building scaffolds for academic language
Providing support for academic language benefits all students, but it is even more vital for English Language Learners. As you explore this page, consider how these practices support individuals with a variety of needs in a variety of ways.
Using native language as a resource
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It is important to note that most strategies that support ELLs benefit all students. At the same time, we must remember that as a group ELLs represent diverse characteristics and experiences that require differentiated instruction as well. There is no "best practice" that can be applied across contexts and individuals. Rather, there are a variety of strategies we can apply to our lesson planning in order to be more intentional about scaffolding student learning.
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Three strategies we can attend to when planning our instruction include: (1) Activating and Building Prior Knowledge; (2) Engaging multiple literacy domains; (3) Teaching Academic Vocabulary.
Activating and building prior knowledge
Click on the image to view a video from The Teaching Channel that demonstrates what it looks to activate prior knowledge in the classroom.
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"All students have prior knowledge gained from schooling and life experiences, and teachers can informally assess what students know and can do, as well as determine any mismatches in schemata through brainstorming, structured discussion, quick-writes, and techniques as the familiar KWL (Ogle, 1986). However, if some English learners have little or no prior knowledge about a content topic (e.g., The American Revolutionary War), brainstorming about it may not be helpful because the brainstormed terms, names, and places will probably be unfamiliar... Therefore, it is of critical importance that teachers build background using techniques that fill in the gaps, and help students connect what they do know with what is being taught"
(Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2013, p. 67). |
Engaging multiple literacy domains
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are the four literacy domains we will focus on. Reading and listening are characterized as more passive literacy domains, while writing and speaking are expressive domains. Consider how the teacher in the video utilized multiple domains in order to help students engage with the idea of persuasion. When teaching new vocabulary, it is particularly important for students to go beyond just reading new words. They need opportunities to explore and take ownership of the terms through their own speaking and writing activities. There is also an explicit connection to assessment here--the importance of designing multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate and express their understandings, particularly within different domains. There's a lot you may miss out on as a teacher if you rely too heavily on writing assignments alone.
Teaching Academic Vocabulary
Some overarching principles of academic vocabulary instruction (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000) include:
1. "Students should be active in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them." Strategies include semantic mapping, word sorts, Four Corners Vocabulary Charts and Concept Definition Maps.
2. "Students should personalize word learning through such practices as Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy, mnemonic strategies, and personal dictionaries."
3. "Students should be immersed in words in rich language environments that focus on words and draw students' attention to the learning of words. Word walls, comparing/contrasting words with the same morphemic element aid students in recognizing and using the words around them."
4. Students should build on multiple sources of information to learn words through repeated exposure. Letting students see and hear new words more than once and drawing on multiple sources of meaning are important for vocabulary development."
1. "Students should be active in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them." Strategies include semantic mapping, word sorts, Four Corners Vocabulary Charts and Concept Definition Maps.
2. "Students should personalize word learning through such practices as Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy, mnemonic strategies, and personal dictionaries."
3. "Students should be immersed in words in rich language environments that focus on words and draw students' attention to the learning of words. Word walls, comparing/contrasting words with the same morphemic element aid students in recognizing and using the words around them."
4. Students should build on multiple sources of information to learn words through repeated exposure. Letting students see and hear new words more than once and drawing on multiple sources of meaning are important for vocabulary development."
(Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2013, p. 75).
instructional practice:
using read-alouds to attend to vocabulary
Instructional Practice:
teaching vocabulary with graphic organizers
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Another popular approach to teaching academic vocabulary is using Marzano's (2013) Six Step Process, described briefly in this video. Similar to the example above, students create vocabulary squares as they actively make meaning and connections to the new terms they explore.
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Once you have worked through this module, please visit the course site to submit your completed activity sheet.