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Content Type: 1
Title: Article: Cutting to the Common Core: The Benefits of Narrow Reading Units
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From http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=47231
Cutting to the Common Core: The Benefits of Narrow Reading Units
by Kate Kinsella
I provide consultancy and professional development for districts across the nation that are striving to support English learners and under-resourced students in making viable academic language and literacy advances. I am observing with increasing concern as well-intended English language arts educators in grades 4-12 cobble together units of study in hopes of addressing the complex demands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) in time for the impending doom of the proverbial “cart before the horse” assessment debacle. Their legacy curriculum was not created to mentor English acolytes in systematic analysis of content-rich nonfiction, a range of rigorous text-reliant discussions using academic register, and argumentative writing drawing from multiple sources, all major emphases in the CCSS shifts.
With Next Generation assessments looming on the horizon, earnest English language arts educators are therefore teaching five days a week while also scrambling to locate appropriate reading selections, write depth-of-knowledge questions, and create text-dependent writing prompts and anchor papers — essentially building the airplane while they fly it — with scant time for reflection on pedagogy or revision of materials. I am routinely asked to review and bless ill-fated thematic units, compiled in lieu of an adopted and classroom-tested CCSS-aligned curriculum. Theme-based units have for decades been the curricular mainstay of elementary and secondary English language arts. While there are intuitive and evidence-based justifications for organizing upper-grades reading and writing coursework around unifying themes, the traditional approach to literary thematic unit development warrants reconsideration in light of the close informational reading and data-driven response demands posed by the CCSS shifts.
Read on to learn the merits of narrow reading at http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=47231
Source: Language Magazine
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:14:41
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Publishdate: 2014-04-28 02:15:02
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Title: Essential Actions: 15 Research-based Practices to Increase EL Student Achievement
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From http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/61084
Essential Actions: 15 Research-based Practices to Increase EL Student Achievement
by Kristina Robertson
In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Bright Ideas author Kristina Robertson offers an overview of WIDA's Essential Actions handbook and shares a step-by-step process for using this valuable tool as part of a professional learning community focused meeting ELLs' academic language needs.
Read the article at http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/61084
Access the WIDA handbook at http://wida.us/standards/eld.aspx
Source: Colorín Colorado
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:15:53
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Title: ELL Resources for National Poetry Month
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From http://www.colorincolorado.org
April is National Poetry Month. Colorín Colorado has assembled some resources for English language learners at http://www.colorincolorado.org/calendar/celebrations/poetry
Source: Colorín Colorado
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:16:41
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Title: Use Instagram To Keep Your Students Up-To-Date
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Our Activity of the Week this week gets your students set up to use Instagram. Coincidentally, here is an April 24th blog post from a teacher who uses Instagram to make a record of the day’s objectives and activities for her students: http://sraspanglish.blogspot.com/2014/04/daily-instagram-updates.html
Source: Señora Spanglish Rides Again
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:17:30
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Publishdate: 2014-04-28 02:15:02
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Content Type: 1
Title: Article: Integrating Content and Language
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From http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=47991
Integrating Content and Language
by Tania Ruiz
Similar to other bilingual education methods, the CLIL methodology (content and language integrated learning) is considered a model of good practice in Europe. It has been adopted by a large number of infant and primary schools in Spain, such as schools in the Bilingual Project in Madrid. CLIL is a form of dual-focused learning where emphasis is both on content and on language. Teachers plan their lessons with two sets of objectives, one regarding content and one regarding language. When we talk about CLIL, we’re talking about a new construct of what the curriculum looks like in modern education and how it needs to be implemented.
Read more about CLIL and educators’ impressions of it at http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=47991
Source: Language Magazine
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:18:26
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Title: World Cup 2014 Resources
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From http://lightbulblanguages.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-cup-2014-resources.html
Here are some resources for the 2014 World Cup from Light Bulb Languages. Most of the resources at this point are for Spanish and French, but more are being added: http://www.lightbulblanguages.co.uk/resources-worldcup2014.htm
Source: Light Bulb Languages
Inputdate: 2014-04-26 18:19:12
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Publishdate: 2014-04-28 02:15:02
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Content Type: 1
Title: Book: Integration of Theory and Practice in CLIL
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From http://www.rodopi.nl/senj.asp?BookId=USLC+28
Integration of theory and practice in CLIL.
Edited by Ruth Breeze, Carmen Llamas Saíz, Concepción Martínez Pasamar, and Cristina Tabernero Sala
Published by Rodopi
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has now become a feature of education in Europe from primary school to university level. CLIL programs are intended to integrate language and content learning in a process of mutual enrichment. Yet there is little consensus as to how this is to be achieved, or how the outcomes of such programs should be measured. It is evident that a further type of integration is required: that of bringing the practice of CLIL into closer contact with the theory. In this, it is necessary to establish the role played by other fundamental aspects of the learning process, including learner and teacher perspectives, learning strategies, task design and general pedagogical approaches. The first part of this book provides a variety of theoretical approaches to the question of what integration means in CLIL, addressing key skills and competences that are taught and learned in CLIL classrooms, and exploring the role of content and language teachers in achieving an integrated syllabus. The second part takes specific cases and experimental studies conducted at different educational levels and analyses them in the light of theoretical considerations.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.rodopi.nl/senj.asp?BookId=USLC+28
Source: Rodopi
Inputdate: 2014-05-02 09:39:04
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Publishdate: 2014-05-05 02:15:01
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Title: Call for Papers: Washington, DC Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Fall Convention
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From http://www.watesolassociation.org/news
The Washington, DC Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Fall Convention invites proposals for presentations and workshops for the annual Fall Convention, to take place October 18, 2014. Proposals are welcomed from teachers, teacher educators, researchers, program administrators, materials and curriculum developers, graduate students, and other professionals in the fields related to English as a second/foreign language education and advocacy for English language learners and their teachers.
Proposals are due June 16, 2014.
For more details go to http://www.watesolassociation.org/news
Source: WATESOL
Inputdate: 2014-05-02 09:40:33
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Expdate: 2014-06-16 00:00:00
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Title: 34th Annual Siouan and Caddoan Languages Conference
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From http://www.laksummerinst.com/33rd-siouan-and-caddoan-languages-conference
The 34th Annual Siouan and Caddoan Languages Conference will take place at:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
May 23-25, 2014
The Siouan and Caddoan Languages Conference is for anyone interested in the languages of the Siouan and Caddoan linguistic families.
For more information go to http://www.laksummerinst.com/33rd-siouan-and-caddoan-languages-conference
Source: Lakota Summer Institute
Inputdate: 2014-05-02 09:41:26
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Expdate: 2014-05-25 00:00:00
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Title: Conference on Central Asian Languages and Linguistics
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From http://www.iub.edu/~celcar/ConCALL2014
This spring, the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) will be hosting the first ever Conference on Central Asian Languages and Linguistics (ConCALL) at Indiana University during the weekend of May 16 & 17.
This first annual ConCALL is being established as a professional development conference for linguists and language educators specializing in the languages of the Central Asian region, including both the Altaic and Eastern Indo-European languages spoken in the region, a diverse range of languages such as Azerbaijani, Dari, Kazakh, Mongolian, Pashto, Persian, Tajiki, Tibetan, Turkish, Tuvan, Uyghur, Uzbek, and more!
The goal of the conference is to bring together professionals across the fields to focus on research into how these specific languages are represented formally, as well as acquired by second/foreign language learners and also to present research driven teaching methods.
The theme of this first annual conference is “Building a Bond: Strengthening the Central Asian Language Community.”
Visit the conference website at http://www.iub.edu/~celcar/ConCALL2014
Source: Indiana University Bloomington
Inputdate: 2014-05-02 09:42:40
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