Dr.Professional
Sanr
Student Teaching
Development
Dr. Sandra Cimbricz
The College of Brockport: Fall 2013
Overview
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Academic Language, edTPA, & You
Language & Learning: Why Important?
What is Academic Language?
How To Embed Academic Language into
Planning, Instruction, & Assessment?
Note:
This PowerPoint is meant to accompany
The College At Brockport’s Interactive
Guide for Academic Language.
Academic Language: The Tie That Binds
Language, Learning & School Success:
Guess Who Got the Higher Grade?
M: Like, to divide em, you turn one over and times it by the
first one. But ya gotta see if any numbers fit into the top and
bottom to cross em out and get em smaller so you don’t get
big numbers at the end. At the end you see if you can make
the top and bottom as small as possible.
L: In order to divide two fractions, take the reciprocal of the
second one and multiply by the first. Before multiplying,
though, see if any numerators and denominators have
common facts that cancel out. For example, if a nine is above
and three below, divide by three and you end up with three on
top and one below. Multiply the numerators across the top
and the denominators across the bottom. See if the answer
can be further reduced.
(Zwiers, 2008, p. 9)
Given what you just heard…
what might all this talk about academic
language be about?
Turn & Talk (in hopes
of finding some
“clarity”)
Assessment of Academic Language:
edTPA Style
• Rubric 4: Identifying & Supporting Language
Demands
– Focus Question: How does the candidate identify
and support the language demands associated
with a key and content-based learning task?
• Rubric 14: Analyzing Students’ Language
– Focus Question: How does the candidate analyze
students’ use of language to develop contentbased understanding?
See page 3 of Brockport’s Academic Language
Interactive Guide.
• First Impressions:
– What do you notice?
– What connections can you make to what you
already know?
– What do you wonder about?
Language & Learning: Why Important?
Language is a “system” of social conventions
about how to make meanings that can be
expressed or delivered in different ways (e.g.,
speech, thought, signing, writing). (p.15)
Let’s see what you can do with
language: Go to the bottom of page 4
of Brockport’s Academic Language
Interactive Guide. What is this passage
is about?
DO TELL
(this is about language after all)
Think about what you just experienced
(which may have included some degree of
frustration, intrigue, and/or disinterest).
Given your experience and response, what might
your students do, think, or experience when they
encounter language like this (even if it is their first
language)? Turn & Talk
Mathematics: A Foreign Language?
Go to the bulleted list of page 5 of Brockport’s Academic
Language Interactive Guide.
Do you agree? Why or why not?
Return to page 5 and read the passage taken from the
CCSS for Mathematics section on Functions for Grade 8.
When you finish reading, ask yourself: What might it
take for a student or any student (including an English
Language Learner [ELL]) to achieve this task?
They Say/I Say…
Van Lier & Walqui (2012) say....
Cimbricz, S. , Smith, K., Wilkens, C., & Zdanowski, D. (2013) say:
• All students benefit from instruction that purposefully:
• builds more extensive background knowledge;
• helps them acquire and use academic language that builds
and deepens students’ disciplinary knowledge and
understanding; and
• develops students’ ability to make meanings that can be
expressed or delivered in different ways (e.g., speech,
thought, signing, writing).
What is Academic Language?
academic language (à la edTPA):
Oral and written language used for academic purposes.
Academic language is the means by which students
develop and express content understandings. Academic
language represents the language of the discipline that
students need to learn and use to participate and engage
in meaningful ways in the content area. There are
language demands that teachers need to consider as
they plan to support student learning and content. These
language demands include vocabulary, language
functions, syntax, and discourse.
Go to Page 7 of Brockport’s Academic
Language Interactive Guide
Step 1:
1. What information is provided?
2. What’s familiar?
3. What ideas seem to be the most important
and how are they related?
4. What are you now wondering? What
connections are you making that you think are
important to note (and perhaps share)?
Page 7 of Brockport’s Academic
Language Interactive Guide
Step 2: How does what you’ve recorded compare to
what’s listed in Figure 2. Academic Language Within
& Across Certification Areas?
1. What information is provided?
2. What’s familiar?
3. What ideas seem to be the most important and
how are they related?
4. What are you now wondering? What connections
are you making that you think are important to note
(and perhaps share)?
• Page 9
• Page 11
• Additional
Handout (Zwiers,
2008, pp. 223-225)
Academic Language?
In my diaper bag and right
next to my big-boy sippy cup.