A video modeling intervention for teaching academic language discourse skills

The challenges of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the importance of developing instructional strategies and curricular materials that are versatile and ready for delivery both virtually and in the brick-and-mortar classroom to support diverse learners. This article reports a viable intervention that integrates video modeling of debate with whole classroom discussion, a literacy-rich practice to support adolescent students' learning of academic language skills that are critical for their success in school. This is an area requiring technology-enhanced instructional innovations. To be prepared for college and beyond, adolescents are expected to master academic discourse skills: stating a position, referencing interlocutors' ideas, and integrating evidential supporting sources to make effective arguments. A five-week hybrid intervention study was designed to help students develop persuasive skills by decreasing low and increasing high dialogic talk. This exploratory, descriptive study with a pre- and post-quasi-experimental design was conducted in an urban middle school in the United States with eight grade 6 and grade 8 Social Studies classes. The intervention was effective in significantly decreasing eighth graders' minimal (low-dialogic) talk. There were some positive incremental changes in high dialogic talk categories, but none were significant across grades. We observed students' active engagement with the intervention. The results suggest that the intervention has potential to support students' development of academic language skills, and that a longer-term implementation of the approach deserves study.