{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"52469588","dateCreated":"1333407017","smartDate":"Apr 2, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"davidkwan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/davidkwan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52469588"},"dateDigested":1532919218,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"David's Post","description":"As I read Zwier's chapter 4 on building academic language, I began to reflect on how I sometimes neglect including academic language while teaching Spanish. Honestly, my neglect stems from prioritizing what my students should learn. Academic language in Spanish mirrors grammatical\/sentence structure terminology in English as terms like "indirect object pronoun", "verb", and "object" are often embedded in their learning of sentence structure in Spanish. For the most part, I feel like avoiding the use of technical language terms facilitates my students' acquisition of a new language. Sadly, when I try to teach into what terms students have learned in English, I have some students who are completely confused when I use terms like "verb" or "adjective". I have often used formulas\/steps to teach the placement of types of words in sentence structure. While, the academic language used in such formulas may be confusing at times, I also believe they are sometimes necessary to use in order to categorize words and make sense of the structure. In facilitate my students learning of the different types of words, I have used abbreviations. For example, I will ask them for the I.O.P instead of the Indirect object pronoun.
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\nStill, I believe that I could do more in terms of helping my students find meaning in the academic language. I like how Zweir's suggests implementing academic language within the physical layout of the classroom. While I would hate to overwhelm my students with a list of English technical terms in addition to the Spanish words they are learning, I believe it is still necessary if they want to truly master the language.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52343500","dateCreated":"1333076489","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"LEM0N","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/LEM0N","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52343500"},"dateDigested":1532919218,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Lemontrel's Post","description":"Chapters 4 through 6 suggest various tools to use within a classroom to build academic language. Chapter 4\u2019s focus is on the various kinds of academic language found in four school disciplines: language arts, history, science and math. The overall idea was that different disciplines have different related terminology and language, and it is essential to use\/teach this appropriate language to facilitate learning and to give students a way to communicate their knowledge while helping them analyze, compare, reflect, problem solve, and describe material, as necessary, according to that subject. Chapter 5 gives ideas on how to encourage successful whole-class discussions and suggests various activities to lead to improve these discussions such as, a mock radio talk show, voting, and simulations. Chapter 5 also encourages different strategies for asking questions so that a lesson does not end up being filled with display (fact-based closed) questions from the teacher but instead incorporates open-ended questions while also giving time for thoughtful more in-depth answers. Chapter 6 suggests giving children the opportunity to talk through what they\u2019re learning and apply it in social settings via small-group activities (examples included role plays, jigsaw labs, pair activities, etc) and also, stresses the importance of giving children the proper skills\/training to interact in academic ways with their peers.
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\nOverall, I found these chapters to be very helpful. I will want to try many of the suggested activities discussed in Chapters 5 and 6 in my lessons to help engage my students in improved class-wide and small group discussions. The one metaphor that I found especially interesting as well was in discussing the lack of time many teachers have to put students into groups and the comparison of ordering a burger without the meat to save time. This certainly made clear the need to make time for small-group discussions for the benefit of my students. Furthermore, Chapter 4\u2019s focus on the various kinds of academic language in different subjects was extremely useful because that is one thing I am struggling with currently with my students. I am having trouble to get my students to orally use the terminology they have come across in lessons. The math dialog examples and the various tables were great to give me a better sense of the academic terms\/expressions I should utilize. I also appreciated the discussion in the text of nudging the students along so that they could interpret and problem solve more independently. This reading was very informative.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52331992","dateCreated":"1333059971","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"Martin.mintz","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/Martin.mintz","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52331992"},"dateDigested":1532919218,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Martin's Post","description":" Discussion is a great tool for the classroom, and Zwiers helped me to think about ways to make it more effective. I found the examples in Zwiers great but also hard to apply to my classroom. I can have some great one-on-one discussions as outlined in the text, but I need to think about what students are doing while I have this one-one-one. The idea about \u201capprenticing\u201d the student is all great but it was hard to apply that to a classroom setting, away from a one-on-one format.
\nI have had many discussions in my class where I believe great conversations have occurred, but does that lead to learning for the classroom? Often I am left with the feeling that only a handful of students involved were the ones benefitting. Display questions, as Zwiers states, are often used to recall information or connect learning. Open-ended questions have been helpful in engaging the individual student while having them apply the day\u2019s information into a daily activity. For those, I have found that it is important to have follow-up questions, either prepared to ask the class or already in the assignment (ex. Students need to take a perspective\u2026and THEN give 3 reasons why they chose that perspective.) I find justification questions to most exciting, since they seem all about engaging students but also holding them accountable for what they say.
\nI find it interesting that Zwiers states, \u201cWe should entertain the possibility that questions, despite their widespread use in school for generations, questions are not always the most effective tools for learning,\u201d (Zwiers, 110). His alternatives, though, were more about focusing on certain questions and how you ask them, so it seems he is focused on how we are asking the questions (and how MUCH we are asking them) and does not bring many alternatives to speak of. Discussion, though, does seem to be one of those places of focus for him.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52331236","dateCreated":"1333058624","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"dschall2","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/dschall2","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52331236"},"dateDigested":1532919218,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Douglas Schall's post","description":"While reading chapter four of Zwiers, \u201cBuilding Academic Language,\u201d my nerves began to get progressively more on edge as I worked through the different sections that detailed how academic language varied across content areas. I teach math and was truly worried that just weeks before the state test I\u2019d come to the realization that I had thoroughly gypped my students out of the chance to learn and use mathematical brick and mortar terms. But, I did not!!! I\u2019m proud to say, my use of math vernacular does closely resemble the dialogue examples Zwiers provides. There\u2019s room to improve, for example, I have failed to really model and discuss the expressions used in math class. But in regards to trying to increase the problem solving in my class, I have used, and required the use of, mathematically specific academic language. (Sorry for the brag, but I really am proud of the fact that I have pushed my students to use academic language to underscore their answers and ideas.)
\nThe chapter on classroom discussions is one that I\u2019ve filled with sticky notes, and will definitely be revisited this summer when trying to put together some new routines and expectations for my classroom next year. I struggle with holding class wide discussions\u2014be it about math, or even where the class might take a trip\u2014and as such I am currently reluctant to rely too heavily on class wide discussions as a method to deliver content. The chapter details many strategies for leading effective student discourse, but what I found perhaps most interesting was the analysis of \u201cdisplay questions\u201d and the \u201cIRF\u201d structure. I fear that I use WAY too many display questions in my lessons on math \u2013 i.e. \u201cwhat\u2019s twenty-one divided by three?\u201d or \u201c what\u2019s the inverse of multiplication?\u201d The IRF structure is a reality I\u2019ve been aware of in my teaching, yet had never nailed down, defined, and named. Having read this passage, I will be far more conscious of my teaching and really make an effort to ensure that classroom questioning and discussions do not remain a, \u201cpassive way to transmit knowledge.\u201d
\nLastly, was the chapter on group discussion. Zwiers goes over several different strategies for group discussions that will help increase the amount of academic language used during group discourse. The teaching techniques looked effective and I will likely be incorporating them into my lessons, but I still cannot stop thinking about how much I dislike group work. The book mentions that many teachers shy away from using group work because they feel that classroom management issues create an environment in which little learning is accomplished while in unsupervised groups. I concur, but my dislike for group work stems not from my time as a teacher, rather it is my experiences as a student has led me to harbor such cynical views. Seldom do I find group work actually fosters much critical thinking or even inspired thought. The dialogue is generally stilted, most people are disengaged, and discussion is often aimed at pleasing the patrolling teacher rather than for the sake of critical engagement with the material. My attitude is based on my overall experience; definitely some group learning activities have been superb. Yet, the group work in high school, college, and even in my TFA training camp felt like the instructor was trying to incorporate that activity simply because group work is the bomb in pedagogy.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52330012","dateCreated":"1333056789","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"sdeuitch","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/sdeuitch","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52330012"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Sarah's Post","description":"For the first time in this course, I am actually significantly opposed to something one of the Literacy experts we have been learning from says. Chapter 4 of "Building Academic Language" provides many great examples of Academic Expressions that can be used in content area classrooms. As I am primarily a history teacher, I focused on those and found that they would be very useful in my classroom. However, what greatly perturbed me about this chapter were the example conversations between teachers and students. In the conversations on page 79-80 and 82-83, I did not get the impression that the student learned anything at all. It was practically a flashback to my first weeks and months of teaching when I just fed the information to students, and they responded\/regurgitated information back to me so I thought they understood it but really they didn't. In these supposed "exemplar" conversations, the students are not really demonstrating any knowledge of the material. Instead, the teachers are putting words in their mouths, summarizing for them and drawing connections and conclusions that the students don't seem to understand. These are all things I was warned time and time again not to do, and I am shocked that they are used in this book as examples of how content-area teachers should teach. If I am missing something or someone else has incredible insight that I lack, please let me know, because this shocked me.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52328858","dateCreated":"1333054623","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"terrencekumar","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/terrencekumar","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52328858"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"terrence's post","description":" Within chapters 4,5, and 6 of Zwiers' book, I found most value in chapter 5. The author provides a beautifully concise list of tactics to use to improve open classroom discussions.(pg. 115) I believe strongly in utilizing class discussions for expanding knowledge beyond the classroom. The class as a whole progresses at a faster rate. The students' expand their knowledge by connecting the topic to their lives in conversation. Also, they learn a larger life skill of dealing with conflict in constructive ways.
\n Zwiers is correct when informing us that building a classroom environment that is conducive for discussion is difficult. But his eight guidelines seem to cover everything from desk arrangement to facial expressions. I particularly appreciated the 6th guideline. Here he advises teachers to teach students how to interrupt discussion and ask questions when they misunderstand something. He provides model questions that you could easily model for the students. This is one aspect that I desperately require but have not thought to practice myself in class. I am sure to try this out within the next couple of weeks.
\n In addition to the class discussion section, I also learned from the \u201cCommon Terms with Specialized Meaning in Math.\u201d I believe he included this chart of vocabulary for teachers to be aware of, however, I think it would very useful for students to post in the classroom. This way students could see the words very often, as they daydream throughout class. This raw familiarity with just viewing the words should take a lot of sting out of them.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"52333144","body":"I definitely agree with you about the value of this chapter. Discussion and conversation in my class have been the best instances of student learning, and I need to create opportunities for those situations to occur more organically through lessons and questions. Personally, I try to control the lesson a bit too much, because I'm concerned where discussion might lead the students -- especially if it is away from appropriate topics and toward non-history topics. The guidelines are going to be very useful in manufacturing those situations.","dateCreated":"1333061391","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"sdeuitch","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/sdeuitch","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"52300774","dateCreated":"1333025082","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"cfinch45","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/cfinch45","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52300774"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Chris Finch post","description":"
\nOften times, our students \u201cput things in their own words.\u201d When it comes to content and remembering key themes and concepts in Global History, I think this is fine. However, I agree with Zwier that there has to be a common academic language. Getting students all on the same page with how we explain events, describe characters in history, discuss continuation over time and comparing and contrasting civilizations require a non-vernacular academic language. This will help move our class along at a reasonable speed and help students respond effectively to each other\u2019s ideas. Besides, school is one of very few settings where we can attempt to control the language we use and condition students to use \u201cacademic\u201d language.
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\nFurther, in Chapter 8, "Language for Academic Writing", Zwier brings up an even more elusive matter: getting students to write with academic language. It is much easier to correct a student\u2019s response off the bat; however, it is much more difficult to change the course of their writing. One technique I plan on doing is to have a bank (handout) of sentence-starters for each type of sentence: Claim, Clarification, Evidence and Justification. This way, at least, we can create common language in our writing that will lead students to more fluid and content-specific responses.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52297522","dateCreated":"1333018989","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jmiller76","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jmiller76","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52297522"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Jason's Post","description":"There were two highlights in the chapters that really made me think about my own literacy practice in the classroom. First, Zwiers argues that a significant portion of academic language's meaning results from non-verbal cues and intonations. Before this reading I never realized how much meaning is derived by simple hand gestures or the way that we modulate our voice. Zwiers even provides a chart to explicitly remind students how to incorporate these gestures or intonations when using academic language. I think that these sorts of cues can provide another element to my literacy instruction in any of the courses that I teach.
\n Zwiers devotes significant space to discuss the way questioning runs in our class. He asserts that the vast majority of questions in the classroom are what he terms 'identification questions' which really means recall or lower level thinking questions that lack any rigor. He even says that our kids are simply questioned out and they become conditioned to the rhythms of this poor questioning technique by an early age whereby only a small number of students feel confident to answer these questions. He suggests that teachers explicitly plan for their questions and create a culture where there is no bad question or a wrong answer. Additionally, by asking more open ended questions, not only is there a better chance for higher engagement, but students will build academic language skills. I wonder how many of the first year teachers explicitly plan for questions or for the range of possible discussions.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52292418","dateCreated":"1332993871","smartDate":"Mar 28, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"emilylynnmiller","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/emilylynnmiller","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52292418"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Emily's Post","description":"Zwiers talks about two of the things I've really been trying to focus on this year per the request of my TFA MTLD, my principal, and myself. The first and most touched on is questioning. The importance of questioning is paramount and somewhat obvious, but I know I don't do enough of the higher-order questioning enough. If I don't keep that list in front of me, I tend to either forget to ask questions or not ask enough higher-level questions. Sometimes, I forget my list. It's not a habit yet. If anyone has any tips about building this habit, I would love to hear it!
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\nThe second is modeling. Also, extremely important. What was just suggested to me by my principal was instead of having models on my smartboard, but to keep them posted throughout the classroom for as long as possible, so the kids are used to seeing models of good academic writing. It seems like a small thing, but I genuinely think it'll make at least a small impact.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"52297618","body":"I too was taken by Zwiers focus on questioning. I think it's part of the first year experience that we have so many things on our mind that we dont think about higher order thinking questions. Sometimes simply by thinking about how we phrase questions in our lessons will automatically push the rigor in the questions.
\n I like your suggestion about keeping models posted in the classroom for as long as possible for students to retain the learning for as long as possible and to reference. I concur that students need reminders or exemplars to reference when they struggle to create their own writing.","dateCreated":"1333019419","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jmiller76","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jmiller76","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"52291514","dateCreated":"1332991428","smartDate":"Mar 28, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"MaddyG28","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/MaddyG28","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52291514"},"dateDigested":1532919219,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Maddy's Post","description":"I often notice that as Zweirs mentions, I am aware of the academic language that I use in my classroom. It is not until a student aks a question about something I said two seconds prior that I realize that whatever I said just went way over their heads. I find that saying the same sentence twice, the first time using academic language (so that the students thinks to themselves what did she just say) and then the second time in using students friendly terminology (so that they have a moment to think to themselves\u2014that is what she meant) is really helpful. This in turn exposes the students to this academic language and provides them with a translation for what the words mean. I have heard my students on numerous occasions use this language which gives me a little bit of confidence that this strategy actually works.
\nI was also really motivated by the conversations that were modeled in the book in order to introduce academic language. I know that I really struggle with questioning and helping students reach the kinds of thoughts and things that we would like them to say, I would have really liked it if we were provided with a guide or suggestions on \u201chow to question.\u201d I often find myself asking my students questions and when they answer them incorrectly, I find doing one of two very damaging things: reteaching the entire lesson\/ story\/ book (whatever it may be) because I think to myself if they did not answer this correctly I must have taught it wrong, or, providing them with so much \u201csupport\u201d, that I am basically giving the students the answer.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"52302088","body":"I find myself doing the same thing quite often in terms of language: saying something once in "academic" and then repeating the same idea in "student friendly.\u201d When I am in the moment, I feel that the only thing that matters is for a student to understand the content, theme or fact that we are discussing. However, I can't help but think that straying from academic language is conceding. If we forfeit more and more opportunities to use our language, we risk the possibility of our kids becoming comfortable with not using the language we are trying to move them towards. But this is just a concern, I\u2019m not sure if this will actually materialize.","dateCreated":"1333026863","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"cfinch45","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/cfinch45","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}},{"id":"52332076","body":"Completely agree with what yall are saying! It is good to have them see both types, I think.
\nBeing aware of academic language and how it affects my lesson and my students learning is something that I have been learning more and more about as I go through this year. Though I do not see myself as quite an expert (yet!) in my subject, I definitely have seen some moments in my class where, as Zweirs states, \u201cexpert blind spots\u201d show up. Ideas that are extremely basic and concrete to me might be either extremely difficult for my students or just something they were never taught. But, like I said, I am learning about that every day and being able to respond and restate is getting more effective in my classroom, I believe.","dateCreated":"1333060078","smartDate":"Mar 29, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"Martin.mintz","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/Martin.mintz","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]}],"more":true},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}