Getting at the Content

Author: Dong, Y.R.
Publisher: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Publication Date: 2004, December/2005, January
Journal: Educational Leadership
Journal Volume: 62(4)
Full text available online at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec04/vol62/num04/Getting_at_the_Content.aspx

Abstract (written by WestEd)

This article elaborates on four strategies critical to enabling English learners to access content and provides case studies of implementation in three high school classrooms of English learners—two biology classes and one U.S. history class. Two of the three classrooms also had students who were native English speakers. In all three classrooms, the teachers used the following strategies:

1. Systematically teaching academic discipline-specific language
   
2. Acquainting the students with classroom discourse and practicing using this discourse
   
3. Using writing as a learning tool to promote language development
   
4. Challenging students to use their full range of language in classroom discussions

Each case study provides an overview of a curriculum unit and offers artifacts, including excerpts of teacher-student dialogue, key vocabulary words, charts created during whole-class discussions, written student responses, and culminating activities. In all of the units, the teachers integrated the teaching of specific English vocabulary, grammar or paragraph organization structures that were appropriate for the students to build their abilities to express their understanding of the content. Although only one of the three teachers collaborated with the school’s English as a Second Language teacher during the process of planning the unit, the author points out the usefulness of this collaboration in integrating curriculum content and language development.