How do we empower diverse learners with the academic language essential for school success?  Let’s discuss this important topic on Monday, August 18th at 6pm EST during #thetileonechat on Twitter.

Thank you, Tiawana Giles (@TiawanaG) for this opportunity to be a guest moderator this week for your great Twitter chat!

For readers who like to have time to think about questions early, I’m posting each question now in this blog. As a chat participant, I love it when moderators post questions in advance, as it gives me “think time” before the chat so I can put more focus into reading and responding to others when the chat begins. If you’d like a heads up of questions in advance, read on.  If not, don’t worry, I’ll post each of the following one at a time during the chat to facilitate the conversation.

Chat Questions:

Q1: Welcome to #thetitleonechat. Please introduce yourself and share the languages and/or dialects spoken in your school communities.

Q2: How might schools best honor student’s home language and/or non-standard English dialects as assets?

Q3: What are powerful ways to support students in varying their language use by context and purpose?

Q4: What aspects of academic language present the greatest challenges for students in your school(s)?

Q5: What strategies do you find most effective for helping students UNDERSTAND academic language in reading complex texts?

Q6: What strategies are most effective for helping students USE academic language in speaking and writing?

Q7: How do you gather formative data about students’ use and understanding of academic language in school?

Q8: What question would you most like answered about the teaching and learning of academic language?

Q9: Please read the “A8″ posts of others and reply to a question someone else has asked.

When you reply to each post, remember to use A and the number of the question (e.g. A2).  Also always use the hashtag #thetitleonechat so we see your post.  For more details on how to participate in a Twitter chat, read this blog by Azure Collier  for essentials on joining in.

Some Resources on Academic Language:

• Who are Standard English Learners? (Blog)
• Language and the Common Core State Standards (Paper)
• Language and the Next Generation Science Standards (Paper)
• Language and Mathematics (Paper)
• Academic Language Network Resources (Teaching Resources)
• Building Academic Language: Essential Resources for Content Classrooms (Book)
• The Language of Schooling: A Functional Linguistics Perspective (Book)

I look forward to facilitating the sharing of more ideas and resources tomorrow during #thetitleonechat.

Quote Citation:  Zwiers, J. (2008). Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for Content Classrooms, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,  p. 20.