sentence frames from two perspectives
DESCRIPTION
While teaching ESL in pull-out and collaborative settings at the high school level, we realized that our students were struggling to incorporate academic language into their own speech and writing. This struggle led to a high incidence of copying and plagiarism. To address the challenge, we turned to strategies we’re often encouraged to use to help students increase their production, especially sentence frames. However, we began to question whether our sentence frames were actually helping students learn and produce academic language independently, or were simply making it easier for our students to complete tasks. We designed an action research project to explore how we could apply the work of researchers like Jeff Zwiers and William and Pérsida Himmele to use sentence frames more creatively and intentionally to guide our students toward greater proficiency. In this presentation, we will share the process we used to establish consistent expectations for student production in speaking and writing at all WIDA levels, and the sentence frames we developed to scaffold students so that they could meet those expectations. We will share examples of student work related to paragraph writing, academic conversations, and responding to text. In addition, we surveyed our students to learn how they feel about using sentence frames, and we will use the results of that survey to frame a discussion among our colleagues about best practices and how we might incorporate more student input into the strategies we use in our classrooms in order to best meet their needs. Presented at MinneTESOL, WITESOL, and MDE Bilingual, Migrant, and ESL Conferences by Laura Byard and Ina Ziegler.TRANSCRIPT
SENTENCE FRAMES FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES
Laura Byard and Ina ZieglerMinneapolis Public Schools
Find our presentation online
http://www.slideshare.net/MsLauraB/sentence-frames-from-two-perspectives
Who are we?
• Laura• Anne Sullivan
Communication Center• Grades 6-8• WIDA Levels 1-5• Stand alone for levels
1-2• Co-teach social studies
for levels 1-5
• Ina• Edison High School• Grades 9-12• WIDA Levels 1-5• Stand alone for level 1
and levels 4-5• Co-teach ELA 9 for
levels 4-5• Co-teach chemistry for
levels 1-3
Who are you?• Name• School• Grade level• WIDA levels• Why did you choose this session?
Action Research: What was our context?
•First year at Edison High School•Grades 9-12•WIDA Levels 1-5•Stand alone classes: Level 1 and Level 2•Co-teaching: ELA 9, ELA 10, Biology
Action Research: What was our context?
• Challenges we encountered:• Students weren’t producing very much language in writing, especially
academic language.• Students were focused on completing tasks and getting points, but didn’t
have the language to express their own ideas.• This led to an epidemic of copying and plagiarism, from level 1 to level 5.• Students also weren’t participating in discussions, especially their
content classes.
What challenges do you see in your context?
Action Research: What do we know?Students learn by producing and experimenting with language.
We see our students as
“speakers/hearers involved in developmental processes which are realised in interaction.”
(Ohta, 2000)
Action Research: What do we know?• Sentence frames can help students! Student response
without a sentence frame:
Action Research: What do we know?• Sentence frames can help students! Student response
with the sentence frame “I know _____ because ______”:
Action Research: Guiding Questions How can we help students increase meaningful output in order
to go beyond completing tasks, and learn and grow? What is the purpose of using sentence frames? Do students
know this purpose? What is the students’ responsibility in using a sentence frame?
What is our responsibility? How can we create academic language sentence frames that
are general enough to be used in multiple contexts? Do we choose sentence frames and teach them in a way that
allows students to own them and produce them independently in the future?
Sentence Frames: Questions
Appendix A
PCG’s Center for Resource Management (2008)
Sentence Frames: Questions
Sentence Frames: Questions
How is panhandling related to living in the streets?
What would you recommend to a panhandler to do to get back on top and on their feet?
How would you improve legal support for homeless people to fight back against panhandling bans?
Student Led Discussion
Sentence Frames: Talking Chips
Zwiers (2008)
Sentence Frames: Prediction Cafe• Sentence frames• Multiple modalities• Interaction
• Zwiers (2008).• Rojas (2009).
Sentence Frames: Paragraph Writing
Addressing students’ individual needs through writing conferences
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/paragraph.html
Sentence Frames: Paragraph Writing
Addressing students’ individual needs through writing conferences
Perspective 1: Teachers
•We noticed . . . • Increased production in writing• Increased production in speaking•Higher quality work• Increased use of academic language
Student Example: BiologyPrompt: Explain how the different parts of a neuron work together to send messages to cells.
Perspective 2: Students
•We wanted to know what they think . . .•And they wanted to tell us!•Survey & Survey Results – Appendix E
Perspective 2: Students
Sente
nce
fram
es h
elp m
e fe
el m
ore
com
forta
ble s
peak
ing in
clas
s.
Sente
nce
fram
es g
ive m
e ide
as fo
r thin
gs to
say
.
Sente
nce
fram
es g
ives
me
ideas
for t
hings
to w
rite.
Sente
nce
fram
es lim
it ho
w I ex
pres
s m
y ide
as.
Sente
nce
fram
es h
elp m
e to
writ
e m
ore.
I use
sen
tenc
e fra
mes
from
Eng
lish
class
to h
elp m
e in
othe
r clas
ses.
I wou
ld lik
e m
ore
oppo
rtunit
ies to
help
the
teac
her m
ake
sent
ence
fram
es fo
r the
clas
s.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
STUDENTS WANT TO BE ACTIVE PARTNERS IN
THEIR OWN LEARNING.
What next?
• Increase student ownership and participation• More opportunities for students to create sentence frames
• Remove scaffolds over the course of the year• More opportunities to reflect with students and evaluate purpose and effectiveness of learning tools - TOGETHER
Sentence Frames: Discussion Questions? Comments? What is the purpose of using sentence frames? Do students
know this purpose? What is the students’ responsibility in using a sentence frame?
What is our responsibility? How can we create academic language sentence frames that
are general enough to be used in multiple contexts? Do we choose sentence frames and teach them in a way that
allows students to own them and produce them independently in the future?
Thank you!• Please complete the feedback form in the back of your packet –
tear it off and turn it in.
• We would love to continue the conversation:• Laura Byard – [email protected]• Ina Ziegler – [email protected]
Works Cited• Ohta, A. (2000). Rethinking interaction in SLA: Developmentally appropriate
assistance in the zone of proximal development and the acquisition of L2 grammar. InJ. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp.51-78). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• PCG Center for Resource Management. <http://www.pcgus.com>• Rojas, V. (2009). Increasing language proficiency and academic achievement of
English learners. Retrieved from Workshop Notes online website:<http://api.ning.com/files/7s5iv-a8*izGoS5gSFNr1p73tIa4wfM7wAl-HEgpikrb-dm3FgkHlosgVm46wGCgr2mLCgMD8j9F-11JknUms76PgSE4S-gu/Rojas2dayhandout.pdf>.• Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content
classrooms, grades 5-12. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.