Week 5 Blog Post – Content-Area Variations of Academic Language
I think that this article is valuable for all of us as teacher candidates because it’s focused on content-area variations of academic language in the classroom. Many of the discussions that we have had in class have been valuable for me as an English language teacher candidate; however, I realize that I will most likely be faced with teaching something in a different content-area throughout my career. In turn, this article was useful because it demonstrated how I can deal with language-based challenges in other disciplines.
In chapter four, Zwiers states that teachers often have “‘expert blind spots’ that keep us from realizing much of our complex and abstract knowledge has become concrete and basic to us” (Zwiers 69-70). I think that this is a really important thing to keep in mind when I construct lesson plans because I want to ensure that even the terms and phrases that seem incredibly simple to me are made clear for my students. It might even be easier for me to teach something in a different content-area because I won’t have as much expert knowledge in these areas. Therefore, I would be able to see more clearly what aspects of the lesson might be confusing for students because I won’t personally have as much background knowledge in these areas.
I particularly enjoyed reading about the “language of math” during the reading for this week because it is something that at times was an incredibly “foreign language” for me. I can see how math can be extremely difficult for students because the language used is quite abstract in comparison to other subject areas. In addition, Zwiers notes that in math, there is “less overlap with concepts, ideas, and terms found in other subjects” (Zwiers 92). I definitely encountered this when I was in high school. I felt like the terms and concepts that we learned were so different from most of the other subject areas that were covered so I felt completely lost when I tried to do my math homework. My teachers never took the time explain what the phrases and terms meant that I encountered everyday in my math textbook. If I ever have to teach math during my career, I think I will try to spend a bit of time at the beginning of each class going over what some of the key terms or phrases are from the lesson and why we are learning what I am teaching. I think that finding a way to apply the language of math to a real life situation would really help high school students understand why it is important to learn math and how it will benefit their life.
Although my blog post this week is not particularly relevant to my own content-area, I think it is critical that I am aware of how language affects other content-areas at school. This way, if I ever need to teach or substitute teach a math class, I will be aware of how my background in English language can enhance student math education and perhaps allow them to see math from a different perspective.
By: Erin Milne