Reading Notes for Access to Academics

You can work with colleagues as long as you have a deep understanding of the content in each chapter. Use the Key
Issues Chart at the beginning of each chapter to guide your thinking. Read and tab/underline key points in each chapter.
Add descriptions, page numbers, or lists as part of your note keeping. This is the foundation for your study for teaching
English as a second language and is very important that you come to a deep understanding of this material.

Take notes on these key points and add missing points based on the Key Issues Chart at the
beginning of each chapter. Your notes must be sufficient for you to attain and retain the basic
information in each chapter and to effectively lead a class group discussion when asked to do so.
You will be defining, summarizing and/or describing the various key components in each chapter.
Ch. 1:
Language
of School
1. Explain language of school
Characterized by a broad range of language competencies that English language learners must learn in
order to fully participate in classroom activities.
Students use social English to interact and also acquire academic language associated with each
specific content area.
English language learners need to develop all of the specific registers reuired to benefit from every
aspect of schooling.
2. Social Language
Used in everyday, casual interactions. There are three different types of social language: everyday,
intercultural, and instructional. Everyday language is used amongst friends, at the grocery store.
Intercultural language is used to interact appropriately in cross-cultural situations. Instructional language
is the nontechnical variety of English used in classrooms to engage in classroom learning routines.
3. Academic Language
The vocabulary specific to certain content areas. There are three different types of academic language:
vocabulary, grammar, and discourse. Vocabulary consists of words and phrases, including genera
academic vocabulary, specialized academic vocabulary, and technical academic vocabulary. Grammar
consists of the syntax, mechanics, sentences, and paragraph structure. The discourse is the cohesion
and coherence in texts and across genres.
4. Linguistic Features/content areas- Every content area has grammatical and syntactic features. There is
general academic vocabulary, spcialized academic vocabulary, and technical academic vocabulary. For
example in science the general vocabulary would be words such as assumptions, construct and
explanations, specialized academic vocabulary would be nucleus, cell wall and ribosomes, and the technical
academic vocabulary would be mitosis, prophase and telophase.
5. BICS- Basic interpersonal communicative skills. BICS relies on listening and speaking, minor errors are
acceptable, relies primarily on narrative, often less demanding, and requires smaller vocabulary.
6. CALP- Cognitive academic language proficiency. Relies on reading and writing. Requires a high standard of
accuracy in grammar and vocabulary. It is more complex, such as persuading and arguing. It is more
demanding and students must rely on prior knowledge. It also requires knowledge of over 20k words forms.
7. Google academic language register and define: Languages have five language registers. The use of the
appropriate register depends on the audience, the topic, and the purpose for the communication. Most
students write as they speak because they are not familiar with these registers. Teachers must familiarize
themselves with these and teach the registers as an addition to the state framework. Frozen Register:
language that remains fixed/unchanged, Formal/Academic Register: Interviews, academic language in
classroom (lectures, instructionmini-lessons), public speaking. Consultative Register: Talking to a
boss/supervisor/teacher, lawyer, doctor, Counselor (asking for assistance). Casual (Informal) Register:
Talking with friends, slang (writing drafts should allow casual before the formal draft because it gets the
information out on the paper). Intimate Register: Language of lovers, sexual harassment (not for public
information).
Ch. 2: Language Proficiency: The ability to use language accurately and appropriately in its oral and written forms in
a variety of settings. It includes three dimensions of academic literacy: linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural.
It also requires background knowledge, critical thinking, and metacognitive skills as well as understanding
and applying cultural nuances, beliefs and practices in context.
Language Domains: There are four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They can
develop at different rates and independently of one another. They can be classified as receptive or
productive skills and as oral or written. Receptive language refers to the information someone receives
through listening or reading activities. Productive language refers to the information produced to convey
meaning.
Can Do descriptors provide a starting point for planning and implementing instruction. They define levels of
ability in terms of what language learners typically can do with the language at different language proficiency
levels.
Elements of Communicative Competence means competence in all four language domains, both productive
and receptive. Four elements must be considered: grammatical or linguistic-involve accuracy of language
used, sociolinguistic-entail the use of language in an appropriate manner or style in a given context,
discourse-involves the ability to connect correctly formed phrases and sentences into a coherent and
cohesive message in a particular style, and strategic-involves the development of strategies such as how to
get into or out of conversation, break silences, hold the floor in conversations, and deal with strategies to
continue communicating when faced with breakdown in communication.
Ch. 3 Learning Strengths and Needs of EL Students Students strengths and needs, including linguistic, content,
educational, and cultural, have their roots in these backgrounds. Addressing students strengths and needs
can affect learning of language and content. Teachers can uncover their students strengths and needs so
that they can build on them to help students achieve. Surveys can be given to students at the beginning of
the year to learn more information regarding the students. This information can also be used in instruction or
referred to during discussions. Teachers can also engage in conversations with students about relevant
issues.
Guidelines for understanding student strengths and needs: 1) Model the techniques: the teacher can model
how to use a dialogue journal or kwls chart and suggest why survey data and other information is necessary.
2) Try not to assume: teachers must learn cultural norms and expectations and rules within a culture and not
assume anything about an English learner student. This will help the student to better assimilate into the
classroom and feel comfortable in all situations. 3) Embrace variety: Teachers are models. What they value
and respect is often valued and respected by their students. All values of the cultures of all students in the
classroom should be explored and be the subject of explicit instruction.

Ch. 4 Explain- all teachers are language teachers! Teachers can help students access the academic content of
the class. A specific focus on central skills and concepts is critical to learning both language and content.
Pull vocabulary from lessons and preteach and provide visual aids. Students needs/strengths provide
foundation for learning objectives. Having language objective support the development of language related
to content and process.
Objective writing SWBAT indicates that what follows in the objective are criteria against which a students
performance can be evaluated after the lesson. The concrete measureable outcome presents the criterion
that the evaluation will focus on. The exact content to be learned and sometimes also includes to what
degree it should be mastered.
Measurable Verbs: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/grlevelcurriculum.asp
ELD Adaptations Give plenty of thinking time, especially before expecting them to perform. Give them
specific and planned speaking (talk about vocabulary, talk to a partner, thinking time)
Teaching the Language of the Discipline: Vocabulary lesson model introduced
Teaching to Language Objectives Guidelines: List and summarize EL students must have a chance to
explore, and then practice, before demonstrating mastery of an objective. Language objectives may focus on
developing students vocabulary. Other lessons might include: reading comprehension skills, writing process,
justifying opinions, negotiate meaning, summarizing, stating conclusions, comparing, contrasting. Grammar
(in journal).

Ch. 5 Connecting to Students: Teachers must acknowledge that all students bring experiences and knowledge to
school. Connections between students lives and the task demonstrate to students reasons for listening and
participating in tasks. Connecting tasks and topics to students lives increases engagement. Making
personal and academic connections from instruction to students backgrounds and interests is central to their
ability to access the language and content of a lesson.
How do you make academic connections: Teachers can make connections to students previous learning
noting how the present lesson relates to past or other content or language learned. Teachers start from a
more idea known as a most common idea which relates to the students personal histories. The More general
idea focuses on general things regarding the topic at hand. The Specific focus is directly related to the
content that is being taught. For students that have little to no background knowledge of a topic can begin at
the most common idea to help scaffold learning for students.
Building Background Knowledge: Teachers can preteach and reinforce vocabulary to help students gain
background knowledge of the next component of the lesson. Cue Do Review can be used by students to
compare the new concept with something they already know well, linking past learning ideas. Students can
participate in field trips or have hands on experiences for students to make connections to the lesson.
Visitors can visit the classroom so students can hear first hand experiences. Using visual resources can help
students to get a clear idea of what they need to learn.
What is an anticipatory Set? The anticipatory set is used to make connections. It provides continuity from
previous lessons. It tells the students briefly what the lesson will be about. It also activates the students
existing knowledge base. It also briefly exposes the students to the lesson objectives and how you will lead
the students to the end result.
Using VAPA and PE Content for making connections to students explain the guidelines for connections:
Check that students have made connections and that students are interested and prepared to engage in the
lesson. Use techniques that encourage students to see the links throughout the lesson and/or unit. Use
explicit instruction as needed to help students understand the process and content of the connections.

Ch. 6 Student Engagement: Explain engagement: includes student involvement and ownership. An engaging task
means that students spend more time on task and have deeper focus, leading to greater success and tasks:
can be divided into two overlapping components: process and product. Task process is what happens when
the learning takes place. The process is what the students do and how they do it. Task product can be seen
as the outcome of this process or the end result of the task.
Pedagogical Connections: teachers should think about the backgrounds and interest of their students while
designing tasks. These connections can lead to student success. Teachers can promote cultural
awareness, engage students, and enrich the presentation of content by integrating facts from a variety of
cultures where they naturally fit into the lesson. These connections work with personal and academic
connections to provide student with both access and reasons to engage.
List/explain elements of task process: Task process is what happens when the learning takes place. The
process is what the students do and how they do it and product can be seen as the outcome of this process
or the end result of the task.
List /explain guidelines for task for connecting instruction to students lives: Listen to students talk about
familiar topics such as home and community, respond to students talk and questions, making on-the-spot
changes that relate directly to their comments, interact with students in ways that respect their speaking
styles which may be different from the teachers, connect student language with literacy and content-area
knowledge through speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities, encourage student to use content
vocabulary to express their understanding, encourage students to use their first and second languages in
instructional activities.
Ch. 7 How do you assess before, during and after a lesson: pre assessment can be done via a quiz, short answer
or task related activity. This information can be used to guide instruction, find out what students know and
prepare appropriate materials. Assessment during a lesson can be done by observation, note taking, asking
questions, or checking work. Assessment after the lesson can come in the form of checking independent
practice. Students will be asked to demonstrate the taught skill on their own. Teachers can modify
instruction based on all times of assessment.
Assessing student process and product: Since traditional assessments have disadvantages, teachers can
adapt assessments by creating hybrid tests or quizzes that offer several forms for students to demonstrate
their knowledge of the content. This is beneficial since students may understand the questions or answers in
a variety of ways. Teachers can also ask students to rate the questions and or the test. This can help
teachers to create a more understandable test if needed.
Developing assessments to measure content standard achievement: Make sure that students know what the
language and content objectives are and how they will be assessed. Post them on the board, refer to them,
and discuss them as needed. Model and explain the task, linking the task process to objectives. Explain
what the product expectations are and how achievement can be demonstrated in relation to the objectives.
Creating multiple opportunities for students to learn content: Giving students different opportunities to learn
content is necessary for students who have different learning styles. Teachers can also offer ungraded
assessments so that students are given the opportunity to learn from what they produce. Different tasks such
as word walls, brainstorming, and journals can all be used to help students learn the content.

Ch. 8 ELD: Language of Science: Science texts, material, and processes may present many challenges to English
language learners. Hands on inquiry based and experimental science activities provide an ideal setting for
learning language and content simultaneously, the specialized language of science is filled with technical
terms and features needed to describe the natural and physical world, practicing compare and contract and
cause and effect methods and the language of scientific inquiry can benefit all students, particularly ELLs, a
key component in learning to talk science is to analyze the Greek and Latin roots as well as the prefixes and
suffixes that permeate scientific language.
Integration of PE and content Areas: Students can practice the movement of different animals that they have
studied in class.
Language of the discipline applied to VAPA and PE: Students can act out their science vocabulary and have
other students guess which word they are acting out.
Ch. 9 ELD: Language of Mathematics: The mathematics reform movement, with its current emphasis on
communicating mathematically, may pose some challenges for English language learners, the language of
mathematics uses unique symbols, technical language, and diverse representations, Mathematics may not
always be a universal language, there are many variations across languages and cultures, Mathematical
language used in tasks, tests, and teacher talk can have many confusing usages, explicit instruction, speech
modification, and modeling are necessary for students to learn the language of mathematics.
Integration of PE and Math: Students can practice their math facts such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division by using themselves as manipulatives.
Language of the discipline applied to VAPA and PE: Students can act out their mathematical vocabulary and
have other students guess which word they are acting out.
Ch. 10 ELD: Language of English Language Arts: English texts and tasks, with their abundance of idioms, figurative
language, imagery, and symbolism, present challenges for English language learners, the language arts
include reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing, educators need to affirm and
draw on the different literacy practices that students develop in and out of school, early elementary grades
focus on learning to read; later the focus is on reading to learn, students benefit from receiving extensive and
varied vocabulary instruction.
Integration of PE and content Areas: Students can practice prepositions with an object such as a towel. The
teacher will say, You are beside, above, near the towel. The students will then situate themselves
referencing their teachers instructions.
Language of the discipline applied to VAPA and PE: Students can act out their English Language Arts
vocabulary and have other students guess which word they are acting out.
Ch. 11 ELD: Language of Social Studies: The field of social studies includes many disciplines, each with its own set
of language demands, social studies may be the most difficult content area for English language learners
because they may be unfamiliar with many of the topics, particularly in relation to history, many terms in
social studies are abstract, hard to translate, and culturally based, Social studies textbooks and curricula
assume that students have a great deal of background knowledge-knowledge that US student accumulate
over time from one grade level to the next, many strategies and approaches are available for enhancing the
learning experiences of English language learners in social studies classrooms of all types.
Integration of PE and content Areas: Students can practice walking the state line. Students will walk around
the outlines of the states. Students can also walk the map and walk from different locations on a map drawn
out on the grass or blacktop.
Language of the discipline applied to VAPA and PE: Students can act out their social studies vocabulary and
have other students guess which word they are acting out.

Ch. 12
Review and discuss learning for EL students across all disciplines: Vocabulary across the disciplines is probably
the main subject when teaching different subject matter. Students must be able to understand general terms
such as describing, procedures, connections, predictions, observe, examine to more specific vocabulary such as
condensation, fusion, quotient, and quadratic. Giving students adequate time beforehand to expose them to the
vocabulary and pre teach the information will better prepare them for whats to come. Teachers can also have
students pre read to build their background knowledge on topics or concepts contained in the reading section.
Pre reading activities can serve as a vehicle to elicit students reactions and felling about ideas and issues
contained in the material to be read before confronting those issues in the text.
List 5 key points that are new learning that you will use in instructional practice from this reading:
Anticipatory sets are key to making initial connections with students. It must connect to the students
backgrounds and interests. The teacher can also connect it to previous lessons.
Adapting assessments to the needs of students is essential in making sure that all students have the
opportunity to show their knowledge of the content in the manner that best suits them. Formal and
informal assessments can be modified in different ways such as offering multiple choice, short answer,
essay, illustrations, and diagrams. Student with test anxiety will also have a better chance of success
knowing that they can prepare for the right assessment for them.
Creating engaging tasks comes from knowing your students well. The teacher should continue to use
information that has been collected about and from students to plan the lesson tasks. Students thrive in
different environments. Some like to work in groups, while others do better individually. Different reading
skills and interests can result in structured choices for students. Giving students the opportunity to gain
and to express knowledge may make some tasks more manageable for students.
Using preview and review as a lesson introduction for English language learners. This can be used not
only for ELLs but for all students in the classroom. This can be done via a handout, an outline of the
entire lesson on the board or overheard, and a list of key words. This pre lesson provides context for the
lesson. This can also be done in a small group. Reviewing the lesson afterwards also reinforces
learning goals and can provide further clarification where it is needed.
Sometimes students have very little knowledge of a subject of study. To better help students grasp the
concept, teachers can begin from a general idea that can lead to a specific idea. For example, if a
teacher is teaching about Thanksgiving, the teacher can begin by teaching about celebrations in general
and move to a discussion or lesson on feasts and then finally moving to the specific topic of
Thanksgiving. Teachers may even be able to make specific connections to the student regarding
celebrations and feast from their culture.
Reflect: How will you bring this research in to your professional practice: I plan on implementing these strategies
and instructional practices as often as needed. ELL students are in a sense completing double work because
theyre not only learning the vocabulary and language but also the content. Some of these strategies will also be
helpful for non ELL students. I think its important for teachers to have a high respect for ELL students. Their
journey is a much more difficult one compared to other students. Not only do they need to learn academics, but
they also need to engage socially into their environment. Providing students with the opportunity of oral and
collaborative activities with other students is key in their success.