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@SupportEduc www.GetSupportEd.net @GetSupportEd.net

Strategies for Teaching Academic Language

To ELs and SELs

Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D.

www.GetSupportEd.net

• Describe the three levels of academic language • Learn and apply research-based strategies for selecting

academic vocabulary • Learn and apply strategies for supporting ELs and SELs’

academic language development at the word, sentence, and discourse levels

• Describe an advocacy plan to ensure all teachers integrate academic language into instruction for ELs and SELs

2

Outcomes for Our Session

www.GetSupportEd.net 3Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017, p. 9

Framework for Excellent and Equitable Education

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1. Why you need this book to support ELs

2. Using a culturally responsive framework

3. Scaffolding instruction for ELs4. Fostering ELs’ oral language

development5. Teaching academic language

to ELs6. Vocabulary instruction and

ELs7. Teaching ELs background

knowledge8. Scaffolded text-dependent

questions9. Formative assessment for

ELs

Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017

Unlocking ELs’ Potential

www.GetSupportEd.net 5

1. Need for Advocacy2. Creating a Shared Sense of

Responsibility3. How Teachers Can

Collaborate4. Advocacy Overview for

Administrators5. Increasing EL Families’

Involvement as Advocates6. Advocacy Through Effective

Instruction7. Advocating for ELs in

Assessment8. Advocacy for ELs’ Success

Beyond Grade 12

Staehr Fenner, 2014

Advocating for English Learners

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• Find:

– 1 interesting topic– 2 chapters you’d like

to read (1 per book)– 3 tables or figures

to share at your schools

6

1 – 2 – 3 Book Scavenger Hunt

Importance of Teaching Academic Language to ELs & SELs

www.GetSupportEd.net 8Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017; adapted from NY State Testing Program, 2016

Reflecting on Academic Language

Problem:Addison wants to ride her scooter more than 100 miles this month. She has already ridden her scooter 12 miles. Which inequality could be used to determine the mean number of miles, m, she would need to ride her scooter each day for 20 more days to achieve her goal?

20m + 12 < 10020m – 12 < 10020m + 12 > 10020m – 12 = 100

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• Stands in contrast to everyday informal speech

• More abstract, more complex, less contextualized

• Language of power

9Bailey, 2007, 2012; Scarcella, 2008

Academic Language: Definition

www.GetSupportEd.netStaehr Fenner, 2014; adapted from WIDA, 2012

Representation of Academic Language

Selecting Academic Vocabulary For Instruction

www.GetSupportEd.net 12Cruz & Thornton, 2013; Haynes, 2005

Vocabulary in Content Areas: Considerations for ELs & SELs

Science and Social Studies:• Frequent introduction of new, unfamiliar terms• Academic vocabulary with several meanings

Math:• Language of word problems• Vocabulary needed to explain

thinking

ELA: • Literary terms• Figurative language,

imagery, symbolism

www.GetSupportEd.net 13

Select a small group of words for in-depth focus. Words...

Baker, et. al, 2014

Selecting Academic Vocabulary for In-Depth Instruction

• Key to understanding the text likely unfamiliar to students

• Frequently used in the text

• Students will see across disciplines (general academic vocabulary)

• With multiple meanings

• With affixes

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Selecting Academic Vocabulary “The scientists put caterpillars on leaves and used another machine to make the leaves vibrate. When the leaves shook the way a predator would shake them, caterpillars behave as if a real predator were on the leaf. They spun threads and hung. When the leaves shook as if the wind were blowing or rain were falling, caterpillars did nothing.”

14Haynes, E. 2017; Text: Hanging By a Thread, by Pochron, S.[Engage NY Grade 4 ELA Module 2B]

Key Words

Frequent Words

General Academic

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Selecting Academic Vocabulary

The party leaders distributed

a draft of the bill and asked their

colleagues to review it carefully.

15Haynes, E. 2017; Text: Hanging By a Thread, by Pochron, S.[Engage NY Grade 4 ELA Module 2B]

Multiple Meanings

Affixes

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• Select one excerpt:

o Amazing Whales! (Grades K-1) o The Great Fire (Gr. 6-8)o Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote? (Gr. 9-10)

• Select 5 vocabulary words using the criteria.

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Vocabulary Selection Activity

Supporting Academic Language Development at the Word Level

www.GetSupportEd.net 18

Multifaceted Approach to Vocabulary Instruction

Introducenew vocabulary

Practicenew vocabulary

Teachindependent wordlearning strategies

Adapted from Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017

www.GetSupportEd.net 19

• Visuals• Gestures• Student-friendly definitions

(wordsmyth.net)• Student-created definitions• Examples and non-

examples• Synonyms and antonyms• Translation

Visual source: August, Golden, Pook, 2015

Introduce New Vocabulary

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Speaking/Listening Reading/Writing Games• Academic

discussions

• Information gap

• Interactive word wall

• Word sort

• Word experts

• Sentences or paragraphs related to content using bank of vocabulary

• Glossaries

• Responding to text-dependent questions

• Memory

• Vocab Jeopardy!

• Vocab jigsaw

• Vocab bingo

• What’s my word?

Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017, pp. 159-161

Practice New Vocabulary

www.GetSupportEd.net 21Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017. Adapted from August, Staehr Fenner, & Snyder, 2014

Example: Bilingual Glossary

GlossaryWordand

Translation

English Definition

Example from Text

Picture or phrase to

represent the word

Cognate(Yes or No)

instinctinstinto

natural behavior, not learned

Some scientistsclaim play is a natural instinct—just like sleep.

yes

humanityhumanidad

all people That might explain why sports are likely to be as old as humanity.

yes

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A. Context clues

B. Word parts

C. Cognates and false cognates

D. Words with multiple meanings

22Baker, et al., 2014

Teach Independent Word Learning Strategies

www.GetSupportEd.netStaehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017. Adapted from August, Staehr Fenner, & Snyder, 2014

A. Context Clues

Unfamiliar word Location Clues

1. litter Line 2 Lines 1, 5

Clues: picking up, junkDefinition: pieces of waste paper and other objects scattered around a place

Not many people would spend their free time picking up other people’s litter. But Chad Pregracke has spent most of the past five years doing just that along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois Rivers. Why?

Chad grew up in a house alongside the Mississippi. He loved to fish and camp on the river’s wooded islands. That’s when he first noticed the junkdotting its shoreline.

www.GetSupportEd.net 24

Verbs(Action)

Nouns(Person, Place, Thing, or Idea)

Adjectives(Words to

Describe Nouns)

Adverbs(Words to Describe Actions)

act ? active actively

collect collection collective ?

consider consideration ? considerably

Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017. Adapted from Baker, et al., 2014

B. Word Parts

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Cognates: sound and look similar in both languages and mean the same thing

25Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017. Adapted from August, Staehr Fenner, & Snyder, 2014

False Cognates: sound and look similar in both languages but mean different things

Cognates False Cognates

planet = planeta carpet ≠ carpeta

C. Cognates

www.GetSupportEd.net 26Adapted from Steinhardt, New York University, 2009

D. Vocabulary With Multiple Meanings

Vocabulary Meaning in Everyday Use

Meaning in Math and/or Science

mean to be unkind (adj.)to intend (v.)

?

volume ? amount of space inside an object

gross ? total income from sales

mass having to do with a lot of people

?

www.GetSupportEd.net 27

• Return to your list of 5 vocabulary words. • Discuss strategies that you would use to

introduce and practice key vocabulary. • Include any independent word learning

strategies that you would focus on.

Teaching and Practicing New Vocabulary

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Teaching Academic Language at the Sentence Level

www.GetSupportEd.net 29

• Complex sentence structures

• Unfamiliar verb tenses• Passive voice • Pronouns• Literary devices

Adapted from Haynes, 2017; Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017

Challenges for ELs & SELs at the Sentence Level

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Supporting ELs & SELs at the Sentence and Discourse Level

Activity Level of Academic Language Support

1. Unpacking juicy sentences

Sentence

2. Analyzing and supporting sequencing

Discourse

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• Consider this sentence: “Since most owls feed upon a variety of animals, owl abundance is not limited by the rise and fall in numbers of any one prey species.”

– Divide the sentence into chunks. – Then summarize each chunk in your own words.

31Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017; adapted from Wong Fillmore & Fillmore, 2012 and California Department of Education, 2014Text Source: Government of Alberta, 2009

Unpacking Juicy Sentences

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“Since most owls feed upon a variety of animals, owl abundance is not limited by the rise and fall in numbers of any one prey species.”

32Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017; adapted from Wong Fillmore & Fillmore, 2012 and California Department of Education, 2014Text Source: Government of Alberta, 2009

Unpacking “Juicy Sentences” Activity

Chunk of Text Summary in My Own Words

Since most owls feed upon Because most owls eata variety of animals,owl abundanceis not limited by the rise and fall in numbersof any one prey species.

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Directions: 1. Select one sentence on a poster paper to “unpack” the

meaning with your colleagues. 2. Under the sentence, break the sentence into chunks. 3. Then, summarize the chunk of text in your own words.

33Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017; adapted from Wong Fillmore & Fillmore, 2012 and California Department of Education, 2014

1. Unpacking “Juicy Sentences” Activity (cont.)

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How might you support your colleagues to use this activity to facilitate ELs’ & SELs’ comprehension of complex text?

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Debrief

Teaching Academic Language at the Discourse Level

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Analyzing and Supporting Sequencing

• Students put sentence strips in order to determine proper order of a text

• Provide first and last sentence as scaffold (if needed)

• Help students identify clues

www.GetSupportEd.net 37Text source: Murphy, 2010, The Great Fire

Example: Sequencing Text

Order Sentence

The city boasted having 59,500 buildings, many of them—such as the Courthouse and the Tribune Building—large and ornately decorated.Many of the remaining buildings (even the ones proclaimed to be “fireproof”) looked solid, but were actually jerrybuilt affairs; the stone or brick exteriors hid wooden frames and floors, all topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs. Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn. The trouble was that about two-thirds of all these structures were made entirely of wood.

www.GetSupportEd.net 38Text source: Murphy, 2010, The Great Fire

Example: Sequencing Text

Order Sentence

2 The city boasted having 59,500 buildings, many of them—such as the Courthouse and the Tribune Building—large and ornately decorated.

4 Many of the remaining buildings (even the ones proclaimed to be “fireproof”) looked solid, but were actually jerrybuilt affairs; the stone or brick exteriors hid wooden frames and floors, all topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs.

1 Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn. 3 The trouble was that about two-thirds of all these structures

were made entirely of wood.

www.GetSupportEd.net 39Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017, p. 236

Academic Language Instructional Scaffolding Checklist

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Advocacy Plan

www.GetSupportEd.net 41

• What?• Why?• How?

Adapted from Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017

Use Talking Points to Strengthen Your Role

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1. Identify your key, succinct message

Emphasize a win-win solution

2. Anticipate pushback

3. Add talking point to address pushback

42Adapted from Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017

Advocacy Plan: Writing Talking Points

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• English glossary or bilingual glossary

• Context clues activity

• Word parts activity

• Vocabulary with multiple meanings

43To download student handouts: Getsupported.net/presentations

EL Student Handouts

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• Describe the three levels of academic language • Learn and apply research-based strategies for selecting

academic vocabulary • Learn and apply strategies for supporting ELs and SELs’

academic language development at the word, sentence, and discourse levels

• Describe an advocacy plan to ensure all teachers integrate academic language into instruction for ELs and SELs

44

Outcomes for Our Session

www.GetSupportEd.net

Join Our Community

45

Sign up on our website to continue collaboration withEL experts and a community of EL advocates. Weregularly share free tools, resources, and webinarsto facilitate our ELs’ success and well-being.

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@SupportEduc@GetSupportEd.net

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Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D.

Diane@GetSupportEd.net