Greetings:
Oh, how busy life gets in America; perhaps too busy. I made myself a promise, that when I started this blog, I would try to do at least one post a month, at a minimum. I got busy, too busy, and unfortunately left my poor blog all alone for too long.
In an effort to bring this poor blog back to life, let me write about a topic I've enjoyed revisiting in my current graduate course: The writing of both language and content objectives. Let me share some posts from my recent grad work contributions. Thanks.
~~~
Oh, how busy life gets in America; perhaps too busy. I made myself a promise, that when I started this blog, I would try to do at least one post a month, at a minimum. I got busy, too busy, and unfortunately left my poor blog all alone for too long.
In an effort to bring this poor blog back to life, let me write about a topic I've enjoyed revisiting in my current graduate course: The writing of both language and content objectives. Let me share some posts from my recent grad work contributions. Thanks.
~~~
Hello:
My biggest take-away so far in this course is the importance of having both content and language objectives in lesson/ unit plans. I am such a big believer in SIOP now, even more than before, and I see the importance of ensuring that students are getting the language piece in addition to the straight content.
I would also be in favor of having both language and content objectives be a part of public school districts’ new plans for the new educator evaluation system. I believe that all teachers need to help give students pathways to their content, and language is major pathway to understanding, using and becoming adept with the content and skills in a class.
Yes, I believe that teachers of subjects that do not normally consider themselves as teachers of language need to change how they think about their subject matter, in broad terms. I am referring to teachers who teach Math, Science, Social Studies/ History, Computers, Art, Business, etc. There is so much vocabulary and so much language in these subjects, and I feel that we need to have all teachers teaching to language objectives also.
To give some examples, just off the top of my head, for two subjects, let me please list some terms for the areas of Math and Social Studies/ History.
Math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, add (and plus), subtract (and minus), multiply (and times), divide (and “divided by”), fraction, decimal, percent (and percentage), numerator, denominator, equals sign (and “is equal to”), equivalent, angle, obtuse, right, acute, ray, line, line segment, axis, y axis, x axis, slope, rise, run, etc.
Social Studies/ History: native/ indigenous peoples, explorer, shipbuilder, tanner, metallurgist/ silversmith, carpenter/ woodworker, entrepreneur/ businessman/ businesswoman, government, labor, party, all the roles/ jobs in a representative government, taxes, control, power, corruption, prejudice, racism, tyranny, communism, fascism, capitalism, markets, profit, etc.
There are also so many terms in all subjects. Giving ELLs and all students greater access to the curriculum should be of high importance, and I know that having teachers teach to language objectives, besides merely content objectives would greatly support ELLs and others as they learn, grow and develop.
Thank you.
~~~
Hello all,
Yes, so, I wanted to add some thoughts to my thread here, after reading the Week 6 follow-up email from Prof. M. I think I need to share that my initial post... I guess ... was a bit of an oversimplification. Prof. M. correctly shared how with content and language objectives, the “content” is the “what;” and the “language objectives” is the how.
Yes, so I guess I should have said that teachers need to use language objectives to help students learn how to use certain vocabulary… or written conventions… or ways of using “our class content” to achieve your desired goal or to successfully complete the task at hand.
I should have said that it’s not enough to just teach your content vocabulary, because some teachers may do this, but that doesn’t mean the teacher is helping the student to better understand how to use the vocabulary.
On page 32 of our text, Echevarria, Vogt & Short (2012) share some wonderful examples of language objectives. “Other lessons may lend themselves to reading comprehension skills practice or the writing process, helping students to brainstorm, outline, draft, revise, edit, and complete a text.” Later on they state, “Higher-order thinking skills, such as articulating predictions or hypotheses, stating conclusions, summarizing information, and making comparisons, can be tied to language objectives, too.”[1]
Finally, let me offer an idea that you can add to your teacher toolbox, for how teachers can do these. Giving examples, on the board or on paper, ahead of time, and with some planned exercises for practicing the focus of the language objective, is a great way to help kids see howto use the content vocab/ skill/ language/ expression.
Thanks for letting me elaborate and clarify.
Have a great week!
[1] Echevarria, Jana, Vogt, MaryEllen, and Short, Deborah J. (2012). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (4th Edition). Boston, MA. Pearson.
Comments
Post a Comment