Transform your teaching approach with the unique insights of Laura Bryant, a seasoned dual language teacher hailing from Arizona, who firmly believes in the power of language as the cornerstone of all instruction. Prepare to be enlightened by her rich experiences and understand the profound impact of overlooking language in the classroom, especially in dual language settings. Laura also sheds light on the advantageous model of an extended school year punctuated by breaks, maximizing both student engagement and teacher refreshment.
Tune in to unravel Laura’s practical and effective strategies for teaching academic language through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Laura’s remarkable ability to guide students to harness all four language domains across diverse subjects, such as reading, math, science, and social studies, guarantees riveting discussion. Learn how the innovative use of carousel activities and context clues can dramatically enhance your students' vocabulary and their ability to integrate new words into their conversations. Lastly, don't miss our candid chat about the significance of social media in building networks among educators and eliciting valuable feedback on our podcast. Buckle up for an episode brimming with actionable takeaways that promise to redefine your educational approach.
Visit the Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Transform your teaching approach with the unique insights of Laura Bryant, a seasoned dual language teacher hailing from Arizona, who firmly believes in the power of language as the cornerstone of all instruction. Prepare to be enlightened by her rich experiences and understand the profound impact of overlooking language in the classroom, especially in dual language settings. Laura also sheds light on the advantageous model of an extended school year punctuated by breaks, maximizing both student engagement and teacher refreshment.
Tune in to unravel Laura’s practical and effective strategies for teaching academic language through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Laura’s remarkable ability to guide students to harness all four language domains across diverse subjects, such as reading, math, science, and social studies, guarantees riveting discussion. Learn how the innovative use of carousel activities and context clues can dramatically enhance your students' vocabulary and their ability to integrate new words into their conversations. Lastly, don't miss our candid chat about the significance of social media in building networks among educators and eliciting valuable feedback on our podcast. Buckle up for an episode brimming with actionable takeaways that promise to redefine your educational approach.
Visit the Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast, with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sarah Loveris here tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you, hey everyone. It's Sarah, and today we are joined by dual language teacher Laura in Arizona. Laura provides so many best practices and strategies that you can use with your students as you're thinking about teaching academic language, whether or not you're in a dual classroom or not. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Laura. Here it is, hey, laura, welcome. So great having you here today.
Speaker 2:Hi ladies, thank you for having me here today. I'm so excited to be here with you all, of course, so talk to us. What's on your mind? How's your year going? It's going great. Our school district is on extended break right now, which is amazing because we do have an extended school year. So I'm in a two week fall break and I'm loving it. This is our second year that our school district is doing this and that fall break is so much needed and I love it too.
Speaker 1:It's so nice to kind of just like close out the beginning of the year. Then, when you come back, I'm sure you feel like you're in the swing of things with your students, and I can see from your style that this break is very much needed. So I'm glad you have some time to yourself, yes, and you know what?
Speaker 2:It's interesting that you put it that way, because it is. It seems like we wrap up quarter one, then we walk right into quarter two, then winter break wrap that up, walk into quarter three, then spring break, wrap it up, and so we actually have our three extended breaks set up that way, and it's almost like wrapping up each quarter and the kids come back ready to learn, all of us are refreshed and it does make a difference, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's no, that that's not going to have those bookends at the end of each quarter. I know where. We know you're super active on social. We will link Laura's Instagram and the show notes. Everyone should go follow her so many best practices and strategies and tips that she shares. But I know you wanted to share something that you recently saw on social with us.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love social media. I think it's a great way to not only network but connect with other educators and just share different ideas. I interesting I came last night. I came across a quote on social media from another education Instagram account that says all educators are language educators. Language is central to all instruction. We cannot assume that presenting content to a student without being intentional in attending to academic language and meaning making is an effective means of teaching. And that just hit hard for me because, as a dual language educator, language is central to all of my instruction and I just loved it.
Speaker 1:Yes, so so true, and Laura recently wrote a blog, which we will also add in the show notes, about bridging content and academic language in a dual language classroom. But today, Laura, we'd love for you to focus on not just dual language classrooms. Why did that quote resonate with you? Talk to us about more, the part that really saddens me. Just all teachers are language teachers. I think it's safe to assume that teachers know that, but if you're teaching a different content area you're a high school math teacher or a fifth grade science teacher how does that?
Speaker 2:apply. Being a dual, we haven't experienced both dual language and general teaching. I've had so many students whether they're English language learners or not. If we don't explicitly teach that content, language students will struggle in the core subject and, just like how the quote says, language is a is central to all instruction and we can't assume that presenting content to any student without being intentional in attending to academic language and that's, of course, right there, the academic language.
Speaker 2:As a teacher do. We often ask ourselves are we teaching academic language? Are we just going straight into concepts and skills and forgetting about the academic language and then when we present the concept or the skill and the student isn't getting it or they get an activity with that academic language and they don't understand it. You know, going back, were we central to that instruction, to that academic language where we provided students meaning making opportunities not just in concepts and skills but also the language and to me as an educator, being both bilingual and bioliterate, providing those opportunities where they make meaning with the academic language. It's an effective means of instruction and teaching for all students.
Speaker 1:Yes, so so true and so important. What are some ways that whether or not they're dual language or you know not that the teachers can kind of take this to heart and what? What do you have any strategies or tips that they can use to make meaning of that academic language for their students?
Speaker 2:Yes, I believe that every teacher, whether you're middle school, high school content, let's just say you're just focusing on a specific subject area, that say, science or social studies what are we doing to teach that academic language, to provide upper middle linguistic opportunities for students to make connections and understand what they're reading, not only when they're reading, but are we providing opportunities for students to I like to think of it of the four of the four language domains Speaking, listening, reading and writing what opportunities are we given our students to be able to listen to content language, speak and use the content language, then read and write about it? Oftentimes, as teachers, we jump right into the reading and writing aspect of it and we've never given students opportunities to actually use it or even just listen to it. So how are we providing those listening, speaking, reading and writing opportunities before we delve or jump right into reading and writing about it? Think of it as when you're a child, when you're first born. No one's born reading and writing, we. As an infant, you're first listening to all the sounds around you and then you mimic the sounds, which is the speaking aspect of it, and then, once you go into school, you learn how to read and write.
Speaker 2:But then it's the same with whatever content area you're teaching, whether it's reading, math, science or social studies, they each have their own academic language that students do not have in their background.
Speaker 2:We don't, we don't come into school using all those words in science or social studies or even math. We think they're, especially, I believe, when they, when you reach the middle school and high school level, there's this kind of naive conception that, oh well, students should already know. But I disagree. You know, yes, we should know, but I disagree because the content does go deeper. The older you get or the higher you go into a grade level and it is used different. In the primary grades you're just speaking and listening with the vocabulary words, with the content language. Probably by the time you get to third, fourth, fifth grade, you're reading and writing about it. But then I would like to think that by the time you reach middle school and high school, you're doing all four with the vocabulary words, with the content language. And what opportunities again, are we providing students to use those four language domains in our lesson planning?
Speaker 1:Thank you for breaking that down. I'm curious in terms of the two that you said are often missing, especially from older levels. So the listening and the speaking. Can you talk about how, just logistically, that would work in a classroom? So say, I'm teaching science and there's a new word, how do you get your kids to say it? Are you having them turn and talk? Do they say it together? Do you have different strategies? I know this is like very one on one, I'm just thinking, if there are teachers listening here who want to test this out, what does it actually look like in a classroom setting to get kids to be able to practice both the listening and the speaking part?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I deal with science every time I teach science or social studies, I put it into perspective. Remember the reading strategy that we're learning about in reading, for example, informational text. Okay, what is informational text? Informational text, what are the has text features. What type of text features does it have? So, whatever reading strategy we're learning about in reading, I explicitly tell students that strategy can be applied and transferred into science and social studies. So as we read our article today, I want you to think about the strategies that you're learning to use to analyze text, understand context clues, because we're going to do that in science as well. But even before we go into that aspect of it, we have a vocabulary words in science, our content language in science. I start using it and I just start talking about it. And once I start talking about it and make it part of my vocabulary as a teacher, I will. A strategy that I use in a dual language classroom that I believe could also be used in a regular ed classroom is what do you guys think the meaning of these words are? So then I do this thing called carousel and there's about, let's say, select five vocabulary words in that content for science, whether we're learning about rock formations or the lifecycle or social group behavior, whatever my five vocabulary words are. I will write one and an anchor chart and then I play music and when the music stops, students walk around. They stop on a chart and they write what kind of like a KWL chart. What do you think this word means? And it's whatever color, for example, what we think. Everybody will have a red marker or a red crayon or a red colored pencil, because red is. This is what I think this word means. But they've heard me for the past day or so of instruction. The last two days they've heard me using just the words. I don't get, I don't front load them, I just talk and use the words. And once in a while I have a student. What does that mean? And I will give an example, but not but not the exact definition. So they do carousel and then they'll have a turn. Okay, that's what you guys think it means. So then they get into groups. For the next activity, they get into partners. I randomly select partners using class dojo or some kind of random internet. For me I prefer class dojo because I'm an elementary teacher and class dojo has that toolmaker and they'll get into partners and as partners they will look at the definition, not in a dictionary, using context clues and the article that they read. Why context clues? Because that is the strategy that we're learning in reading, got it? Yep? So see how I didn't have to teach context clues in science because I'm teaching that in reading.
Speaker 2:So now they're transferring their context clues strategy how to identify a word or the meaning of a word using context clues from reading and they're transferring that skill to science. And so, using context clues from their article, they will change now to blue, for example. Now you're going to get a blue client or a blue marker or blue, something blue, because now you're using context clues to identify the meaning of the vocabulary words. And then again we do carousel, but this time they're doing carousel with their partners and whatever definition they wrote based on the context clues from the article, as the partners you know, see the speaking and listening to each other right there. But in a way they're also reading and writing. They walk around and they write in that anchor chart their definition based on what the context clues was.
Speaker 2:So that's two parts, two activities right there, two different. It's the same lesson but two different activities to acquire and teach that academic language or the language instruction. Once we've done those two parts, then we go and walk and we are now at a museum. They're going to walk around and read others definitions and if they had a similar definition or a similar understanding of the word, they're going to get now a yellow crayon, marker or pencil and they're going to put a star next to the one that was very similar to theirs. Because, again, we want to compare and contrast. And if we're not, if we don't understand what the word means, is that okay? Yes, you want to see, you want to give them opportunities to see if they were the same or different as somebody else, because, again, you're indirectly teaching, comparing and contrasting. So then, once they do that one, then we choose, for example, purple, and purple will be our actual definition.
Speaker 2:So now, using a dictionary, either online or an actual dictionary or the glossary at the end of the book, in the inner science textbook then they go and write the actual definition and by this time they're already like in groups. So now I have four, because it's only have five anchor charts Now, for students are coming together with their own understanding. They've been provided with the speaking and listening activities. They've talked about it, they've read about it context clues. Now they're in groups of four.
Speaker 2:For example, you have 20 students, so now you have four students together working to find the actual definition of the content or the academic language, and then they walk. Once they find it, they go to that chart and they have to work collaboratively and write that definition on the anchor chart. And so now I've given them an opportunity to talk, listen, read and write about content, language or even, in this case, academic language, because sometimes we also, again, every student should know what compare and contrast means, or every student should know what context clues means. But do they Right, especially at the high school level? Think about newcomers that you have at the middle school and high school level that are trying to make those connections with the English language, and what opportunities are we providing for students to make connections with language and the foreign language domains? So that would be one strategy that I use with the students.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing all of that. I'm sure that was extraordinarily helpful for our listeners. It's just so powerful the way you build upon the skills they're learning in reading and writing. You're having them talk to each other. You're activating their prior knowledge. It's seeing you talk about it in light up too.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing all that, and I'm sure everyone is excited to go and try this. No matter what grade level, you teach right. Hopefully it made sense. No, no, it definitely made sense. And just thinking about how many extra ac bats they have by working together because they're talking about it together, they're having the opportunity to do all of those same processes that you talked about, from informational reading, using context clues, compare and contrast. So thank you so much, laura. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have for today, but we appreciate you For everyone listening. We will link Laura's blog, like I mentioned earlier in the show notes. Thank you so much, laura. Great seeing you. I'm inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on Twitter at curriculumassoch, and on Instagram at myirety. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or want to be a guest email extraordinaryeducatorsatcainccom. Subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators like you, join the conversation. Please leave a review.
Speaker 3:Be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Editing by Whiteboard Geeks, social media by Atstie Hannan, guest booking by Sarri LaBeurice. Production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is copyright, material and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.