Site Observation Tip #5:
Students May Prefer Pronouns but Academic Nouns Are the Key to Achievement
Welcome back! So far, we have covered four important aspects of the language hurdles students frequently face when confronted with state and national assessments. Most of those hurdles can be overcome when teachers understand how to make “test language” a regular part of their daily instruction all year long. By doing so, students are prepared for the academic language demands common to state and national assessments.
In our everyday speech, we throw pronouns around like popcorn. But it rarely matters because we’re usually talking about simple things. We can easily make sense of what “it” refers to, or who “she” is because we’re familiar with the content, and we’re talking face to face.
In testing situations, it’s just the opposite. The material is new and possibly complex, and we are not talking face to face. Accuracy and specificity are critical.'
But what frequently happens in classrooms creates a slippery slope on test day. Look at the first classroom transcription below and see how pronouns are substituted for the accurate use of academic nouns. When students write this way on tests, it results in a poor score.
You can see in this first example that pronouns are bandied about freely by both teacher and students. In their answers, students get a pass on having to use correctly the more accurate and grade-appropriate nouns (quadrilateral, polygon, sides). Now read the second example, which is the same teacher (two class periods later) who now understands why pronouns are one of the enemies of specificity and academic language use by students.
By comparing these two transcriptions, we can see how and why the language used by teachers and students during daily instruction is foundational for preparing students for assessments that require high levels of language sophistication.
