Behind The Scenes:

The CALLA Model in Curriculum Design

Senabil Al-HussainiInstitute of Applied

Technology

March, 2010

CALLA

Cognitive Academic Language

Learning Approach

“Instructional Model Designed to Meet The Academic

Needs of English Language Learners” (Chamot, 2009, P.1)

Who Are English Language Learners (ELLs)?Learner Types Description

New to English with adequate schooling

• New to learning the language and/or less than 5 years in an English speaking setting.

• Adequate schooling in mother tongue.• Soon catch up academically.• May still score low on standardized tests given in English.

New to English with limited formal schooling

• New to learning the language and/or less than 5 years in an English speaking setting.

• Interrupted or limited schooling in mother tongue.• Limited mother tongue literacy.• Poor academic achievement.

Long term ESL learner

• 7 or more years in an English speaking setting.• Have had ESL or bilingual instruction, but no consistent program.• Below grade level in reading and writing.• Mismatch between student perception of achievement and actual

grades.• May get adequate grades but score low on tests.

(Freeman & Freeman, 2002; Olsen & Jaramillo, 1999)

Overview of CALLA Effective instructional model for ELLs from

beginning to advanced levels. Based on research on learning strategies and

academic language and content instruction. Informed by cognitive and sociocultural

learning theories. Composed of three integrated components.

Learning Strategies

CALLA Model

Acade

mic Con

tent

Academic

Language

Development

Academic ContentHow to Select Content

Select core topics and skills for your grade level.

Study professional Content Standards and TESOL Standards to see how the selected topics are sequenced over several grades.

Analyze the school’s adopted textbooks for different subjects.

Identify major components of content: Concepts, Processes, and necessary Prior knowledge.

Help students connect content to their own cultural backgrounds.

Identify and share content and lesson objectives.

Link lesson topic to students’ prior knowledge.

Provide hands-on and minds-on experiences with content.

Address different learning styles by presenting content visually, aurally, and kinesthetically.

Present and encourage students to use the technical vocabulary appropriate to the content subject.

How to Teach Content, a glimpse:

Why Teach Academic Language?

1. Academic Language is a key to success in core subjects (for e.g. math, science, social studies).

2. Not learned outside of the classroom setting.

3. Core subject teachers may assume that all their students already know appropriate academic language when in fact they have acquired mainly social language skills.

4. Provides students with practice in using English as a medium of thought.

5. English learners need assistance using learning strategies with academic language, just as they do with content knowledge and skills.

Observe and record language used in content classrooms.

Analyze language used in content textbooks.

Select authentic language tasks that target language skills and functions to Read, Write, Understand, Talk and Think About Content.

How to Select Academic Language

Learning StrategiesAll thoughts and actions that students use to complete a task successfully.

Why Are Learning Strategies Important?•Self Knowledge•Task Knowledge•World Knowledge•Strategy Knowledge

•Planning.•Monitoring.•Identifying problems•Evaluating

METACOGNITIONDeclarativeKnowledge

ProceduralKnowledge

Learning Strategies

CALLA Model

Acade

mic Con

tent

Academic

Language

Development

CALLA’s Five

Phases

PREPARATION EXPANSION

PRESENTATION SELFEVALUATION

PRACTICE

Location/Emphasis

EvaluationDesign

Instrument Outcomes

Arlington/Math

Pre-Post Non-Equivalent Comparison Group

CAT Form 5: grades in post-project academic courses; uses of learning strategies.

Statically & educationally significant gains of 11-12 NCEs.

CALLA graduates maintained C average in math courses.

Significantly more students in high implementation CALLA classrooms used metacognitive strategies.

Arlington/Science

Post-Tests only with Non-Equivalent Comparison Group

Grades in post-project academic courses; progress in English skills.

CALLA students made significantly higher percentage of course grades than non-CALLA students at both middle and high school levels.

86% of CALLA s students progressed to next English proficiency classification.

Boston/Math, Science,Social Studies

One Group Pre-Posttest Design

Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs); course grades

CALLA students made statistically & educationally significant pre-post gains on 16 out of 16 CRTs used.

For high school students, 87% passed their courses and 58% received C or better.

Fargo/Math, Science,Social Studies

Pre-Post Non-Equivalent Comparison Group

WLMS (Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey)

70% of CALLA students had educationally significant gains.

New York City/Math, Science,Social Studies

Pre-Post Non-Equivalent Comparison Group

Language Assessment Battery (LAB)

78% of students progressed at least one level in English proficiency

(Chamot, 2007, P.326)