This session will focus on the use of Language Dives¹, a powerful inquiry-based strategy in which students analyze, comprehend, and use the language of meaningful academic sentences. It’s a simple but useful tool that’s easy to learn. By applying the engaging formula of deconstructing, reconstructing, and then practicing key sentences, students will strengthen their understanding of literary and informational texts as well as go deeper into literal and inferential thinking. They will activate and build prior knowledge and strengthen content vocabulary. We will also discuss the many different applications of the strategy across content areas. ¹The EL Education Language Dive is based on “Juicy Sentences”: Wong Fillmore, L., & Fillmore, C. (2012, January) “What does text complexity mean for English learners and language minority students?” Paper presented at the Understanding Language Conference, Stanford, CA.
