Session 2: Deepening Understanding of TELL Conceptual Tools

In this session teachers will participate in a series of Centers (an MSDLA). You will need to be prepared to explain how this works. This is important practice because while they have engaged in MSDLAs in other courses, the major project for this course is to design an MSDLA to enact in their own classroom. Further they will also develop a single center to teach one of the chapters (2-9) from Making Content Comprehensible in session 6 which will be enacted in session 7.

LA 2.1 (10 min): Sharing My Learning and Professional Development This is the shower of ideas again, this time around Contextualization from Standards for Effective Pedagogy. Write their comments so all can see. 

LA 2.2 (35 min): Presentation on SEP—Contextualization The group you met with at the end of session 1 has 35 minutes to make their presentation to the class. Everyone should take notes on the presentation to keep to refer to. They need to answer the question, How can I contextualize in my MSDLAs so all learners have access. This could be written or as a discussion after the presentation—especially if the 35 minutes weren’t filled. 

LA 2.3: (10 min) Demonstrating Setting Up Activity Centers You will be using activity centers to remind teachers about what MSDLAs are. You will need to fill out the rotation chart and give each person a copy of their own, and they will have worked with everyone in the class by the end of the centers. The center instructions are found in LA 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8. Explain the instructions now and make a student task card for directions at each table and have all materials needed available at each center. The directions for each center is listed below as well as in the learning activity for each center.  

LA 2.4 (15 min) : Center 1: Designing Activity Center 1—the Teacher Center Here you will review with teachers at the center as an instructional conversation the booklet they read and took notes on for homework. Ask questions to help them articulate the information they read. They should be able to describe how the roles and responsibilities of teacher and student shift from one phase to the next phase. Click on the link called Models of Classroom Organization and help them to determine how the organization shifts from one phase to the next. (as is explained a bit in the HW 1.5 information above in this document. Make a list of questions for you to ask so when you need to think of something, you have ideas in front of you. Be sure you point out to them that the 5 centers need to be based on JPA, CTX, CA and IC because LLD should occur in all the centers in order to complete them.  

LA 2.5 (15 min) : Activity Center Planning Web—Center 2 Teachers at this center need to click on the link to the Activity Center Planning Web. They need to discuss it together, and you could provide them with a guide for this so they notice the opening and closing, and on the left side between these two they should notice exactly what goes on each line in every center of the web: there is a box for the title and then each line needs to be filled in as to: 1. Activities; 2. Product; 3. Standards (JPA, LLD, CTX, CA, IC); and 4. Assessment. Remind them that the SEP standards in each activity should not be LLD, because LLD should be happening at each center. They need to consider what they are thinking of for their MSDLAs and come up with something for each center, and then they should fill in the planning web in pencil, so they can change their minds as they move through the sessions. 

LA 2.6 (15 min) : Exploring MetaGoals and MetaStrategies for Standards for Effective Pedagogy—Center 3 Teachers have engaged in this activity before in their foundations class. (We are using what we label strategic redundancy to deepen their knowledge--you might explain that).They engage in this activity again to have them consider again how the strategies JPA, CTX, and IC enable their ability to meet the goals of CC (Cognitive Challenge) and LLD (Language and Literacy Development). In the Matrix found at the link they will fill in their ideas about how using the strategies in their teaching enables them to meet the goals. Then they look at the glossary and the SPC-T chart to evaluate teaching in your work with ELs. Then they need to answer how thinking of these in this way supports their own instructional decisions.  

LA 2.7 (15 min) : Consider Materials for Your MSDLAs—Center 4 For this activity, they need to get the note sheet from the link. The sheet has spaces for each person at the center to share their content and they can give each other ideas for their MSDLAs. They record the information for each person at the center. It focuses particularly on contextualization for their MSDLAs so they can get help with that. 

LA 2.8 (15 min) : Text and Vocabulary Issues in MSDLAs—Center 5 Each person in the group takes one of the sections in the article on text modification by Mary Rice to study. They share with the group what they learned. Then they identify the text(s) they want to use in their centers, and they could be digital or other media as well. They jot down ideas for adjusting them to better serve their students’ learning needs. They can consider together the ideas from the article that would help them to modify text. 

LA 2.9 (25 min): Learning from Vocabulary Research In groups of 4, teachers read the article entitled Overview of Vocabulary Research. Click on the link for it. Person 1 reads the first 2 points; number 2 reads the second two points; number 3 reads the fifth point; and the last person reads the sixth point. They should also click on the note sheet to they can report their part to the group. Then they look at the glossary page in that link. Try to understand what each means, but they should pay special attention to corpus, tokens/types, word families, and the 2 kinds of density listed there. This sets them up to read a corpus study in homework for this week. Most elementary teachers think of word families as: bat, cat, mat, etc. But linguists consider word families differently: Example—happy, unhappy, happiness, unhappiness happier, happiest, etc. So they need to consider prefixes and suffixes. Another example: leaf, leaves, leafy, leafier, leafiest. One more: port, import, export, important, importantly, report, reporter, reports. 

LA 2X; Consulting with Facilitator on Presentation—Language and Literacy Development (LLD) Just the same as last week, only they will be presenting on Language and Literacy Development. Meet with them to be sure they are on track and remind them that they have 40 minutes.  

HW 2.1: Reflection on My Practice in Developing ELs Content and Language Proficiency This reflection is based on a VideoEthnography they watched last week. They need to identify an activity in which they already contextualizing or one which they could modify to better contextualize. They follow the directions in the activity to complete their reflection. Remind them how each reflection is worth 50 points. 

HW 2.2: Learning Teaching through multi-media Cases and Expert Perspectives Each person needs to choose the teacher they want to watch to learn more about SEP and El instruction. The one they select should be the one they study for all of the SEP standards. The teachers are listed in the learning activity instructions by name and teaching assignment. The one they watch for this homework should be the one they watch each time. They are Shari Galarza, Lucie Villareal, Craig Cleveland, and Mara Mills. Be sure to advise them of their choice as it will come up over the next 4 sessions. Once they have selected the teacher they need to get the Language and Literacy Development worksheet linked in number 2. In number 3 they are told there are 2 columns in the chart—one to record observations of the study and listening or reading the perspectives across the top of the study for each prompt. Under the chart they write three ahas relating to their own practice. They need to bring the notes to class next week. 

HW 2.3: Gaining an Understanding of Making Content Comprehensible When they click on the link Ch. 3 and 4, they will have the note sheet they need to take notes with as they read ch. 3 and 4 of SIOP: Making Content Comprehensible. They will submit the note sheet to you next week. They also need to be prepared to share with their colleagues in their group a new learning from the reading. 

HW 2.4: Learning from Corpus Studies Prior to leaving class in session 2, you need to assign each person one of the corpus studies: social studies, science, math, and language arts. They will need the glossary from LA 2.9 to refer to as they read their study. They need to take notes on the note sheet. They need to bring the completed note sheet with them to the next class.  

HW 2.5: Identifying Texts for Your MSDLAs All they need to do for this one is identify the test(s) and/or readings they will use in their MSDLAs, and they need to bring them to session 3. 

HW 2.6: Deepening Knowledge for Promoting Academic Vocabulary They need to watch the video, and the directions for getting to it are located in the homework activity. They watch it and take notes on things that speak to them or resounds with their thinking. Then they read the Paul Nations article on vocabulary, located at that link in the directions. They take notes on each of the three topics to build understanding. It is a short reminder of the vocabulary activity in the literacy course prior to this one, so it should be familiar, and they need to attend to form, meaning and use from the TELL tool for this course. Remind them to bring both sets of notes to class.  

This content is provided to you freely by Equity Press.

Access it online or download it at https://equitypress.org/tell_facilitator_guide/session_2f.