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PAGE 16A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
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2 Barrow teachers participate in day of World Language Academy instruction
TEACHING NEW USES
Paul Duncan talks to students from World Language Academy about medic
inal uses for plants growing in the University of Georgia’s Latin American
Ethnobotanical Garden. Photo courtesy of Kristen Morales/UGA
Paul Duncan held a leaf
up for the seventh-graders to
inspect. His fingers pinched
half of it, while the lower
half seemed to dangle in air
below.
“Is it magic?” he asked
as the students, all from
World Language Academy
in Flowery Branch, stared
in amazement. They began
plucking their own leaves
from the tree, a form of dog
wood that grows in Central
America, to investigate how
the leafs invisible fibers
seemed to defy gravity.
The lesson under the
tree by Duncan, associate
director of the Latin Amer
ican and Caribbean Studies
Institute at the University of
Georgia, was one of several
new discoveries the World
Language Academy students
made while on a recent trip
to the Athens campus. The
day brought students through
several lessons that touched
on their lives at school:
Plants of Central and South
America; an introduction to
the UGA program in Portu
guese and an introduction to
UGA’s Costa Rica campus;
and a new way to explore
classroom discussions with
English-language learners.
Portuguese is a “foreign
language” option for stu
dents at World Language
Academy, who already
spend part of the day study
ing in Spanish or Chinese.
The plant knowledge will be
useful when students take
the annual seventh-grade trip
to UGA s Costa Rica campus
in May, as plant biology is a
large part of their curriculum.
But it was the classroom dis
cussion lesson that was a
first for the middle-schoolers
— although even then, they
were on board with the idea.
“We were learning
about how to properly lis
ten. That’s very big at our
school, because our school is
all about being open-mind
ed and open to different
opinions and cultures,” said
13-year-old Brandyn Peter
son as she and her friends
sat down to have lunch at
the Tate Center on the UGA
campus.
The other girls around the
table agreed. “Sometimes
people focus on what they
believe, but at our school
we learn to break through
that barrier,” added Alana
Veiga, 13. “That will help us
when we’re adults. It’s very
important for us to learn that
now.”
Barrow
teachers’ involvement
But the discussion that
morning, led by Ysheena
Lyles and Clarence Brantley,
teachers at Bear Creek Mid
dle School in Barrow Coun
ty. did more than encourage
students to work together to
solve problems. Lyles, who
teaches seventh-grade lan
guage arts, challenged the
students to work in small
groups to write a paragraph
comparing symbolism found
in a poem and a song; Brant
ley, an eighth-grade social
studies teacher, asked the stu
dents to create an argument
for the motivation behind
European exploration.
It was the way Lyles and
Brantley drew the informa
tion out of the students that
made the lesson innovative.
They used a method of
teaching called “instruction
al conversation” that is being
taught to teachers through
UGA’s Center for Latino
Achievement and Success
in Education (CLASE).
Working in small groups,
teachers present information
to students — for example,
Lyles gave students a poem
and a song — and assign
the project. Then, teachers
ask a series of open-ended
questions aimed at steering
the conversation among the
students as they reach a con
sensus.
Along the way. each
student is encouraged to
express their own opinions
and arguments, supported by
citing textual evidence, and
keeping in mind goals they
have set for themselves and
the group. When the group
comes to a consensus, the
teacher not only has an idea
of how each student digest
ed the material — because
they heard the discussion —
but also the thought process
behind the finished product.
‘This concept was new
to them,” said Lyles. “Once
they got rolling. I saw them
growing leaps and bounds
with their conversation and
others at the table. My own
students have said that — ‘It
gives me an opportunity to
know what my classmates
think.’”
This process is also
important because of the way
it connects English speakers
and English-language learn
ers in a classroom. Research
done by CLASE has a found
this “instructional conversa
tion” method has increased
English-language learners’
comprehension of math, sci
ence and language arts by 14
percent to 25 percent above a
control group. In areas such
as reading, English-language
learners still outperformed
controls by 10 percent.
Paula Mellom, associ
ate director of CLASE,
said teachers can take this
instructional framework one
step further by introducing
content into the lesson that
identifies with students’ cul
tural heritage. In this way,
you’re further drawing stu
dents into the conversation
by using characters or ideas
they are familiar with.
“For example, if you’re
teaching about exploration
and colonization, you can
bring in content about Latin
America,” she said.
The IC framework also
allows students to set goals
for the discussion, such as
speaking up more or con
tributing more to the group’s
debate, and also set goals
for the group as a whole.
After the project is finished,
the teacher can then use the
evaluation as an additional
tool to allow the students
to reflect on the topic, their
understanding of it, and how
they can do things differently
next time.
The lessons introduced to
World Language Academy
students are available to any
teacher for free through the
Latin American Caribbean
Studies website (www.lacsi-
uga.org). Lyles and Brantley
created the lessons as part
of a grant-funded project
that is a partnership between
LACSI and CLASE.
But the benefits of the
lessons extend beyond
English-language learners,
Mellom said. The frame
work the World Language
Academy students learned
also teaches important con
cepts such as framing an
argument, listening to others
and learning from a “produc
tive straggle” — or. com
ing up with an answer for a
question that has no one right
answer.
The time for “instruction
al conversation” also served
as a bridge for the World
Language Academy students
as they dabbled in Portu
guese and the plants of Costa
Rica. Laurie Brown, a sev
enth-grade science teacher at
World Language Academy,
said many of the students on
the field trip were also going
to be traveling to Costa Rica
in May, where many of the
lessons focused on plant
biology — a key component
of seventh-grade science
standards.
Understanding that the
plants have uses beyond
beauty — or even food —
will help give the students
a deeper understanding of
the natural world when they
arrive in Costa Rica. Just as
their discussions about His
panic literature and culture in
other subjects will help them
gain a greater understanding
before they make the trip.
“When you see your kids
respond to this — it makes
a difference,” added Brant
ley. who first learned about
the “instructional conversa
tion” method during a sum
mer workshop hosted by
CLASE.
“Being a part of this has
been really great because it’s
a good tool to have.”
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