Full 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.
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
