Happy Thanksgiving – Feliz día de acción de gracias
This Thanksgiving, we would like to thank all of our TaJu Educational Solutions friends, extended family and partners around the world. Happy Thanksgiving! Be well my friends!
What Makes an Exemplary Curriculum for Language Learners?
The success of linguistically and culturally diverse students has become a shared goal for educators and policy-makers across both political lines because there are now over 5 million students from homes where a language other than English is spoken. The impact of this fast paced-growth began with grants, funding sources, and other program level compliances. However, the consistent failure to see achievement and growth in both language and content, has created a shift in the conversation from minutes of instruction to what educators are teaching and what they are doing to change the consistent failure. It is a conversation that inevitably leads to curriculum. Is there a curriculum that is best for language learners? Is there one that is better for dual language programs, versus bilingual programs, versus ESL programs? And while I have my own views on whether curriculum should be the focus of the conversation, here is the short answer from an article I am in the process of submitting. Curriculum that have historically served language learners have consistently been characterized by learning that is less challenging, more repetitive, more focused on skills that require low levels of thinking and denies students the opportunity to engage in any type of productive struggle. It is, in short, a curriculum that ensures language learners do not grow and remain uninspired to move beyond their current possibility in life. How do you know if you have this type of curriculum? Ask yourself the following questions: Does the teacher do most of the thinking? Do the lessons leave students unsure of what to do with new learning after the lesson? Does the curriculum allow students to sit passively and “stay under the radar”? These remedial-mentality curriculum leave learners with little opportunity for achievement. On the contrary, any curriculum that can reach the level of being exemplary must provide content, concepts, language, and meaningful opportunities to create knowledge that is worth learning within a context that allows every student to be a part of the larger community regardless of their language proficiency. In thinking about curriculum in this way, there is no perfect curriculum. Rather, the perfect curriculum comes from knowing who each and every child is, and using that knowledge to adapt the materials’ ability to help each child make meaning, seek the answers to real questions, and develop more complex ways to communicate their truth within the world. Even still, there are some criteria that must be part of how we evaluate the efficacy of our curriculum for our language learners. The following are not the only criteria that should be used to evaluate curriculum. However, if you are looking to evaluate your current curriculum materials, or looking to adopt a new one, these three criteria should top your “look for’s”: The curriculum affirms the identity of the students that are meant its beneficiaries: meaning it provide content, concepts, and creation of knowledge (pedagogy) worth learning, and that it honors the life experiences that have shaped the individuals they are and will choose to become. Provides modeling, shared practice, oracy, and independent learning experiences that include variety and choice in how they apply that learning and challenge the way they look at things. Allows for authentic and high-quality pedagogy for the language of instruction, and authentic and worthy tasks/artifacts to support the access and achievement of each diverse learner. These three criteria are critical. If we cannot, at a bare minimum, say that our curriculum affirms the learners who it was purchased for, that there are a range of paths for students to apply that learning, and that the pedagogy is authentic, we cannot expect to have different outcomes. So, what will you do to ensure that your curriculum doesn’t work against your goals?
VOCABULARY JOURNAL: Building Academic Vocabulary with SPEED™
It’s finally available!!!! The student journals for academic vocabulary called, VOCABULARY JOURNAL: Building Academic Vocabulary with SPEED™ is now available on Amazon! So why did we create this resource? Well, we know that challenges with vocabulary strongly influence the readability of a text (Chall & Dale, 1995). Not only that, but lacking vocabulary is known to be a critical factor in overall school failure or success in disadvantaged students (Biemiller, 1999). Yes, it is a disheartening fact that ELs and struggling students have notably lower vocabularies than their counterparts ((Oller & Eilers, 2002), because these vocabularies are such strong predictors of overall achievement. One reason for this is that their native English learnering peers acquire an estimated 3,000 new words each year in school (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). This vast number of words helps native English students achieve growth in reading comprehension and their ability to communicate mastery across content areas. The self-fulfilling prophecy is that this reading growth and content mastery creates the path for native speakers and students to, in turn, learn more words which will fuel even further growth down the line. But for EL’s and struggling students, the challenge with vocabulary is greater than just acquiring the same 3,000 new words each year. These students come with such a range of size in their vocabulary (Snow & Kim, 2007), that it is almost impossible to calculate what it would take for these students to reach the same vocabularies, and by extension the same opportunity for school success, as their native classmates. It is because of this that it becomes almost impossible to have a singular approach to helping them catch up to their peers. So what is the solution? Well, the solution needed to be one that blossomed from the uniqueness of each learner’s situations and the reality of the schools in which they learn. The solution to this challenge came organically, from studying tons of research, watching great teachers, and analyzing the impact of different approaches on student learning and engagement. I call it SPEED™. SPEED™ is a comprehensive vocabulary acquisition process that allows for the introduction, building background knowledge, explicit teaching, meaningful and varied practice, and metacognitive dialogue that allows EL’s and struggling students to acquire vocabulary words quickly and profoundly. Since many studies suggest that the amount of instructional time devoted to building vocabulary is simply not enough, part of the SPEED™ approach includes teachers’ willingness to commit to increase the amount of consideration given to vocabulary instruction. Again, the commitment is to consider vocabulary needs when planning, not to necessarily increase the amount of time. In parts 1 and 2 of this book, we will share simple and time-efficient ways of doing this. An additional piece that makes SPEED™ effective is that students are asked to develop goals around their word usage outside of vocabulary “time”. This goal setting, helps students transfer the knowledge of the vocabulary gained during safe practice into other situations and times when the term would be appropriate. So, are you ready to help your students acquire academic vocabulary with SPEED?
Essential Language for Reaching the Common Core:
Over the last few weeks, we have talked at length about a number of ways to increase your students’ vocabulary so that they are able to access increasingly more complex text and grow as readers and intellectual beings. In fact, with the arrival of the Common Core State Standards, we’ve all become more mindful of the complexity of texts we present to our students and the tasks they are given to process what they’ve read with increasing depth and challenge. In order to begin accessing increasingly complex texts, we know that one thing students need to acquire is a growing bank of words at their disposal in order to make meaning. However, in order for students to begin to successfully tackle more rigorous tasks, there is another critical need. It is absolutely vital that students understand what a performance task, practice application, or assessment is asking for them to do with the same level of fluency and automaticity that we expect from them when reading any text or passage. The Common Core State Standards offer us two categories of words that students must master – nouns and verbs. The nouns of the standards detail the key concepts and ideas that are essential take aways in Literacy, Math, and NGSS. Without access to these words, students will struggle to make meaning of and from the standards with rigor or precision. The verbs of the standards outline the thinking and mental tasks for which students must be prepared to engage. It is one thing to give students the opportunity to critique a peer’s argument, and to revise their argument based on that feedback (depth of knowledge 4). It is another reality for that student to expertly know what it means to offer a peer that critique. There are a number of strategies that you can leverage in order to teach these words such as: gradual release with modeling, visual representations, total physical response, four square, concept mapping, categorizing, creating student glossaries/dictionaries, gradients, word play, and more. Additionally, it is critical to know what these high leverage words are. While the nouns vary between the different subject areas and grades, the following list of verbs will be an incredibly helpful starting point in teaching your students words that will help them to think with the depth necessary to successfully complete tasks and master the standards. Analyze Articulate Cite Compare Comprehend Contrast Delineate Demonstrate Describe Determine Develop Distinguish Draw Evaluate Explain Identify Infer Integrate Interpret Locate Organize Paraphrase Refer Retell Suggest Summarize Support Synthesize Trace If there are additional ways that you help your students to access the language of the Common Core State Standards, please comment below. Or you can email us at tajulearning@gmail.com.
Part 5: Teaching Cognates to English Learner Students
When it comes to English Language Learners, it is critical that students have the opportunity to see their native language as an asset. Particularly for native Spanish speakers, a way to do that is to help them understand the sheer amount of academic vocabulary they have at their disposal through the use of cognates. Teaching students to leverage their native language to their advantage by looking for cognates is incredibly powerful due to a number of factors. One of those factors is the nature of these cognates themselves. Many of the cognates in Spanish seem to be high use words that cross domains (Reading, Science, Math, etc.). For example, matemáticas and mathematics are cognates in Spanish. The fact that these are “high utility” words only strengthens the power of instruction with them because of the the impact of multiple exposure to a specific set of words and student acquisition of the “layers” of meaning a given word might have. One strategy to do this is to following the process below: Teach students what cognates are – “words that mean just about the same thing in English as in your native language”. Have students look at for words that might be cognates in authentic texts Have the students answer the following questions about the word What is the English word and what is the native language equivalent? Does the word mean about the same thing in both languages? Do the words sound alike? Do the words look alike? Are the two words cognates? Why or why not? Are there any parts of the word that are not the same? While this strategy above is not fool-proof, it does begin to help students see how to pull from their native language knowledge in order to have access to a larger bank of words, concepts, and background knowledge which can only help. If you have questions about cognate instruction, please don’t hesitate to leave your question below. Additionally, if there is an additional topic that you would like to see posted or additional ways that you engage your students to invest in word learning, please comment below. Or you can email us at tajulearning@gmail.com.
Part 4: Prefixes and Suffixes
Over the last few weeks, we have looked at the different strategies for improving students’ ability to acquire new vocabulary words. Teaching prefixes and suffixes (together known as affixes) is just one more strategy teachers can provide to students in order to help them infer the meaning of unknown words that are encountered as they read every day. While teaching affixes is a great morphemic clue to leverage (by that, I mean any meaningful part of the word), it is important to know that it is not the only one. Other morphemic clues that students can leverage include: Compound words Derivational suffixes Word parts For today, however, we will focus on how you can teach students to use affix clues in a word, without spending a month having them memorize prefixes and suffixes which will undoubtedly impact the personal investment, consciousness, and enjoyment of words that is at the center of effective vocabulary instruction. In order to leverage the “minds-on” type of engagement that students need to truly and deeply acquire vocabulary, you can follow the strategy below which combines explicit instruction with student ownership. When students come to a word they don’t know that may contain a prefix/suffix, STOP First remove the prefix/suffix from the rest of the word See if there is a real word left Have students collaboratively come to an understanding of what the prefix/suffix means on their own Combine the meaning of the prefix with the meaning of the remaining word Use the replacement strategy by putting the new meaning in the sentence to see if it makes sense A few closing thoughts. This work is intended to extend throughout the span of the year. It is not a unit that you teach and lay to rest. Rather a strategy that students continue to refine and practice over longer periods of time with continuous feedback. Part of that feedback can lie in how students transfer the knowledge gained from this work to other areas of the school day and life. For example, are you seeing the use of these prefixes and suffixes in their writing, when they encounter these similar word patterns in their Science books, when the same prefixes are attached to terms in Math? Finally, as with all areas of teaching, motivation and engagement is the key. Students need to see the value, personal success, and benefit of learning not only the strategies but investing in this level of mental rigor. To that end, continue to leverage the ideas offered in part 1, Word Consciousness, and part 2, Word Play. If there are additional ways that you motivate and engage your students to invest in word learning, please comment below. Or you can email us at tajulearning@gmail.com. ***For a complete look at how to teach prefixes and suffixes, look at our resource titled, Inside Word Clues– A Common Core Aligned Unit for teaching affixes, compounds, derivational endings and more.
Part 3 – Strategies for Learning Unknown Words
Yes, students need access to a large bank of words in order to be successful readers. But they also need to be able to process and analyze new words for meaning as they encounter them. Without this skill, readers miss important parts of text that hinders their ability to make meaning. These “word learning strategies” generally fall into two categories. The first category is “inside” the word clues (from here on out referred to as inside strategies). These clues come from the morphemic analysis of the word itself. The second category is “outside” the word clues (from here on out referred to as outside strategies. These clues come from the contextual analysis of the surrounding text and text features of a passage. When teaching inside strategies, teachers have the opportunity to show students that we can find meaning in a word by looking at its important parts. Students do so by looking at root words, base words, affixes, inflectional endings, and chunking. When teaching inside strategies to ELL’s and struggling learners, consider including these critical pieces as part of direct instruction. Know that gradual release (teacher modeling, shared practice, guided practice, independent practice and application) of this skill is necessary for effective implementation by students. Look to see if there is any word chunk that you recognize (either base, root, or other high frequency word you know). Take apart the word into any bases or roots and their affixes. Find meaning from those word parts that you’ve taken apart. Rebuild that word using the meaning you’ve gleaned from each important part. When teaching outside strategies it is important to help students see syntactic and semantic clues provided by surrounding words and phrases. Syntax is a fancy way of talking about the rules that form our grammar structure and the patterns that we find in sentences (e.g. if you see a subject first, you know that a verb must follow). Semantics simply means, meaning or an interpretation of its meaning. Therefore, outside strategies really help students understand how to use what they know about English and the meaning of the surrounding text to make educated guesses about what a word means. When teaching outside strategies to ELL’s and struggling learners, it is important to include the following components as part of the process for increasing vocabulary development. Teach students that writers use specific clues to the meaning of challenging words in the text. Deliver explicit instruction that includes modeling and examples of the various types of context clues (i.e. definition, synonym, antonym, example, and general). Provide guided practice in using context clues with authentic and appropriately challenging texts. Now, I know that we have simplified this process greatly. However, if you are interested in what these two approaches might look like, please take a look at our products Context Clues and Text Clues. Both of these common core aligned resources provide student reference sheets, anchor charts, activities, and explicit examples for teaching inside and outside word clues. And, as always, if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to send us a message. By: Alexandra Guilamo
Vocabulary Instruction: Part 2/6 Word Play for Teachers of English Learners and Struggling Students
In part 1 of this series we talked about word consciousness being whether students grasped that words are the currency of the English language and whether they “bought into” reason why words are essential. We offered a number of strategies to achieve this: from having a word-rich environment, time for metacognition, student choice, and student ownership. While these elements are critical, none is more critical than the general affect students have towards word learning. What does this mean? Affect is the general feeling and emotions that students have toward vocabulary instruction and word learning. The reality is that we now understand that vocabulary instruction must be more an act of metacognition than anything else. However, to get students to think about what they know, how they know it, and to extend that knowledge to other examples, students have to “feel like it”, or have the desire and the positive affect towards the activity and the level of thinking required to complete it. In the Danielson Framework for teaching, she talks about this as the culture for learning – “the classroom culture is a cognitively busy place characterized by a shared belief in the importance of learning…” Vocabulary instruction, arguably, must leverage this culture for learning piece more than ever. Yet, vocabulary instruction has not traditionally been an activity that lead teachers or students to jump for joy. There seems to be an unspoken sentencing and submission to word work and vocabulary development being boring. And everyone seems to be at a loss to change this course thinking. So what will it take to create a fun, “cognitively busy place” where kids have “bought into” the significance of words and their identities as readers of words? One place to start is games. We all love to play games, and some games seem to bring a sense of nostalgia, ease, joy, and willingness to all who partake. By tweaking the nature of a number of classics and adding simple questions like: “how do you know”, “what’s another example that shows the same pattern”, “what is a right time and a wrong time to use this word”, etc., you can create a fun and metacognitively busy place where students are begging to have to time to play with words. So what are some games that lend themselves to targeted vocabulary and positive affect and culture? Word pattern tic tac toe Synonym or antonym dominoes Vocabu-nopoly (vocabulary monopoly) Hang-man Pictionary Charades Scrabble Word hunts (not word searches) Go fish with definitions or synonyms Word pattern or word meaning Bingo If you are looking for more ideas on word work games, or you’d like to see how these games might help your classroom, take a look at our 30 Ready-Made Games for Vocabulary Development (in English and Spanish) in the product section of our website. Author: Alexandra Guilamo TaJu Educational Solutions Provider
Vocabulary Instruction: A 6 Part Series for Teachers of English Learners and Struggling Students
Looking back on my years as a classroom teacher, I now wonder if I did enough to boost students’ vocabulary, their ability to manipulate word parts, their curiosity of the words chosen by an author, and their overall love of words. I know the answer is no. This is in large part to the fact that I didn’t know half of what I do now about vocabulary instruction and development. As a younger teacher, I also did not appreciate the necessity of high quality practice that led to deep word meaning as part of a high quality literacy program. I thought I was a great Reading teacher without being a great word teacher. However, after years of research and practice, there are a number of truths that have emerged. In the upcoming weeks, we will take a look at these “truths” about vocabulary instruction. These truths are based on educational research findings around vocabulary development and the elements of best practice literacy instruction. The hope is that this series will give you new insight, new resources, new ideas, and a plethora of instructional strategies to try out in your classrooms. As we dive into this work of expanding students’ knowledge of and consciousness towards words, please know that it will be messy. All great learning is. But I encourage you to share both your successful and failing lessons, so that as a community, we can learn from one another. The topic of the next 6 Sunday posts are: • 1/6 – Word Consciousness • 2/6 – Word Play • 3/6 – Strategies for Learning Unknown Words • 4/6 – Prefixes and Suffixes • 5/6 – Cognates • 6/6 – The Language of the Common Core If there is an additional topic that you would like to see posted, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at tajulearning@gmail.com and we’ll will be sure to include it.