"Exit Ticket": BICS vs CALP

Exit Ticket

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)	Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
- Type of language needed to carry on an everyday conversation. - Everyday vocabulary - High frequency words - language supported by facial expressions and gestures.	- Required language for academic success in school - English not used in everyday conversational context - Low frequency vocabulary - Content area vocabulary that is very specific to those context areas -Found in class textbooks, workbooks, videos, assignments/tests

“As we go up the grade levels, the vocabulary load, conceptual load, and discourse load embedded in the curriculum becomes increasing challenging for students.” – Dr. Jim Cummins

Knowing about BICS and CALP, will help me to become a more effective teacher because I will not be mislead when a student has strong BICS. I will be very happy when my students have strong BICS and confidence, but I will still need plan to support them with CALP. I believe having anchor charts, word walls, and going over the key vocabulary before reading a text are very important. Repetition is something I find helps students master new concepts quickly. I personally love to watch quick music videos with my students that are content related.

My school is currently getting trained on Kagan Structures, which are instructional strategies designed to promote cooperation and communication in the classroom, boost students' confidence and retain their interest in classroom interaction.

In my class we frequently use: Think-Pair-Share

T : (Think) Teachers begin by asking a specific question about the text. Students "think" about what they know or have learned about the topic.

P : (Pair) Each student should be paired with another student or a small group.

S : (Share) Students share their thinking with their partner. Teachers expand the "share" into a whole-class discussion.

When we “share” our answers, students that normally wouldn’t raise their hand end up raising their hand because they now had a chance to discuss the question in a small group and feel more confident.

Why use think-pair-share?

• It helps students to think individually about a topic or answer to a question.
• It teaches students to share ideas with classmates and builds oral communication skills.
• It helps focus attention and engage students in comprehending the reading material.

See more at:

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share

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