language function is to compare, then

appropriate language forms could include Venn diagrams or an equation like x < 7.

If the language function is to prove, then appropriate language forms include formal two-column proofs as well as informal explanations that begin with a statement of the problem and known information, followed by a series of statements like ”And then, I know _______ because _______”, ending with what it to be proved.


Language Functions—English

Language Functions: The function is the purpose the language is intended to achieve in the learning task.

Functions are associated with verbs found in learning outcome statements.

Common language functions in the language arts include: reading/listening for main ideas and details; analyzing and interpreting characters and

plots; writing narrative, informational, or poetic text; using presentation skills to present a play, a

speech, or do a dramatic reading; evaluating and interpreting an author’s

purpose, message, and use of language choice, setting, mood, tone, and other literary strategies;

comparing ideas within and between texts, making sense of unfamiliar vocabulary through

pictures, word parts, and contextual clues.


Language Functions—Math



Common language functions in mathematics include describing mathematical phenomena, predicting from models and data, comparing based on common attributes, summarizing mathematical information, justifying conclusions, evaluating data and mathematical

representations, classifying based on attributes, explaining phenomena and processes, drawing conclusions based on data, representing mathematical information and

mathematical models, etc.


Language Functions—Science



Common language functions in science include reading investigative procedures, diagrams,

figures, tables, graphs, and dense authoritative text;

writing or presenting causal explanations; modeling scientific phenomena;

predicting from models and data from scientific inquiries;

comparing based on common attributes, summarizing scientific data from inquiries;

justifying conclusions with scientific evidence; evaluating data and investigative procedures; classifying based on attributes; describing processes and procedures; drawing conclusions based on investigative

results, etc.


Language Functions—Social Studies



Common language functions in history-social studies include reading/listening for main ideas and details in

narrative, expository, and persuasive text; reading/interpreting maps, graphs, and data

tables; evaluating and interpreting an

author/presenter/historian’s purpose and message;

corroborating an author’s claims; examining evidence an

author/presenter/historian uses to support claims; analyzing arguments in favor of a perspective;

writing/presenting persuasive arguments; analyzing and/or describing causes of historical,

economic, geographic, and political events; supporting written or spoken claims with

evidence and warrants; etc.


Documents

Dr. Melanie Hundley Vanderbilt University Academic Language 101 Austin Peay State University September 28.2012