Academic Language Renee bradshaw & maggie carr title 1
On May 24, 2016 I was able to attend a training with Dave Holden, co-founder of American Alliance for Innovative Schools, LLC. As an instructional coach, Dave works with teachers across all disciplines to refine pedagogy, implement sound instructional and assessment practices. Dave is currently working with Title l reading teachers on boosting academic vocabulary in classrooms.
The following are resources we are currently using as instructional resources.
Academic conversations are rare in many classrooms. Talk is often dominated by the teacher and a few students, or it does not advance beyond short responses to the teacher's questions. Even certain teaching approaches and curriculum programs neglect to train students how to maintain a focused, respectful, and thoughtful conversation.
The following are resources we are currently using as instructional resources.
- academic vocabulary and grammar
- critical thinking skills
- literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior knowledge and summarizing
- engagement
During the professional development, I learned that there are five core skills of academic conversations. These include; elaborate and clarify, support ideas with examples, build on or challenge a partner’s idea, paraphrase, and synthesize conversation points. These skills overlap throughout conversation and should be used with class discussions as well as small group or partner talk
Students usually do not use these conversation moves naturally in conversation. This is why it is important for us to teach students these skills to become deeper more critical thinkers
Making Thinking Visible is a resource that can be used:
- for directing student thinking and structuring classroom discussion
- with students at all grade levels and content areas
- classroom strategies
Resource Links
Since going to this training, I have modeled academic lessons in second and third grade classrooms at Lewis Elementary. I have used the strategy See, Think, Wonder with the students, as well as, taught them how to respectfully agree and disagree with their peers. The students have also been able to practice elaborating on their answers and have been encouraged to dig deeper into their thinking with “Why” they come with the answers and how to add on to what their partner or classmate is saying. I look forward to learning and sharing new strategies with these classes and their teachers.
---Maggie Car
I have been modeling lessons using See Think Wonder and Zoom In with my kindergarten and first grade students. I have learned how powerful showing students pictures as an introduction to new materials in science can be. Seeing them think out loud as to what is in the picture, develop a hypothesis, and asking questions has been amazing.
I am excited to try new thinking routines from the book Making Thinking Visible in the future.
---Renee Bradshaw
