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.

Ch. 1:

Ch. 2:

Ch. 3

Ch. 4

Ch. 5

Ch. 6

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.
The language of school is a distinct and multifaceted type of English. The language of school includes both social
and academic language. Social language is the language mostly in everyday, causal interactions. Specific
linguistic features associated with different content areas characterize academic language. The basic
intrapersonal communicative skill and cognitive academic language proficiency distinction highlights some of the
differences between social and academic language. The use of language: How to: speak, listen, read, write,
register varieties of language. Through language they need to learn about the world inside and outside the
classroom. About language they need to learn what are the differences among languages historical aspects of
language and cultural influences on language.
Language proficiency is multidimensional and entails linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural factors. As students
learn a second language, they progress at different rates along a continuum of predictable stages. CAN DO
descriptors depict what students can do with language at different levels of language proficiency. Oral : listening
and speaking written: reading and writing. Speaking and writing are productive listening and reading are
receptive.
Students bring with them different backgrounds, which express themselves as skills, abilities, knowledge, family
and community characteristics, and experiences. Students strengths and needs can affect learning of language
and content. Teachers need to gather information on learners language backgrounds. We can do activities such
as story retelling. After reading the students describe what they understood. This lets them get a general idea of
what the student focused on.
Understanding objectives: teachers need to be able to tell the students the objectives. The students need to
realize that objectives are different than goals and standards. To determine language needs students can use the
SWBAT chart, make them list three of five central causes of a topic in writing. Fire steps to constructing language
objectives. 1. Vocabulary. 2. Language functions. 3. Grammar. 4. Disclosure. 5. Language learning strategies.
The important features of language objectives include that they derive from the content to be taught, they
consider the strengths and needs of students, and they present measurable, achievable outcomes. Teaching the
language objectives. There are 3 guidelines. 1. Integrate language and content. 2. Use pedagogically sound
techniques. 3. Break down the language.
I learned that sometimes teachers often introduce their lessons with connections to students who have lived in
their area or been in their school for a while. Sometimes the new students who have different experiences may
find this difficult. Teachers need to be able to link lessons to more than just their area. The teachers need to
understand connections. There are two types of connections; personal connections which links to students lives
and lesson ideas, and academic/ content links students past learning and new concepts. We can also create
personal connections with the students. We can create these by connecting them to the lesson topic.
Teachers need to make connections to students lives by engaging in conversation about their lives. Teachers
need to be able to have the students thoroughly engaged in the information they were given. The students need
to understand engagement and task. Engagement includes student involvement and ownership. Three strategies
are 1-making connections to students lives by creating opportunities for authentic interactions with people,
objects, and experiences that initiate student interests. 2-having students interact with each other and with
language. Tasks should be cooperative and/or collaborative in both confusing on language and using language
for authentic purpose. 3- creating responsive classrooms, or considering students needs, wants, abilities, and

Ch. 7

Ch. 8

Ch. 9

Ch. 10

Ch. 11

interests. Tasks should be differentiated, challenging, and scaffolded. Task product is what happens when the
learning takes place or in other words the process is what the students do and how they do it (81)
Elements of task process
elements of task product
Instructional groupings
audience
Modes
mode
Guidelines for task design. 1: Give students a reason to listen. 2: do not do what students can do.
Teachers can assess their lessons before, during, and after their implementation. Assessment is an important
component in both lesson design and implementation. It can be used to evaluate how the lesson meets
guidelines for good pedagogy and how students react to the lesson. The difference between assessment and
evaluation is one crucial point that is often misunderstood. Assessment refers to the general process of
gathering data about something or someone, while evaluation refers to the final judgment. Traditional
classroom assessments, or those that are typically used for evaluation purposes, include quizzes, tests, and
structured papers. Alternative assessments are alternatives to traditional assessments and consist of any
open-ended method that uncovers what students know and can do as students create and answer. Additional
guidelines for assessment. Guideline 1: be transparent. Guideline 2: reconsider grades. Example of a lessoncomponent checklist.
Component
Language objectives
Connections
Tasks
Assessment
Teachers need to be able to justify their grading. They also need to meet the guidelines.
Vocabulary plays a huge part of science. For example there are many different examples of astronomy.
General academic vocabulary is star, planet, moon, rotate. Specialized academic vocabulary is nebula,
galaxy, nova, pulsar, and telescope. Technical academic vocabulary is red giants, white dwarfs, supernovae,
neutron star, and olberss paradox. Some strategies for learning and talking science are comparing and
contrasting, cause and effect, and teaching Greek and Latin roots. When students understand this material it
will be easier for them to succeed in science in the classroom.
Potential challenges for ELLs in the mathematics classroom are in many countries school mathematics curricula
emphasize calculations, not communicating mathematical thinking. Many students have never seen or worked
with manipulates and might not take a lesson using manipulates seriously. Many ELLs are familiar with the metric
measurement system and are not familiar with measurements like feet, pints, miles, ounces, etc. these five
standards apply to all grade levels and provide mathematics educators with a solid base upon which to build
instruction and curriculum: 1. To understand and value mathematics. 2. To reason mathematically. 3. To
communicate mathematics. 4. To solve problems. 5. To make connections to contexts and other academic
subject areas. Numbers and letters might be written differently. Different terms that signal the same operation
can also be confusing. Use a variety of instructional formats and supports; design multisensory lessons, use
visuals, use graphic organizers to visually represent mathematical concepts, point to or explicitly connect terms
with a visual representation, design hands-on activities, and use different technologies. Make sure to use preview
and review. Create an atmosphere for risk taking and making mistakes.
The key elements for improving literacy for elementary English language learners are theoretical orientation,
language-rich environment, meaningful literacy, culturally relevant literacy practices, additive perspective on
language, and emphasis on academic language. There are many good strategies for beginning readers, some of
my favorites were choral reading, literature circles, story mapping, learning logs, and think-alouds. ELLS need to
be able to connect what they are learning with what they already know and to build on their linguistic and cultural
resources. Teachers need to make sure to teach vocabulary and writing and grammatical features.
1. content may be new. 2. Topics are not only abstract but language-dependent too. 3. The field of social studies
incorporates many disciplines. 4. The field relies on extensive background knowledge. 5. History is presented in a
linear manner, like a timeline. Teachers need to stop and do specific content vocabulary with the students.
Strategies for teaching and learning social studies are 1. Developing socially supportive classrooms. 2. Explicit
teaching of academic skills. 3. Reducing cognitive load and increasing accessibility of complex content
knowledge. When it comes to history, one of the main issues for ELLs is that they do not have the cumulative

Ch. 12

knowledge that U.S. students have attained through study in previous grade levels.
Every lesson must be accessible to all students. Steps to creating a new lesson, 1. Find and create the learning
targets. 2. Make initial connections. 3. Create engaging tasks. 4. Assessment. Guidelines for creating and
adapting lessons. Guideline 1: do not reinvent the wheel. Guideline 2: share. No lesson is perfect and few work
for all students in a class. However, the ideas and lesson components are outlines in this book are keys to
achievement because they provide access for diverse students to the content and language of the lesson.