English Learners 101 is a series of articles about how to support English learners with appropriate academic content instruction. Between 2004 and 2008 I served as the English Language Development Support Teacher at an extremely diverse elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time I also completed a significant review of research and literature on how to best support science instruction in the classroom. While my literature review investigated English learners and science instruction, most of the instructional strategies and information are relevant to anyone teaching academic content to English learners.

Academic English

While there is a need for continued research and discussion in order to come to a wider consensus about what constitutes academic English, it is generally understood to be a significant factor in the academic achievement of English learners. The fact that English learners often lack meaningful learning contexts and connections burdens these students when they attempt to learn academic English.

Academic English is generally thought to be different from standard or social English language. It is comprised of a broad range of language skills such as discipline-specific vocabulary and language functions. Common words or phrases that have specialized meaning in academic disciplines are considered discipline-specific vocabulary. For example, words such as power or table have a specific meaning in mathematics that differs from the common definition. Analyzing, classifying, defending a position, or giving oral presentations are discipline-specific language functions considered to be academic English.

Cummins’ Framework

Because Cummins (1996) considers academic English to be decontextualized and much more cognitively demanding than conversational English, he elaborates on the difference between the two types of language. Cummins originally made this distinction by labeling social language skills as basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and academic language skills as cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). Over time, Cummins revised and expanded his understanding of BICS and CALP into a framework that better differentiates between the “cognitive and contextual demands made by particular forms of communication” (p. 57).

Cummins’ framework is consolidated into the relationship between two continuums: cognitive demand and contextual support. The first continuum considers how context eases or confounds comprehension. For example, if a person is in a communicative situation in which content is supported with visual information, such as pictures or non-verbal cues, it is said to be “context embedded.” However, if a person must rely solely on the words and their meaning in order to understand, it is said to be “context reduced” (p. 58).

Figure 1. Contextual Support Continuum.

The other continuum in this framework considers how cognitively demanding a particular communicative situation is. For example, a conversation with a friend may be “cognitively undemanding,” while writing an essay may be “cognitively demanding” (Cummins, 1996, p.58).

Figure 2. Cognitive Involvement Continuum.

When the two continuums are integrated, four quadrants become apparent.

Figure 3. Cummins’ Quadrant for Communicative Activities.

Quadrant A is a communicative task or situation where cognition is undemanding and context is very supportive of comprehension. The social-interpersonal language that Cummins originally labeled as BICS fits into Quadrant A. In contrast, academic English is decontextualized, as a person has little more than the words themselves (written or oral) to gain understanding of what is being communicated. The difficulty in comprehending academic language and the fact that it is often cognitively demanding place it in Quadrant D. Quadrant B activities are ones in which context supports a cognitively demanding task such as convincing someone to believe your point of view. Quadrant C represents a linguistic task which is neither supported by context nor cognitively demanding. Memorizing vocabulary words for a worksheet without understanding them would represent a Quadrant C task.

Despite the existence of different views of academic English, a consensus has been reached that it is a key to success in school. As such, educators need to be aware of and teach vocabulary and discourse-patterns specific to each discipline and build comprehension through multiple ways (i.e. pictures, realia, diagrams, hands-on experiences).

Resources and References

The ideas and information contained in this article come from the following resources:

Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Ontario, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Dobb, F. (2004). Essential elements of effective science instruction for English learners (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: California Science Project.

Hamayan, E. V., & Perlman, R. (1990). Helping minority students after they exit from bilingual/esl programs: A handbook for teachers. NCELA Program Information Guide Series, 1.

Parsons, S., Matson, J. O., & Quintanar, R. (2002). Making sense of literacy through science (lts): A model for professional development. San Jose State University. Electronic Journal of Literacy Through Science, 1 (2).

Solomon, J., & Rhodes, N. C., (1995). Conceptualizing academic language. Washington, DC: National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning. Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC.

Wong-Fillmore, L., & Snow, C. E. (2000). What teachers need to know about language. This paper was prepared for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Education Research and Improvement. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

CC licensed photos on this post by Wonderlane.

This is the outline of my Saturday, February 6, 2010 workshop, “Using Technology to Improve Home School Connections,” that I am presenting at the East Bay CUE Cool Tools for Learning VI Conference.

Learn how to use free and inexpensive tools to improve home-school connections, increase parent involvement, and boost student achievement. See how WordPress, FeedBurner, YouTube, Twitter, Google Docs, iMovie and a camera can enhance your teaching. Create, set-up and use a free and powerful website and create video tutorials and video messages for your students.

Opening

• Welcome and Introduction

Part I: Learning by Observation

• Background
• Improve Home-School Connections, Support Student Learning, Extend Learning Beyond the Classroom
• Why Wordpress?

Part II: Learning by Exploration

• Technology Vocabulary
• Explore Examples of Classroom Websites
• Reflect and Decide

Part III: Learning by Application

• “Make It, Take It”

Closing

• Reflection and Sharing
• Quick Workshop Evaluation

Workshop Resources

All workshop handouts can be found at handouts.BlueSofaMedia.com.

This is the introduction to an ongoing series of articles titled English Learners 101.

English Learners 101 is a series of articles about how to support English learners with appropriate academic content instruction. Between 2004 and 2008 I served as the English Language Development Support Teacher at a diverse elementary school. During this time I also completed a significant review of research and literature on how to best support science instruction in the classroom. While my literature review investigated English learners and science instruction, most of the instructional strategies and information are relevant to anyone teaching academic content to English learners.

In general there is a lack of research on promoting science achievement and learning among students from diverse ethnic and linguistic communities. Despite the large and growing numbers of English learners in the United States and in particular California, research into the best instructional practices for these students learning science has been limited until recently.

The English Learners 101 series provides an overview of the literature that examines the unique learning needs and challenges of English learners pertaining to science instruction by looking at academic English, the teacher’s role in the classroom, and integration of science and literacy. It also focuses on models and strategies that educators have used to successfully teach science and build academic English concurrently. These articles and the literature review is by no means an exhaustive look at general instructional strategies for English learners. My hope is that this review of current research will offer a foundation of knowledge and teaching strategies as well as offer additional resources that you can investigate on your own.

Over the next few weeks the English learners 101 series will take a look at the following topics:

• academic language,
• role of the teacher,
• integrating science and literacy instruction,
• thematic learning,
• curriculum design considerations
• cooperative groups,
• vocabulary development,
• teacher supported classroom discourse,
• affective influences,
• assessment considerations, and
• family involvement

I hope you find the English Learners 101 series informative and practical. Please join in the conversation below.

Thanks to memoossa for the photo at the beginning of this post.

On Saturday, February 6, 2010 I will be presenting a workshop at the East Bay CUE Cool Tools for Learning VI Conference.

East Bay CUE is a professional organization of educators dedicated to supporting the use of technology in education. East Bay CUE is a local Computer Using Educator (CUE) affiliate representing Alameda and Contra Costa counties in California.

My workshop, “Using Technology to Improve Home School Connections,” is for those teachers who want to learn how to use free and inexpensive tools to improve home-school connections, increase parent involvement, and boost student achievement. At this workshop, learn how WordPress, FeedBurner, YouTube, Twitter, Google Docs, iMovie and a camera can enhance your teaching. Also, learn to create, set-up and use a free and powerful website and create video tutorials and video messages for your students. (Mac/Windows)(K-8)

Register here if you are interested in attending: East Bay CUE Cool Tools for Learning VI

Stay tuned for another post with workshop resources.

Last year I began using The Sisters’ (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) process of teaching balanced literacy to my fourth grade students: Daily Five Reading and Literacy CAFE. Periodically I will post information, videos, or examples of how I am implementing this balanced literacy structure.

Daily Five Reading and Literacy CAFE

Daily Five Reading is just one more way to organize your balanced literacy instruction. It is very similar to what some people call “Reading Workshop” or “Reader’s Workshop”. Personally, I love how Daily Five Reading is structured around current reading and brain research and how it builds student independence. The Daily Five is a structure that helps students develop the daily habits of reading, writing, and working independently for a lifetime of literacy independence.

Daily Five consists of five components that students (ideally) practice daily:

• Read to Self,
• Read to Someone,
• Listen to Reading,
• Word Work,
• Work on Writing

If Daily Five Reading is the structure for students, Literacy CAFE is the structure of teaching reading strategies and assessing students. CAFE stands for:

• Comprehension,
• Accuracy,
• Fluency,
• Expanding Vocabulary.

Through mini-lessons taught each day, strategies are added to the CAFE board (see picture above) and referred back to as necessary.

Here is a quick video snapshot of my classroom. Students are engaged in Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Work on Writing. In this video students chose which component of Daily Five Reading they wanted to work on, so all three activities are going on simultaneously. Students on the computers are writing science presentations, while other students are actively reading.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Want to Know More?

Interested in learning more about The Daily Five Reading or the The Literacy CAFE? A good place to get more information about this wonderful balanced literacy structure is to visit The Daily Cafe or The Sisters’ website. Watch for more posts about Daily Five Reading and CAFE Literacy right here at BlueSofaMedia.com.

This simple, yet powerful project allows students to share a little bit about themselves at the beginning of the year. At the same time it allows students to jump into some simple audio recording and editing using GarageBand.

This year I had my fourth grade students do this activity the second day of the year. I knew the computer lab would soon be full of classes taking their Fall benchmark assessments so I took the opportunity to do this as a back to school/get to know you activity. I also wanted my students to learn how to make a simple audio recording in GarageBand at the beginning of the year because this is a foundation skill they will use all year long in my class.

How can I take time to do this type of project?

I make time for important projects like this for a number of reasons. One powerful way I can use these recordings as a teacher is to use the recording as a beginning of the year baseline for oral language development.  This project is an easy way for me to assess students oral language at the beginning of the year.  If you have English learners in your class like I do, using GarageBand, Turn and Talks, and cooperative learning is extremely beneficial to their gaining English language proficiency and fluency.  In the future, I will post some additional GarageBand projects, including an engaging project students can use to practice reading fluency without even realizing it!

The Basics

This is a very straighforward activity.  Using the letters of your first name, students will create a podcast that shares about who they are. For example:

Hi! My name is Matt.
The M stands for mountains because I like hiking and backpacking in the mountains. The A stands for apples because I grew up in the apple capitol of the world. T stands for teacher because I love helping people learn as a teacher. T also stands for Traffic because I hate getting stuck in traffic. That’s all about my right now. Thanks for listening!

Listen to this sample: [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Here are samples of student created podcasts.

Activity Steps

These are the steps I went through this year with my students:

1. Listen to examples (see below) and have students figure out what is going on.
2. Explain the task. If you are using a rubric, now is the time to share that and go over it with the students.
3. Students write their Name Acrostic.
4. Demo GarageBand (or Audacity) and show your students how to do a simple recording (see below). Also show them how to add an musical intro and outro.
5. Give students time to work on their recordings.
6. (Optional) Take a picture of each student so they can make an enhanced podcast using their photo.
7. Put all the podcast files on one computer. Make any final edits.
8. Export and publish the podcasts.

Keynote Presentation

Here is a Keynote presentation I used this year to get the students listening and thinking about this activity. Because this presentation was converted to flash some of the transitions are a bit slower than normal.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Use GarageBand to Create this Podcast

Watch this video tutorial and learn how to make this podcast using GarageBand.  Feel free to have your students watch this video as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Helpful Tip

Noise can definitely can be an issue whether you are in a classroom or in a computer lab.  Our school has some Logitech Headsets that we can checkout and use.  They work great and allow students to record themselves without picking up all the other noise from the room.

If you try this project with your students, please let me know in the comment section below.

Throughout the year I give students homework assignments that include making small, foldable books. I call these books B3 (B threes) or Beanie Baby Books. (My former partner teacher came up with this name because it is the size of a book that a Beanie Baby would read.)

I use these books for all subjects (math, science, social studies, reading, writing) at one time or another. I like Beanie Baby Books because they open the door for kids to creatively demonstrate and share their learning in meaningful ways.  I will often add these books to our class library or we will give them to another class as a “learning gift”.  For example, my students just created Beanie Baby Books of our Read to Self behavior expectations.  A few primary classes at my school are trying Daily Five, so our books will give them another avenue to think about their own behavior expectations.  On top of that, my student authors are doing authentic work creating products for an audience outside my classroom!

Use this video to learn how to make a small foldable book. It is also a great idea to just let your students watch this video and learn how to make the Beanie Baby Book.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The uses for this type of book are limited only by your imagination. Below is just a sample of uses:

• Students create a dictionary of important concepts and vocabulary words on a particular subject or concept in math, science, social studies, etc.
• Have a student create a summary of a book or novel. Can they figure out how to make a meaningful and accurate summary in about 8 small pages?
• It makes a perfect word collector for an English Language Learner. A student can write the word and draw a picture of its meaning. (See the photo above)
• At the end of the week students use it to create a book of important learning from that week. Have the students keep these weekly summaries/reflections of their learning all year long.
• Students can illustrate the process of photosynthesis or mitosis or meiosis, etc.
• Students can write a comic book full or metaphors, similes, prepositions, verbs, etc.

What is BlueSofaMedia.com?

BlueSofaMedia.com is a new teaching blog focusing on innovation, creativity, student engagement, professional development and technology integration.

I want to share with you the things that get me excited about teaching.

Why is this blog called BlueSofaMedia.com?

We live in a time when you can connect with people from around the world without ever leaving the comfort of your home. I like the analogy of a sofa being the center of teaching and learning. When I connect with global colleagues and expanded my horizons as a teacher and learner I am most often sitting on the blue sofa in my living room.

What’s in it for me?

Over the upcoming months I want to share with you a glimpse of some of the learning adventures that take place in my classroom.  I hope this sharing is beneficial to all involved.

Professional “teacher” books can be great, but nothing quite captures classrooms and teaching like video. I consider BlueSofaMedia.com a new kind of blog because of the amount of in-class video clips, slideshows, and photos I’m including in each post. You’ll see actually teaching and students working through hands-on lessons and projects. Many posts include digital resources (videos, slideshows, photo collections) you can simply download and use with your class tomorrow.

Please join the ongoing conversation by adding your constructive thoughts and questions to the comment area below each new post.