Scaffolding for Academic Language Use
by Students
Colleen Moore
Senior Field Trainer
University of Texas at Austin
Planning for
Academic Language Use by Students
1. Identify meaningful opportunities for
students to speak/write about content.
2. Design meaningful speaking/writing task or
question(s).
3. Write out sample student responses.
4. Create a checklist or rubric for grading.
5. Create supports for students who need
them.
Speaking & writing
• Different language skills support and reinforce
one another
• Speaking can help prepare for writing
• Writing can help prepare for speaking
Sample classroom scenario
• Students are learning about the organelles of
plant and animal cells
Content Objective:
Compare plant and animal cells, including the
structure and function of the organelles.
Everyday language vs. Academic language
Everyday
• The plant and animal have
mostly the same stuff.
• Animal cells don’t have the
green ones.
• That cell has the wall thing
around it.
Academic language
• Both the plant and animal
cell have a nucleus,
mitochondrion, cell
membranes, and cytoplasm.
• Plant cells have chloroplasts
to make sugar from sunlight,
but animal cells do not have
these organelles.
• Because the plant cell has a
cell wall to give it support, it
is squared.
Analyze the desired response
• Both the plant and animal cell have a nucleus,
mitochondrion, cell membranes, and
cytoplasm.
• Plant cells have chloroplasts to make sugar
from sunlight, but animal cells do not have
these organelles.
Using the sample response for
scaffolding
Desired response:
Both the plant and animal cell have a nucleus,
mitochondrion, cell membranes, and cytoplasm.
Scaffold for students:
Both the plant and animal cell have (a)
______________________________.
organelles
Plant and animal cells both have ________.
organelles
Using the sample response for
scaffolding
Desired response:
Plant cells have chloroplasts to make sugar from
sunlight, but animal cells do not have these
organelles.
Scaffold for students:
_____ cells have ________ to _________
Plant/animal
organelles
verb + phrase to tell the function
but ________ cells do not have these organelles.
plant/animal
Longer writing tasks
• Provide scaffolding according to proficiency
levels
– More/less detail
– Response banks
Practice:
• Read the sample paragraphs and analyze the
language to identify possible sentence frames.
• Select 2-3 sentence frames that would
empower your ELLs to express their
knowledge about cell organelles.
© 2010 The University of Texas at Austin and Texas Education Agency
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Planning steps for integrating writing
1. Identify meaningful opportunities for
students to speak/write about content.
2. Design meaningful speaking/writing task or
question(s).
3. Write out sample student responses.
4. Create a checklist or rubric for grading.
5. Create supports for students who
need them.
Contact information:
Colleen Moore
Senior Field Trainer
Texas Institute for the Acquisition of Language for Learning,
The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk
University of Texas at Austin
cmoore@austin.utexas.edu
Resources & Acknowledgements
• Five-step planning process adapted from Dr. Kate Kinsella’s work in Taking
Center Stage – ACT II, accessed at
http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/tcsii/prolearningtoolkit/kinsellaindex.aspx on June 1,
2011.
• Inside a Cell activities accessed at http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/teachers
© 2010 The University of Texas at Austin and Texas Education Agency
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