Topic 5 Pre-service Calla Handbook Ch 1

This chapter of the CALLA Handbook basically gives us an idea of what CALLA is and who it is for. CALLA is an instructional model designed to meet the needs of students learning English as a second language in American schools. Our ESL students need learning strategies that will help them deal with the dual demands of learning a new language and learning academic content through that new language. From the beginning of the chapter there was an important distinction made. Just because a student can speak and understand English fairly well does not mean that he or she still does not have difficulties in content classrooms where there is an expectation to use English as a tool for learning. Here we have social language vs. academic language. Social communication takes about 2 years to develop; however, a student needs 5-7 years to acquire language skills for successful participation in content classrooms. Again this is important to note that it is a question of cognitive academic language proficiency vs. social interactive language skills. A quick overview of CALLA is the following: targets advanced, beginning, and intermediate levels for three types of ESL students. First, those with social communicative skills but not yet developed academic language skills appropriate to their grade level. Second, students with academic language skills in their primary language and beginning proficiency in English but need help to transfer concepts and skills learning in primary language to English. Third, Bilingual English dominant students who have not developed academic language skills in either language. All three of these cover students I have right now in my classes. a quick overview of CALLA we can break it down into three parts:
1. language development
2. content area instruction
3.explicit instruction in learning strategies.

Finally, this chapter offers a list of the theoretical framework of this model.

1. Learning is an active dynamic process.
2. Three types of knowledge
a. declarative (knowledge of facts)
b. procedural (knowledge of how to do things)
c. Declatative and procedural kowledge are learned in different ways and retrieved in different ways from memory.
d. recognition of procedural and declarative knowledge by teachers. Figure out what strtegies the studetns are using and encourage them.
e. Students have power to control their own learning and develop independentlearning skills.