Disciplinary Literacy & Language
Winter 2016
Orange County Department of Education
Services for Language Learners
We will…
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raise awareness of asset-based initiatives that
support equitable educational opportunities for
language learners
understand that all learners develop deep
literacy when language is intentionally
amplified
Where am I going?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
We can…
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apply Parts I and II of the CA ELD Standards to discipline-specific
practices
explain the general concepts of disciplinary literacy, cognitive
skills development, and second language acquisition
read and interpret language learner data
distinguish between Integrated and Designated ELD
highlight some characteristics of the language of our disciplines
deconstruct discipline-specific texts
explain the importance of integrating language targets and
SDAIE strategies in a lesson
Where am I going?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
HOW do you
interact in meaningful ways?
WHAT language
do you focus on or use?
Today, I am thinking like a(n)
.
[L]anguage is part and parcel of every human
endeavor, whether everyday and practical, or
academic and scholarly…
Teaching a language as if it were disconnected from
the contexts in which it is used and the topics it
addresses is a highly artificial and ineffectual
pursuit…
—van Lier & Walqui (2012)
We in (fill in the field) want you to join us. We want
to share with you our cognitive secrets, our ways of
thinking about the world, and how we solve
problems. We want to count you as one of us.”
—Shanahan & Shanahan (2012)
Disciplinary
Literacy
Intermediate Literacy
Fluency, comprehension, complex
vocabulary, general strategies, non-fiction
Basic Literacy
Phonics, decoding, simple vocabulary, spelling,
focus on enjoyment
Adapted from Shanahan & Shanahan (2008), p. 44
Language & Text Complexity
Specialized skills
& knowledge, disciplinespecific vocabulary,
challenging texts
focus on purpose
Arts / Technical
History / S.S.
Phys. Science
Bio. Science
Mathematics
Literary Fiction
• Is this what we
expect?
• Is it realistic?
Intermediate Literacy
Adapted from Buehl (2011), p. 13
What are
students’ profiles
as learners?
Arts
History / S.S.
Phys. Science
Biology
Math
Literary Fiction
What are our
profiles/identities
as learners?
Intermediate Literacy
Adapted from Buehl (2011), p. 15
Can we…
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apply Parts I and II of the CA ELD Standards to
discipline-specific practices?
explain the general concept of disciplinary
literacy?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
Can we…
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explain the general concepts of cognitive skills
development and second language acquisition?
read and interpret language learner data?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
Current Standards & Frameworks
Visual &
Performing Arts
History &
Social Sciences
World Languages
Health
Education
Integrated ELD:
All teachers with ELs in
their classrooms use the
CA ELD Standards
in tandem with the CA
CCSS for ELA/Literacy and
other content standards.
Designated ELD:
A protected time during
the school day when
teachers use the CA ELD
Standards as the focal
standards in ways that
build into and from
content instruction.
CA ELA/ELD Framework, Ch. 1, p. 24
DesignatedELD
ELD(Content
(Language
Content
Support)
Integrated
withwith
Language
Support)
CONTENT
How will students READ, WRITE, SPEAK, & LISTEN in the discipline?
LANGUAGE
PART I
PART II
HOW will students interact in
WHAT language will students focus
meaningful ways?
on or use?
Designated ELD (Language with Content Support)
LANGUAGE
PART I
PART II
HOW will students interact in
WHAT language will students focus
meaningful ways?
on or use?
CONTENT
How will students READ, WRITE, SPEAK, & LISTEN in the discipline?
Can we…
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distinguish between Integrated and Designated
ELD?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
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Secondary teachers have implicit knowledge of
academic language and seldom analyze the grammatical and
lexical (word) choices they make when they teach
Consider Jeff Zwier’s analogies of fish describing water and
secondary teachers’ blind spots to the awareness of teaching
academic language (Zwiers, 2014, pp. 79-80)
How can and why should secondary teachers “apprentice” their
students to think and communicate in the respective languages
of their disciplines?
Differences in Linguistic Resources
● More Tier 2 & 3 words
● Complex sentences with
dependent clauses
● Expanded noun phrases
● Longer, tightly organized
stretches of discourse
Polluting the air is wrong,
and I think people should
really stop polluting.
Although many countries are
addressing pollution,
environmental degradation
continues to create devastating
human health problems each year.
Register -More Informal
Register -More Formal
Background KnowledgeMore typical of everyday
interactions about
common sense things in
the world
Background KnowledgeSpecialized/content-rich
knowledge about topics from school experiences and
wide reading
Vocab – Few Tier 2 and
Tier 3 words
Vocab – More specialized
Sentence Structure:
Compound
Sentence Structure:
Complex
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What are the characteristics of the language in your discipline?
What is the academic register?
Consider the texts and resources you brought in today to guide
your thinking
The language of____is…
Process Data Diagram
LEFT
RIGHT
Example: The language of engineering is very technical and straightforward
and uses text, visuals, and charts to make meaning. With a process data
diagram, for example, the language on the left is directive, using action words
(verbs) to articulate processes and activities. The language on the right is
precise, using one-word descriptive words (adjectives) to describe deliverables.
Excerpt from Situational Requirements Engineering of Web Content Management Implementations (2005)
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In your groups, describe the characteristics of the language in your
discipline
Use the texts and resources you brought in today to guide your
thinking
Focus on the text features
Unpack the language within the text
Provide general characteristics and specific examples using texts
The language of____is…
The federal debt exploded to an
incomprehensible $12.1 trillion, and the nation
continues on its path to becoming a wholly
owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of
China. Yet lawmakers can’t even agree on a
modest proposal to form an independent debt
commission and then vote on its
recommendations. The debt commission is
expected to be voted down Tuesday morning, as
foes on the far left and the far right unite to
form a status quo supermajority. Prospects have
become so bleak that a couple of retired
congressional leaders got together Monday
morning in hopes of shaming their former
colleagues into action.
Autonomous text with
stance that must be
understood
Terms that reflect
economics
Terms that refer to
government
Term that applies to
geography
Terms that are
polysemous
Excerpt from Washington Post (January 26, 2010), p. A-2/Adapted from Short D.J. et al (2010)
If a rectangular solid has side, front
and bottom FACES with areas of 2x,
y/2 and xy cm2 respectively, what is
the VOLUME of the solid in
centimeters cubed?
Autonomous text with
stance that must be
understood
Combination of technical
terms, referent, and
symbols and figures
Terms that are
Polysemous
Noun phrases: HEAD
NOUNS with pre- and
post-modifiers with
prepositional phrases
Conjunction used as a
hypothetical condition
Adapted from Fang and Schleppegrell (2010), pp. 4-5
Salvador, late or early, sooner or later
arrives with the string of younger brothers
ready. Helps his mama, who is busy with
the business of the baby. Tugs the arms of
Cecilio, Arturito, makes them hurry,
because today, like yesterday, Arturito has
dropped the cigar box of crayons, has let
go the hundred little fingers of red,
green, yellow, blue, and nub of black
sticks that tumble and spill over and
beyond the asphalt puddles until the
crossing-guard lady holds back the blur of
traffic for Salvador to collect them again.
Autonomous text with
stance that must be
understood
Phrases that add
information (appositives
and subordinate clauses)
Words that link the
same participants
(pronouns & reference
chains)
Figurative language
(complex
words/descriptions)
Excerpt from Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros (1991)/Adapted from Short D.J. et al (2010)
ORGANISMS made up of one or
more cells that have a nucleus and
membrane-bound organelles are
called eukaryotes. EUKARYOTIC
CELLS also have a variety of
subcellular structures called
organelles, well-defined,
intracellular bodies that perform
specific functions for
the cell.
Autonomous text with
stance that must be
understood
Technical vocabulary
Hyphenated compound
adjectives used to
accurately describe and
to densely pack meaning
Noun phrases: HEAD
NOUNS with embedded
clauses
Noun phrases are linked
together by relating
verbs to allow for
definition and to
describe a process
Excerpt from 10th Grade Textbook, Modern Biology (2006)/Adapted from Fang and Schleppegrell (2010), pp. 4-5
Can we…
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highlight some characteristics of the language of
our discipline?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
Sentence Deconstruction
How can and why should secondary teachers “apprentice” their
students to think and communicate in the respective languages
of their disciplines?
Sentence deconstruction serves the following purposes:
For students to…
 analyze the structure (linguistic features)
 derive meaning from text (comprehension)
 use new linguistic knowledge to revise their
own writing
ELD Standards, Ch. 5 p. 168
The first three
words
Words We Live By: Your Annotated
Guide
to theof the Constitution are the most
important. They clearly state that the people—not the
Constitution
not
not the courts—are the true rulers
The first three words of the Constitution are the mostking,
important.
Theythe
clearlylegislature,
state that the people—
not the king, not the legislature, not the courts—are in
the true
rulers in American
government. This This principle is known as
American
government.
principle is known as popular sovereignty.
But who are “We the People?” This question troubledpopular
the nation forsovereignty.
centuries. As Lucy Stone, one of
America’s first advocates for women’s rights, asked in 1853, “‘We the People’? Which ‘We the
People’? The women were not included.” Neither were white males who did not own property,
American Indians, or African Americans—slave or free. Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African
American on the Supreme Court, described the limitation:
For a sense of the evolving nature of the Constitution, we need look no further than the first
three words of the document’s preamble: ‘We the People.’ When the Founding Fathers
used this phrase in 1787, they did not have in mind the majority of America’s citizens . . . The
men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 could not . . . have imagined, nor would they have
accepted, that the document they were drafting would one day be construed by a Supreme
court to which had been appointed a woman and the descendant of an African slave.
Through the Amendment process, more and more Americans were eventually included in the
Constitution’s definition of “We the People.” After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment ended
slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment gave African Americans citizenship, and the Fifteenth
Amendment gave black men the vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to
vote nationwide, and in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment extended suffrage to eighteen-year-olds.
Excerpt from The Words We Live By by Linda Monk (2007)
“We the People”
The first three words of the Constitution are the most
say
the American people
important. They clearly state that the people —not
the king, not the legislature, not the courts—are the
American people are the true rulers
true rulers in American government. This principle
People
reign/rule
is known as popular sovereignty.
Augustus: The First Emperor
Caesar’s assassination plunged the empire into another civil
war. During that conflict, Caesar’s adopted son Octavian
hunted down the assassins. In 31 B.C.E., after 14 years of war,
Octavian became the master of the Roman world. He later
wrote:
I often waged war, civil and foreign, on the earth and sea,
in the whole wide world. As victor, I spared all the
citizens who sought pardon. As for foreign nations,
those of which I was able to safely forgive, I preferred to
preserve than to destroy.
Primary source
quotes are found
throughout gradelevel textbooks as a
means of building
content.
Excerpt from The Words We Live By by Linda Monk (2007)
Augustus
home
fought on land & by ships
abroad
I often waged war, civil and foreign, on earth and
ancient world
winner
sea, in the whole wide world. As victor, I
forgive
spared all citizens who sought pardon. As for
foreign nations, those which I was able to
wanted
keep them
safely forgive, I preferred to preserve than
destroy.
Click HERE to Access Video Presentation
Look for:
● Syntax
● Pronouns
● Vocabulary
● Grammatical features
● Expanded noun phrases
● Connecting/transitional
words
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Nominalization are nouns that are created
from verbs and adjectives
It is typical of academic language because it
supports discussion of general concepts
Using verbs as nouns (nominalizing) allows
students to compress more information into
one sentence
Discipline
Processes/Actions
Nominalization
Common Noun Endings
History
to discover
to resist
to withdraw
discovery
resistance
withdrawal
-y
-ance
-al
Math
to multiply
to add
to change
multiplication
addition
the rate of change
-tion
Science
to measure
to erode
to change
measurement
erosion
the changes
-ment
-sion
ELA
to write
to state
to think
writing
statement
thought
some nouns stay the same
some nouns change roots
Sample Adjectives to Nouns:
applicableapplicability / difficult difficulty / different difference
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noun phrases contain a “head noun” and one or
more modifiers that describe it
we do not read academic texts word by word—but
chunk by chunk
we must read each grammatical construction as a
single unit
deciphering sentences involves isolating phrases
within a sentence and recognizing where noun
phrases begin and end
Noun phrase with dream as the head noun and its post-modifiers:
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s had a DREAM that one day on the red hills of
Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will
be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
Condensed from…
 Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream about brotherhood.
 Martin Luther King, Jr.’s had a dream that took place in the red hills of Georgia.
 In Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners live
together.
 In Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners do not
usually sit down at a table.
 When people sit down together at a table, it implies that people are brothers.
 When the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners sit down
together at a table, it implies that they are brothers.
Excerpt from criticalreading.com
Noun phrase with concern as the head noun and its post-modifiers:
There is a concern in the global health industry that a fake
smallpox attack can “infect” hundreds of people working in the
health care profession.
Condensed from…
 The global health industry has a concern.
 There is an attack of smallpox.
 The attack is imagined.
 The attack can “infect” hundreds of people.
 These people work in the health care profession.
Excerpt from sciencedirect.com
Noun phrase with balance as the head noun and its post-modifiers:
Find the final BALANCE in an account with $1,200 and an
interest rate of 5% compounded annually for 7 years.
Condensed from…
 There is a bank account.
 The account has $1,200 in it now.
 The money will earn interest.
 The interest rate is 5%, and it is compounded every year.
 The money will remain in the account for 7 years.
 We want to know the amount of money left in the account at the end
of the 7th year.
Excerpt from mathportol.com
Noun phrase with the book as the head noun and its post-modifiers:
He lost the BOOK by Mark Twain about the Mississippi that he
took out of the library on Sunday before the game so that he
could study during half time when his brother was getting
popcorn.
Condensed from…
 He lost the book.
 The book was written by Mark Twain.
 The book was about the Mississippi.
 He had taken the book out of the library on Sunday.
 There was a game on Sunday.
 He took out the book from the library so that he could study.
 He wanted to study during half time.
 During half time, his bother was getting popcorn.
Excerpt from criticalreading.com
Click HERE to Access Video Presentation
Can we…
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deconstruct discipline-specific texts?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
SDAIE: Content Focus?
Targets: Language Support?
Can we…

explain the importance of integrating language
targets and SDAIE strategies in a lesson ?
Where am I?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8
References
Buehl, D. (2011). Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. California
Department of Education. SBE-Adopted Resources. California ELA/ELD Framework (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/cf/elaeldfrmwrksbeadopted.asp
—(2012) California English Language Development Standards. Retrieved from
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf
Fang, Z. and Schleppegrell, M. J. (2010). Disciplinary Literacies Across Content Areas: Supporting Secondary Reading Through
Functional Language Analysis. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53: 587–597.
Gibbons, P. 2009. English Learners Academic Literacy, and Thinking: Learning in the Challenge Zone. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Muldowney, J. [James Muldowney]. (2016, April 5). Text Deconstruction Example Video 1. [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/ssaMR4vVAaQ
—(2016, April 5). Unpacking an Exam Question World Tourism Exemplar Video. [Video File]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/fQAhgsu0spo
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004), The Language of Schooling: A Functional Linguistic Perspective. Routledge
Shanahan, T & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy. Harvard
Educational Review. Vol. 78. No. 1.
—(2012).What is disciplinary literacy and why does it matter? Topics in Language, 32(1), 7–
18.
Short D.J. et al (2010). The SIOP Model for Teaching History-Social Studies to English Learners. Boston: Allyn & Bacon
van Lier, L. & Walqui, A. (2012). Language and the Common Core State Standards. Understanding Language/Language,
Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas, Stanford University.
Zwiers, J. (2014). Building Academic Language (2nd Ed.): Meeting Common Core Standards Across
Disciplines. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
@OCDE_Office_ELD
Gauging & Engaging Our Communities
What are my next steps?
See CA ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8