a presentation by david irwin language development opportunities east valley school district march...
TRANSCRIPT
Academic Conversations
A Presentation by David IrwinLanguage Development Opportunities
East Valley School DistrictMarch 20, 2014
Outcomes
I will be able to improve my students’ achievement through the
use of higher order questioning and discussion techniques Attain Distinguished level on Component 3b
Engage my student in cognitively challenging activities
Teach my students the skills of initiating or adapting conversations and/or activities, and adjusting their own grouping arrangements for best learning. Attain Distinguished level on Component 3c
Based on Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings by Jeff Zwiers & Maria Crawford. Stenhouse, 2011.
What is an Academic Conversation?
An academic conversation goes beyond casual conversation. The goal is for the participants to reach a new understanding of a school topic through the use of specific conversational skills. Each partner must listen and speak, elaborate, clarify, challenge, paraphrase, and summarize what his/her partner says, and determine the outcome of the conversation.
Review the Research for ELLs ELLs benefit from Big 5 reading instruction,
more so in word-level skills. Text level skills – comprehension and writing –
are closely aligned with oral language development.
Focus on systematic high quality vocabulary instruction
MAJOR THEME: “The importance of intensive, interactive language development instruction for all English learners. This instruction needs to focus on developing academic language.”
August & Shanahan (2006) and Gertsen et al (2007) in Honigsfeld & Dove (2010)
Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Kindergarten
Comprehension and Collaboration1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about
kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the
topics and texts under discussion).b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and
support, provide additional detail.
5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Grade 3
Comprehension and Collaboration1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with
diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that
preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others
with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments
to the remarks of others.d. Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.
2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant,
descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
5. Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
6. Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 28 and 29 for specific expectations.)
Common Core Listening Speaking Standards Grade 5
Comprehension and Collaboration1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled)
with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and
other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.c. Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the
remarks of others.d. Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the
discussions. 2. Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually, quantitatively, and orally. 3. Summarize the points a speaker makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons and
evidence. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts
and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
5. Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when
appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and
situation. (See grade 5 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 28 and 29 for specific expectations.)
Whole Brain Teaching
First Grade intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=D668Jl6zuAk Third Grade math
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-1WovRYYs
More links from there Scaffolding Teach/OK
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZJ7tozYl0 wholebrainteaching.com/
Whole Brain Teaching
Intro to Whole Brain Teaching Third Grade Part 1 First Grade Scoreboard Scaffolding Teach/OK Fifth Grade Math wholebrainteaching.com/ Seventh Grade Science – mirror Sixth Grade Science - mirror
Class/Yes
Teachers says “Class” Vary the tone, speed, pitch, etc
Students respond “Yes” Same tone, speed, pitch as the teacher
Teach/OK
Teach “Teach/OK” in scaffolded steps: Teacher: clap clap “teach”
Students: clap clap “ok” Vary the clap patterns▪ Rhythms, Travolta move, swim, shoulder brush, etc
Practice with feedback until smooth Full body turn to partner Return to front: “Class”/”Yes” (no clapping) Add big gestures related to content
Ex: What’s your favorite food? Spaghetti (with wiggly spaghetti fingers)
Getting Started
All students have common information Read a text Heard a read aloud
Practice one skill at a time, build on them Facilitator
Be as quiet as possible Avoid “rescuing” – providing a word or idea for a student Model the skill frames In early stages, pause for progress checks on the conversation
goals – which skills used, etc. Mini-lessons
Teacher model Student pairs model with coaching
Make a Conversation Poster see Teaching ideas, Questions, Answers
Getting Started
Effective conversations Both partners talk Critical and creative thinking Welcome controversy and conflict Follow norms Share knowledge and skills Provide choice and ownership
Conversation Norms
We listen to each other We share our own ideas and explain them We respect another’s ideas, even if they are
different We let others finish explaining an idea
without interrupting We take turns and share air time
Elaborate and Clarify: Questions
Questions ask for specific information. Try these:
Can you elaborate on…? What do you mean by…? Can you tell me more about…? What makes you think that? Can you clarify the part about …? Can you be more specific? How so? How/Why is that important? I wonder if …? I’m a little confused about the part…
Elaborate and Clarify: Questions
Questions:
Can you elaborate on…?Can you tell me more about…?
Can you clarify the part about …?
Can you be more specific?
Elaborate and Clarify: Answers
Answers can be direct or through analogy.
One example is… It’s like when…
Sketch to Stretch
Visualize Draw what you see when the reader
pauses Or when there is a natural break in the
narrative Or as a response to a question or prompt
Verbalize Write or discuss your drawing with a
partner
Hammerfest
“On my sixteenth day in Hammerfest, it happened. I was returning from the headland after my morning walk and in an empty piece of sky above the sky there appeared a translucent cloud of many colors – pinks and greens and blues and pale purples. It glimmered and seemed to swirl. Slowly it stretched across the sky. It had an oddly oily quality about it, like the rainbows you sometimes see in a pool of petrol. I stood transfixed.
I knew from my reading that the Northern Lights are immensely high up in the atmosphere, something like two hundred miles up, but this show seemed to be suspended just above the town. There are two kinds of Northern Lights – the curtains of shimmering gossamer that everyone has seen in pictures, and the rarer gas clouds that I was gazing at now. They are never the same twice. Sometimes they shoot wraithlike across the sky, like smoke in a wind tunnel, moving at enormous speed, and sometimes they hang like luminous drapes of glittering spears of light, and very occasionally – perhaps once or twice in a lifetime – they creep out from every point on the horizon and flow together overhead in a spectacular, silent explosion of light and color.
In the depthless blackness of the countryside, where you may be a hundred miles from the nearest artificial light, they are capable of the most weird and unsettling optical illusions. They can seem to come out of the sky and fly at you at enormous speed, as if trying to kill you. Apparently, it’s terrifying. To this day, many Lapps earnestly believe that if you show the lights a white handkerchief or a sheer of white paper, they will come and take you away.
This display was relatively small stuff, and it lasted for only a few minutes, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and it would do me until something better came along.
In the evening, something did – a display of lights that went on for hours. They were of only one color, that eerie luminous green you see on radar screens, but the activity was frantic. Narrow swirls of light would sweep across the great dome of sky, then hang there like vapor trails. Sometimes they flashed across the sky like falling stars and sometimes they spun languorously, reminding me of the lazy way smoke used to rise from my father’s pipe when he was reading. Sometimes the lights would flicker brightly in the west, then vanish in an instant and reappear a moment later behind me, as if teasing me. I was constantly turning and twisting to see it all. You have no idea how immense the sky is until you try to monitor it all. The eerie thing was how silent it was. Such activity seemed to demand at the very least an occasional low boom or a series of staticlike crackles, but there was none. All the immense energy was spent without a sound. “
“Leaf” questions are “above ground”, literal comprehension knowledge level Answer is in the text
“Root” questions are “buried”, higher order thinking questions Information leading to the answer is in
the text, but not the exact answer
Leaf & Root Questions
REMEMBERING• RT. I can repeat it. What does it say?
UNDERSTANDING• TS. I can explain it. What does it mean?
APPLYING• TS. I can use it. How can I use it?
ANALYZING• TS/OYO. I can take it apart and see how it is put together. What are it’s
parts and how do they work together?
EVALUATING• OYO. I can decide what is good or bad, true or false, strong or weak,
useful or useless. What are it’s good and bad qualities and how do I judge them?
CREATING• TS/OYO. I can put it together in a new way. How can I modify or
improve it?
Bloom’s Taxonomy
http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/blooms-taxonomy-20/
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy – Still the Best
http://mysciencelessons.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/blooms-taxonomy-verb-wheel/
Description Teaching Tips for ELL
•Students write questions related to the content on cards. Must know the answer.
Level 1 students may write questions in L1.
•Students mill around the room to music.•When the music stops, they form a pair and ask each other their question.
Level 1 students partner with students who speak their own language. Level 2 may partner in L1 for their first pairing.
•If the answerer knows the answer, they say it. If not, the questioner explains the answer.
•Student trade cards. •Music begins, students mill and find new partners.
Activities for Turning Up the Volume – Quiz Quiz Trade
Elaborate and Clarify: Teaching Collect examples of analogies & metaphors Opinion Continuum Journal Jumpstarts Modeling I do:
Show the norms Show the skill – what it is, the frames Frames on posters and desksize placemats, color coded
– kids make them Read text, give question Model with another adult Other students watch for frames used – signal
somehow… Video & review the lessons (Marci will organize)
Elaborate and Clarify: Frames by Grade Level K-2
Grade
Questions Answers
K What do you mean by…?Porque piensas eso?
Tell me more about….Dime mas sobre…
I mean…Yo pienso….
I think that…Yo pienso que….
1 What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….
I mean…By that I meant….I think that…
2 What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?
I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…
Elaborate and Clarify: Frames by Grade Level 3-5
Grade
Questions Answers
3What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?How does that connect to…?Why is that important?
I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…In other words…According to .…It’s important because…I believe that…
4-5
What do you mean by…?Tell me more about….Can you elaborate on…?I wonder how/if….What makes you think that?Can you be more specific?How does that connect to…?Why is that important?I’m confused about the part….Can you clarify the part about…?
I mean…By that I meant….I think that…It’s similar to when…In other words…According to…It’s important because…I believe that…An analogy for this might be…More specifically, it is…because…
Support Ideas with Examples: Teaching
The Hunt for Deep Ideas. What makes you stop & think? Write quotations on cards.
Plan the conversation on an organizer
Evaluate the support (quality) of examples on a continuum:
Idea Example
The Red Sox are a great team. They won the World Series eight times. (1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918,2004,2007, 2013)
They have 74 players in the Hall of Fame.
IDEA
Weak support Med Support Strong support
Support Ideas with Examples: Answers
For example, … In the text (on page..) it said … For instance, … According to… In this situation…
Support Ideas with Examples
Grade
Questions Answers
K-1 Like what? Como que?Such as?Why did you say that?
The picture showed….The story said…
2-3
Can you show me where it says that?Can you provide text-based evidence?What is a real life example?
In the text it said that…According to…For instance,…For example,….
4-5
What is an example from your life?How do you justify that?Why is that a good example?What would illustrate that?Are there any cases of that?
On one occasion,…One case showed that…An illustration of this could be…To demonstrate,…An example from my life is…Indeed,…
Paraphrase: Teaching
Listeners set aside their own thinking Listeners tell as much of what they
heard as possible Listeners question the speaker for
clarification
Paraphrase: Questions
I’m not sure that was clear. What do we know so far? What is your take on what I said? Does that make sense?
Paraphrase: Answers
So, you are saying that… Let me see if I understand you. In other words, … What I’m hearing is…
Paraphrase: Frames by Grade Level K-2
Grade
Questions Answers
K-1 What? Que?What did you say? Que dijistes?
I said… Yo dije….Well,… Pues,….
2-3
Can you say that again?Please repeat what you said.I can’t remember what you said.
So, you are saying that…Let me see if I understand you.In other words, …What I’m hearing is…
4-5
I’m not sure that was clear. Can you repeat that?What did you hear me say?
What I heard you say…Essentially, you think …In a nutshell, what you’re saying is…
Questions
What are your questions? Write several; use the taxonomies Ask them to your partner. Take turns. Support your answers from the text Paraphrase your partner’s answers
Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Teaching
Read two texts, opposing views Two-minute Opinion Share
Give the partners a controversial question.
Assign one partner A, one B A gets 1 minute to defend her/her side
of the question B must challenge A’s position Third minute is for consensus
Build – and use – a set of norms
Build on & Challenge a Partner’s Ideas
Grade
Questions Answers
K-1 Do you agree? Piensas igual?What are your ideas? Que son tus pensamientos?Can you say more? Puedes decir mas?
I agree because… Estoy de acuerdo porque…I disagree because… No estoy de acuerdo porque…I think that… Yo pienso que….
2-3
How does that connect to….?Can you add to this idea?Can you show where the text supports that?
I would add that…I want to follow up on your idea…I respectfully disagree because…Another way to think about this is…Going back to what you said before…
4-5
How can we bring this back to the text?What might be other points of view?
Yet I wonder also if…What struck me about what you said…I want to expand on your point about…
Conversation Norms - Challenge We listen to each other We share our own ideas and explain them We respect another’s ideas, even if they are
different We respectfully disagree and try to
see the other view We let others finish explaining an idea
without interrupting We try to come to some agreement in the
end We take turns and share air time
Opinion Continuum
Students place their own personal arrow where their opinion falls.
Jelly beans are better than M&Ms.
Yes No
Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Questions
Can you add to that idea? Do you agree? How does that connect to…? What are some other ideas?
Build on &/or Challenge a Partner’s Ideas: Answers
I want to add to your point that… Connecting to that, … Another way to look at that is… If __________, then __________. I wonder if….
Synthesize
Grade
Questions Answers
K-1 What did we learn? Que aprendimos?What was important? Que era importante?What did we talk about? De que hablamos?
We said that… Decimos que…We learned… Aprendimos…..We talked about… Hablamos de…
2-3
What have we discussed so far?What can we agree upon?What main ideas can we share?
We can say that…We have discussed…The main theme/point seems to be…
4-5
How can we synthesize what we’re talking about?What key idea(s) can we take away?
As a result if this conversation, we think …The evidence seems to suggest that…
Synthesize Conversation Points: Teaching
Parking, Promoting, Pruning Park distracting thoughts Promote your new idea (requires safe
environment) Prune unhelpful thoughts (off topic, not
relevant)
Synthesize Conversation Points: Questions
What have we discussed so far? How can we bring this all together? What can we agree on? What are the main points? What was the original question?
Synthesize Conversation Points: Answers
We can say that… The main point seems to be… How does this sound? We think we should…
Use of Prompts and Questions
Teacher generated
Student generated
Connect each skill to prompt – fig. 4.3
Complete a task first - fig. 4.4
Deepen the Practice
Students take on more responsibility to deepen the conversations:
Whole Brain Teaching: Teach/OK Pairs invite singletons to join them Pairs change If one pair member won’t talk, other member
may join another pair Each pair monitors itself – point value
(eventually) Baseline and improvement data
Students monitor conversations with checklists Recognition for great conversations
Watch for:
Disputes▪ Which skills could move this conversation forward?
“The Red Sox are a great team.” “The Yankees are better.” “The Red Sox by far.” “You don’t know anything.”
Accumulation▪ Which skills could move this conversation forward?
and then…and then… and then… Information is added, but there is no critical
questioning
Watch for:
Procedural talk▪ Which skills could move this conversation
forward? Students talk about what they should be
doing or discussing, who should be next, etc. rather than exploring the topic.
Assessment
Informal: ask students how many skills they used
More formal: Skill checklist on clipboard Teacher roams, checks some or all
conversations One student listens and checks 2 talkers.
Rotate. (Who checks the checker?)