Mastering Academic Language ─ A Framework for Supporting Student Achievement

Zacarian, who consults with state agencies and school districts on policies, programming, and professional development for culturally and linguistically diverse populations, contends that the achievement gap is an academic language gap between standard vs. nonstandard speakers of school language and provides ways to address this gap through planning and delivery to create high-quality learning, school, and parent engagement environments. She uses an asset-based model of students and explains a framework of academic language learning as a sociocultural, developmental, academic, and cognitive thinking-to-learn process. She describes the major federal initiatives that have tried to close the achievement gap; the characteristics of students who understand academic language and those who are learning it; how learning should be compelling, meaningful, and relevant to students and how to use cooperative learning for enhancing academic language; the principles and practices of academic language and literacy learning; a content literacy learning, curriculum standards-based perspective that uses backward design, clear content and "do" objectives, and explicit vocabulary instruction/development; the development and enhancement of higher-order thinking skills; engaging parents in their child's schooling; and using the framework and its data to strengthen student achievement and parent engagement. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)