The book I will be blogging about is entitled English Language Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking: Learning in the Challenge Zone by Pauline Gibbons
The focus of this book is to raise teacher expectations for ESL (English as a Second Language) students and support the implementation of a high quality curriculum. There is much research to support the fact that children from all walks of life, including ELLs (English Language Learners), achieve at higher levels when they participate in an intellectually stimulating and challenging curriculum. Ya think? That sounds like a no-brainer to me! According to Gibbons, many times ELLs’ are not given opportunities where they are given cognitively stimulating curriculum or age appropriate content due to their lack of oral language proficiency.
The first chapter of this book is basically an overview of coming chapters, so although some topics are highlighted now, they will be explained more in depth in subsequent blogs as I read through the book. Also, my book is only 8 chapters, so I will blog not according to chapters. Now, I know that for all of us teachers some things I will mention, we are already well aware of. Teach a few years, and you already know some things I'm about to say. Nonetheless, I will mention these points, as it's the premise of the reason for writing the book.
Children who come from non-English speaking backgrounds and children from low socio-economic backgrounds come with less familiarity of the language and literacy of school. Conversely, students who come from backgrounds of higher socioeconomic status or from families who are more oriented to writing and reading are more likely to succeed in school. They are familiar with the language and literacy of the school. As educators we see this everyday. To sum it up, it’s the challenge of teaching the “haves” and the “have nots”, from various ranges and backgrounds in our classrooms. For teachers, this is not rocket science for us. According to Gibbons, “Among the potentially most educationally disadvantaged students are those for whom English is not their first language , but who, having been born in the host country, have not developed literacy skills or high-level language skills in their first language either.” (p. 9) Clearly, this population of students is at a huge disadvantage. Again, something you, as an educator, have already figured out.
So what is this idea of “Academic literacy”? Academic literacy is not just learning how to read and write. In short, academic learning is learning to “code” knowledge in ways that are different from what we know. It includes the ability to precisely express the complex big ideas embedded in the content of a subject, which is essential for learning a topic. Academic literacy also must consider the different types of genres and text structures that are presented with different types of subject texts, or disciplines. These all require different literacy skills like formats and different ways of organizing language. Being literate in a particular subject means understanding the big concepts of the discipline and continually recognizing and evaluating. Academic language is more abstract and more structured than everyday language that is used at home, therefore it’s more difficult to learn.
Like James Gee, Gibbons speaks to the effectiveness of using explicit language in instruction, in addition to using precise reasoning, questioning and critiquing others’ ideas. This touches on Gee’s theory of learning academics as a “social” practice. Gibbons shares that the development of oral language is supported through reading and writing, and is not acquired through individual vocabulary exercises, but through interactive literacy where one can think critically.
That's not quite through all of chapter 1, but it's a great starting point! Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode of Learning in the Challenge Zone. (If I knew how to add music, I'd add the musical tune, "dun, dun dun".....)
