Global Interconnectedness
Reexamining the quadrant at the beginning of this prelude, we approach the last perspective for advancing our rationale for academic language use. For it is through global interdependence that we see our students of the 21st century absorbed in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. Being immersed in a global society means we are constantly being bombarded with new information—not only from our immediate surroundings but within a nanosecond of clicking a button on our technology-enabled devices, we are connected with the world. As teachers and school leaders in this international community, it is our responsibility to ensure that its newest members are prepared to participate, contribute, and thrive in our interconnected society.
Globalization of schooling entails focusing our efforts on elucidating and respecting wide-ranging perspectives as the intermingling of different languages, cultures, and religions becomes accepted practice in our diverse classrooms. To do so, we have to expand our dialogue, reflection, and creative engagement in intercultural and multicultural education and rely on its global networks as a vehicle for promoting global interconnectedness (Grant & Brueck, 2011).
Not only do our students access the worldview instantaneously, as meaning makers, they make sense of their world in multisemiotic ways by integrating language and images. So in our book, while we acknowledge the primacy of print in literacy development, we move beyond this traditional way of communicating to embrace media, visual design, and fine arts as integral to a multimodal literacy system.
Additionally, we believe that many of the 21st century skills are requisite to connecting with others around the world. The World Economic Forum has a comprehensive view of 21st century skills, categorically placing them within lifelong learning into three groups: (1) foundational literacies—cultural and civic literacy, financial literacy, scientific literacy, numeracy, and information (digital) literacy; (2) competencies—collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking; and (3) character qualities—leadership, adaptability, curiosity, social and cultural awareness, perseverance, and initiative (Soffel, 2016). It is their contention and ours that many of the 21st century competencies and qualities are developed through social and emotional learning, which has to be combined with multiliteracy development to best equip students to succeed in the world they live.
Apply
This section offers guidance in implementing DARE by including examples of tools educators may wish to use. These templates, presented in figures and resources, are neither exhaustive nor rigid. In other words, we suggest that you incorporate them into your existing resources, that you add to them, or that you modify them to make them applicable to your context. In our experience, teachers adopt or adapt tools that are easy to use in planning students’ learning experiences or enacting those experiences during assessment and instruction. So our advice is to remember that as you modify these templates, avoid making tools that become too complicated.
As an example, Figure P.3 provides a rationale for encouraging academic conversations among students that has been drawn from five distinct areas of learning (per Zwiers & Crawford, 2011). Many the themes presented here are recurring throughout the book. It is paired with Resource P.1, which, in this case, replicates the figure and asks you to select the statements that best fit what you do in school to promote student learning.
Reflect
This section summarizes ideas presented on each perspective. We discuss how teachers can take the DARE to benefit students, especially those who have been historically underserved, namely English language learners, ELLs with disabilities, and speakers of other varieties of English.
Because academic language affords students opportunities to access college and career readiness standards, content, and practices, it is vital that students who have been historically underserved—ELLs, students with interrupted formal education, students with diverse socioeconomic status, and students with disabilities, among others—experience, develop, and use academic language. Throughout the book, we offer ways to be more inclusive of students in integrating language into the planning and designing of curriculum, assessment, and instruction.
Spotlighting academic language in the classroom can be influential in promoting students’ academic achievement; however, it is more powerful as a focus at the school level. Systemic approaches to enhancing academic language for all students provides the most effective impact on their academic achievement. To accomplish this, it is important for every educator in the school or system to have a common definition and understanding of academic language. Learning and working together promotes collaboration among educators and, most important, provides consistency for students across classes and grade levels. It is here that the role of administrators becomes critical in creating structures and opportunities for educators to come together and plan around academic language use.
Figure P.3 Reasons for Promoting Academic Conversations in School
Source: Adapted from Gottlieb and Ernst-Slavit (2014, p. 17).
Take the DARE
Use the questions from the following table to find out about or document the language use of your students who receive support services. Share the data you gather with other educators who work with these students.
Take Action
This last section puts forward questions and suggests activities that, we hope, move the ideas in each chapter into action. It aims to provide inspiration in the work of teachers and school leaders to take the DARE and begin discussions with others at school.
As educators begin to think about academic language use, here are some ideas and questions to ponder or discuss with others.
1 Gather demographic data on your students, including school history, academic achievement, and other languages spoken at home. After reviewing the data, exchange information with colleagues in answering the following questions:What assets and challenges do our students bring with them?What linguistic and cultural resources do they possess?How can we connect the language required of college and career readiness standards to students’ experiences with language?
2 How is academic language use present throughout our school—in hallways, classrooms, and common areas? How can we make it more visible? How can we elicit students to help us?
3 What is your own experience in learning academic language in English or an additional language? What were some of your challenges, and how did you overcome them? What were some advantages of language learning, and how did you leverage them to make yourself understood by others?
4 What are some existing structures or resources that can support a focus on academic language use at your school? How can you make academic language learning a whole-school effort? What might you need? How can you get it?
Our goal with this book is to begin conversations in spaces where they may not exist and to move the conversation forward for educators who may already be thinking about academic language use and its impact on academic achievement. With this in mind, we touch on some important themes throughout the book to help you, the reader, make connections to other initiatives in your schools or to identify points of entry for discussions around language. These themes include
21st century schools and classrooms
Linguistic and cultural sustainability
Increased attention and acknowledgment of students and families as decision makers in education
In order to make academic language use and the themes of our book more tangible and powerful, we have included a range of materials, tools, and resources in each chapter. Each resource within a chapter