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Session 2. Teaching Language and Content Together
Objective. Find the language demands of a subject text, write a content objective and a language objective together, and plan different language output for the same thinking task.
Most lessons have one objective, about the subject. For multilingual pupils there is a second, hidden objective: the language that the task needs. If you do not name it, you cannot teach it, and the pupils who lack it fail without knowing why. In this lesson you learn to read a task for its language, to write a language objective next to the content objective, and to let pupils at different stages show the same thinking in different ways.
Key ideas
Two objectives for one lesson
- The content objective says what pupils will understand or do in the subject. The language objective says what language they will use to show it.
- A good language objective has three parts: a function (explain, compare, describe), a frame or connectors, and three to five key words.
- Write both on the board in pupil words, and teach what the language objective names. If you did not teach it, do not expect it.
Find the language demands before you teach
- Read the text or task as a pupil would and mark three things: words (technical and tricky everyday words), sentences (long ones, 'as a result', passive), and text type (explanation, comparison, report).
- Choose only what the task needs: usually three to five words and one sentence pattern. A list of twenty words teaches nothing.
- Ask: what language would a pupil need to answer well? That answer is your language objective.
Same thinking, different language
- Keep the thinking the same for everyone and change only the language of the answer. A Starting pupil may sort cause cards, a Building pupil may say a sentence, a Growing pupil may write a paragraph.
- Do not give Starting pupils an easier idea. They can think at the level of the class; they cannot yet say it at that level.
- Move pupils up the ladder one rung at a time: one-word label, then a frame sentence, then two linked sentences.
Order the lesson: hear, say, read, write
- Pupils meet an idea first through a picture, an object and talk. Then they say it with a partner. Then they read about it. Only then do they write.
- Put minutes on it: for example 5 minutes picture and talk, 10 minutes pair talk with a frame, 10 minutes reading, 10 minutes writing, 5 minutes check.
- Check at the end with something small: three sentences, a labelled diagram, or an exit ticket that uses the frame.
From a task to a language-aware lesson
Reading a task for its language
Take a task such as 'Compare what cotton and wheat need.' Ask what a pupil must say or write. The function is comparing. The pattern is 'Cotton needs ..., but wheat needs ...'. The words are need, soil, water, warm. Three or four words and one pattern are the language objective. A good test is to read the task slowly as if it were in a language you know poorly, and mark every place where you would stumble.
Each subject has its own repeated patterns. Mathematics: 'twice as many as', 'how many more'. History: 'before', 'after', 'because of'. Science: 'is heated', 'as a result'. Teach these patterns once with care and they return in many lessons, so the time you spend is repaid.
A ladder for the same thinking
For one question, design four rungs of output. Rung 1: point at or sort picture cards. Rung 2: label a drawing with words. Rung 3: say or write a sentence from a frame. Rung 4: write a paragraph with linking words. All four show the same thinking, for example that heat and water lead to growth. Pupils climb one rung at a time, and you offer the next rung when you see the current one is easy.
Mark the thinking against the same criterion for all pupils. The ladder is only the way of showing it. Let pupils say the sentence aloud to a partner before they write; hearing and saying prepare the writing, and the pupils at higher rungs benefit as well.
Examples from the classroom
Cotton needs, but wheat needs
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 6 science in Samarkand. For the task 'compare cotton and wheat' she chooses the pattern 'Cotton needs ..., but wheat needs ...' and the words water, warm, soil. Pupils at the lowest rung sort picture cards; the others say the sentence to a partner, then write two. At the end 22 of 28 pupils speak a correct comparison and 6 still use cards.
Insight. A small pattern and few words let most pupils do the comparison, while the cards keep the rest in the task.
How many more
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 3 mathematics in Bukhara. Pupils can subtract but stumble on 'how many more'. He puts 12 blocks and 8 blocks on the table and teaches one sentence: 'There are 12 and 8. There are 4 more.' Pairs repeat it with new numbers and only then solve three printed problems.
Insight. Teaching the phrase through objects and speech first lets pupils show the mathematics they already have.
Why Samarkand grew rich
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 8 history in Tashkent. The content objective is that pupils explain why Samarkand grew rich on the Silk Road. The language objective is 'Because ..., Samarkand ...' with the words route, trade, caravan. Karakalpak and Tajik pupils first label a map, then use the frame in pairs, and finally write four sentences each.
Insight. The same cause-and-effect thinking can be shown first by labelling and talk, then by writing.
Common pitfalls
- Writing a language objective such as 'improve language' that cannot be taught or checked.
- Choosing twenty words when the task needs four.
- Giving beginners an easier idea instead of an easier way to show the same idea.
- Asking pupils to write before they have heard and said the language.
Add a Language Layer to a Lesson
- Open the Activity Kit: a SAMPLE Grade 7 geography text on why the Aral Sea shrank, and a worksheet. Read the text as a pupil who is still learning the language of the lesson.
- Pairs (10 min): mark the language demands: 4 words to teach, 2 sentence patterns that are hard, and the text type. Choose the final task (cause-and-effect chain).
- Pairs (10 min): write one content objective and one language objective (function, frame, 3 to 5 words). Then write the output for Starting, Building and Growing pupils.
- Groups (10 min): compare. Check: is the thinking the same for all three stages? Is there a 45-minute plan with minutes in the order hear, say, read, write?
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which words did you choose to teach, and which did you leave out? Why?
- Was it hard to keep the thinking the same for Starting pupils? What did you give them to do?
- In your own subject, where does the language demand surprise pupils most?
Reflect
- What language does your last unit test silently require?
- Which function (compare, explain, justify) do your pupils use least in the language of the lesson?
- Which part of the hear-say-read-write order is usually missing in your lessons?
Try it tomorrow
- Take tomorrow's main task, read it as a learner would, and mark three words and one pattern to teach.
- Write the content objective and the language objective on the board and say them aloud with the class.
- Prepare two rungs of output for the same task and offer both.
Further reading and links
Plan every lesson with two objectives, choose a few words and one pattern, and let every pupil show the same thinking in their own language level.