English Language Arts Articulation Collaboration NJHS-NMHS

Professional Development Day at NMHS 3/10/08

• ELA Instruction as seen from CSU perspective
• In 2005 45.2% of all students entering CSU needed remediation in English.
• Only 24% of students who took remediation earned a degree
• Entrance assessment has no literary analysis – purely expository focus
• Analysis/synthesis skills nearly non-existent

How can we (HS/JS) help each other address this problem?

Inter-segmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS) statement of competencies compares what K12 teachers emphasize with what colleges are looking for.

Two courses from RIAP:
Reading Institute for Academic Preparation
Expository Reading and Writing

reading.institute@csun.edu
www.csun.edu/~rinstitute
(818)677-2534
RIAP
Department of Secondary Education
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff StreetNorthridge, CA 91330-8265

Academic Vocabulary for English & History/Social Science Educators

Presented as Professional Development at NMHS - 3/10/08
Ardas Wachter-Grene
akgrene@aol.com

Recommended Resources (Books, websites)

• Bringing Words To Life – Robust Vocabulary Instruction - Isabel Beck
• Building Academic Vocabulary – Teacher’s Manual - Robert Marzano
• Dictionaries written in student-friendly language:
  Collins Cobuild Student’s Dictionary http://www.elearnaid.com/collinscobuild.html
  Heinle Newbury House Dictionary of American English http://nhd.heinle.com/home.aspx
  Longman Dictionary of American English http://www.idoceonline.com/
• These websites have free vocabulary materials that support these practices:
  Kevin Feldman www.scoe.org/content.php?pageID=164
  Kate Kinsella http://www.cascd.org/resources.shtml

Handouts:

• Academic Vocabulary presentation
• Narrowing the Language Gap - Kinsella, Feldman
• Academic word list – alphabetical
• Preparing for Effective Vocabulary Instruction – Kinsella

Some high points:

High incidence academic word list – grouped by frequency of usage (list 1 = most frequent; list 10 = least frequent)

Reciprocal relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension
Vocabulary knowledge is the single best predictor of academic success

Six step instructional routine for vocabulary

Attribution theory or effort-based theory – intelligence is not fixed. It is limitless and expansive. These are the factors that can impact overall “intelligence.” (Paula's note: the work of Martin Seligman at Penn State is a good read).

• motivation
• perseverance (how do I teach my students to have stamina)
  effort
• IQ (not the overriding or determining factor)
  

Resiliency
This is about teaching students these resilient “habits of mind.”
What are the factors that create resilient individuals? An adult mentor makes a great difference for students.

Brain Compatible Learning
The brain constantly performs CPR (Classifies & Categorizes – Pattern - Relationship)

BCL - Brainstorm, Classify, Label
Sorting is the classifying and labeling

Have Fun
The brain learns best when it's at play.

PowerPoint Jeopardy