Transcript Academic Language (Bricks and Mortar)

Academic Language
Brick and Mortar Words
Essential Practices in
Teaching Academic Language
Brick & Mortar
Words
Planning
Language
Into
Lessons
HAPGs &
Literacy
Commitments
Habits of
Communication
Informal Writing
Academic Language
A way of reading, writing,
speaking and listening that
reflects valued knowledge and
effective communication skills.
External Factors
that Influence
the Academic Language
of Diverse Students
Types of Capital
Registers
Invisible Criteria
Types of Capital
• Social Capital:
– Interaction with adults, siblings, peers
• Cultural Capital:
– Travel experiences, education of parents, wealth,
television, music
• Knowledge Capital:
– Information gained from computers, reading, being
read to, travel, conversations about the world
• Linguistic Capital:
– Quality and quantity of language used by parents,
peers, on television shows/movies, in regional dialects
Registers
• Adjustment of language to
situation and audience
• Ability to use distinguishable
language with different
audiences
Invisible Criteria
Students fail when…
• Assessments depend heavily on
– things that have not been taught
– non-school experiences
– the teacher’s own cultural values
• Certain ways of talking about the text and
expressing ideas are invalidated
Teachers positively impact
academic language when they
• intentionally include the teaching of
brick and mortar words.
• repeatedly expose students to brick
and mortar words.
• regularly utilize word-learning
strategies to help students use brick
and mortar words.
Workshop Objectives
• To define academic language,
i.e., brick and mortar words
• To give examples of academic
language, i.e., brick and mortar
words
• To demonstrate several ways to
teach brick and mortar words
Brick Words
• Content-specific terms/vocabulary
• Technical words
• High-yield words that play a key role in the
lesson
• Tools for understanding the lesson
• Words in big, bold-faced print
Examples of Bricks
• ELA
• Soc Stu
• Math
• Science
• Phys. Ed.
irony, theme, conflict, thesis
emancipation, democracy,
revolution
reciprocal, proof, matrix,
polygons
meiosis, gravity, evaporation
tee, tip, shotgun, love,
butterfly stroke
Teachers Already Use Bricks
With Literacy Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
Frayer Model (HISD literacy strategy)
Organizing Grid (HISD literacy strategy)
Analogies (Marzano)
Comparison Matrix (Marzano)
Combination Notes (Marzano)
Additional Ways to
Teach Bricks
• Verbal and visual associations
• Right Away activities
• Kinesthetic, auditory, and
tactile connections
Verbal Associations
• Activities that connect learning to oral,
vocal, unwritten, or spoken tasks
The teacher gives students a quick verbal
definition and several examples of the brick.
Then she/he moves to visual associations so
that students can begin to associate the
brick with an image.
Visual Associations
• Activities that connect learning to pictures,
illustrations, and other non-verbal
representations
draw or use a picture
show a video
use a graphic organizer
make a web map
demonstrate with a real thing
Right Away Activities
• Activities that give students immediate engagement with
the new word
Have You Ever…?
The teacher poses a question that forces students to
activate their personal experiences and prior knowledge
in order to connect to and describe the brick.
Have you ever critiqued a movie?
Describe what happened.
Now watch the hands go up!
Right Away Activities
Idea Completion
The teacher uses the brick in a sentence stem but does
not finish the statement; students complete this fragment
based on the lesson. Responses can be either oral or
written.
•
Because of the density of the black hole,…
How ironic that it is raining and…
Kinesthetic, Auditory,
and Tactile Connections
• Activities that include ways to experience,
hear, or touch the new word
Teacher and/or students act out the
brick in the form of hand motions, role
plays, music or chants, or real items.
Teachers can combine several bricks in
one activity.
Mortar Words
• General academic words that are common
terms in everyday communication
• Words used across a variety of domains
• Utility words that define and hold together
“bricks”
• Subtle words or expressions that connect
bricks
Examples of Mortar Words
• ELA
• Soc Stu
• Math
• Science
implies, contains, reflects,
represents, supports
consequently, therefore,
consists of, factors
if…then, derive, why, calculate
suppose, equals, balance, isolate
variable, infer, dependent, why,
balance, what happens
when
• Standardized tests & instructional tasks
contrast, differ from, analyze, led
to, ramifications
Dialogue Using Brick and
Mortar Words in Math
• At the end of this hand-out, note the
underlined brick and mortar words that the
teacher uses to build the student’s
academic language of balancing an
equation in algebra.
• 2(7x-4) + 3(2x-1) = 2(9x-2) – 3(4x-7)
Teachers Already Use
Mortar Words with
Literacy Strategies
• S-W-B-S
Somebody-Wanted-But-So
Name_________________________________________Date_________________________
SOMEBODY WANTED BUT SO GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
Somebody
Wanted
But
So
Additional Ways to
Teach Mortar Words
•
Teacher’s use of and drawing attention to
mortar words in the lesson
–
Connectives:
–
–
–
Prepositions:
Pronouns:
Verbs:
1) Think Alouds
2) Highlighting
therefore, however,
because, maintain, require,
tend, correspond, represent
inside, between, without
each other, themselves, it
explain, examine, develop,
show, prove, discuss, trace,
simplify
Dialogue Using
Mortar Words in Science
• At the end of this hand-out, note the
underlined mortar words used as
connectives to explain the function of a
squid’s two long tentacles.
Three Benefits of
Academic Language
1. Students gain new words, new terms, a
new language.
2. Students develop mental skills:
Comprehension Skills
Summarizing
Predicting
Questioning
Connecting to Background
Thinking Skills
Classifying
Inferring
Evaluating
Comparing
Synthesizing
Analyzing
Three Benefits of
Academic Language
3. Students become more proficient in the
language of school.
This skill prepares students for graduation and lays the
foundation for their becoming valued employees in the
workforce, distinguished military personnel in the
Armed Forces, and/or successful students in college.
Regardless of the path taken in life, students will be
able to compete realistically in their chosen careers.
Reference
Zwiers, Jeff. Building Academic Language:
Essential Practices for Content
Classrooms, Grades 5-12. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Reflections
• How will this workshop on brick and mortar
words impact your classes?
• What else would you like to learn about
brick and mortar words?