Get Ready! Soar - PROGRAM SAMPLER

Language initiative (2012), commissioned papers from EL experts on language and instruction with regard to today’s standards-driven education . Key findings illustrate that language teaching should be embedded in the discipline with a focus on task, purpose, and audience . Also, instead of exclusively pre-teaching all content, activities that build on children’s prior knowledge and that scaffold both content and language development are key . Scaffolded instruction Systemic supports are needed in order to support the complex, nonlinear process of language learning (Walqui, 2012) . With scaffolded instruction, the educator supports children at a level just beyond what they are able to achieve on their own . Vygotsky (1978) called this the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) . Current research building upon the ZPD emphasizes the importance of scaffolds across the language domains . For example, the Center for English Learners at the American Institutes for Research disseminated research (2018) noting that scaffolding is crucial in language acquisition and literacy . They suggest adding visuals, gestures, examples, graphic organizers, and sentence frames . Get Ready! incorporates the foundational research and progressive models designed to meet the needs of today’s culturally and linguistically diverse learners . The research is translated into strategies that function in a cohesive and consistent manner, focusing on the desired result of increased English language development . References American Institutes for Research, Center for English Language Learners . (2018) . English learners and close reading: Providing scaffolding for writing . Available at https://air .org/resource/english-learners-and-close- reading-providing-scaffolding-writing Bruner, J .S . (1977) . The Process of Education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press . Krashen, S . (1982) . Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall . Vygotsky, L .S . (1978) . Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press . Walqui, A . (2012) . Theoretical and Pedagogical Shifts in the Design and Enactment of Learning . Understanding Language Initiative . Available at http://ell .stanford .edu Get Ready! lesson structure • Explore and Learn Each lesson begins with an open exploration . This is an initial engagement where students preview visuals, Essential Questions, activities, and text . Students share what they know (e .g ., about the theme, concept, vocabulary, etc .) . Vocabulary is cued, but not pre-taught out of context, as the development of schema is necessary for language to be retained and meaningful . After the exploration, there is direct instruction of the standards-based topic . • Practice Students have many opportunities to interact with language across the domains in a guided manner followed by a gradual release . • Communicate Students then have multiple opportunities to reiterate their learning with classmates, in small groups, and independently . • Assess Lessons include formative assessments so that teachers can gauge progress in real-time and then respond to individual student needs . Txiv PHILOSOPHY AND RESEARCH