Term
Fall 2019
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAT
Facilitator(s)
Laura Halldin
Content Expert
Christine Miche
Abstract
The purpose of this capstone project is to address the question, how can teachers increase opportunities for quality academic talk for English Learners in the general education classroom? This was answered by researching data pertaining to the population of English learners in United States public schools, as well as, how historical context, issues of social justice, and sociolinguistic factors all affect English learners. Included in the research is also theories, definitions, and the importance of academic talk for productive learning. Several methods for increasing academic talk in the general education classroom are discussed, specifically Accountable Talk with Talk Moves ( Michaels & O’Connor, 2015; Resnick, L. B., Asterhan, C. S. C., & Clarke, S. N., 2018). Theories of adult learning are applied in the creation of a three session professional development series (Knowles, 2005; Mezirow, 1997). The intended audience of these professional development sessions would be elementary general education classroom teachers and administrators whose student population has a high percentage or concentration of English learners. This method was chosen, because classroom teachers have unique opportunities to present English learners with authentic, content-based opportunities for academic talk that are capable of producing higher order thinking and cognitive development, as opposed to teachers of English learners whose expertise and instruction is based on second language acquisition and development ( Ernst-Slavit & Wenger, 2016; Hamann & Reeves, 2013; Resnick, Asterhan, & Clarke, 2018; Zwiers, O’Hara, & Pritchard, 2014; Zwiers & Crawford, 2011)
Project Type
Professional Development
Keywords
ESL/ ELLs, Social Justice, Staff Development
Recommended Citation
O’Brien, Brianna Pontinen, "Increasing Opportunities for Academic Talk for English Learners in the General Education Classroom" (2019). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 412.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/412
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects