Chapter 7: Teaching Academic Language & Subject-Area Content

I apologize for not blogging about chapters 5 & 6, this book is very dense with information from student narratives, teaching strategies, and class assignment examples that it makes it incredibly difficult to read, reflect on, concise and blog.
I am especially sorry because I was on a time crunch due to my trip last week to Washington D.C. for a Student Civil Rights Leaders event commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act being signed into law. This event was held at the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. (So naturally I geeked and while I did all of the reading, I got a little behind on my blogging.)

In chapter 7, Freeman and Freeman begin with a discussion on the student population of their university and how some of these students even at the graduate level still struggle with academic language. This resonates with me because it applies very closely to me. 

“Results showed that 62.4 percent of all high school students who were passed, but only 33.1 percent of all high school students of the LEP students passed. In contrast, about 24 percent of the general population who were tested failed while nearly 50 percent of the LEP population failed.”

It's not difficult to understand why these students are failing exit exams considering these assessment are composed of impersonal, authoritative, academic language these ELLs have not yet mastered. This failure is largely attributed to inadequate primary language support and inadequate instructional support but it could also just be that the ELL hasn't had enough time to develop the language proficiency. (As we know it takes up to seven years to develop academic language in a second tongue.) 

Then, the authors consider several factors that contribute to these results such as: 

The Freemans use Barwell’s framework when considering teaching academic language and content: 

1. The policy and curriculum dimension
2. The institutional dimension
3. The classroom interactional dimension; and 
4. The theoretical-methodological dimension.

ELLs and struggling readers are successful when teachers plan lessons to build engagement, motivation, and identity. 

Effective Practices by Short and Fitzsimmons:

1. Integrate all four language skills-reading, writing, speaking and listening-into instruction from the beginning.
2. Teach the components and processes of reading and writing
3. Teach reading comprehension strategies
4. Focus on vocabulary development
5. Build and activate background knowledge
6. Teach language through content and themes
7. Use native language strategically
8. Pair technology with existing interventions
9. Motivate ELLs through choice

Reasons to teach both Language and Content:

• Students learn both language and content
• language is kept in the natural context
• students have reasons to use the language
• Students learn the academic vocabulary of the content areas

Finally, the Freemans provide several examples and two strategy suggestions for improving academic performance in ELLs and LEPs using culturally relevant texts and following a preview, view and review format for lessons. By teaching culturally relevant curriculum teachers are sending a message to their students that their background, their culture, and their knowledge is valued which creates confidence and a positive sense of identity. When teachers teach academic language and content in organized integrated units based on big questions students benefit from both language and content because the language is kept in natural context and student shave real purpose for using the language. Although ELLs face twice the work, they can succeed when their teachers support them by using effective instructional strategies and teach language and content to all students. 

My favorite are listed below. 

Identify Connections with Favorite Quotes Assignment

1. Look through the chapters and pick your favorite part
2. Copy a sentence or a couple of sentences (a passage) from that part of the story.
3. Paraphrase: Write what it is about in your own words.
4. Why was this quote your favorite? 
5. Compare this part of the story to something in your life. 
6. Make a drawing or symbol to represent this part of the story.

Review

first language

Teacher gives an overview of the lesson/activity in the students’ first language

View 

second or target language (English)

The teacher teaches the lesson or directs the activity in the students’ second language

Review

first language

The teacher or the students summarize key ideas and raise questions about the lesson in their first language 

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.

Chapter 3: Making Sense of the Academic Registers of Schooling

In chapter 3, Freeman & Freeman explore in detail academic registers of schooling and reflect on what teachers can do in their classrooms to help ELLs develop these oral and written academic registers. The Freemans use academic language proficiency as defined by Cummmins':

“the extent to which an individual has command of the oral and written academic registers of schooling.”

Essentially, in order to master the academic registers of schooling struggling readers need to develop both a grammatical and communicative proficiency in English.

The Freemans explain that a register is the language used in a specific context as stated by Halliday and Hassan. According to them, there are two kinds of context; the context of culture and the context of situation. The context of culture being the specific way in which a culture does things. However, this knowledge is only acquired when one interacts in that particular culture. ELLs are often unfamiliar with the covert rules in their new environment and are unfamiliar with the context of culture in U.S. schools. The context of situation is the slightly different, here language is used according to each situation as described by these three elements: field, tenor, and mode.

·         Field: topic being talked about or written about.

·         Tenor: the relationship between the speaker and the listener or the reader and the writer.

·         Mode: means of communication.

The Freemans describe how register can be applied in different ways and as a result the kinds of language participants’ use also varies. Next, Freeman & Freeman focus on Gibbons (2002) and his account on how teachers can use classroom discussions as a way to scaffold learning to help students build a bridge from conversational to academic language. I found this particularly helpful and reinforcing of the notion that educators must make an effort to get to know the kids in their classrooms. The Freemans advocate that scaffolded classroom talk enables students to participate successfully in related reading and writing activities.  

Here the Freemans refer to Scarcella (2003) to describe five components of grammatical competence: phonological component, the lexical component, the grammatical component, the sociolinguistic component, and the discourse component. Some of the strategies teachers can use to help students develop the phonological component of academic language are:

• accompanying lectures with written language, either in the form of handouts;
• writing key words on the board;
• using PowerPoint presentations; or
• providing audio tapes of text so that students can listen to their textbooks being read as they follow along in their own books. 

Next, the Freemans call on Gee’s primary Discourse and secondary Discourses sociolinguistic theory. As we know from reading Gee, primary Discourses being norms for acting, thinking, valuing, and using the language of that social group.  Secondary Discourses being expectations students must learn on how to think, act, believe, speak, read, and write in order to be successful. The registers used in content-area classrooms require a different vocabulary and syntax than those used in other contexts. As a consequence, teachers need to help students develop the appropriate academic language for their subject through carefully scaffolded instruction and modeling such behavior. While I agree with this notion, I’m a little concerned as to how reasonable that is in terms of time with the demands already placed on teachers.

Lastly, the Freemans discuss the dominant role teachers play in the classroom, since in most classes the teacher does most of the talking. This is largely due to the high utilization of the IRE sequence (initiation, response, evaluation). Here the Freemans discuss, the effectiveness of this sequence in helping students develop academic language. They suggest that a way to address this would be to use some of the strategies by Mohr and Mohr (2007) such as:

• ask open-ended questions;
• probing; and
• respond in ways that encourage students to elaborate their responses and thinking. 

The Freemans conclude the chapter by discussing how students acquire linguistic competence through membership in social groups.  ELLs need to develop sociolinguistic competence. Both grammatical and communicative language proficiencies are complex and must be acquired in the context of meaningful use which is why these students need extended support or apprenticeships, to gain control of the academic oral and written registers of schooling.

English Language Learners: Culture, Equity and Language video. (NEA Priority Schools Campaign)

Chapter 2: Distinguishing Between Academic & Conversational Language

In chapter 2, Freeman & Freeman outline Cummins’ Theoretical Framework in order to help the reader distinguish between Academic and Conversational Language. The terms Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) are reintroduced in order to draw educators’ attention to the challenges that English Language Learners (ELLs) encounter as they attempt to play catch up to their peers in academic language.

Here the Freemans set the stage for the importance differentiating between Academic and Conversational Language through an ELLs writing sample titled Dolores’ Essay figure 2.1a-2.1c. Next we proceed to take a look at Cummins research in Canada. Cummins research found that these students had no problem speaking and understanding English; they had developed conversational fluency in English. However, they did not meet standards on academic assignments and on cognitive ability assessments.

Some teachers and school psychologists in Cummins' study assumed was that the children’s speaking ability in class demonstrated their English proficiency, and as a result attributed their academic struggles to a cognitive problem rather than a linguistic one and placed them in special education classes. However, Cummins argues that students who have developed BICS but not CALP are not deficient in higher-order thinking, they just lack the academic language needed to succeed in the classroom.

Cummins defines academic language proficiency as “the extent to which an individual has command of the oral and written academic registers of schooling” (200, 67). Essentially, the Freemans describe that, academic language is specific language needed to understand and contribute to classroom discussions, read, and write. However, Cummins does not believe that academic language is superior to conversational language, it is just different. 

Cummin’s quadrants provide teachers with guidelines to determine the language students need to understand to succeed in school.

Garcia lists four ways for teachers to promote academic English development in their classrooms:

1)  Providing students with lots of exposure to Academic Language;

2) Ensure students pay close attention to the feature of Academic Language;

3) Provide direct, explicit instruction; and

4) Use multiple assessment measures of academic language development in ELLs. 

The chapter concludes, by highlighting that most ELLs develop conversational proficiency in one or two years. However, it takes five to seven years for them to reach academic language proficiency. Cummins explains that L1 academic knowledge supports academic success in an L2. It is for this reason that language acquisition experts advocate for bilingual education classrooms because ELLs who receive some instruction in their native language do better in school.

Chapter 1: Understanding Who Needs Academic Language

In chapter 1, Freeman & Freeman introduce the terms Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as set out by Cummins to describe English language proficiency amongst English Language Learners. Here the Freemans set the stage for the importance of helping English Language Learner’s (ELL’s) succeed academically. According to the Freemans a large number of struggling students are children of first- or second-generation immigrants; furthermore, data shows that one in five children in K-12 schools has at least one parent who was born outside the U.S. The more troubling part is that most of the children are entering our U.S. education system in grades 6-12. More poignant than the parents immigrant status is the high levels of poverty among this student population. According to 2002 reports, 60 percent of all Limited English Proficient (LEP) children came from homes with high poverty rates. 

Furthermore, data shows that ELL’s are economically, ethnically, and linguistically isolated from mainstream students and their principals and teachers are less experienced. We know that according to Gee, this is particularly problematic because these students then lack the opportunity to have fruitful apprenticeships that can model dominant Discourse in order to develop fluency in a Secondary Discourse. Additionally, due to the marginalization of these students they lack the social capitol to develop their language acquisition and academic language. 

The Freemans define academic English according to Goldenberg is:

“a term that refers to more abstract, complex, and challenging language that will eventually permit you to participate successfully in mainstream classroom instruction. Academic English involves such things as relating an event or a series of events to someone who was not present, being able to make comparisons between alternatives and justify a choice, knowing different forms and inflections of words and their appropriate use, and possessing and using content-specific vocabulary and modes of expression in different academic disciplines such as mathematics and social studies. (Goldenberg 2008, 2)”

Next the Freemans discuss getting to know the your students. In order to be effective schools need to identify the types of ELLs they serve and familiarize themselves with their needs. Next the authors provide several examples of ELLs in order to provide a examples of what a teacher might face in a classroom and facilitate identifying the adequate type of ELL.

I struggled with the next part of the text, the Freemans use Ogbu’s Classification of Immigrant and Involuntary Minority Students. Ogbu classifies minority students into two groups: immigrant and involuntary. 

Immigrant minorities aren’t influenced by the attitudes and values of mainstream American society because they measure success according to their country of origin’s standards. They differ in language, good, customs, and clothing. Ogbu’s research found that these immigrant minorities could alternate their behavior between home and school, something that is also known as a negotiation in identity. Ogbu’s finding that alternating behavior between home and school is not something immigrant minorities find difficult is inaccurate and I’d be interested in reading his original research piece on this data. I’m interested in seeing if he reached this conclusion based off interviews, surveys, or assumptions about the negotiation process that takes place. As a first-generation immigrant student, I’ve got to say that there is nothing smooth, natural, or easy about alternating my behavior between home and school. I say this because I am personally interested in researching immigrant students language identity and the dichotomy created in the split of these two cultural worlds. This is especially disappointing considering this book was published not too long ago in 2009. 

Involuntary minorities includes groups like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Native-Americans. Many of these groups have lived in the U.S. for generation and were highly affected by majority-group attitudes and success standards. These groups have secondary cultural differences in walk, talk, and attire that resulted from the cultures clashing. While I appreciated the Freemans clarification that, “not all involuntary minorities are gang members” I find the reference rather short sighted and offensive. The involuntary minority group, however, generally do not alternate behavior; they behave the same way at home as they do at school. Lastly, involuntary minorities have a lower academic attainment than immigrant minorities. 

I have an issue with the Freemans ELLs and SELs Comparison; here the authors describe that Long-term English learners sometimes get some first-language support in early grades, “but those who receive bilingual education usually are transitioned to English after only a year or two because they appear to speak English well enough to handle the academic curriculum.” That is not bilingual education that is English Only at its best. True bilingual education is schooling in an English-language education system in which students with little fluency in English are taught, hopefully across-content areas, in both their native language and English. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bilingual%20education) A more effective form of bilingual education would be dual language education. Dual language education is: a form of bilingual education in which students are taught literacy and content in two languages. (http://www.dlenm.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=433:what-is-dual-language-education&Itemid=53) According to the Freemans, despite the different kinds of supports for ELLs in the early years, they do not have the academic language needed to understand classroom instruction or to read and write well in English. (Hmmmm...If only there was a better way...dual language education...http://youtu.be/pSs1uCnLbaQ.)

The Freemans close chapter 1 with a call to better prepare teachers for the challenges they face in teaching ELLs and SELs. When teachers are better trained on how to support these linguistically diverse students to on how to read academic texts, think critically, solve problems, and articulate what they’ve learned; they are better prepared to meet the needs of these struggling students. 

Foreword by Robert Marzano

I began this blogging journey by giving the book a structural overview. I skimmed the structure of the book: the images on the front and back cover, the text description in the back, the dedications and the contents table, and tabbed the different chapters. I made it a point to get myself acquainted with the text structure before I began my reading in order to roadmap what lay ahead. I find that doing this helps me prepare and polish my purpose for reading, which ultimately helps my reading comprehension.

My analysis begins with the Foreword written by Robert J. Marzano. Here Marzano lays out the 'So What' factor of why this book is relevant. Marzano describes the reality that many of our U.S. students entering secondary education are not prepared to meet the academic expectations. Many of these students lack the background knowledge, or as Gee would describe, lack fluency in a Secondary Discourse, which ultimately affects their ability to write reports, summaries and meet grade level expectations.

Many of these secondary students have limited English proficiency which further hinders their academic performance. Here we have a list of students that are identified in this book as English Language Learners and Struggling Readers:

English Language Learners (ELL’s) are students who began school speaking another language, learned to speak and understand English but can’t read and write it well.

Different types of English Language Learners: 

1. Students that arrived students in the U.S. recently but were well prepared in the schools of their homelands. These students are often are successful in school, but struggle in learning the language fast enough to meet testing standards  which is an unrealistic standard considering language acquisition takes about six (6) years and creates  assessment bias.  
2. Students that arrive with limited academic knowledge and literacy in their native tongue. These students have to learn to read and write in English as well as develop content-area knowledge in it.
3. Students that are long-term English learners, have been in the U.S. for some time and have well developed conversational skills but lack academic English.

Standard English Learner’s are struggling student readers that entered school speaking a nonstandard variety of English; these students can speak the language with little trouble but have a difficult time with academic reading and writing. 

Marzano point out that in the text the Freeman’s discuss what each type of student needs in order to read and write effectively in the different content areas. Marzano further discusses that in the text the Freemans make a clear distinction between conversational language and academic language and why it is important to understand the difference in order for these students to succeed scholastically.

This book breaks down academic language into different levels of organization:

• Text level;
• paragraph;
• sentence;
• and word.

The purpose of this book is to explain to teachers how to guide students towards meeting academic standards of their grade level by successfully writing complex sentences and organized paragraphs. 

Marzano further states that in the text the Freemans provide specific suggestions for increasing academic vocabulary to help students struggling with reading and writing through a combination of reading and learning strategies as well as teaching strategies of key content area vocabulary. Here the Freemans provide classroom examples of instructional activities to motivate and engage students in content area reading and writing. Finally, Marzano states that the Freemans advocate organizing curriculum around thematic units that focus on teaching both language and content in the text which is aimed at to prepare secondary teachers with help to adequately support these students academic needs. 

Beginning the Blogging Process

I began this blog by researching what a blog is. According to wikipedia.org, a blog is a discussion or informational information site published on the internet. Blogging emerged in the late 1990s, many of these provide commentary or analysis on a particular subject area; some function as personal online diaries; micro-blogging featuring very short posts, while others function as online advertising of an individual or a company. A standard blog is composed of text, images, and hyperlinks to other blogs, Web pages, and other social media related to the topic. Some blogs have ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format. There is a wide variety of blogs: textual, art, photography, videos, music, and podcasts. In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources. Some of the impact of blogging on our society and issues related to blogging revolve around legal and social consequences; such as: liability, defamation, employment, political dangers, personal safety, and behavior.

I have had some very brief and limited experience with blogs prior to this assignment. I have had so much fun exploring all of the different varieties of blogs that exist. Back in 2010, I tried starting a blog with a fellow UNM Lobo regarding some social justice issues but it never really took off. We both had a lot of transitions taking place with graduations and hadn't really thought about it since up until this assignment. I began by looking at blogs around education, policy and politics. I even registered to be on the mailing list of 6 education blogs and 2 political blogs and this is only the beginning. I’m sure that with some more familiarity I will begin to use blogs as a means of knowledge distribution on topics I am interested in that will arrive straight into my email.

Some of the problems I had were around privacy and finding a name for my blog. I had a really hard time coming up with a name. I wanted to name it after the book I will be blogging about but my boyfriend said that might be infringing on the books copyright. So, then I wanted to name it 'Z.Education' or 'A-Z Thoughts on ELL Ed' but my initials look like AZ, and I’m not a big fan of AZ’s education policies. Finally I arrived at: Alvarez, Z. Academic Language Diary. I named it this because my book of choice is Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers by Freedman & Freedman. I also had some trouble getting used to navigating the webpages, formatting, finding a theme, and deciding on a layout.

The best blog I found was the National Education Policy Center blog I think blogging might have a positive effect on my reading and writing in school because it's expanding my interests and allowing me to have an apprenticeship through a blogging medium empowering me to develop proficiency in a second discourse.

The issue that concerns me about blogging is privacy. I have a personal blog around my civil rights activism aimed to help guest contributors remain anonymous. So as a result, I was skeptical about creating a new blog on the same email. A quality blog is composed of good commentary, varied literary or data sources, consistent blog posts, and use of different mediums of information such as picture, video, and podcasts. Blog entries are probably between 400 and 700 words in order to maintain your audiences attention.