This document outlines a training on building academic language across disciplines. It defines academic language as the oral and written language used for academic purposes and as the means for developing content understandings. The training covers examining common core language demands, identifying academic language features, and tools and strategies for supporting students. Specific topics discussed include defining vocabulary, language functions like analyze and compare, and language demands required for different disciplines. Strategies suggested for promoting academic language include explicitly teaching discipline-specific vocabulary, modeling general academic terms, and providing opportunities to practice language functions.

1. Building Academic Language
Across All Disciplines
Armida Colón, Lissa Jones, Gillian Wegener - Fall 2014

2. Agenda for Today
• Module 1 Building Academic Language
9:00-9:15 Break
• Module 2 ELD Standards’ Structure and Components
11:00-12:00 Lunch
• Module 3 Tools and Supports – IS4, differentiation, and more
• Module 4 Application – lesson design
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3. Module 1: Building Academic Language
Objectives
• Define academic language & discuss its importance
• Examine the CCSS academic language demands
• Identify features of academic language used across disciplines
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4. Academic Language: A Definition
• the language of the discipline that students need to learn and use to
participate and engage in meaningful ways in the content area
• the oral and written language used for academic purposes
• the means by which students develop and express content
understandings
Academic Language, edTPA,Hundley
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5. All teachers in every discipline, have reasons to
emphasize certain kinds of reading and writing over
others, depending on the nature of the specific
content and skills they want their students to learn. If
students are to succeed in the content areas, teachers
will need to demystify the reading and writing that go
on there.
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All teachers in every discipline, have reasons to
emphasize certain kinds of reading and writing
over others, depending on the nature of the specific
content and skills they want their students to learn. If
students are to succeed in the content areas, teachers
will need to demystify the reading and writing that
go on there.
Heller and Greenleaf, 2007

6. How are students in your
content area expected to
read, speak and write?
Image credit: iStockphoto found on Edutopia
What do you need to
demystify for students?
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7. Why is AL important?
It is the language of:
• curriculum, textbooks and assessments
• Literacy and higher order thinking
• explicit direct instruction
• college and professional careers
• CCSS
Johnson, 2012
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8. What are some language challenges for secondary students?
• Most content is new to them
• May become frustrated with content-specific terms and phrases
• New words, new meanings
• Fast-paced
• Conceptually difficult content
• Dense text
• Challenging demands of CCSS
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9. Language Demands of CCSS
“Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend
and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and
disciplines…can construct effective arguments and convey
intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are
able independently to discern a speaker’s key points, request
clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others’
ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been
understood.”
CCSS for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, pg. 7
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“Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and
evaluate complex texts across a range of types and
disciplines…can construct effective arguments and convey
intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are
able independently to discern a speaker’s key points, request
clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others’
ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been
understood.”

10. What are the biggest
language challenges
your students face today?
Image credit: iStockphoto found on Edutopia
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How will they be
supported to meet the
language demands of
the CCSS?

11. What do we want in Academic Language?
• Vocabulary
words students must know to comprehend the lesson
• Function
purposes for using the language
• Demand
ways language will be used to participate in the task and
demonstrate understanding
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12. Vocabulary: Bricks & Mortar
“Brick” words are the vocabulary specific to the content and the concepts
being taught.
 Explicitly taught
 Technical words such as: democracy, molecule, coefficient,
metaphor, algorithm, etc.
 Important for understanding the lesson
 Frequently in bold and defined in a textbook
“Mortar” words and phrases are the basic and general utility vocabulary
required for constructing sentences.
 Words that define and hold the bricks together
 General academic verbiage, such as: interpret, analyze, describe, exhibit, compare
 Words teachers most often believe students know
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Dutro, S. & Moran, C. (2003).

13. What are examples of BRICK
WORDS that are necessary for
your students to know today?
Image credit: iStockphoto found on Edutopia
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What strategies do you use to
promote the understanding and
use of the BRICK WORDS?

14. Functions
• The tasks or purposes AND uses of language
• Represented by the verb included in the learning objective
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Elem Literacy Interpret, Predict, Categorize, Compare/contrast, Retell,
Summarize, Explain
Math Compare/contrast, Conjecture, Describe, Explain, Prove
SS Analyze, compare/contrast, construct, describe, etc.
ELA Analyze, Argue, Describe, Explain, Evaluate, Interpret, etc.
Art Analyze, Compare/Contrast, Critique, Question, etc.
Science Analyze, Explain, Interpret, Justify with evidence
Sped Communication skills
Sample Language Functions edTPA

15. Identify one major
LANGUAGE FUNCTION and
share how students may
further develop that in class.
Image credit: iStockphoto found on Edutopia
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16. Demands
• Vary by discipline and language function
• Specific ways that academic language is used by students to demonstrate
their disciplinary understanding.
• Include receptive and productive language skills needed by the
student to engage in and complete the task successfully
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17. Tips, Tools and Opportunities for Promoting AL
• Use academic language yourself
• Expect/hold students accountable for using academic language
• Be intentional about the brick words (content-specific)
• Model use of the mortar words (general academic terms)
• Provide opportunities for language functions (e.g. analyze, sequence)
• Teach the writing related to the content area
• Technology, graphic organizers, sentence frames, write/discuss
activities, word walls, structured discussions, exit slips, etc.
A Quick Toolkit for Enhancing Academic Language in Physical Education
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18. Overarching Themes
Learning Environment
Ultimate Goals
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/cf/documents/chapter3sbeadopted.p1df8
ELA/ELD Framework Overview

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Key ideas from ELD Standards

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CA ELD Standards: The Big Picture

21. References
• A Primer on Academic Language for Art Teachers by Jennifer Childress, Assoc. Professor Art Education, the College of Saint
Rose, 2013
• A Quick Toolkit for Enhancing Academic Language in Physical Education, powerpoint by Phoebe Constantinou & Deborah
A. Wuest, Ithaca College
• Academic Language, edTPA, powerpoint by Melanie Hundley
• Academic Language: Definition and Examples, handout
• Academic Language: Understanding the Role of Academic Language within Literacy Development and its Implications for
the edTPA, powerpoint by JoAnn Cosentino, Emily Kang, May 2014
• Common Core State Standards: Academic Language in the Classroom, Eli R. Johnson, 2012
• Complex Academic Language, http://aldnetwork.org/academic-language
• Introduction to Academic Language, powerpoint by Susan Ranney, 2011
• Language for Achievement—A Framework for Academic English Language, WestEd, 2010
• Leveraging Academic Uses of Language to Foster EL Students’ Success with New Standards, powerpoint by Robert Linquanti,
2013
• Literacy Instruction in the Content Area, Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement, Rafael Heller and
Cynthia L. Greenleaf, 2007
• Preparing to teach academic language: edTPA frameworks and resources, Susan Ranney, 2013
• Rethinking English Language Instruction: An Architectural Approach, Susana Dutro and Carrol Moran, 2003
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