Amplifying the Curriculum

This book presents an ambitious model for how educators can design high-quality, challenging, and supportive learning opportunities for English Learners and other students identified to be in need of language and literacy support. Starting with the premise that conceptual, analytic, and language practices develop simultaneously as students engage in disciplinary learning, the authors argue for instruction that amplifies—rather than simplifies—expectations, concepts, texts, and learning tasks. The authors offer clear guidance for designing lessons and units and provide examples that demonstrate the approach in various subject areas, including math, science, English, and social studies. This practical resource will guide teachers through the coherent design of tasks, lessons, and units of study that invite English Learners (and all students) to engage in productive, meaningful, and intellectually engaging activity.

Book Features:

• A unique model for teaching English Learners and ALL students that highlights the centrality of interactions in the development of student academic autonomy.
• Discipline-specific examples to guide teachers in creating learning tasks, lessons, and units of study.
• A discussion of how teachers might begin designing such learning opportunities, along with suggestions for how school leaders and teacher preparation can support them.
• Grounded in sociocultural and ecological theories of language, language learning, and the development of disciplinary practices.

Aída Walqui is director of the Teacher Professional Development Program at WestEd and the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) initiative. George C. Bunch is professor of education at University of California, Santa Cruz and winner of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2017 Second Language Research Special Interest Group Midcareer Award.

“…offers a new approach to designing quality instruction that integrates theoretically-grounded best practices for ELs supported by current research. The detailed illustrations of the implementation of this approach by classroom teachers across content areas exemplify its practicality and effectiveness. With a wealth of useful resources and teacher-friendly language, this text will appeal to educators and a wide range of educational stakeholders who are looking for insights into how to more effectively engage their ELs while supporting their disciplinary and language development.”

—Teachers College Record

“This book offers the most detailed guide available for designing instruction for students categorized as ELLs. Descriptions of math, literature, science, and history lessons illustrate how language and literacy can emerge and develop from classroom interactions in which learning is deliberately and contingently scaffolded. Lessons are described in detail and learning activities and outcomes are clearly presented. Theoretically grounded and informed by years of implementation and study, this work is without equal in the field. I recommend the book enthusiastically as required reading in all teacher preparation programs.”
—Guadalupe Valdés, Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education

“Reflecting its title, this book is an ‘amplification’ of what it means to provide the best learning opportunities for English language learners. Drawing on classroom-based research, Amplifying the Curriculum offers many practical examples of intellectually engaging units and tasks. This innovative book belongs on the bookshelves of all teachers.”
—Pauline Gibbons, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney

"‘Amplify, don't simplify’ is an important approach for teachers who work with students new to learning English, yet it takes significant expertise in curriculum development as well as understandings of students' cultural and linguistic resources. Walqui and Bunch, along with their team of collaborators, go beyond telling to showing, as they demonstrate what amplification looks like in a range of classrooms and content areas. This timely book is a call to educators across the nation to integrate language, literacy, and disciplinary knowledge to improve the education of our new American students.”
—Tatyana Kleyn, The City College of New York

Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1. Educating English Learners in the 21st Century 1
George C. Bunch and Aída Walqui

2. What Is Quality Learning for English Learners? 21
Aída Walqui and George C. Bunch

3. Designing the Amplified Lesson 43
Aída Walqui

4. Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Making Powerful Texts Accessible and Engaging to English Learners 71
Mary Schmida

5. Investigating Disease Transmission: Engaging English Learners in a Phenomenon-Based Science Lesson 93
Tomás Galguera, Catherine Lemmi, and Paolo C. Martin

6. Making Slope a Less Slippery Concept for English Learners: Redesigning Mathematics Instruction with Rich Interactions 115
Leslie Hamburger and Haiwen Chu

7. Mapping a Changing World View: Designing Learning Experiences for English Learners in Social Studies 139
Nicholas Catechis and Pía Castilleja

8. What Makes Me Who I Am?: Engaging Beginning-Level English Learners in Quality Learning 165
Lee Hartman and Elsa Billings

9. Where the Rubber Meets the Road: What Teachers and Students Report When Implementing High- Quality Learning Designs for English Learners 187
George C. Bunch, Heather Schlaman,
and Sara Rutherford-Quach

10. Developing Teacher Expertise to Design Amplified Learning Opportunities for English Learners 207
Aída Walqui and George C. Bunch

About the Editors and Contributors 227

Index 231