Vignette 7.3. Reading, Analyzing, and Discussing
Complex Texts in American Literature
Integrated ELA/Literacy, ELD, and History in Grade Eleven (cont.)(Some) Language for Taking an Academic Stance (cont.)To build or add on:
I’d like to elaborate on to what you said.
Also, ____.To disagree respectfully:
I’m not sure I agree with ____
because ____.
I can see your point. However, _____.As students converse, Ms. Robertson circulates around the room, answering questions and
prompting students’ thinking. She observes how individual students participate, process the
ideas, and use language appropriate for the task. At one point, she listens in on a conversation
that includes two EL students at the early Bridging level of English language proficiency, Adriana
and Chue.
Sara: I think that what’s mostly happening in this part is that the Cherokee nation
is being removed from their lands and to the West. They’re going to move
them somewhere in the West. Before, when Ms. Robertson was reading,
they said that the “permanent Indian frontier” would let them stay because
it was supposed to be permanent, but now they have to go. So, I think the
quotation marks mean that it’s not really permanent.
Adriana: That’s an interesting point. Also, I noticed that it says that there were
soldiers. I think the soldiers were putting them into prisons. But some of
them got away into the mountains.
Sara: Yeah, I think they put them into prisons first, and then they moved them all
West, right?
Chue: There was something about gold that I don’t get.
David: Yeah, I saw that, too. It says “but the discovery of Appalachian gold within
their territory brought on a clamor for their immediate wholesale exodus.”
So, I think there was gold on their land. They found gold there.
Chue: And the soldiers wanted it. So the soldiers were doing the removing.
Sara: The government. The U.S. government wanted it, I think.
Chue: So, my understanding of the text is that the government wanted gold, and
then they moved the Cherokee nation to the West. But, why couldn’t they
just let them stay there while they got the gold?
Ms. Robertson: Can you take a look at this part, “a clamor for their immediate wholesale
exodus”? What do you think that means?
David: A clamor is when there’s a lot of noise, and immediate means they had to
do it, like, right now. Exodus, what does that mean?
Adriana: It sounds like exit.
David: Okay, so... I still don’t get it. (The other students concur.)798 | Chapter 7 Grades 11 and 12