Academic Language in the edTPA

Abridged from Academic Language 101 by Melanie Hundley

2 Questions

Task

How do you define academic language?

How do you learn the “academic language” of your classes?

School is where you go to learn a secret language but they don’t tell you that it’s there. You have to figure it out on your own. It’s like an initiation to a secret club. Maya, 8th grade.

Secret Language

Student Voices

I knew I was gone fail that test when I got to the third question and I didn’t even know what they was asking me. Karah, 11th grade

Secret Language

Student Voices

Student Voices

Making Academic Language Visible

I can do the work for a class as long as I know what the teacher means by what she says and what she asks. When a teacher makes things clear for me, I think I am a good student. Leah, 12th grade

Student Voices

Making Academic Language Visible

Most of the time I don’t even know how to start or what to do. It’s more than just sometimes not knowing the words in the directions. It’s knowing what I am supposed to use when I talk in the class or when I write something for class. Matt, 12th grade

Social Purposes for Language

Exchanging greetings

Making jokes

Indicating agreement/disagreement

Retelling stories

Participating in personal conversations

Persuading

Chamot and O’Malley, 1974

Academic Language Purposes

Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how

Inform - recount information or retell

Compare & Contrast – identify similarities & differences

Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle

Classify - describe organizing principles

Analyze - describe features or main idea

Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes

Justify & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is important

Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures

Synthesize - summarize information cohesively

Evaluate - identify criteria, explain priorities, etc.

Language to participate

another facet of academic language

9

Instructi onal Language

Teachers and students use language in specific ways to participate in learning and assessment tasks:

discussing ideas and asking questions

summarizing instructional and disciplinary texts

following and giving instructions

listening to or presenting a mini-lesson

explaining something

giving reasons for a point of view

writing essays to display knowledge on tests

communicating behavioral expectations (“raise your hands”)

9

If we accept that teachers & students use language in specific ways to participate in learning and assessment tasks, what are some ways to express the following?

Discussing ideas and asking questions

Summarizing instructional and content texts

Giving instructions

Listening to or presenting a mini-lesson

Explaining something

Giving reasons for a point of view

Communicating behavioral expectations

Choose one of the classroom practices from the list.

Create an example from your content area.

What are the key structures (words, phrases, punctuation, etc.) that are part of this?

Task

List command terms that you might use in your classroom that could cause students problems.

Annotate In English—you add notes and/or commentary

to text, usually explaining something or going deeper into the specific meaning, make connections, identify and/or explore key literary elements

In Science—add brief notes to a diagram or graph

Think about when you were in middle and high school. What words in the directions caused you problems?

Think about your content area. What words could cause student problems?

Task

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Academic Language Oral and written language used for

academic purposes

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Discourse Structures of written and oral language How members of the discipline talk,

write, and participate in knowledge construction

Discipline-specific Distinctive about features/way of structuring

language (text structures)

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Language Demands Specific ways that academic language

is used by students to participate in learning tasks reading writing listening and/or speaking demonstrate/perform

Are the language demands high or low?

High = lecture, writing a paragraph, reading from a content text or primary source document.

Low = dramatization, illustration, filling in a graphic organizer or labeling with a word bank

Language Demands

If the language demand is high, you will need to state specifically how you are going to provide scaffolding and support for students who need it.

For example: Re-write text or condense text Provide sentence frames or stems Provide graphic organizers Provide a template or model for

students to imitate CLOZE note-taking guide for

lecture

What are some other ideas?

Scaffolds

In order to demonstrate their understanding of terms that can be used to describe geographical features, the learners will write a paragraph summarizing the geography of Italy, using both words from the vocabulary worksheet and a list of adjectives they will have generated.

Sample Objectives

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Language Functions content and focus of the learning task Represented by action verb within the

learning outcome (describing, comparing, summarizing, etc.)

Academic Language

Discourse

Language Demand

Language Functions

Syntax

edTPA Terms

Syntax Set of conventions for organizing

symbols, words and phrases together into structures (e.g., sentences, graphs, tables)

Purpose: Compare/Contrast

Marine Mammals

Ocean Fish

Have lungs

Live births

Warm blooded

Mothers produce milk

Have gills

Hatch from eggs

Cold blooded

Do not produce milk

Vertebrates

Excellent swimmers

Live in groups

Content-Specific vocabulary

Linguistic Features - sentence frames

Providing sentence frames will allow students to express compare/contrast.

________ have __________, whereas________ have _____________.

Marine mammals have lungs, whereas ocean fish have gills.

Comparatives: 6 is greater than 4 María earns six times as much as Peter Lin is as old as Roberto

Prepositions: (divided) into, divided by, 2 multiplied by 6 and X exceeds 2 by 7

Passive voice: X is defined as a number greater than 7.

Reversals: The number a is five less than b.

Logical connectors: if…then If a is positive then -a is negative.

Mathematics

Vocabulary Text, character, plot, theme, thesis,

characteristics, genre, metaphor, simile, gerund

Narrative Structures Quotatives Descriptors

Inferential language in metaphors The use of “like” or “as” in similes

Literary Response Generating/Justifying an opinion Citing evidence

English Language Arts

English/Language Arts Terms & Phrases

Teacher Candidate Rephrase

What are the key words and phrases my students will need to understand, read and use in the learning activity? Which of these words/phrases will be new to my

students? Which of these words/phrases have different

meanings in other contexts? Which might be confusing for students?

Is there a non-jargon, student-friendly way to explain this to students?

Handout

TermsPhrasesUsing Language

Teacher Candidate Rephrase

How (i.e., for what purpose) will students be using language in the learning activity?

What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to follow the directions in the learning activity? What key words/phrases will students need to

understand in order to work with texts in the learning activity?

What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to talk about the texts? write about the texts? create similar texts?

Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations

Math Example (Emily)

What are the key mathematical words and phrases my students will need to understand and use in the learning activity? Which of these words/phrases will be new to my

students? Which of these words/phrases have different

meanings in informal/non-mathematical conversations?

What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing each of these?

Emily’s NotesHandout

Mathematical Vocabulary & Representations

Math Example (Emily)

Which new mathematical representations (including notation) will students need to learn to “read” and use in the learning activity?

What “non-mathematical” words or phrases will my students need to understand in order to make sense of the task scenarios in the learning activity?

Genre (i.e., Purpose) and Linguistic Features

Math Example (Emily)

How (i.e., for what purpose) will students be using language in the activity? Which key words/phrases will my students need to

understand in order to follow directions during the learning task, and which of these will be new to my students?

Write some sentences (to develop into sentence frames) that capture how you expect students to be using academic language to achieve a particular purpose during the learning segment.

What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing each of these?

Sentence FramesSentence StemsPhrases

Academic Language Tools

Sentence Frames are tools that can help give students the words and the structures to use as they are initially developing fluency.

Since the square root of __ is __, then __ squared must be ___. (Math)

The __ is an important symbol for __ because __. (ELA)

In the experiment, the __ acted on the __ and caused a __ . (Science)

The war was caused by __ , __ , and __ because __ .(Social Studies)

Textual tools

Sentence Frames

Identifying Cause/Effect in Language Arts

I think the character did that ________ because ________.

Even though many people thought that the cause was ________, I believe it was ________.

Each ________ played a key role. First, ________ did ________. Then, ________ did ________.

Premises Restated

Teacher candidates must reflect on how language is used for a range of purposes in their lessons.

Teacher candidates need to identify the essential academic language purpose/genre required of students in order for them to access texts and express their developing understanding of the newly learned content.

Students must be provided with opportunities to use and practice the new language in order to develop fluency.

Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Focus of edTPA Assessment

A meaningful chunk of instruction around a big idea or essential question for the students in the class

Support for both content and academic language development

Strategies and materials tailored to the students in the class

Academic Language—edTPA

Pre-Service Teachers are asked to:

Select one key language function essential for students to learn within the central focus.

Identify a key learning task from plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function.

Language Demands (consider language function & task) describe the language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use.

Vocabulary Syntax Discourse

Language Supports: Describe instructional supports that will help students understand and use language function & additional language demands.

Assessments: What formal and informal assessments will provide evidence of students’ understanding and fluency?

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Discourse—Elementary Mathemati cs

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language to serve a particular function within each subject area.

In mathematics, language forms include symbolic representations such as numbers, equations,

and two-column proofs (which can be translated into words),

tables and graphs (which are shorthand language for summarizing complex sets of data),

and narrative (e.g., explanations of problem solutions).

If the function is to compare, then appropriate language forms could include Venn diagrams or pattern sentences like “The _____ is longer/larger/heavier than the ______.”

If the function is to explain, then students might use sentence starters like “First, I…”, “Then I…” to structure the explanation, and use “Finally I…” to signal the conclusion.

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Language Functi ons—Math

Language Functions: The function is the purpose the language is intended to achieve in the learning task.

Functions are associated with verbs found in learning outcome statements.

Common language functions in mathematics include describing mathematical phenomena, predicting from models and data, comparing based on common attributes, summarizing mathematical information, justifying conclusions, evaluating data and mathematical representations, classifying based on attributes, explaining phenomena and processes, drawing conclusions based on data, representing mathematical information and mathematical

models, etc.

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Discourse—English

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language serve a particular function within each subject area.

In English-language arts, language forms include expository, narrative, poetic, theatric, journalistic,

film, and graphic print materials; video and live presentations.

Language forms can be at the sentence level, paragraph or genre level. If the function is to interpret character development, then appropriate language forms could include literacy essays or a set of sentence frames like “The author used (action, dialogue, and/or description) to introduce (main character). One example of (action, dialogue, and/or description) was ________, which suggested that the character was __________.”

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity

Language Functi ons—English

Language Functions: The function is the purpose the language is intended to achieve in the learning task.

Functions are associated with verbs found in learning outcome statements.

Common language functions in the language arts include: reading/listening for main ideas and details; analyzing and interpreting characters and plots; writing narrative, informational, or poetic text; using presentation skills to present a play, a speech, or do a

dramatic reading; evaluating and interpreting an author’s purpose, message,

and use of language choice, setting, mood, tone, and other literary strategies;

comparing ideas within and between texts, making sense of unfamiliar vocabulary through pictures,

word parts, and contextual clues.

TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity