© wested, teacher professional development, 2003 scaffolding as structure and as process in the...

© WestEd, Teacher Professional Development, 2003© WestEd, Teacher Professional Development, 2003

Scaffolding as Structure and as Process in the Development of Oracy

with English Learners

Aída WalquiDirector, Teacher Professional Development Program

[email protected]/qtel

The CULI 6th International Conference 2006November 28, Bangkok, Thailand


During this presentation

I will briefly address:• How ESL work is different than EFL work• The theoretical basis of my work• The process of apprenticeship in teacher

professional development

I will expand a bit more on:• Scaffolding as structure and as process• An instantiation of these two aspects in the

apprenticeship of a teacher


A sociolinguistic look at L2s: Foreign Lg. Second Lg.

• Student does not need L2 to interact in country of residence

• Standards for proficiency are quite tolerant

• The L1 of the student is valued and unquestioned

• The FL does not displace the L1

• Leads to “elite” (Fishman) or “elective” (Valdés) bilingualism

• The language is required for effective civil participation

• Standards for proficiency are very demanding

• Value of students’ L1 is not appreciated by many

• Over time L1 is displaced by L2 with severe consequences

• Leads to “folk” or “circumstantial” bilingualism


Teaching English as a Second Language in the United States

• An activity directed at minorities

• Stigmatized

• Increasing Educational Gaps in the system between majority and minority students

• Three demographic facts to illustrate the point…


Demographic changes: Population of ELs by state, 2003-2004


The big surprise:More adolescent ELs are native than foreign born


Average scores of 8th graders in reading by English language proficiency and state: 2003


Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) is based on

Sociocultural Theory • Development follows learning (therefore, instruction

precedes development)

• Participation in activity is central in the development of knowledge

• Participation in activity progresses from apprenticeship to appropriation, from the social to the individual plane

• Learning can be observed as changes in participation over time


Quality Teaching with ELLs

Is premised on apprenticeship notions of schooling. This means that students:

• Are perceived and treated as capable, legitimate participants

• Engage in rich, intellectually demanding interactions that have been deliberately crafted

• Engage in high challenge, high support tasks that provide them with multiple points of entry to the academic community

• Takeover responsibilities that are handed over to them


Teachers going through QTEL professional development also learn

by participating in activity


During professional development, teachers work through tasks. This enables them to understand the language and pedagogy necessary to implement tasks, and builds the

base for pedagogical reflection


Other activities in QTEL’s teacher professional

development portfolio

• Coaching

• Collaborative Lesson Planning

• Video Clubs (adaptation of Lesson Study)

• Intervisitations

• Professional Conferences


Domains of Teacher Expertise QTEL Professional Development

Addresses


CONTEXT

CONTEXTCONTEXT

CONTEXTVision (beliefs)

of teachingof students

Motivation

reasonsincentivesemotions

Reflection

1. anticipatory2. active/interactive3. recollectivemindfulness

Knowledge

subject matter (ELD)pedagogical

pedagogical subject matterstudents

self

Practice

enactment of learningcontingent scaffoldingongoing assessmentWalqui, 1997, adapted from Shulman, 1995


Teacher expertise

• ESL teachers: Specialists in taking students from zero level of proficiency in English to a “threshold level” of understanding and performance in the language

• Disciplinary teachers: Take students from that threshold level and teach them at the same time the concepts and relationships studied by the discipline and the language needed to express, discuss, and create within that field


The emphasis of scaffolding(from the students’ point of

view)

• Is on students’ learning potential

• Is not on students’ current abilities

• Consequently, we raise the expectations about what is possible: Vygotsky’s notion of prolepsis


Scaffolding takes place within four types of relationships that need to be well constructed in

classrooms


Assistance from more capable peers or adults

Inner Resources: knowledge, experience, memory investment

Interaction with equal peers

Interaction with less capable peers

An Expanded ZPD

REGULATIONSELF

Scaffolding: Modeling…Resourcefulness, Self-access

“Docendo discimus” (We learn by teaching)

“If one member of a dyad undergoes developmental change, the other is also likely to do so”

(Bronfenbrenner 1979:65)

van Lier, 2004


Scaffolding: How does the teacher make it happen?

Is a dynamic and situated act that is responsive to a particular set of circumstances in a particular classroom context. It manifests itself:

• when teachers plan what to do in a classroom with specific students to ripen their potential (anticipatory reflection)

• when they act contingently in a class to support the development of new skills or understandings (scaffolding as process)


Two Elements of Scaffolding:

• Conventionalized, ritual structure (constant and flexible): teachers scaffold as they prepare tasks for their students, know what they are good for, decide when they are appropriate, how they connect to each other

• An interactional process, jointly constructed from moment to moment: teachers scaffold as they support students’ interactions

The process is enabled by the scaffolding structure, and a constant evaluation of the process indicates when parts of the scaffolding structure can be dismantled or shifted elsewhere


Principles of Quality Teaching with Second Language Learners

• Sustain Academic Rigor in teaching English Learners

• Hold High Expectations in teaching English Learners

• Engage in Quality Interactions with English Learners

• Sustain a Language Focus in teaching English Learners

• Develop Quality Curricula in teaching English Learners


The Development of Academic Uses of English

• Different disciplines use the same language differently for specific purposes

• Academic uses of language, therefore, need to be taught within the disciplines, by subject matter teachers

• Within disciplinary language we use the concept of genre


Genre

Staged, goal-oriented, purposeful communicative events that a community of practitioners share.

• Purpose

• Structure

• Preferred linguistic instantiations (taking situation into account)


Oral Development Jigsaw: From Description to Narrative

AA BB CC DD AA BB CC DD AA BB CC DD AA BB CC DD

BASE GROUP


BASE GROUP

AA AA AA AA BB BB BB BB CC CC CC CC DD DD DD DD

EXPERT GROUP


Teacher scaffolds the process:Guidelines for the

apprenticeship of the genre: description

Discusssion of purpose: why do people describe scenes to others?

Structure:• Where does the scene take place?• Who is the central character(s) in the picture?• What does this person look like (approximate

age, sex, height, face, hair, clothes)?• What is this person doing?• Any other relevant information?


Preferred language: Teacher offers models of language that

students may use:

• This scene takes place in …• My picture shows …• The picture I have shows a …

• The central character in my picture is• In my picture you can see a …


Oral Development Jigsaw


BASE GROUP


EXPERT GROUPGenre:Description


Apprenticing a Second Genre: Narratives… Short Stories

Discussion of purpose: Why do people tell stories?

Structure:• Setting, title • There is a central character (and other

character/s)• Something happens to the character• Resolution• The event transforms the character


Oral Development Jigsaw


BASE GROUP


BASE GROUP


EXPERT GROUPDescription

FromDescriptionTo Narrative


What would we see in a QTEL class?

• Students apprenticing disciplinary English from the teacher and from each other

• Students getting multiple opportunities to use the language in deliberate, purposeful ways

• Students gradually appropriating language that initially they did not have


The Apprenticeship of One Teacher

• Teacher: Roza Ng

• School: MS 131, Chinatown, New York City

• Students: Range of recent arrivals in the U.S. between three years and three months

• Issue that moved Roza to participate in QTEL professional development: traditional, teacher-fronted class


Change is possible, but it requires

• Systematic work

• Long, sustained, coherent teacher professional development

• Building communities of teachers who are supportive of each other in the same way that they need to be supportive of their students

• Visions of the possible guiding the work

© wested, teacher professional development, 2003 scaffolding as structure and as process in the...

Documents

teacher slide

qtel professional development

development participation

development of oracy

activity slide

time slide

point slide

foreign born slide