Videos:
- The Full Sweep of the Lesson (13 min.)
- “Progressive Chunking” for student repetition of the bold sentences (4 min.)
- Think-Pair-Share, Academic Discussion and Writing (8 min.)
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Introduction
As Gail Gibbons points out in her book Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, one way to accelerate language learning is to create opportunities for "stretched language," i.e. "...when the situation you face requires you to use language that is beyond what you know how to do. You are pushed to go beyond the language you can control well and to try out ways of saying something that requires you to use language you are still unsure of, probably using faulty grammar or inaccurate vocabulary." (pp. 26-27)
One way to approach this lesson is to ask to what extent it creates chances for students to use "stretched language."
Time, Place and Group
In October of 2017, Ms. Martin and Mike Ray met to plan a D4L lesson for her 4th grade class at Fruitvale, and she then taught the lesson a couple days later with Mr. Ray jumping in now and then. This is a diverse group in terms of proficiency level, from high CELDT 2s to English-only students. The lesson was about 40 minutes long.
As Gail Gibbons points out in her book Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, one way to accelerate language learning is to create opportunities for "stretched language," i.e. "...when the situation you face requires you to use language that is beyond what you know how to do. You are pushed to go beyond the language you can control well and to try out ways of saying something that requires you to use language you are still unsure of, probably using faulty grammar or inaccurate vocabulary." (pp. 26-27)
One way to approach this lesson is to ask to what extent it creates chances for students to use "stretched language."
Time, Place and Group
In October of 2017, Ms. Martin and Mike Ray met to plan a D4L lesson for her 4th grade class at Fruitvale, and she then taught the lesson a couple days later with Mr. Ray jumping in now and then. This is a diverse group in terms of proficiency level, from high CELDT 2s to English-only students. The lesson was about 40 minutes long.
1. As we planned, we were looking for places in the two-page lesson where Think-Pair-Share would give students a chance to extend the vocabulary concept they were studying as they reached for language. We were looking for "open-ended" questions that students might find interesting so that they would really WANT to talk together.
2. We used "Progressive Chunking" to help students reproduce the bolded, complex sentences in the lesson plan. "Progressive Chunking" is a sort of highly-scaffolded "stretched language" in which students repeat more and more of the sentence, adding chunks as they go:
2. We used "Progressive Chunking" to help students reproduce the bolded, complex sentences in the lesson plan. "Progressive Chunking" is a sort of highly-scaffolded "stretched language" in which students repeat more and more of the sentence, adding chunks as they go:
T: "The carpenter marks."
SS: "The carpenter marks."
SS: "The carpenter marks."
T: "The carpenter marks her measurement."
SS: "The carpenter marks her measurement."
T: "The carpenter marks her measurement on the board."
SS: "The carpenter marks her measurement on the board."
T: Great. Now each person take a turn saying that to your partner (T circulates to listen).
3. We added an open-ended academic discussion question at the end where students could apply the language learned in their own way. We thought this would give them a motivating context for stretching: "What things do you think you might like to make out of wood? What might be challenging?"
4. We also planned for students to take this prompt directly into writing, with the academic discussion supporting the writing that followed.
What Happened
1. The Think-Pair-Shares worked well, with students sometimes stretching to express their ideas, and motivation remained high, with one student spontaneously suggesting in a quiet voice, "Can we talk together again?"
2. The progressive chunking worked well, and as we watched the video, we noticed that even when the students could not repeat one of the bold sentences, they were stretching for meaning. Ms. Martín moved on from bold sentences before repeating them became a boring chore, and this seemed to help keep student engagement up over time.
3. Students were very engaged in the open-ended academic discussion at the end. We noticed students explaining WHY they would want to make something even though we didn't ask them to (which perhaps we should have). We noticed students encouraging elaboration less by stock prompts such as, "Can you tell me more about that?" and more just out of a passion to say more and to explain more.
4. The writing was fairly high volume, with most students writing several sentences directly related to what they had discussed with their partner and using at least a couple of the words we studied that day.
2. The progressive chunking worked well, and as we watched the video, we noticed that even when the students could not repeat one of the bold sentences, they were stretching for meaning. Ms. Martín moved on from bold sentences before repeating them became a boring chore, and this seemed to help keep student engagement up over time.
3. Students were very engaged in the open-ended academic discussion at the end. We noticed students explaining WHY they would want to make something even though we didn't ask them to (which perhaps we should have). We noticed students encouraging elaboration less by stock prompts such as, "Can you tell me more about that?" and more just out of a passion to say more and to explain more.
4. The writing was fairly high volume, with most students writing several sentences directly related to what they had discussed with their partner and using at least a couple of the words we studied that day.
Conclusions
You can get students to produce "stretched language" if the learning context is engaging, relevant and challenging at the same time. Overall, we felt we created various opportunities for stretched language, and that students enjoyed the activities and the challenge.
- We concluded that fumbling the bold complex sentences is OK--it means students are being pushed and entering the territory of "stretched language." We thought the progressive chunking maintained the focus on meaning, with each progressive chunk causing the sentence to mean more.
- We thought three Think Pair Shares per lesson worked well, because, again, it gave them a chance to try out language and express new ideas. However, we didn't always choose the best question from the manual.
- The academic discussion and writing worked well, and we thought we should have students read their pieces to each other as well. This could be a nice way to open the next lesson.
- Finally, we noticed as we watched the video that we very rarely pushed students to further elaborate their answers or provide evidence for their ideas. This is a growth area for our teaching, and it would have provided more opportunities for "stretched language."
---Mike Ray, OUSD ELD Coordinator, with Lilia Martín, 4th grade at Fruitvale
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