Strategies for Teaching
Academic Language
Presented at NJTESOL-NJBE on May 30, 2014
Julie Ochoa, Mei Hui, Jeff Linn & Robert Waters
Franklin Township Public Schools
Based on the Work of
Maryann Cucchiara
and
Dr. Lily Wong Filmore
And Ms. Cucchiara’s presentations in Franklin Township
What does WIDA tell us in the
Standards?
Social and Instructional Language
Language of Language Arts
Language of Math
Language of Science
Language of Social Studies
Why Integrate Language and
Content?
 Integration is consistent with the notion that language is learned




through meaningful context
Concurrent teaching and learning of both subject matter and
language is a way to accelerate
Non-integrated approach is insufficient for ELLs to succeed in
mainstream classes
Situated language within a content curriculum has the potential
to support in a continuous and reciprocal manner
Language rich diet of an ELL group can be nourishing for all
students
Taken from Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning by Pauline Gibbons
Common Core
Increased Rigor in Tasks
Separation of Reading Standards – Increase in
Informational Texts
Reading for Informational Text
Reading Literature
Common Core (cont.)
Writing:
To Persuade (Argumentative)
To Explain (Expository)
To Convey Experience
How Do the Common Core Affect
our Teaching/Expectations?
In order to answer this question, let’s look at
some samples of text
Let’s look at the tasks associated with the text
ACCESS 6-8 Reading
Water is very important for plants, animals, and people.
Water moves in a cycle, which is a process that repeats
over and over again. Water in lakes and rivers evaporates
(turns into gas), and as a gas it can float up into the sky.
In the sky it condenses (changes from gas to liquid) and
turns into clouds. Water then falls to the earth as
precipitation (snow or rain). Some rain water soaks into
the soil or is used by living organisms. The rest runs off
into rivers and lakes, and the cycle continues.
Which picture shows condensation?
4th GRADE NJASK
Teresa and Rafael set up their terrariums for a class
project. Teresa never had to water hers but Rafael
had to water his almost every other day. Why do
you think this happened?
A Teresa poured more water in hers before closing it up.
B Rafael used different soda bottles to set his up.
C Rafael decided to leave the top off and water evaporated
quickly.
D Teresa used plant food and Rafael did not.
Common Core Standards Text
Exemplar Grade 4
There are few objects you can make that have both the dazzling beauty and
delicate precision of a soap bubble. Shown here at actual size, this bubble is a nearly
perfect sphere. Its shimmering liquid skin is five hundred times thinner than a human
hair. Bubbles made of plain water break almost as quickly as they form. That’s because
surface tension is so strong the bubbles collapse. Adding soap to water weakens water’s
surface tension. This allows a film of soapy water to stretch and stretch without
breaking. When you blow a bubble, it looks somewhat like a drop of water emerging
from a faucet. And just like the surface of a drop of water, the bubble’s surface shrinks
to form a sphere. Spheres and circles are mathematical shapes. Because they can form
spontaneously, they are also shapes of nature.
Performance Task: Grade 4
Common Core Standards
 Students explain how the specific image of a soap bubble
and other accompanying illustrations in Walter Wick’s A
Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder contribute
to and clarify their understanding of bubbles and water
Context: ESL in Franklin
As a result of all the previous information and
the work we did with Maryann Cucchiara, we
restructured ESL curriculum entirely in order to:
Integrate language and content learning
Reflect the WIDA Standards
Prepare students for the Common Core
Create assessments reflecting the ACCESS and
WAPT
Measure language growth
So what do these strategies look like in real life?
We will see strategies in action at all three levels
of language and at different grade levels
Features of Academic Language
from WIDA
Performance Criteria
Features
Discourse Level
Linguistic
Complexity
(Quantity and variety of
oral and written text)
Amount of speech/written text
Structure of speech/written text
Density of speech/written text
Organization and cohesion of ideas
Variety of sentence types
Sentence Level
Language Forms and
Conventions
(Types, array, and use of
language structures)
Types and variety of grammatical structures
Conventions, mechanics, and fluency
Match of language forms to
purpose/perspective
Word/Phrase
Level
Vocabulary Usage
(Specificity of word or
phrase choice)
General, specific, and technical language
Multiple meanings of words and phrases
Formulaic and idiomatic expressions
Nuances and shades of meaning
Collocations
Mei Hui
Strategies in Context – Grade 2 and 4
Books for Leaders & Heroes Unit
Word Wall
Language Functions - Examples
Language Functions
Expressing needs and likes
Describing people, places, and things, actions
Justify
Take a Stance
Explaining a procedure
Retelling/relating past events
Making predictions
Persuading
Evaluating
Comparing (Similarities)
Contrasting (Differences)
Language Function –
Compare/Contrast
Venn Diagram
C/C Sentences
4th grade
Language Function Retelling/Relating Past Events
Lexical Arrays
Lexical Arrays
Smart, Intelligent, Wise
Grow, develop, thrive and flourish
Cold, freezing, frigid, cool
Always done as a CULMINATING activity
Works best with adjectives differing in intensity (large,
enormous, gigantic) and verbs differing in manner (look,
peek, glance, scowl, stare, glare)
Lexical Arrays
Generative Words
Academic vocabulary contains many repeating word
chunks
Helping students recognize these chunks aids in
decoding
Showing them that these chunks often have meaning
gives them a lever into comprehension of academic
vocabulary that they will encounter in text.
Examples:
Make as many words as you can with re- as “again”
Make as many words as you can with –er as “someone
who”
Generative Words
4th grade
De/Reconstruct Sentence
Jeff Linn
Upper Elementary
Elementary Strategies - Jeff
Selecting pivotal language and excerpts
Generative Words
Hand Signing vocabulary to develop
understanding and recall
Deconstruct/Reconstruct
Practice: Turn and Talks
Assessing Learning: Speaking Assessments,
Essays
Pivotal Language: The Standards
6.1.4.C.4 Describe how
supply and demand
influence price and
output of products.
Find a Pivotal Excerpt
“The price of goods is
usually determined by
supply, demand, and
production costs.”
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/games/offsite/youarehere/pages/parents_and_teachers.html
Pre-Teach Vocabulary
Generative Words
Name:
Mr. Linn
ESL
Date:
Directions: This assignment is homework. Find words with the same
ending. Look up and copy the definitions. -tion means “thing”.
Then, use the new words in sentences of your own.
production
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
Definitions:
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Sentences:
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Deconstruct/Reconstruct
Q 1: Turn and tell a partner
what the sentence is about.
Q2: Turn and tell a partner
three facts you learn about it
from this sentence alone.
Writing Task
Write a plan for an imaginary new product that you are
planning to market. Give a name and describe what
your product will look like.
Tell what you will do to:
Increase demand for your product.
Make sure you have a good supply of your product.
Keep production costs low.
Explain what could happen to the price of your product if
your production costs were too high.
Robert Waters
Strategies in Action in the Upper Grades – Civil Rights
Vocabulary
How do you choose vocabulary to be taught?
Always from the text being read!
Mortar words, or Tier 2 are critical for academic language
development
Polysemous words are also critical
Words that travel
Idiomatic expressions and phrasal clusters
Vocabulary Preview
Sweltering –
extremely hot
Oppression –
to forcefully control someone
Transformed – to make a great change
Oasis –
a beautiful lake that is cool, refreshing, and safe
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering
with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an
oasis of freedom and justice.
Synonym Web
hot
burning
Sweltering
blistering
scorching
Picture Compare
Lake  Oasis
Connotation vs. Denotation
Oppression
Government
Control
Domination




…sweltering with the heat of ____________…
Relational Vocabulary
S
Y
N
O
N
Y
M
S
A
N
T
O
N
Y
M
S
1. changed
is to
1. transformed
2. hot
is to
sweltering
2. ______________
cool
3. ______________
is to
3. oasis
4. control
is to
oppression
4. ______________
1. remain
is to
1. transformed
cool
2. ______________
is to
2. sweltering
hot
3. ______________
is to
3. oasis
4. freedom
is to
oppression
4. ______________
Sample Read-Aloud Text
I Have a Dream Speech – Washington, DC 1963
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have 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 the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat
of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Sentence Play: Deconstruct
and Reconstruct
Pull a sentence out of the reading that is linguistically
rich and complex – and engaging.
Read the entire sentence
Note essential and stated facts inside the long sentence
Break down the sentence into its tiniest parts
Check sentence by mapping the parts back to the text
Make sure no information is omitted
Read the sentence again and tell what you understood.
Deconstruct
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,
Not necessary
clauses
sweltering with the heat of oppression,
will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
a dream
This sentence is about ______________.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
I have a dream about the state of Mississippi.
The state of Mississippi is a state burning (filled) with injustice (unfairness).
The state of Mississippi is a state burning (filled) with oppression (control).
The state of Mississippi will be transformed (changed).
The state of Mississippi will be transformed to a state with freedom.
The state of Mississippi will be transformed to a state with justice.
Reconstruct
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,
sweltering with the heat of oppression,
will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
a dream
This sentence is about ______________.
1. I have a dream about the state of Mississippi.
2. The state of Mississippi will be changed into a state with freedom
and justice.
3. The state of Mississippi is a state filled with unfairness and control.
MAIN IDEA
I have a dream that Mississippi will change into a state with freedom
and justice from a state of unfairness and control.
Now It’s Your Turn to Try
Guided Practice
Text Sample CCSS 11-12
Lincoln was shaken by the presidency. Back in
Springfield, politics had been a sort of
exhilarating game; but in the White House,
politics was power, and power was responsibility.
Never before had Lincoln held executive office.
In public life he had always been an insignificant
legislator whose votes were cast in concert with
others and whose decisions in themselves had
neither finality nor importance. As President he
might consult with others, but innumerable
grave decisions were in the end his own, and
with them came a burden of responsibility
terrifying in its dimensions.
Lincoln’s rage for personal success, his external and worldly
ambition, was quieted when he entered the White House, and
he was at last left alone to reckon with himself. To be
confronted with the fruits of his victory only to find that it
meant choosing between life and death for others was
immensely sobering. That Lincoln should have shouldered the
moral burden of the war was characteristic of the high
seriousness into which he had grown since 1854; and it may be
true, as Professor Charles W. Ramsdell suggested, that he was
stricken by an awareness of his own part in whipping up the
crisis. This would go far to explain the desperation with which
he issued pardons and the charity that he wanted to extend to
the conquered South at the war’s close. In one of his rare
moments of self-revelation he is reported to have said: “Now I
don’t know what the soul is, but whatever it is, I know that it
can humble itself.” The great prose of the presidential years
came from a soul that had been humbled. Lincoln’s utter lack
of personal malice during these years, his humane detachment,
his tragic sense of life, have no parallel in political history.
From Richard Hofstadter’s Abraham Lincoln and the Self
Made Myth
Key Vocabulary
Stricken
deeply troubled to the point of crippling
1. __________
- ________________________________
2. __________ - ________________________________
3. __________ - ________________________________
That Lincoln should have shouldered the moral
burden of the war was characteristic of the high
seriousness into which he had grown since 1854;
and it may be true, as Professor Charles W. Ramsdell
suggested, that he was stricken by an awareness of
his own part in whipping up the crisis.
Vocabulary Strategy
hit
troubled
Stricken
wracked
afflicted
Deconstruct
That Lincoln should have shouldered the moral burden of the
war was characteristic of the high seriousness into which he
had grown since 1854; and it may be true, as Professor
Charles W. Ramsdell suggested, that he was stricken by an
awareness of his own part in whipping up the crisis.
Lincoln
This sentence is about ______________.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Lincoln shouldered the moral burden of the war. Lincoln felt responsible for the war.
Lincoln was serious.
Lincoln grew more serious since 1854.
Lincoln was stricken (troubled).
Lincoln was stricken by an awareness.
Lincoln was stricken by his part in the crisis (war).
Lincoln was stricken by his part in whipping up (starting) the crisis.
Professor Ramsdell suggests (thinks it may be true) that Lincoln was troubled.
Reconstruct
That Lincoln should have shouldered the moral burden of the
war was characteristic of the high seriousness into which he
had grown since 1854; and it may be true, as Professor
Charles W. Ramsdell suggested, that he was stricken by an
awareness of his own part in whipping up the crisis.
Lincoln
This sentence is about ______________.
1. Lincoln was troubled by an awareness of his own part in starting the war.
2. Lincoln had grown more serious since 1854.
3. Lincoln felt responsible for the war.
MAIN IDEA
Professor Ramsdell suggests that Lincoln was troubled by an awareness of his own
part in starting the war because Lincoln had grown more serious since 1854 and he felt
responsible for the war.
Complex Tasks
Increase in Rigor
Students determine Richard Hofstadter’s purpose and
point of view in his “Abraham Lincoln and the SelfMade Myth,” analyzing how both Hofstadter’s style and
content contribute to the eloquent and powerful
contrast he draws between the younger, ambitious
Lincoln and the sober, more reflective man of the
presidential years. [RI.11–12.6]
Additional Strategies
Playing with Tiers
BICS/CALP play (Tier 1  Tier 2)
“Play” with Tier 1 one words and a Tier 2
synonym; it can be done with pictures and/or
lots of talk
Hot Sweltering (Civil Rights Unit)
Smart  Wise (Heroes Unit)
Grow  Thrive
Mad Enraged
Demystifying Figurative
Language
Figurative Language
was shaken by
Meaning
Why It Works
This is the crucial
instructional
conversation
“It works because, just
like ……, so too….
was stricken by
Sweltering with the heat of
injustice
Stored these voices in his heart
Wove them (voices) into his own
words
58
Sentence Acrobatics
Carefully select a sentence from a Read Aloud to “land
on”
The sentence should be “juicy” and have and important
idea anchored in content
Write the sentence on sentence strips
Have students rip apart the who, the what, the when, and the
how
Reconstruct if possible!
Polysemous Words
Words that have multiple meanings
Words that differ in meaning depending on the
content
State (country) States of matter
Live vs. live (pronunciation differences)
Table…
To Summarize…
We must integrate content and language
learning
We must be deliberate in teaching academic
language in order to ACCELERATE
We must increase the rigor of input, tasks and
expectations
Play with vocabulary AND sentences – do not
leave instruction at the word level
AMPLIFY do not SIMPLIFY
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation
Resources
LDC (www.literacydesigncollaborative.org)
Sample Units – cross curricular (not ESL)
Templates
They Say I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
Building Academic Language by Jeff Zwiers
Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning by Pauline
Gibbons
WIDA Standards
Common Core Standards