USING READ ALOUD TO SUPPORT LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

PS 18

October 9, 2012

Presented By:

Shirley Rouse- Bey

Achievement Coach

CFN 204

OUR JOURNEY…

How to support academic English development and text understanding

What do teachers need to know and do to help?

THE PROBLEM…

Many ELLs learn to decode well enough, but can’t understand what they decode

Why aren’t ELLs learning academic English? The only way to learn academic English is in

the texts ELLs should be reading, however, these texts are the ones they can’t read because they lack prerequisite academic language skills

COMMON CORE SHIFT IN ELA

Shift 6 - Academic Vocabulary Students constantly build the vocabulary

they need to access grade level complex texts.

By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words (such as “discourse,” “generation,” “theory,” and “principled”) and

less on esoteric literary terms (such as “onomatopoeia” or “homonym”),

Teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.

LANGUAGE ANCHOR STANDARD 6

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use (K-8) Acquire and use accurately a range of

general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient

for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate

independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to

comprehension or expression

PRE-K LANGUAGE STANDARD 6

With prompting and support, use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

THE APPROACH… “ATTENTION TO LANGUAGE”

Focus on language in texts, specifically at complex structures in them

Instructional conversations on aspects of “juicy sentences” in which teachers call students’ attention to the relationship between form, function and meaning

Beyond vocabulary… relating parts of sentences to meaning

THE APPROACH… “ATTENTION TO LANGUAGE”

Carefully planned conversations about language in texts, across the curriculum

Conversational starters and questions that invite students to notice and discuss forms and structures, and relate them to meaning within the context

Language Objectives in Lessons

THE POINT OF ALL THIS…

To teach ELLs strategies for handling complex text structures, language they ordinarily do not use or understand

To get them into the habit of noticing how language works, language they ordinarily ignore, because they do not understand it

To give them the means to make such language their own

YOUR WORK…

Making this work happen in your schools and in your classrooms

Nothing would happen without your commitment and effort

WHAT DOES RESEARCH SAY ABOUT ELLS?ISABEL BECK - TIER WORDS

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Words to Teachhigh frequency, high utility

Known, common words

Low-frequency words;Content Specific Words

POLYSEMOUS WORDS IMPORTANT

TABLE

Did you set the table for dinner?

Use the table at the back of the book for reference.

Find the table of contents in your book.

Complete the six, seven, and eight multiplication table for homework.

In the science book, you will find the periodic table of elements.

BICS AND CALP WORD PLAY

Pervasive----everywhere Impoverished---poor What’s inside of “pervasive” that is not inside

of “everywhere”???? What’s inside of “impoverished” that is not

inside of “poor”????

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LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

Are there other words with a similar meaning? What moods do these other words evoke? How can we rank them in order of intensity?

|----------------------------------------------------------| everywhere extensive widespread

pervasive

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WORD PLAY PRACTICE ACTIVITY

In table groups:- Identify Tier 2 & Tier 3 words.- Select a Tier 2 word. Adjectives and Verbs work

best.- Develop the meaning of the word using a

“shades of meaning” card.

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WORD PLAY Impoverished Poor

Pervasive Everywhere

Exclusion keeping out

CALP PLAY: GENERATIVE WORDS

Disapprovingly Disbelief Dishonor Disagreement Disengagement DisrepairHow does “dis” sometimes work in English???

Knowledge of prefixes, roots, suffixes, parts of speech. This supports knowledge of the forms and meanings of words.

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THANK YOU!!!

© AMNH / Denis Finnin

The mermaid Lasirèn is a powerful water spirit popular in the Caribbean Islands and parts of the Americas.

Video clips that highlight some of this necessary work

Aligning this work to the Common Core State Standards