Idea Wave
Lindsay Manzella
This week's EAL strategy is in response to a teacher who says, "I have a lot of strategies for pairing students up, but I need more strategies to get them to have better discussions once they are in pairs." This is a strategy from Kate Kinsella called "Idea Wave" and it is great for increasing students' academic language in oral discussions.
Implementation Steps:
Students listen while the teacher poses a well-focused question or task that gets students thinking about a topic before or after reading (e.g., List 3 potential reasons the proposed amendment to the constitution will/will not pass in the Senate).
Provide students with one or two ideas to jump-start their list. Ask everyone to begin their brainstorming list by copying the ideas from the board. This will get their cognitive juices flowing and help struggling writers feel less intimidated by a blank piece of paper.
Give students adequate quiet time (e.g., 3 minutes) to consider what they know about the topic and record a number of possible responses prior to the unified class discussion. Encourage students to jot down as many ideas as possible, using phrases.
After students have generated individual brainstorming lists, provide them with 1 or 2 sentence starters to transform their phrases into complete sentences. The sentence starters serve as models of effective syntax and academic vocabulary usage. Ask them to select their favorite idea(s) and rewrite it using a sentence starter. In this way, less proficient academic language users will have a linguistic scaffold to bolster their linguistic output and confidence in sharing aloud. They will also receive some vital guided practice in writing academic English discourse vs. simply writing down their spoken English. For example, if students are being asked to make predictions about what will happen in the next chapter of The Joyluck Club, they might be provided with these sentence starters:
Monitor students’ written responses and select 2 “nominated volunteers” to jumpstart the discussion. Remind students to use a “public voice” when contributing.
Whip around the class in a relatively fast-paced and structured manner, simulating a wave-like direction (e.g., down rows, around tables), allowing as many students as possible or necessary to share an idea using the assigned starter in 15 seconds or less.
Require that students point out similarities/differences in responses rather than state that their ideas have already been mentioned: (e.g., My idea builds upon/is similar to). This fosters active, accountable listening and validation of ideas. Consider also giving students a focused active listening and note-taking task during the idea sharing: (e.g., Jot down 2 ideas that you hadn’t thought of and the name of the contributors).
Refrain from interrupting the structured idea generation by elaborating upon students’ contributions during the Idea Wave; synthesize/elaborate to provide closure.
Here is a comprehensive list of Academic Language Frames to help you plan your sentence starters.
This week's EAL strategy is in response to a teacher who says, "I have a lot of strategies for pairing students up, but I need more strategies to get them to have better discussions once they are in pairs." This is a strategy from Kate Kinsella called "Idea Wave" and it is great for increasing students' academic language in oral discussions.
Implementation Steps:
Students listen while the teacher poses a well-focused question or task that gets students thinking about a topic before or after reading (e.g., List 3 potential reasons the proposed amendment to the constitution will/will not pass in the Senate).
Provide students with one or two ideas to jump-start their list. Ask everyone to begin their brainstorming list by copying the ideas from the board. This will get their cognitive juices flowing and help struggling writers feel less intimidated by a blank piece of paper.
Give students adequate quiet time (e.g., 3 minutes) to consider what they know about the topic and record a number of possible responses prior to the unified class discussion. Encourage students to jot down as many ideas as possible, using phrases.
After students have generated individual brainstorming lists, provide them with 1 or 2 sentence starters to transform their phrases into complete sentences. The sentence starters serve as models of effective syntax and academic vocabulary usage. Ask them to select their favorite idea(s) and rewrite it using a sentence starter. In this way, less proficient academic language users will have a linguistic scaffold to bolster their linguistic output and confidence in sharing aloud. They will also receive some vital guided practice in writing academic English discourse vs. simply writing down their spoken English. For example, if students are being asked to make predictions about what will happen in the next chapter of The Joyluck Club, they might be provided with these sentence starters:
- I predict that Waverly’s mother will be disappointed in/proud of her daughter’s behavior because...;
- Based on Waverly’s relationship with her mother, I assume that her mother will react very positively/negatively because…
Monitor students’ written responses and select 2 “nominated volunteers” to jumpstart the discussion. Remind students to use a “public voice” when contributing.
Whip around the class in a relatively fast-paced and structured manner, simulating a wave-like direction (e.g., down rows, around tables), allowing as many students as possible or necessary to share an idea using the assigned starter in 15 seconds or less.
Require that students point out similarities/differences in responses rather than state that their ideas have already been mentioned: (e.g., My idea builds upon/is similar to). This fosters active, accountable listening and validation of ideas. Consider also giving students a focused active listening and note-taking task during the idea sharing: (e.g., Jot down 2 ideas that you hadn’t thought of and the name of the contributors).
Refrain from interrupting the structured idea generation by elaborating upon students’ contributions during the Idea Wave; synthesize/elaborate to provide closure.
Here is a comprehensive list of Academic Language Frames to help you plan your sentence starters.
