Meeting The Double-Edged Challenges:English Language Arts (ELA) key practices

Agenda• 9:30 – 10 interactive discussion of the following:

Introduction to CCSSChallenges that students and teachers facekey approaches and methodssignificance of learning strategies

• 10 – 11 Listening, speaking, & vocabulary activities• 11 – 12 speaking, vocabulary, reading, lesson planning activities• 12- 1 Lunch• 1-1:40 K-12 program by Ms. Julia lee• 1:40 – 2:50 reading, grammar, writing activities• 2:50 – 3:00 wrap up

“K-12 CCSS are designed to prepare allstudents for success in college, career,and life”

“The CCSS articulate a vision of what itmeans to be a literate person who isprepared for success in the 21st C.”

Write one idea in relation to eachquote on a post it and stick each on therelevant flip chart .

Career and college-readystudents must adapttheir communication inrelation to audience,task, purpose, anddiscipline

•CCSS call for allstudents to developcritical reading skillsnecessary for deepunderstanding ofcomplex texts, andcritical writing skillsto write about thosetexts.

Double- Edged Challenge

Students•ELLs need support because the curriculum might notprepare them to meet this high bar

•ELLs in the region do not live in English speakingcountries; FLL not SLL

•ELLs need the appropriate textbooks•ELLs need appropriate supplementary material

Teachers

Need to develop Instructional practices that align with CCSSNeed to develop teaching / learning tools that align with CCSSNeed to develop assessment tools that align with CCSSNeed professional development/ training that enables them tohelp students achieve the goal.

Workshop learning outcomes•Create lesson plans according to CALLA

•Design tools to enact the standards in their classes

•Develop tools that would give students ongoingfeedback through formative assessment

•Focus on the development of material that promotesthe integrated nature of literacy

•Focus on each of the domains articulated by thestandards (reading, writing, listening, speaking, andlanguage)

• Focus on “to inform”, “to persuade”, & “to conveyexperiences”

• Focus on helping students learn how to transferknowledge

• Frontloading• Differentiated Instruction

• Monitor progress• Infuse 21st C skills into daily

lesson plan

• Learning strategies acceleratestandard academic languagelearning for all students moreeffectively and efficiently.

• They are particularlyimportant for students seekingto master academic languageand content simultaneously.

•Learning strategy instruction can help students by:- Showing them techniques for “how to learn”-Developing their independence as learners- Increasing their academic motivation-Developing their awareness of their thinking &learning processes

learning strategies that are especially helpfulto ELLs in acquiring standard academic Englishand content are the following three meta-cognitive strategies and a strategy for usingprior knowledge:

• Plan-Set goals and identify steps needed to accomplish a learningtask.

• Monitor/identify problems- While working on a learning task, checkyour comprehension or production and identify any problems you arehaving.

• Evaluate-After completing a learning task, assess how well you havedone.

• Use what you know- Use your own knowledge and experiences tounderstand and learn something new; brainstorm words and ideas;make associations and analogies; explain your prior knowledge abouta topic.

Introduce the ConceptHow can we protect our environment?• Watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dF_O1Au8vZLA

•Discuss / answer the questions (questionstarget purpose, audience, message, &vocabulary)

1. Have you ever given a speech?2. Can you share any personal experience?3. Who is Severn Suzuki?4. Whom is she addressing?5. Why did she decide to travel long distance andgive such a speech?

6. Whom does she represent?7. What is her main concern?8. What issues does she talk about?9. What is her main message?

10. What is the analogy she used to get hermessage across.11.What touched you the most in her speech?

12. What were the two polite requests sheaddressed the audience with?

• Environmental Children’sOrganization

• Raised money• Hidden agenda• Fight for my future• Speak for the generations to come /

on behalf of• Starving children• Cries go unheard• Go extinct / vanish forever• Herds of wild animals• Rain forests

• Happen before our eyes• Deforestation• Species• Waste• Privileged life vs living on the streets• Victim of war• Water/ air pollution• Oil spill• Chemicals• Holes in the ozone• Find environmental answers

• If you don’t know how to fix it,Please stop breaking it!

• Please make your actionsreflect your words.

Let’s reflect on what we did!

•Spark meaningful connections with prior learningand personal experiences

•Explore and verify important concepts

•Get engaged in inquiry and reflection

•Target specific words and expressions the studentsneed to learn to use when they speak, read, writeabout the concept.

•Record the words or phrases the students use in theiranswers to the questions.

•Write above each expression the target word orexpression in a different color.

• Provide students with opportunities to express themselves / tocommunicate

• Students activate prior knowledge• Give them an opportunity to explore the concepts hands-on before

they read and learn the formal content

Speaking activity• Each pair chooses a picture.• Take turns to come up with around a minute impromptu

speech.• Each one chooses the purpose of their speech.• Each one chooses the audience of their speech.• It is highly recommended that you use the helpful words and

phrases discussed earlier and posted on the flip chart.• Share with the class

•Narratives are important in communicating real-life experiences

•Create opportunities for transfer to othersituations and subjects.

Recap• Assignments should have personal and social significance to

the students• Extended practice in miniature• Culturally relevant activities relating students’ lives through

talk and writing• Multiple opportunities to practice new skills by working in

pairs and / or in small groups.• Informational talk to write informational texts• Use academic vocabulary before they apply it to their writing

Activity

Reading lesson plan

Informational text

Informative text BiodiversityTeach through modeling• Reading processes• Text’s grammatical features and vocabulary• Build upon their prior knowledge• Inform the reader about a specific topic.• Find key information and understand the main topic.• Coherence and cohesion

ReadLikeaWriter

Informative text• Conveys factual information• Elements of the text: includes exposition, procedural text,

persuasive text etc• Academic vocabulary• Text structure: use cause- effect; definition; comparison –

contrast; classification..• Use textual features like photos, graphs, maps, drawings, etcreaders need to experience the power of using skills andstrategies to make deep meaning from text

Activity

• Grammar in context; target grammar featurecontextualized in the same informative text

•Know the content theyneed to include in theirwriting

•Students need tounderstand the text theyread to be able to writeabout it.

Recap•Standards stress the importance of regularpractice with academic texts and theircomplex academic vocabulary.

•Modeling appropriate language use andprocesses of reading and writing

•Establishment of cohesion and text-structureknowledge.

Mini writing tasksPrompt• As a member of the “Go Green

Club”, you volunteered to participatein the Environmental AwarenessCampaign to promoteenvironmental awareness at yourschool. Write down an informativetext that makes students aware ofthe problems that are causing adecline in the environment’s health.In groups of 4,

1. Discuss the prompt2. Decide on the main ideas3. Each student chooses a main idea and develops

it in a paragraph4. The group members discuss the different parts

and collaboratively put together the informativetext. Each member signs their name next to thepart they created.

•Model how to write comments that relate tocontent and organization; comments that helpstudents write a better draft

•Use symbols to proofread the same writing.(In class the teacher collects papers to comment onand give feedback; students write another draft;teacher checks the second draft before publishingthem in class.)

• Culturally relevant instruction/tasks facilitate connectionbetween students, theirclassrooms and theircommunities.

• Provide daily time for studentsto write

• Writing informational textsrequires writers to synthesizeinformation from multiplesources.

•Writing persuasive essayshelps them become criticalreaders.

Persuasive text• Use the script of the speech• Teach through modeling• What is her claim?• What arguments does she present?• Are they logical and convincing?• What rhetorical devices• (Aristotle’s appeals: logos, pathos, ethos)• does she use?• Which part affected you the most?• Do you agree with her?

Recap• Strategy instruction is important.• Don’t describe the strategy, model it. Support strategy use by

practice• Differentiate based on authentic assessment/ scaffolding

students who need additional conceptual, academic, andlinguistic support

• Through modeling / explicit instruction expose them to newlanguage features and teach them how to use these features inacademic contexts.

Practice•Give them a persuasive text of a themerelated to the concept being discussed.

•Ask them to read the title and set a purpose•Ask them to read an assigned part silently

•Ask them questions that relate to the vocabularystrategy / vocabulary words

•Ask them questions that reflect theirunderstanding of the features of persuasive text.

•Continue the other parts to help all studentsachieve the learning outcomes.

ActivityIn pairs, choose one of the given situations and write a claim,one argument that appeals to reason and another one thatappeals to emotions. Write each on a separate sheet of paper.All pairs who worked on situation 1 are asked to post theirclaims, arguments that appeal to logic and those that appeal toemotions on the chart under the matching heading.Discuss with the class / evaluate the claim and arguments.

•Write like a reporter•Connect to texts•Write in response tomultiple texts and citetext-based evidence

Activity: Design a writing task• Topic should relate to concept•Task helps students consider alternatives, weighevidence, support their ideas, and justify theiranswers.

• Task helps students synthesize and applyinformation from different sources.

Activity continuedTask should give students the chance to:• research their chosen topics• Record interesting facts• Sequence their ideas• Share their findings with a partner

Sum UpEffective instruction for ELLs to meet the new standards willrequire opportunities for students to engage with texts, peers,and teachers using language and literacy in all its complexity

Activities that create conducive climate and foster motivation:- make connections to students’ lives- acknowledge students’ voices-engage students in collaboration

Choose instructional methods that best meetstudents’ needs

Implement formative assessment to improveinstruction

• Encourage students to relate concepts toother subjects & revisit their thoughtsabout it, explaining how their thoughtsmay have changed after completingseveral tasks

• Engage students in challenging hands-onactivities and help them makeconnections to other content areas