PROBLEM BASED LEARNING AND THE
LANGUAGE LEARNER SERIES
Part Three: Adapting and Modifying
Texts
“Adapting material is largely a matter of [modifying] language of a text without
distorting or diluting its meaning . . . , the aim is to make the material more
accessible by eliminating a few linguistic features that impede
comprehension.”
OVERVIEW
How
can I implement
a PBL
Overarching
Question
for that is
accessible and
supports ELLs for
Series
success?
“Adapting material
is largelyUnderstanding
a matter of simplifying
Enduring
Topic:
Adapting for the language of a
text without distorting or diluting
its meaning . . . , the aim is to make
Series
and
Modifying
the material more accessible by eliminating a few linguistic features
Texts– (OELA)
that impede comprehension.”
Critical
Content
•Adapting
texts
Critical Skills
•Navigate
•Evaluate
•Adapt/modify
Terminology
•language demand
• cognitive demand
THE DIFFERENT DEMANDS OF A TEXT
 Degrees of Cognitive Demand
 how easy or how difficult the
topic or content of a discussion
is for the language learner
school
tolerance
 Degrees of Language Demand
(Contextual Demand)
 to the number and nature of
clues available to a speaker or
listener that assist in
conveying the meaning of the
language
little support - a lot of support
Quadrant I:
High context, and
Low cognitive
demand (BICS)
Quadrant III:
High context, and
High cognitive
demand
Quadrant II:
Low context, and
Low cognitive
demand
Quadrant IV:
Low Context, and
High cognitive
demand (CALP)
CONSIDER YOUR TEXT RESOURCES
To overview the text, evaluate:
Text
Structures
Features
Sentence
Word
Help
Structures
 Are there text structures?
 Are there text features?
websites
books, literature
 Is there a glossary, index
or an annotated dictionary?
 What are the sentence
structures like?
textbooks
 Which words do you
expect to be unfamiliar to the
students?
newspapers
magazines

pictures
length
ofused
sentences
structures
to organize
dictionary


diagrams
used
thepunctuation
text’s information
glossary
of terms
title
charts
index
online textbooks
headings, subheadings
annotated
dictionary
captions
italicized or bold words
ADAPTING FOR MEANING
What supports meaning for ELLs?
Supporting meaning
1.) Does the article have text
features?
- pictures
- diagrams
- charts
- symbols
2.) Does the article have text
structures that help assist the
reader in gaining meaning?
- title
- headings
- bold words
- chunked / boxed out info.
- labels with images
- captions
Evaluate each text.
• Does it support the
reader in gaining
meaning or not?
• Would you add or change the
supports?
*Justify how you know.*
ADAPTING FOR SENTENCE STRUCTURES
Remember:
change small parts at a time
 honor author’s voice, purpose
and style
 evaluate its effectiveness and
reflect
use already made leveled
reading sources as models and
mentors for even yourself
seek out resources related to
your content that might have
already adapted texts by
language level, linguistic
complexity
 reach out to personnel
trained at this
 Re-write sentences or small chunks
- check
the effectiveness
After they finished
Complex
Sentence
investigating, they
-an independent
clause, terminology/jargon
- keep content
with two dependent
clauses
-- has a subordinator
(because, although, . . .)
began to record their
results into their
journals because they
had to explain their
experiment.
Compound
 Use leveled texts The students
investigated and then
- two or-Consider
more ideas lexile numbers
connected using a
recorded their results.
ESL
INSIDE
books
(ask ESL teachers)
conjunction (ex: and, but,
or, so, nor, yet)
 Access LASS Coordinators, ESL
Coordinator,
ESL teachers
They finished
Simple
Sentence
- Keepclause
integrity ofinvestigating.
author and text
- independent
- has a content
subject and a verb
- one complete thought
They wrote their
answers
in their
 Leveled Text Content
Resources
journals.
- newsela.com
- United Streaming
ADAPTING FOR VOCABULARY NEEDS
Vocabulary Support
Click on the link to see each example.
Strategies within a text:
1.) Offering synonyms in parenthesis
or actually changing the word to the
synonym
Example 1: Parenthetical Synonym
support
2.) Providing an annotated thesaurus
or dictionary
3.) Adding a picture with a caption
that helps show the meaning of a
word.
Example
Annotated
or
Some
words2:that
need to Thesaurus
be addressed:
Dictionary
• capita, consumption, prosper
• emissions, degrade
--------------------------------------------------------------Which
strategy
would
yousupport
use forwith
Example
3: Adding
picture
each word to modify
this text for a
a caption
LEP3 or LEP 4?
TAKE A LOOK AT A TEACHER EXAMPLE
Click on each link to see the difference.
Original
Adapted for LEP3
What is different between the two?
TAKE A STAB AND TRY
Directions
EXAMPLE 3
2
1
4
1.) Pull out your own paper to record
ideas.
2.) Look at the examples in the box.
3.) Under the picture, consider the
questions.
4.) Write down the thoughts you
have as you analyze the text.
-What
text structures
-What are
textthe
structures
and
used? are present?
features
--What
text
arethe
used?
How might
you
help
- What
What
different
wordfeatures
help
purposes
is available?
do
student
understand
each
picture
serve? the
-diagrams?
What are the sentence
-structures
What arelike?
the sentence
structures like?
LAUNCH INTO ACTION!
What are the different ways to adapt
your texts for ELLs?
Why is it important to adapt texts in
PBL experiences for ELLs?
What will be your first step to
implement a text adaptation strategy
in your classroom work?
Distinguish the different reasons why
you would choose one text adaptation
strategy over another?