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Academic Language
Once you have begun your intermediate level clinical courses at CPS, you will be required to address academic language in your lesson plans. You will identify the essential academic language directly related to the learning objective. This is the language that deepens students’ understanding of the skill/concept being taught, as well as the process students are following in their learning. All academic language should be directly related to your lesson objective. You may focus upon language directly related to the process of the lesson as well as language aligned with the lesson content. It is important that you remember the length of your lesson and the goal of having students use this language themselves. Limiting the number of words/terms focused upon is extremely important. At times, depending on your students and the content as well as the lesson’s timeframe you will focus on a couple of words that your students need to understand in order to deepen their understanding of the content.
Example of Academic Language Section of CEP Student’s Lesson Plan:
Content Language:
sentence – a group of words that state a complete thought & have a subject and a predicate
subject – who or what the sentence is about
predicate – the part of the sentence that contains the verb (action word) that tells about the subject
Process Language:
think-aloud – stating what you are thinking as you model a task
icon – a small drawing used as a symbol
collaborate – work together
If teaching a reading lesson on cause and effect, you will likely focus on words and/or phrases that communicate the concept of your objective: cause, reason, effect, result, signal words, text structure, etc.
Example: Elementary Reading Lesson Objective
Students S and P: By the end of this 30 minute lesson, when dictated 7 CVC words containing vowels: a,e,i,o,u, students will write at least 6 of the words correctly, showing understanding of letter/sound correspondence and combination of beginning, middle, ending sounds.
Student C will have 5 words dictated and write at least 4 of the words correctly.
Academic Language: List the vocabulary clusters targeted in this lesson.
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Content words:
Process words:
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CPS’s Aligned LOFT Evaluation Criteria and Annotations
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Scaffolding Academic Language
State which instructional strategies you will use to support individual students’ academic language proficiency and how these supports will be removed as students demonstrate proficiency. How will you meet each student’s language needs? Scaffolding noted should be specific aligned with individuals’ needs. Your goal is for all students to use the academic language in discussion and/or written work related to the lesson objective.
More Examples of Scaffolding of Academic Language:
- Students who are reading below grade level (A.B., F. H., and T. P.) will be provided with a graphic organizer that presents a visual representation of each word. Observation of students’ decreasing reliance on this tool will provide evidence that it is no longer needed.
- In this first lesson, Group A will refer to a a word wall presenting both picture cues and definitions of academic language being addressed. As students demonstrate proficiency, the word wall will be removed.
- To support students’ acquisition of the academic language introduced in this lesson, students will participate in a ‘Turn and Talk’ in which they will be requested to explain these terms to their partners. A ‘Turn and Talk’ format will be implemented in subsequent lessons with those students not yet demonstrating appropriate contextual use of the academic language.
Example of Scaffolding Language in CEP Student’s Lesson Plan:
| ● With this small group, content language and process skills language are explicitly taught with the simultaneous integration of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic sensory pathways to maximize understanding and retention. These are the top three learning pathways identified as preferred learning styles for these students. Skills introduced are broken into smaller units, moving from simple to complex.
○ Auditory – auditory/visualization introduction, using think aloud teaching strategy, class discussion, questioning ○ Visual – auditory/visualization introduction, use of picture icons, and picture labeling ○ Kinesthetic – drawing icons, and writing tasks Vocabulary will be taught using student-friendly language and used when providing corrective feedback to maximize exposure and increase proficiency. Students will be questioned, with the correct responses requiring students’ use of the academic language of the lesson. |
CPS’s Aligned LOFT Evaluation Criteria and Annotations
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