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Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

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Connecting Content and Academic Language for English Learners and Struggling Students, Grades 2–6

By: Ruth Swinney, Patricia Velasco

Foreword by Ofelia García

This book focuses on increasing teachers’ expertise in developing all students’ academic language. Included are graphic organizers, sample lesson plans, and reproducibles.

Full description


Product Details
  • Grade Level: 2-6
  • ISBN: 9781412988438
  • Published By: Corwin
  • Year: 2011
  • Page Count: 200
  • Publication date: May 11, 2011
Price: $40.95
Volume Discounts applied in Shopping Cart

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This book is not available as a review copy.
Description

Description

Create unit plans that will empower your EL students

In this supremely practical book, award-winning principal Ruth Swinney and college professor Patricia Velasco focus on the careful planning needed to develop the academic language of all students. For English learners especially, it is critically important to integrate language development with the content that the curriculum demands. What makes this book unlike any other is the detailed guidance it provides to:

• Help students advance from social to academic language
• Encourage verbal expression in the classroom
• Plan language arts, social studies, and science lessons that connect language and content
• Use shared reading and writing, read alouds, and conversation to teach language skills

Hands-on tools include graphic organizers, sample lesson plans, concept maps, semantic webbing, word walls, and worksheets—everything teachers need to help emergent bilingual and struggling students master the academic language they need to excel in school.


Key features

  • Focuses specifically on ELL children as well as English-dominant students in grades 2-6 who come to school with low literacy skills
  • Provides teachers with basic information about student background knowledge and how it affects learning and language
  • Examines the continuum of social to academic language, stresses the role that conversation plays in the development of academic language, and presents ways to develop language skills through a "curriculum of talk"
  • Takes teachers step-by-step through the process of planning units of study and linking language goals with the requirements of the unit
  • Shows teachers how they can use specific structures of balanced literacy—read aloud, shared reading, and shared writing—to develop students' background knowledge and to teach the language skills students need in order to understand the content
  • Provides specific lesson plans for sample units of study in language arts, social studies, science, and for an integrated thematic unit
Author(s)

Author(s)

Ruth Swinney photo

Ruth Swinney

Ruth Swinney is a native of Colombia, S.A. She started her career as a bilingual teacher in New York City. In 1984 she founded one of the first dual language programs in New York City in PS 84, and subsequently became director of bilingual and dual language programs for a large District in NYC. In this role she supervised bilingual and ESL programs, and developed seven model dual language programs for the District. When she became principal PS 165 (Manhattan) she set up a nationally recognized dual language program at the same time that she turned around one of the bottom schools in the city. She has won numerous awards for her work with second language learners, and for her achievements as a principal. After retiring she worked with the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University, heading the principal work, and the ELL department. Currently she works as a consultant.
Patricia Velasco photo

Patricia Velasco

Patricia Velasco started her career as a speech pathologist in Mexico City. After finishing her EdD in the United States, she established a Staff Development Institute (Casa de la Ciencia) that works with indigenous bilingual children and their teachers in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico . After she moved to New York City, she first worked for the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University, as a staff developer supporting teachers all across New York City in addressing the literacy and language needs of English language learners. In addition, she was part of the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. Currently she is Assistant Professor of Education at Queens College, City University of New York, where she coordinates the Bilingual Program.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations


Foreword: Finding Cats and Dogs in the Zoo, by Ofelia Garcia


Acknowledgments


About the Authors


Part I: The Language Component: From Social to Academic Language


Introduction: Making Content Accessible to English Learners and Struggling Students


1. Building Language: How and Why

Background Knowledge and Its Relationship With Vocabulary

The Role that Background Knowledge Plays in Our Learning

Morphology and Syntax

Figurative Language

Conclusion

Questions for Reflection

2. From Social to Academic Language: a Curriculum of Talk

Developing Oral Language

The Social and Academic Language Continuum

What Is a Curriculum of Talk?

Goals of a Curriculum of Talk: The Role of Conversation

Different Types of Classroom Conversations That Support Listening and Speaking in the Classroom

Conclusion

Questions for Reflection

3. Structures of Balanced Literacy That Support English Language Learners and Struggling Students

What Is Balanced Literacy?

Literacy Practices That Support Language Growth

Adapting Balanced Literacy Components

Interactive Real Aloud

Shared Reading

Shared Writing

Conclusion

Questions for Reflection

Part II: The Lesson Component: Sample Units to Integrate Content and Language Goals


4. Language Arts Unit: Memoir (Grades 3-6)

Introduction

Section 1: The English Language Learner and Memoir

Breaking the Plan Into Doable Parts

Immersion in the Genre Through Read Aloud

Developing Knowledge About the Genre After Reading Many Memoirs

Section 2: Addressing Language Needs

Elements of Cohesion

Figurative Language

Conclusion

Teacher Self-Assessment for the Unit

5. Social Studies Unit: Colonial Times and the American Revolution (Grade 4)

The English Language Learner and the Social Studies Curriculum

Concepts and Teaching Tools

Breaking the Plan Into Doable Parts

Anchoring the Unit in a Read Aloud

Thinking Skills Used Throughout the Unit: Language Prompts

Vocabulary Development

Shared Reading: Working With Language Goals

Shared Writing

Conclusion

Teacher Self-Assessment for the Unit

6. Science Unit: Plant and Animal Adaptations (Grades 5-6)

The English Language Learner and Science

Planning the Unit

Breaking the Plan Into Doable Parts

Shared Reading

Developing Critical Thinking Skills Through Read Aloud

Experiment: Plant Adaptations

Individual Book Reports

Conclusion

Teacher Self-Assessment for the Unit

7. Thematic Unit: The Rainforest (Grades 2-3)

The English Language Learner and Thematic Units

Planning the Unit

Breaking the Plan Into Doable Parts

Social Studies and Math Concepts

Science

Language Arts

The Rainforest of the Amazon: The Play

Conclusion

Teacher Self-Assessment for the Unit

Conclusion


References


Index


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Price: $40.95
Volume Discounts applied in Shopping Cart

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Related Resources

  • Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.