Communicativeness Design and Observation Tool for ELD Activities (CDOT)
The purpose of this tool is to facilitate the analysis and improvement of the communicative features of activities in English
language development lessons. Communicative means that, rather than focusing on memorizing grammar rules and word
meanings to give the appearance of language learning and use, activities actually require and foster communication--they
motivate and support students in using language to get interesting and meaningful things done. Part A helps you to evaluate the
communicativeness of an activity; Part B helps you observe teacher and students during the activity and reflect on how it actually
works to develop language. Space is provided for rationale and for notes. Remember that many activities will involve more than
one domain (e.g., listening and speaking), but try to focus on analyzing and improving just the one focal domain at a time.
PART A
Modality to focus on:
Features
(listen, read, speak, write, converse)
Brief description of activity:
FEATURE 1 – Useful & Engaging Purpose: In the activity,
students use language to do something meaningful and
engaging (beyond just to answer questions or get points); the
activity (or something similar to it) prepares students to use
language for academic purposes.
Low ------Med-------High
Why?
How I might improve this feature in this activity:
FEATURE 2 - Information Gap: In the activity, students get or
give information that they want, need, and don’t have.
Low ------Med-------High
Why?
How I might improve this feature in this activity:
FEATURE 3: Attention to Language: In the activity, there
is extra teaching and assessment focused on improving how
language is used. This includes structuring interactions,
modeling, practicing, giving feedback, and/or scaffolding
(e.g., visuals, teach grammar or vocabulary, re-read, relisten, pairs, have them paraphrase).
Low ------Med-------High
Why?
How I might improve this feature in this activity:
2015/Stanford University/Understanding Language
PART B: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
The purpose of Part B is to help you observe students during the activity to assess how communicative and
effective the activity is in a classroom setting. You can decide how to use the questions below each feature to
inform instruction. These are just suggested elements and likely not all will be evident every time.
EVALUATING FEATURE 1 – Useful & Engaging Purpose: In
the activity, students use language to do something meaningful and
engaging (beyond just to answer questions or get points); the activity (or
something similar to it) prepares students to use language for academic
purposes.
 Do (most) students try hard to communicate/understand
idea(s) to/of others? (e.g., rephrase, facial expressions,
prosody, visuals, gestures, etc.) Do they ask how to best
communicate/understand ideas?
 Do they maintain their communication (listening, reading,
writing, talking, conversing), using more language than
expected or required? Do students remain focused on the
task?
 Ask student(s), Why did we do this activity? How can it
help you in the future? (interview)
______________________________________________
EVALUATING FEATURE 2 - Information Gap: In the activity,
students get or give information that they want, need, and don’t have.
 Do students share information that is not known to their
listener(s), watcher(s), reader(s), or viewer(s)?
 Do students interpret (listen/watch/read/view) information
that they do not already know?
EVALUATING FEATURE 3: Attention to Language: In the activity,
there is extra teaching and assessment focused on improving how
language is used. This includes structuring interactions, modeling,
practicing, giving feedback, and/or scaffolding (e.g., visuals, teach
grammar or vocabulary, re-read, re-listen, pairs, have them paraphrase).
 Does the teacher highlight how to use language to help
fortify students’ communication and understanding?
 Do students use teacher support or feedback to improve
how they communicate and/or understand ideas?
 Do students use scaffolds to improve how they communicate
and/or understand ideas?
2015/Stanford University/Understanding Language
Notes