Scaffolded Ice Age Lesson for English Language Learners

June 12, 2012FL CCSS Institute

Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D.

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Goals of This Session• Analyze the language demands of portions of this unit to

allow ELLs to access its content

• Model scaffolding strategies and examples for ELLs to give them support in completing this unit, including:

1) Building background knowledge2) Developing language and literacy skills in the context of content instruction (content and language objectives)3) Using first language knowledge and skills as

appropriate4) Pre-teaching academic and domain-specific vocabulary5) Instructing ELLs in vocabulary learning strategies 6) Engaging ELLs before, during, and after reading

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Scaffolding Content Instruction for ELLs

• Plan content and language objectives• Analyze academic language of text • Use targeted ELL scaffolding strategies to

differentiate for instruction at different levels of English language proficiency

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CCSS Addressed by the Scaffolded Ice Age Unit

• CCSS:– Cite specific textual evidence to support

analysis of science and technical texts– Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment

based on research findings, and speculation in a text

• Grade level: 8

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Building Background Knowledge for ELLsThis Not This

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Developing Language/Literacy and Content Simultaneously

Content Objective Language Objective

Students will use academic language of cause and effect to discuss and write 3 – 5 events that may cause global warming using domain-specific and content vocabulary

Students will demonstrate understanding of causes and effects of global warming

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Defining Features of Academic Language

• Academic language is language that stands in contrast to the everyday informal speech that students use outside the classroom environment

• How it differs from social English – Discourse level: Discourse complexity – quantity and

variety of oral and written text– Sentence level: Language forms and conventions – types,

array, and use of language structures– Word/phrase level: Vocabulary usage – specificity of word

or phrase choice– Defining features of academic language all operate within a

sociocultural context for language use

World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), 2011

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Providing ELLs access to complex content area text includes analyzing the following components of text and targeting instruction accordingly: • Sociocultural Context • Discourse/Organization • Grammar/Syntax• Academic Vocabulary

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Challenges Ice Age Text Presents to ELLs

Discourse/Organization Grammar (Language Forms & Conventions)

Vocabulary Usage Sociocultural Context

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What Thawed the Last Ice Age?

By David Biello Wednesday, April 4, 2012 Roughly 20,000 years ago the great ice sheets that buried much of Asia,

Europe and North America stopped their creeping advance. Within a few hundred years sea levels in some places had risen by as much as 10 meters—more than if the ice sheet that still covers Greenland were to melt today. This freshwater flood filled the North Atlantic and also shut down the ocean currents that conveyed warmer water from equatorial regions northward. The equatorial heat warmed the precincts of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere instead, shrinking the fringing sea ice and changing the circumpolar winds. As a result—and for reasons that remain unexplained—the waters of the Southern Ocean may have begun to release carbon dioxide, enough to raise concentrations in the atmosphere by more than 100 parts per million over millennia—roughly equivalent to the rise in the last 200 years. That CO2 then warmed the globe, melting back the continental ice sheets and ushering in the current climate that enabled humanity to thrive.

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What Thawed the Last Ice Age? Continued

That, at least, is the story told by a new paper published in Nature on April 5 that reconstructs the end of the last ice age. Researchers examined sediment cores collected from deep beneath the sea and from lakes as well as the tiny bubbles of ancient air trapped inside ice cores taken from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The research suggests that—contrary to some prior findings—CO2 led the prior round of global warming rather than vice versa, just as it continues to do today thanks to rising emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

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Using First Language Knowledge and Skills as Appropriate

Aproximadamente hace 20.000 años las grandes capas de hielo que enterraron gran parte de Asia, Europa y América del Norte detuvieron su avance progresivo. Desde hace pocos cientos de años ha aumentado el nivel del mar en algunos lugares tanto como 10 metros, más que si la capa de hielo que aún cubre Groenlandia fueron derretir hoy. Esta inundación de agua dulce llena el Atlántico Norte y también apaga las corrientes oceánicas que transmiten agua cálida desde el norte de las regiones ecuatoriales.

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Pre-Teaching Academic and Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

Science Concepts/Voc

ab

Time/ Measurement

Vocab for reasons that remain unexplained today

Ice sheet millennia

as a result carbon dioxide/CO2

ancient

roughly equivalent to

sediment cores today/modern

contrary to ice cores 20,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago

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Instructing ELLs in Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Use of Cognates

Paragraph 2

That, at least, is the story told by a new paper published in Nature on April 5 that reconstructs the end of the last ice age. Researchers examined sediment cores collected from deep beneath the sea and from lakes as well as the tiny bubbles of ancient air trapped inside ice cores taken from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The research suggests that—contrary to some prior findings—CO2 led the prior round of global warming rather than vice versa, just as it continues to do today thanks to rising emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

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Use of Cognates to Access Text

English Word Spanish Wordpublished publicado April Abril reconstructs reconstruyeexamined examinaronsediment sedimentoair aireAntarctica La AntártidaGreenland Groenlandiasuggests sugiereCarbon dixiode – CO2 dióxido de carbonoround rondaglobal globalvice versa viceversacontinues continúa emissions las emisiones degases gases

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Engaging ELLs Before, During, and After ReadingBefore Reading• Building background knowledge• Predicting content of text with scaffolds• Pre-teaching vocabulary and idiomatic expressions

During reading • Teacher read-aloud of text• Student independent reading of text• Student translation of text into own words (with partner)• Teacher guided discussion (with different questions and scaffolding)

After Reading • Focus on both oral language and writing development• Use of first language as appropriate• Level of scaffolding aligned with students’ levels of English language

proficiency with reductions in scaffolding as students become more proficient in English

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Self-Assessment In what ways can you continue to… Build ELLs’ background knowledge? Develop language and literacy skills in the context of

content instruction? Use first language knowledge and skills appropriately? Pre-teach academic and domain-specific vocabulary? Instruct ELLs in vocabulary learning strategies? Engage ELLs before, during, and after reading? Find resources to support all of the above?

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Selected Resources

Freeman Field, R. (2012). Focus on differentiation. Madison, WI: WIDA. Retrieved from http://wida.us/resources/

Gottlieb, M., Katz, A., & Ernst-Slavit, G. (2009). Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL English Language Proficiency standards in PreK-12

classrooms. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Himmel, J. (2012). Language objectives: The key to effective content area instruction for English Learners. Washington, DC: Colorin Colorado. Retrieved from

http:// www.colorincolorado.org/article/49646/ Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for

content classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.