WHY? Language Objectives

Because......

College and Career Readiness Standards 

The standards establish guidelines for English language arts (ELA) as well as for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Because students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, the standards promote the literacy skills and concepts required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines.

Sample Standard: Kindergarten-RL2

CC Standard:

RL2. With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 

 What would students need to DO (verbs)........ 

         (LOWER ORDER BLOOM)

Remember (Knowledge), Understanding (Comprehension)

• Recognize that story has a begging, middle, and end.
• Identify key ideas and details in a familiar story.                                   

What would students need to DO (verbs).......

        (HIGHER ORDER BLOOM)

Analyzing, Evaluating, creating (Synthesis)

• Communicate the difference between important (Key) and unimportant details in a story.
• Create an effective retell of a familiar story that includes key ideas and details. 

Celebration of Language Objectives

Language Objectives through Content and Language

Language Objectives through Content and Language

Language and content demands are increasing for ALL students, and the reality of students needing to become college and career ready for success is indisputable. In order for students to be college and career ready, ALL students must gain academic language proficiency. Whether this student is an English Learner, a student whose first language is English and is in a chemistry class for the first time, or for a student that comes to school with limited experiences and background knowledge of the world around them.

Academic language is more than building the vocabulary of content area or socio-cultural context. It includes thinking about language at a word/phrase, sentence, and discourse level.

• Word/phrase Level: language has multiple meaning words, commonly seen collocations, idioms, different shades of meanings, and general, specific, and technical language.

• Sentence Level: grammatical constructions, mechanics, matching language forms for purposes and perspectives and fluency of expression.

• Discourse Level: density of language, coherence of ideas, sentence structures, and the complexity in the amount of written text and speech.

Students are also asked to compare, justify, sequence, describe, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize using language. Gone are the days of self-contained language classrooms.  No longer are students separated from the universal instruction in order to learn the complex language system because ALL learners benefit from language instruction through content and teachers must access the strategies and intentionally plan for language in content.

Research from Cheuk,T (2013) and best practice suggests that language and content are taught hand-in-hand. Language is not learned in isolation. An approach I have used in working with teachers across the country is presenting the idea that we are ALLs (academic language learners). Since we are ALLs, then it is essential that we as educators approach teaching language through the content. One way to do this is to implement the use of language objectives.

Language objectives allow teachers to intentionally plan for the language that is necessary to access content. The planning of language objectives provides teachers the opportunity to prepare the supports that are critical for students to attain the outcome. The language objective ensures students and teachers know what the success criteria is and what they are striving to achieve. Language objectives allow teachers to support students in closing their achievement gap.

There are multiple ways to address writing a language objective.  One way to write language objectives is to think about it in three parts.

• The first part is the language function. The language function is a verb and it describes what we will do with the language. This tool from Colorin Colorado helps decide what the language function could be. This depends on the CCSS or NGSS that I am using and what I want student to be able to do with the language.
• The second part is the standard or the content that we are addressing in the lesson. It is imperative that the standard is decided prior to writing the language objective. Without the standard you will find yourself lost as the standard allows the teacher to choose the function and supports.
• The third part is the support.  The support is meant to assist students in accessing the content.  Without a support, students who are not reaching language proficiency will struggle to meet the content standard.  

Let’s take a look at a language objective and break it apart for its three components.  

Language Objective: I can explain the  central key ideas about a major Revolutionary War battle with a small group of peers orally using an annotated article and a graphic organizer.

The process of constructing the above language objective:

1) Start with the content standard

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

2) Then decide what language function you want to use to access the content. You can use the tool from Colorin Colorado for support. In the example we chose the language function of inform. Depending on the level of your students the language function might change. This is an opportunity for differentiation.

3) The content standard does not change. It is important that we do not water down the content in order to keep the rigor high.

4) Lastly think about what supports are necessary to meet the needs of your varied learners. Remember supports may vary depending on what your students need to access the curriculum. This is an opportunity for differentiation.

Great Examples of Language Objectives from the Field

Example from 4th grade DL class, Zachary Bennett from Heyer Elementary





Example from ESL 1 Class, Geidy Colon at North High School



Example from Co-Taught English 9 Class, Sarahi Monterrey and Heidi Kaczynski at North High School


Example from 3rd Grade Class, Rachael Thiede at Heyer Elementary

A little note from Jeff...

Hello All,
Just a little note from Jeff Zwiers, our consultant guru of academic oral language (affectionately known as ORACY).
There is a voiced video that goes with his note (https://youtu.be/8_RwEmCRjaI?list=PLl6xJtr2L04a7Jcu3Hfy4l2VTPm2i98iW).  If you'd like Stronger Clearer Modeled for you, please talk to Lisa Laurenz, Jamie Ditman or Jamie Martinson...there are some collegues who are also great at it like Alyssa and Carina at Blair.

Enjoy!!!

1. JEFF ZWIERS: Hello, again.
2. We looked at several ways
3. to model conversation skills.
4.  We take a closer look at ways
5. to support the development of conversation skills
6. and to effectively scaffold conversations and their skills.
7. We highly encourage you to take advantage
8. of the interaction-based activities
9. that you already use as ways to develop conversation
10. skills, particularly the skills of clarifying and supporting
11. ideas.
12. For example, many of you use think-pair-shares or turn
13. and talks.
14. Within these, instead of just having the listener nod
15. their head and offer eye contact,
16. have the listener ask a clarifier or support question
17. to the talker.
18. Or in jigsaws, have the home groups
19. ask clarifying support questions when the expert student is
20. sharing his or her information.
21. Similarly, in Gallery Walks, Socratic Seminars,
22. and group work, you can push students
23. to push themselves and each other
24. to clarify and support their ideas.
25. Get them into the habit, actually get
26. them addicted to seeking and giving clarity
27. and support whenever they interact.
28. And you can use the stronger and clearer
29. each time types of activities as well, a description of which
30. is coming up next.
31. This activity type is called the stronger and clearer each time.
32. In a nutshell, the procedure is as follows.
33. First, prompt students to come up with a response.
34. For example, have them solve a problem and explain their ideas
35. or answer an essential question.
36. Then have students meet with successive partners.
37. For each next partnership, they borrow and use
38. the language, ideas, and justifications
39. from previous partnerships.
40. The responses should get stronger, often longer, but not
41. always, with better supporting justifications and examples
42. and clearer with more precise terms and linked, organized,
43. and complete sentences.
44. And scaffolds are reduced during the activity, if there are any.
45. Here's an example from a middle school math lesson.
46. I only showed two successive partnerships,
47. but you can have three or more.
48. The teacher, in this case, has told students
49. that when they are listening, they need to ask at least one
50. clarify or support question to the talker.
51. The problem is Darla decides to buy a sports drink.
52. Her choices are a 20-ounce bottle for $1.49
53. or a 32-ounce bottle for $2.49.
54. Which is the better value?
55. Explain what you did to get your answer and why.
56. First, students have some time to work on the problem
57. and then they meet.
58. Her first partner shows up.
59. She says I think to draw it.
60. Then cut up to ounces of each thing.
61. Then he asks, what do you mean cut up to ounces?
62. And she says, I mean you cut up the ounces,
63. like 20 ounces and the $1.49 and see what for a dollar,
64. each one.
65. Now you go.
66. He says, I think we've got to find
67. like how much ounces like each ounce is.
68. I don't know how.
69. Why do you want to go so small like for one ounce?
70. He responds, because maybe it'll help, like the big bottle one
71. ounce costs something and the little one, one ounce costs
72. different.
73. Than the teacher says, take one or two word notes
74. and then switch partners.
75. Remember stronger and clearer next time.
76. If the students aren't reminded to craft stronger and clearer
77. ideas each time, they'll tend to say just the same thing
78. each time.
79. The second partner comes along and Sylvia
80. says I want to find how much a dollar can get, like of ounces.
81. So $1 is like 1 over 1.50, 2/3.
82. So I take 2/3 of it?
83. Notice how Sylvia's idea changed.
84. And her partner asks, why do you do for a dollar?
85. She says, because if I get more for a dollar for one
86. drink, that's better I think.
87. Now you.
88. He says, I kind of did that, but I did for one ounce, it's cost.
89. I did 1.49 over 20.
90. I think it's like 70.
91. And 32 over-- no, 2:49 over 32.
92. I didn't finish it.
93. And she asks, why did you do all that division?
94. And he says, because, I don't know, I tried adding it
95. and it didn't help.
96. And we've done lots of ratio stuff this week.
97. And you divide for ratio sometimes.
98. Now did you notice what a difference
99. the prompting for clarification and support made?
100. Any time students talk or listen to one another,
101. have them push each other and push themselves
102. for clarification and support.
103. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how this practice helps
104. their conversations.
105. Now we must also scaffold conversations and their skills.
106. One guideline to remember is to provide just enough support,
107. reducing it over time, while making sure
108. that nothing falls, meaning that students can still
109. engage in the learning.
110. Watch this award winning animation in which the building
111. represents student learning and the scaffolding represents,
112. well, our scaffolding.
114. Impressed?
115. Now, we're trying to build their independence in conversations
116. and trying to keep students from depending on us
117. for all things conversation.
118. Just as a real scaffold is used to support
119. the construction of a building, so should we
120. scaffold conversation skills.
121. There are a few ways to structure a conversation
122. work so that students build their skills over time.
123. We can structure the duration of the conversations and the time
124. for each turn, if needed.
125. We can structure turns with tokens,
126. for example, or by having certain partners begin or end
127. the conversation, or by using cards that reminds students
128. of the conversation turns, moves, or skills,
129. as you've seen in previous sessions.
130. And we can structure partners to be with certain other partners.
131. And we can have students have second and third conversations
132. without notes or supports.
133. We can have some students be observer/coaches
134. within a triad.
135. We can also scaffold conversations
136. with graphic organizers, charts, and other visuals.
137. And we can provide texts, two different ones to A and B
138. partners, as well as have them take notes or write
139. before or after conversations.
140. And we can provide language in the form
141. of sentence frames ever mindful, of course,
142. not to over sentence frame the five students.
143. Sentence frames need to help students, not bog them down.
145. Now, a helpful visual scaffold is a disciplinary thinking
146. lens.
147. It reminds students of the types of thinking that they should
148. use as they engage in constructive conversations
149. about a topic.
150. The topic goes in the center.
152. And there are six or so skills that go around the topic.
153. In this example, for history, the skills
154. are basics and background, causes, effects,
155. sourcing and corroborating, empathy and perspective,
156. and application.
157. Then there are the questions that students
158. pose related to the skills.
159. And they can answer them on the outside of the lens like so.
161. Any one of the thinking skills or questions
162. can nudge a conversation in a deeper direction.
163. A variety of holdable and movable things
164. can also scaffold effective talk.
165. In this picture, kindergarten students
166. were asked to discuss which rules at school
167. were meant for safety and which were meant
168. to help lessons run smoothly.
169. The rules had pictures with labels on separate cards.
170. Students discussed which side of the T-Chart rule went under.
171. Some actually fit into both.
172. Students took turns placing cards and asking each other why
173. it would go in a category.
174. Some even came up with their own examples.
175. In the following videos, and weeks,
176. challenge yourself to observe conversations
177. and how they are scaffolded and how they
178. might be better scaffolded.
179. Also think about how you might use
180. interaction-based activities to build
181. student habits of clarifying and supporting ideas and have fun.