Scaffolded Ice Age Lesson for
English Language Learners
June 12, 2012
FL CCSS Institute
Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D.
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 knowledge
2) Developing language and literacy skills in the context of
content instruction (content and language objectives)
3) Using first language knowledge and skills as appropriate
4) Pre-teaching academic and domain-specific vocabulary
5) Instructing ELLs in vocabulary learning strategies
6) Engaging ELLs before, during, and after reading
2
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
3
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
4
Building Background Knowledge for ELLs
This
Not This
5
Developing Language/Literacy and
Content Simultaneously
Content Objective
Students will
demonstrate
understanding of
Language Objective
Students will use academic
language of cause and
effect to discuss and write
3 – 5 events that may
causes and effects of
cause global warming
global warming
using domain-specific and
content vocabulary
6
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
8
Challenges Ice Age Text
Presents to ELLs
Discourse/Organization
Grammar (Language Forms &
Conventions)
Vocabulary Usage
Sociocultural Context
9
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/Vocab
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.
14
Use of Cognates
to Access Text
English Word
published
April
reconstructs
examined
sediment
air
Antarctica
Greenland
suggests
Carbon dixiode – CO2
Spanish Word
publicado
Abril
reconstruye
examinaron
sedimento
aire
La Antártida
Groenlandia
sugiere
dióxido de carbono
round
global
vice versa
continues
emissions
gases
ronda
global
viceversa
continúa
las emisiones de
gases
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Engaging ELLs Before, During, and After Reading
Before 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.
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