Chapter 4: Coping with Academic Texts & Textbooks

In chapter 4, Freeman and Freeman begin examining the characteristics of content-area texts and pointing out issues with textbooks. The language is technical, abstract, dense and authoritative. Expository texts contain many technical terms. I can relate to the frustration faced by ELL students when trying to read a text with a largely unfamiliar vocabulary and the desire to stop reading. The process of turning verbs or adjectives into nouns is called nominalization, which makes sentences more abstract and impersonal. As a writer turning verbs into nouns allows more information to be represented in a sentence which creates dense academic text. Academic texts also have an authoritative tone, passive voice factual statements. 

I like that the Freemans mention that the omission of events and people in textbooks can result in a biased view of history. 

Engagement in reading is key to academic success and as such here is a list of wonderful teaching strategies Freeman & Freeman highlight to help students build academic language proficiency.

The Freemans highlight six practices that Guthrie and Davis identify that build motivation and promote reading engagement: 

• Knowledge goals
• real-world interactions
• many interesting texts
• support for student voice
• direct strategy instruction
• collaborative activities

The Freemans also support collaborative activities such as student work in pairs or small groups. The aim being in hopes that ELLs and SELs be encouraged to ask questions or make comments in a smaller group setting. Other strategies could be: brainstorming, using of large posters in summarizing, and think-out-louds to activate background knowledge.

Meltzer and Hamann advocate that engagement and motivation are keys to success for both native English speakers and ELLs and provide three promising practices: 

• making connections to students’ lives
• creating a safe and responsive classroom
• having students interact with each other and with the text. 

Learning the Genres of Academic Disciplines

A genre is a type of text used in art and literature but in a school setting in can apply to a subject area text style. Schleppegrell follows Martin’s analysis by dividing these genres into three categories: Personal, Factual, and Analytical 

Figure 4.1

Read & Retell as a Tool for Understanding Genres

Brown & Cambourne developed an effective way for students to improve their reading and writing in different genres called Read and Retell.

Figure 4.2  

Text Analysis as a Tool for Understanding Genres

Schleppegrell and Achugar examined the language of the text from three perspectives:

1. What it tells us about what is happening
2. What it tells us about the roles participants play and the points of view expressed
3. what it tells us about how information is organized in the text

The chapter concludes with a recap of the strategies teachers can use to scaffold academic language and support students on the road to acquiring academic language proficiency and succeed in school at a text level.