Title: Building Academic
Language:Essential Practices for Content Classrooms, Grades 5-12
Author: Jeff Zwiers
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Date: 2007
ISBN: 978-0787987619
Pages: 320
In the past, a
good teacher was one who had solid content knowledge and an
understanding of pedagogy (the techniques used to teach). However,
recently there has been a focus on instructional use of language and
how the use of academic language can enhance or restrict student
opportunity to engage with content knowledge and ultimately,
determine success in school. In addition, the soon to be mandatory
Teacher Performance Assessment (for pre-service teacher
certification) has a strong focus on the development of student
academic language. All of this has made me consider my own use and planning for the use
of academic language in the courses I teach – for K-12,
undergraduate and graduate. How have I identified and planned for
the language demands of each of the content areas I teach? This
question led me to pick up Jeff Zwiers' book.
Students come to
school with different social and linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
In other words, the “ways of being” - the ways of thinking,
determining values, use of language, use of body language and space,
personal style and preferences etc – that the student grows up with
produced different ways of interacting with the word. Like currency,
some ways of being are more valued than others – and this is very
evident in schools. Academic language and ways of being in school
tend to match the white middle class culture and capital better than
other social, economic and racial groups. There is often a mismatch
of home and school cultures and if the student's home culture is not
values, this can produce anger, frustration and eventual alienation
of the student. Therefore, it is important for teachers to recognize
their own social and linguistic capital and the assumptions they make
about their students' capital – which may not match their own.
When recognizing that school culture and academic language are one of
the keys to success, teacher need to both value and challenge
the knowledge and language students bring to school.
Academic language
is not just particular vocabulary, but it includes the functions and
features of language, according to Zwiers. Functions include
describing complexity, higher-order thinking and abstraction. The
features of language that allows it to function include figurative
expressions, being explicit for distant audiences, using models,
qualifiers, and intonation. The grammar of academic language also
differs significantly from everyday language. Therefore, teachers
need to model and scaffold academic language and thinking in ways
that encourage students to use and make the language and thinking
their own. Each subject area and discipline has it own particular
ways of thinking and speaking, so it can't just be the English
teacher's job! When teaching history, the teacher needs to be
explicit about how to think, speak and write like a historian et cetera.
Discussion is a way for students to
work with information and knowledge (Mercer, 2000) in ways that allow
them to manipulate and make it their own. However, deep and
productive discussions in classrooms need thoughtful planning and
awareness of the academic language demands. Supports need to be
provided to model the functions, features and grammars of the
discipline using various graphic organizers or discussion formats.
Zwiers provides a multitude of examples of these supports for
reading, writing, speaking/listening for each of the big four content
areas – English, Math, Social Studies, and Science. I was
familiar with a lot of the examples Zwiers provided, as I am a firm
believer that learning is a social activity and a proponent of
discussion-based learning. However, there were ideas that I haven't
tried yet!
Additional Resources:
Here are some resources that I've given to my student teachers to support discussions -
Here is a nice
summary of Zwiers' brick and mortar words metaphor from Houston
Independent School District's Literacy Support Network Wiki - Academic Language - Bricks and Mortar
No comments:
Post a Comment