Mountain View Middle School
Supporting English Learners in the Classroom 1.2
Structures for Engaging all Students in Academic Conversation
Presented by
Dr. Regina Maldonado
November 2021
Learning Target & Success Criteria
Learning Target: Teachers will have the knowledge, disposition, and skills to understand the structures of engaging students in academic conversations educating English learners and to make subject matter ACCESSIBLE to all English learners at Mountain View Middle School and to support English proficiency.
Success Criteria: To be able to know and understand how to implement instructional strategies and classroom structures to engage English learners and all students in academic conversations.
AGENDA
Structures for Engaging All Students in Academic Conversations (SAC)
Facts About BUSD & MVMS English Learners
According to the 2019-20 Enrollment by English Language Acquisition Status (with School Data) Beaumont Unified School District report, BUSD has approximately:
In addition, according to the 2019-20 Enrollment by English Language Acquisition Status (with School Data) Beaumont Unified School District report, at MVMS there are approximately:
Why Engage English Learners in Structured Academic Conversations?
Understanding how to implement research-based best practices to engage English Learners in structured academic conversations (SAC) will:
Implementing SAC will close the achievement gap that separates English learners from their native English-speaking peers. In order to accomplish these goals, all English learners are provided with designated and integrated English language development (ELD) instruction targeted to their English proficiency level and appropriate academic instruction in language acquisition program. In other words, instructional time in your classroom should include practices that support English learners! (California Department of Education, 2020)
Think-Pair-Share
“A question is posed and children are given time to think individually. Then each student expresses his or her thoughts and responds to a partner, asking clarifying questions, adding on, and so forth. The conversation is often expanded to a whole-class discussion.” (California Department of Education, 2015, & as cited in Lyman 1981)
Discuss how would you implement the Think-Pair-Share strategy in your classroom.
Students respond to a prompt or question by first thinking independently about their response, then writing their response. They then share their thoughts with a peer. The conversation is often expanded to a whole-group discussion.
(California Department of Education, 2015)
Steps to Implement Think-Write-Pair-Share:
Reflect: What might a T-W-P-S activity look like in your classroom?
Quick Write/Quick Draw
“Students respond to a question by quickly writing a few notes or rendering a drawing (e.g., a sketch of the water cycle) before being asked to share their thinking with classmates”(California Department of Education, 2014)
Read, how can you apply the Quick Write/Quick Draw instructional strategy in the content area you teach?
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Quick-write/Quick-draw
Strategy for ELLs
Literature/Learning Circles (or Groups)
“Students take on various roles in preparation for a small-group discussion. For example, as they listen to, view, or read a text, one student attends to and prepares to talk about key vocabulary, another student prepares to discuss diagrams in the text, and a third student prepares questions to pose to the group. When they meet, each student has a turn to share and others are expected to respond by asking clarifying questions as needed and reacting to and building on the comments of the student who is sharing.”(California Department of Education, 2014)
Tips for Planning Literature Circles: 1) Set clear expectations; 2) Give every student a role; 3) Create routine, and 4) Individual accountability - Make everyone accountable
Read, The Nuts and Bolts of Setting Up Literature Circles (Aguilar, 2015).
Reflect: How can you apply this strategy in the content area you teach?
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Reflect:
Discussion Web
“Students discuss a debatable topic incorporating listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are given content-based reading, a focusing question, and clear directions and scaffolds for developing argument supporting both sides of the question” (California Department of Education, 2014, and as cited in Alvermann 1991; Buehl 2009)
Read and discuss, Webs (The Discussion Kind!) in the Classroom. How can you implement a Discussion Web in the content area you teach? Explain.
Read, 8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom (Minero, 2020), and watch,
60 Second Strategy: Discussion Mapping.
Expert Group Jigsaw
“Students read a text and take notes, then work together in small (3-5 students) expert groups with other students who read the same text to compare notes and engage in an extended discussion about the reading. They come to a consensus on the most important things to share with others who did not read the same text. Then, they convene in small “jigsaw groups” to share about what they read and to gather information about what others read. Finally, the expert groups reconvene to compare notes on what they learned” (California Department of Education, 2014)
Jigsaw - LEARN Strategy
Read, The Jigsaw Method Teaching Strategy and be prepared to answer the following question: How would you implement the Jigsaw strategy to English Learners in your content area?
Structured Academic Controversy
“Structured Academic Controversy is a cooperative approach to conversation in which small teams of students learn about a controversial issue from multiple perspectives. Students work in pairs, analyzing texts to identify the most salient parts of the argument from one perspective. Pairs present their arguments to another set of partners, debate the points, and then switch sides, debating a second time. Finally, the students aim to come to consensus through a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the argument (California Department of Education, 2014, and as cited in Johnson & Johnson, 1999)
Read Structured Academic Controversy and reflect. How might the SAC strategy look in your classroom?
Watch: Structured Academic Controversy and discuss. What might a SAC activity look like in your classroom?
Watch the following video to see SAC in action:
Using Structured Academic Controversy as a Scaffolding Activity for Argumentative Essays
Opinion Formation Cards
“Students build up their opinion on a topic as they listen to the ideas of others. Students have evidence cards’ - small cards with different points of evidence drawn from a text or texts. Students meet with other students who have different points of evidence, read the points to each other, state their current opinions, ask questions, and prompt for elaboration” (California Department of Education, 2014, as cited in Zqiers, O’Hara, & Pritchard, 2014).
How can you implement the Opinion Formation Cards (← click for additional resources) instructional strategy in the content area you teach? Use the think-pair-share approach to discuss with your group.
Socratic Seminar
“Students engage in a formal discussion based on a text where the leader asks open-ended questions. The teacher facilitates the discussion as students listen closely to the comments of others, asking questions, articulating their own thoughts, and building on the thoughts of others” (California Department of Education, 2014, and as cited in Israel, 2002))
5 Steps to a Successful Socratic Seminar
Read, Socratic Questioning: 30 Thought Provoking Questions to Ask Your Students.
See the instructional strategy in action! Watch:
AVID in Action:
Socratic Seminar with Jill Malina
Wrap-Up, Reflection, & Resources
Learning Target: Teachers will have the knowledge, disposition, and skills to understand the structures of engaging students in academic conversations educating English learners and to make subject matter ACCESSIBLE to all English learners at Mountain View Middle School and to support English proficiency.
Success Criteria: To be able to know and understand how to implement instructional strategies and classroom structures to engage English Learners and all students in academic conversations.
Resources to Support English Learners
The CA ELD Standards are available on the California Department of Education (CDE) ELD Standards web page.
Free Educational Resources you can access to support English Learners.
ELD in Virtual Learning Fall 2020 (secondary version), is a demonstration on how all teachers can find and embed ELD strategies in lessons.
Mountain View EL Plan 2021-22: ensures programming will promote speaking, listening, reading, writing and the comprehension of English language as well as enable ELs to meet state academic content standards.
MVMS: Supporting English Learners in the Classroom 1.1 To understand the value of educating English learners.
ELD Site Coordinator: Mr. Rogelio Avitia
ELD Site Co-Coordinator: Mr. Michael Sprenkle
ELD Instructional Aide: Eva Bomar
ELD Administrative Support: Dr. Regina Maldonado