Purpose
In our everyday practices, we all define language in different ways. Our conceptualization, or what might be called our “theories,” whether derived from personal experiences or from reading books and articles, shape the kinds of learning opportunities we provide our ELL students and are therefore highly consequential to their academic trajectories. For this reason, this course will introduce you to a perspective on language called: functional linguistics. While this perspective also accounts for the structure of language, it places the function of language as central (what language does, and how it does it). It starts at the social context and looks at how language both acts upon and is constrained by this social context. Other perspectives of language start with and remain focused on the structure of language. We believe the functional approach provides teachers with more useful tools for helping students gain access to academic literacies in the classroom.

This course will support you in understanding how such a perspective on language (writing, speaking, visual, mathematical, and electronic, etc) can help you scaffold students’ academic achievement. The central vehicle for building your framework and exploring your research questions will be an in-depth analysis of students’ writing or proto writing in the social context in which it was produced.


Enduring Understandings:
By the end of the course we hope that you will:

1. understand how language works to provide us with a dynamic system of choices for communicative purposes.

2. develop an understanding of the sense students make in their texts and how effective teaching strategies (e.g. a variety of scaffolding, curricular materials, experiential activities and conferencing) can provide a rich context for students’ language learning

3. understand how explicit language instruction can improve students’ writing by providing them with a meta-linguistic awareness of different genres and registers across the curriculum and ideally with a critical awareness of how the linguistic choices we make have social consequences for the writer and reader.

4. see the differences between language of schooling and everyday language and the linguistic demands on the students in academic registers across the curriculum.

5. understand the importance of providing students with different audiences, purposes and contexts to facilitate their access to academic literacies and to develop their own ‘voice.’

6. apply knowledge of functional linguistics when evaluating classroom curricular materials and reference books in your discipline.


Required Readings
The following books are required for this class:

1. Knapp, P and Watkins, M. (2005). Genre, Text, Grammar: Technologies for Teaching and Assessing Writing. University of New South West Wales Press: Sydney.

2. Thompson, G. (2004). Introducing Functional Grammar 2nd Ed. Arnold: London.
Please order these books online. They are available on www.amazon.com
We will also use:

3. First Steps Writing: Resource book. Copies of the book to borrow will be provided.


Approach
Faithful to our belief that learning occurs through interaction in purposeful activities, teachers will work in small groups and with assistance from their project assistants to develop a cumulative systemic functional analysis of student’s texts along with the context of production of such text. Class time will include a lecture on the focus topic of the day, discussion on the assigned readings, application of readings to texts chosen, and small group-assisted analysis of texts facilitated by PA’s. Contrary to other courses where you read to prepare for a lecture, we will present a topic and will then assign specific readings dealing with that topic. Your task is to read the assigned passages with your focal texts in mind.


Grading
The course is offered for a letter grade with an option for pass/fail. You will be assessed on participation in learning activities, completion of assignments and growth in understanding the concepts of the course and in your ability to analyze student texts. We will continue to work with these concepts in the next two courses. Your participation in the activities should demonstrate a developing awareness of the concepts, skills and theories presented in the readings, presentations and discussions. You are expected to do 100% of the activities and assignments. If you are unable to complete all assignments and activities for any reason (e.g., missed class, no time to do a particular homework, disability), please talk to your small-group assistant to negotiate an alterative assignment.


Expectations
1. Readings: Daily readings (approximately 2 chapters) are assigned as reinforcement for lectures. They will improve purposeful and insightful participation in class as they are essential to the application of theory to text analysis and to your own teaching.

2. Portfolio:
    a. Analyses of the text you did in class using the Critical Reading Sheets and the analysis of an additional text     that you might assign your students to read in the fall.
    b. Final Project
    c. Action Plan for the Fall Curriculum Unit
    d. Qualitative course evaluation


Final Project
1. Context of production: Reflect on the context of production involving pre, inter and post feedback and interaction around the text. Comment on the purpose of the instruction, the broader instructional context for the writing (e.g., a thematic unit, chapter from a textbook, or a routine practice, such as buddy reading/writing, literature circle, family visit, or preparation for district/school wide test), the procedures followed, and the language demands of text that was used to motivate the writing or proto-writing (children’s book, textbook chapter, multimodal mini-lesson, a writing prompt). Describe the specific language you focused on when preparing the students for writing assignment and any other contextual data that may be important to the students’ text production.

2. Analysis of the drafts of the student work: Using the SFL analyses you’ve done during the course and expanding significantly on the preliminary work you did with the Critical Reading Sheet in class, analyze and comment on the two drafts of the student’s work. Using whatever data you were able to collect (e.g., first and second draft, video excerpts of interaction between the student and someone else) describe the meaning you believe the focal student is trying to make in the text, how he/she constructed and improved her/his text across the two drafts. Describe the language resources he/she selected to shape the message. Reflect on alternative choices that might have helped the student to better communicate his/her meanings to their intended audience without erasing his or her “own voice.” Note, particularly any use of his/her home/peer language. How might the student been able to use this language more effectively to achieve his or her goals?

3. Implications:
    a. Reflections on context of production and its impact on student writing and learning.
    b. How to move the student forward? (type of activities/ scaffolding/aspects of field, tenor, and mode).

Action Plan (We will develop this further in the next class).
1. Generalities: Which content area will you focus on in the fall for the “Teaching Content for Language Development course? What will be the approximate time frame? Which standards from the State, from the TESOL Organization and from other relevant Disciplinary Professional Organizations will be addressed?

2. What type of genres/texts might you use in the unit?

3. Language: Can you identify some preliminary desired language outcomes appropriate for the grade level you will be teaching? (e.g., Use appropriate language variety, register, conventions & genre according to audience, purpose and setting). What language demands of the discipline will this unit address? What kind of meanings will the students be able to understand/articulate if the desired language outcomes are met? (The Critical Reading Sheet might provide specific insights on these issues.)

4. Differentiated Language Instruction: Imagine that there will be ESL students in your classroom with different levels of English language development. After examining the ELL/ESL Benchmarks, identify language objectives from the benchmarks that could naturally be integrated into the content you will be teaching (e.g., in a science unit in which students write lab reports, a more extensive review of prepositions might be called for). Also, look at the chapter in Learner English (to be handed out) on Spanish to determine which grammatical items may cause students’ the most difficulty.