home

=Academic Literacy =

Selecting Texts for Instructional Purposes
Content standards, high-stakes exams, and administrative pressures greatly influence curricular decisions in secondary education. Since schools depend on students performing well on state and local tests, we educators are asked do our very best to prepare students for such exams and make every effort to cover the standards our students will need to know. In addition to the state and local exams, we are responsible for preparing students for college aptitude tests and college entrance exams. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the skills needed to pass these exams will prepare students for rigorous academic environments in both secondary and post-secondary education. So what are we to do? In order to raise scores and increase student achievement, we must develop in students the ability to read challenging texts and write about and discuss the material with high levels of competence. Selecting texts for specific instructional purposes will create opportunities for teachers to explicitly teach academic literacy skills. When selecting texts for students to read, it is important to consider more than just the content or topic. When we select a text for our students to read, we are looking for a text that lends itself well to the teaching of specific reading strategies or other academic skills. As students gain deep understanding of reading strategies, they will begin to apply these skills to their reading. The acquisition and application of these skills will result in greater comprehension of challenging texts, ultimately increasing students’ ability to learn and retain core content.

When selecting a text for instructional purposes, choose a text that…
Tier 1 (Skill-based Instruction)
 * lends itself well to the teaching of specific reading strategies or other academic skills.
 * offers opportunities for students to rehearse or assess specific reading strategies.
 * expands students’ understanding of how language and or text structures influence meaning.
 * presents visual arguments.

Tier 2 (Relevancy and Motivation) 
 * relates to the course objectives/ learning outcomes.
 * develops or extends course concepts.
 * illustrates effective, sophisticated writing.
 * challenges students both linguistically and cognitively.
 * develops students’ cultural literacy.

Set and Maintain High Expectations for Academic Speaking
One way to improve students’ ability to write academically is to have them practice speaking academically. Kate Kinsella writes in her presentation “Bolstering Language Proficiency and Learner Engagement through Structured Academic Interaction” that English learners and native speakers alike are not “prepared linguistically or held accountable for contributing” to the classroom discussion. Kinsella contends that purposeful, well-structured academic discussions are a “significant factor in academic language development” and that “students need daily orchestrated opportunities across subject areas to justify, describe, clarify meaning, summarize, negotiate and reword.”

When supporting students’ academic language development, consider utilizing some or all of the following strategies.
Set Expectations for Task Completion
 * State the objective, both verbally and in writing
 * Set the context (Why are we doing this? Why does this matter?)
 * Establish procedures
 * Establish clear expectations for thinking, speaking, and writing
 * Articulate what you expect students to learn and know after completing the lesson
 * Hold students accountable for learning the material

Provide Linguistic Support
 * Model an academic response, both verbally and in writing
 * Write starter sentences on the whiteboard and have students use them when speaking to others in the class
 * Provide a list of verbs that students should use while forming academic sentences
 * Provide a word bank that contains lesson specific academic vocabulary that students should be using while engaging in class discussions

Allow Time for Thinking and Rehearsing
 * Pose a question to the entire class and give students time to think of appropriate ways to respond
 * Allow students to rehearse academic talk with partners and in writing before completing the task

Engage students in academic discussions that ask them to...
 * Summarize what has been read or what someone has said
 * Paraphrase ideas that have been read
 * Account for a process
 * Synthesize ideas presented in texts
 * Make predictions
 * Provide backing for a particular viewpoint