Transcript: Grade Eleven ELA Integrated ELD

Grade Eleven English Language Arts Integrated English Language Development: Analyzing Argumentative Text

Introductory Slides (00:00-–03:28)

Narrator: Welcome to the California Department of Education Integrated and Designated English Language Development Transitional Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve Video Series.

Narrator: English Language Arts with Integrated English Language Development in Grade 11. In this lesson, the students are in the middle of a unit of study about argumentative texts. Specifically, students are focusing on how understanding the text structure of an argument helps them read complex, unfamiliar texts, and accurately locate the author's claim, evidence to support that claim, and counterarguments. This will help them be successful when they engage in writing arguments of their own.

Narrator: The California Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Driving the Lesson. The English Language Arts standards are: Grades 11 and 12, Reading Standards for Informational Text, Standard 1, where students read closely to determine what the text says explicitly, cite textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text; Grades 11 and 12, Reading Standards for Informational Text, Standard 8, where students evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence; Grades 11 and 12, Reading Standards for Informational Text, Standard 10, where students read and comprehend complex informational texts independently and proficiently. And Grades 11 and 12, Speaking and Listening, Standard 1, where students prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on other's ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Watch how students move from early levels of proficiency toward the Bridging levels of these English Language Development standards throughout the lesson.

Narrator: The Supporting California English Language Development Standards Used in Tandem with the English Language Arts Standards. The English Language Development Standards at the Bridging Level are: Grades 11 and 12, Part 1, Standard 1: Exchanging Information and Ideas, where students contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, sustaining conversations on a variety of age and grade-appropriate academic topics by following turn-taking rules, asking and answering relevant, on-topic questions, affirming others, and providing coherent and well-articulated comments and additional information. And Grades 11 and 12, Part 2, Standard 1: Understanding Text Structure, where students apply analysis of the organizational structure of different text types to comprehending text and to writing clear and cohesive arguments, informative and explanatory texts, and narratives. Watch how students move from early levels of proficiency toward the bridging levels of these English language development standards throughout the lesson.

Narrator: Watch how the teacher prepares the students to make meaning of the organization and text structure of an argument. The teacher provides opportunities for them to read and analyze grade-level text and write throughout the lesson. The students first discuss with peers the content and text structure of an argument.

Teacher Introduces the Lesson (03:29–03:47)

Teacher: So, after just the individual thinking time, okay, so just in your groups, if you guys could take maybe 60 seconds, 90 seconds, just to touch base with each other and go over that question on argument and the structure of argument, and what does an argument have. Okay, so about 90 seconds. Go ahead touch base with everyone talk about that bell ringer.

Students Discuss in Small Groups (03:48–04:18)

Student 1: Um, I said it was structured somewhat like a normal essay but there's like the counterargument in it. And the claim. And you need the two supporting paragraphs that support your claim.

Student 2: Yeah, I also kind of said something like that where it has the topic sentence and then the claim with like their pieces of evidence that support their claim.

Student 3: Also, I say that that counterargument is always like optional, not always written.

Whole Class Debrief (04:19–05:41)

Teacher: Alright, good just, just, again a whole, whole class, just volunteers and that's always kind of what I look for. I'm not trying to call anyone out on purpose here, but any volunteers to help us out on here's how an argumentative text is structured?

Teacher: Thank you for that. Yeah, Lance, go for it.

Student 4: Um, I said that an argument should have like a whole bunch of different sources and a lot of evidence that's leaning towards one side of an argument.

Teacher: Okay, alright so sources. Right, evidence. That's good. Umm, yeah Josiah.

Student 5: We put that like there should also be a counterargument so you see where the other side stands, but then also why you believe like your side is right. And then also like evidence to back it up.

Teacher: That's good. Right, so you've got the the one side, right, to kind of hone in your argument, but then you've said the counter, just to make sure that it's like, I'm thinking of the other side and here's how I prove that wrong. Well we're missing one more thing, right. We've got the evidence. We've got the counter, but something comes in the beginning of the argument. Anyone help us out with that. Yeah, Kayla.

Student 1: The claim.

Teacher: The claim. Good, the claim right, the main argument. Okay. Here's how this activity is going to work. All right, in each group there's this blue piece of paper. Can can someone hold up this blue piece of paper at each group. Okay, hold it high up in the air.

Looking Deeply at Classroom Instruction (05:42–06:01)

Narrator: Watch how the teacher prepares the students to gain a deeper understanding of the organization and text structure of an argument. The students discuss with peers using learn language structures to identify the claim, supporting evidence, and counter argument in the text.

Teacher Prepares Student for the Next Task (06:02–07:36)

Teacher: So today we're just continuing our reading, our annotation, our discussion with the performance task, okay, on the pros and cons or the consequences of ambition. We've already started it, so the bellringer at the top of your activity is just kind of a recall and it's individual just thinking time for you guys to look at how an argument is structured before we dive into actually interacting and talking about the text.

Teacher: And so, what we're working on on this is each source—or I'm sorry, each blue piece of paper—has a checkbox. Okay, all I'm asking for is about five minutes of you guys to talk about and discuss and annotate all of these sources based off of the check boxes that are asked for you.

Teacher: Okay. Thumbs up if you get that. Thumbs up if you're with me. Alright and so when we rotate, so I'll walk you through it, okay. You just listen for me and I'll tell you when to rotate and things like that. But when we rotate, we'll stand up, tuck on our chairs, go to the next one and I just need you guys just to get right into it. Okay and then these boxes down here, after you're talking, I will bring you to a close. I'll have you fill in these boxes and then that'll signal moving on to the next step. Okay. So when in doubt, you've got something specific to talk about here. You've got three to four specifics to talk about here. You've got sentence starters here just to ask for clarification, things like that. Trust your instincts. Trust your guts. Have a good conversation. All the material is there for you.

Students Discuss in Small Groups (07:37–11:18)

Student 6: When there's ambition, there will be other people trying to make it to the top too. There will be competition and you'll have to be smarter than them so you could be better than them all the time. Because if not, like you're gonna fall behind and ambition doesn't always work out.

Student 7: Yes. Um, it says that they're very… they’re workaholics. That's something that they wrote. And I think it's interes... not interesting, but like, people who are ambition really work really hard to achieve what they want and since they work hard it can bring, um. There was one were it said...  Well it can't bring a lot of success to you, but also if you're so ambitious, so focused on something and it fails, that's a great loss to you. So, you, you're back to where you started.

Student 8: I highlighted that ambition is socially useful. It sustains economic vitality. It prods people to take risks and exert themselves. So ambitious people are workaholics and risk takers. And they work harder than everyone else to prove that they can achieve like a goal or a dream.

Student 7: Lai, any thoughts?

Student 9: Yes, so I think ambition so it depends on the, like the, is it really like achievable. If you like really set your goal very high and you end up like very low, is that goal is not good for you. That's what I got from it.

Student 10: So, source two states that ambition is socially useful and I agree with that because ever since we were little kids it was kind of put in our heads that we have to be ambitious or else we're lazy. We need to succeed. We need to go to all the high colleges or else we’re seen as kind of failures.

Student 11: Um hum. Yeah, well I actually think that without ambition, I mean, really all this stuff like, we know they probably wouldn't have existed, like you know, what if like Bill Gates wasn't ambitious would he have, you know, started, you know what he's made, you know. Ambition is kind of, it's kind of a key part of how like we operate you know, in society or what not. Because something like, without ambition, you know, would we really have improved at all? I guess.

Student 12: I feel like if we don't have ambition then we will have a lot of lost dreams. Like in paragraph 3 when it says, "There are damaged dreams, abandoned projects, and missed promotions." So being too ambitious leads to incompletion.

Student 13: I agree with you guys. For me, ambition is, like, push yourself like to do something like you have ambition. You think in your mind, like, come on, I can do this, I have to do this because it's gonna be for me. It's gonna be for a better life, for better things. And that's it.

Student 11: Um hm. Yeah. Ambition basically pushes us to do things that hasn't been done before. Which is, you know, that's how, like, we keep on advancing. You know. Keep…

Student 13: Keep going. You still have to push yourself to have ambition.

Student 10: At the end it says, "Ambition is bitter as often as sweet, but without it we'd be sour." So, we definitely need it but in moderation.

Student 11: Yeah, in moderation.

Looking Deeply at Classroom Instruction (11:19–11:34)

Narrator: Watch how the teacher prepares the students to make meaning of the organization and text structure of an argument. The teacher provides opportunities for them to discuss with peers the skills they use to understand the content of an argument text.

Teacher Prepares Student for the Next Task (11:34–12:21)

Teacher: Okay, go ahead and flip over your handout. Couple things and you've seen these before, the checkboxes at the bottom, okay, the skills we've been trying to work on all year long. And I've talked about them. They're up here too—all year they've been, they're on either side of the projector. So, you've seen them. We've participated in discussions. You've seen them. So, what I'm gonna ask you to do and how we'll close this is in a couple ways. One, it's individually. Two, it'll be small group and then three I'll call on a few of you as far as whole group, okay. So, what I'd like you to do is go through these skills. Check off the ones you think we've worked on today. Okay, go ahead and fill in that conclusion activity with the two questions independently and then we'll talk about it. Okay, go for it.

Students Work Independently (12:21–12:34)

 [Long pause while students work silently.]

Teacher Prepares Student for the Next Task (12:35–12:55)

Teacher: Even if you didn't finish all of the questions, now would be a nice opportunity to talk about those and as someone brings up a point you can make a bullet point or you can fill them in. So just have a brief— let’s go with a two-minute discussion. Again, make sure everyone's participating and answer those two questions and check off the skills, okay. Two minutes. Go for it.

Students Reflect on the Lesson in Small Groups (12:56–13:51)

Student 10: Which skill are you most comfortable with?

[multiple students speaking in the background]

Student 13: I am not sure.

Student 12: I feel like I'm the most comfortable with responding to what others have to say.

Student 10: What about you?

Student 11: Umm, I guess my strongest point would be like identifying the central idea and what not. Like it's kind of easy for me to understand that, or like, finding you know like that one sentence that kind of lists the main idea of the article or what not. And I just, like, it helps me understand how to connect the evidence together.

Student 13: Um, for me, was like, read—read by myself and try to find a claim and how I gonna support with evidence from the text.

Looking Deeply at Classroom Instruction (13:52–14:02)

Narrator: Watch how the teacher provides opportunities for the students to make meaning of an argument text by discussing with peers their understanding of the structure of an argument.

Whole Class Reflection and Closure (14:03–15:37)

Teacher: After the first rotation on why it's important to at least have the conversation. Be able to talk about those things and talked about different perspectives, okay. There's a question on here that asks, “Now, how does knowing the structure of an argument help you better in your understanding of what you're reading and your overall learning?” Volunteers on that? On how knowing the structure of an argument helping you in your learning and understanding of the text. Lai, go for it.

Student 9: So, I would say knowing the structure of an argument text can help me read another argument text better next time. I can know what part I am reading and what I'm expecting from this part. And help me understand the text better.

Teacher: Now I'm gonna throw you another question. Do you read those kinds of texts in other classes?

Student 9: All the time.

Teacher: All the time. Okay so thank you for that. Anything else, anyone. Yeah, Josiah go for it.

Student 5: Me and Nathan were talking and we said, like, you can be reading something, like the counterargument. You can think it's the main argument or something like that. So, it's better to know, like, what you're looking for and like why it is what it is. Like, why does the author think that ambition is important or why he doesn't. And then you have to see that so, like, when you're making an argument you could have pros and cons in it.

Teacher: Yes. Yeah, I like that point, too, on understanding the structure—lets me know, oh this is the counter because it maybe if you didn't, you might get confused and think, “Oh that's the main argument.” So that works our nicely as well.

Reflection and Discussion (15:38–16:59)

Narrator: Reflection and Discussion. Reflect on the following questions. First, how did you observe the following focal content standards and supporting English language development standards being implemented in this grade eleven integrated English language development lesson? English Language Arts Reading Standards for Informational Texts, Standard 1, Standard 8, and Standard 10. Speaking and Listening, Standard 1. English Language Development, Part 1, Standard 1: Exchanging Information and Ideas; and Part 2, Standard 1: Understanding Text Structure. Second, what features of integrated English language development did you observe in the lesson? Now pause the video and engage in a discussion with colleagues.

[pause]

Narrator: The California Department of Education would like to thank the administrators, teachers, and students who participated in the making of this video. This video was made possible by the California Department of Education, in collaboration with WestEd and Timbre Films.