EL Achieve and EdTech

EL Achieve and EdTech

Royal High School June 12, 2025

“What got Starbucks (Royal) to where it is today, is not going to get it to where it needs to go.”

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Thought for today...

​Brady Brewer, Starbucks International CEO

Channel your inner storyteller—this is your moment to feel, imagine, and be heard. Click here to begin Use the code below to join.

A little thought experiment...

​Need support? Here are some Language Function Tools. Click here

Audio Response

Propose a specific speaking activity you could use in your classroom to replace a worksheet-based lesson, and explain how this change could help English Learners develop their academic language skills more effectively.

Open Audio Recorder

Audio Response

Share a specific moment when you noticed an English Learner struggling to participate in a classroom discussion, and describe how their silence affected their engagement or learning.

Open Audio Recorder

Discussion Question: How did the entry task we just completed support student talk and student learning? Why did it prove effective or ineffective?

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Behind the scenes

Quizizz gives you insight? How? Why? When?

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Quizizz is your friend

Just like pro teams use data and video analysis to make real-time decisions, AI-assisted grading gives teachers quick, actionable insights that help adjust instruction on the fly—without replacing your expertise.

AI "Grading"

Upload the Language Function Tool, describe your assignment and what you want students to do, and refine the rubric.

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Create Your Rubric

Read through this article, and then create your own discussion prompt. Here is the article (click here ).

Here are the Language Function Tools (click here).

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Create Your Own

​Who wants to be a risk-taker and have us complete their activity?

Show and Tell

What about writing? Don’t students also need to write to show proficiency?

Soon…

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That’s great but…

For now read this article (click here).

The purpose for reading this article is to think about intentionally incorporating EL Achieve and EdTech strategies into our practice.

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We will get to it…

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Next Steps…

Listen and Comment

1. Go back to the Padlet board (or click here).

2. Find a post by someone who you would like to hear what they had to say.

3. Listen to the post.

4. Reply back to the person in a new post

What is a Spiderweb Discussion?

A Spiderweb Discussion is a student-led discussion format where participants create a visual “web” of their conversation by tracking who speaks to whom. The teacher sits outside the circle and maps the flow of dialogue, creating a web-like diagram that shows the interconnected nature of student contributions.
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Key Features:

• Students lead the conversation with minimal teacher intervention

• Discussion flows naturally between participants

• Visual mapping reveals participation patterns and connection points

• Promotes active listening and thoughtful response to peers’ ideas

• Students sit in a circle or around a table

• Teacher positions themselves outside the group with a seating chart

• A discussion topic, text, or question is introduced

Setup

How Spiderweb Discussions Work

During the Discussion:

• Students sit in a circle or around a table

• Teacher positions themselves outside the group with a seating chart

• A discussion topic, text, or question is introduced

The Visual Web:

• Each line represents a conversational connection

• Dense webs show rich, interconnected dialogue

• Sparse areas reveal students who need encouragement to participate

• Start with engaging, open-ended topics that students care about

• Establish ground rules for respectful dialogue beforehand

• Debrief using the web discussion participation and connection patterns

• Gradually increase the complexity of topics as students become comfortable
  
  

Best Practices

• Student Ownership

• Deeper Listening

• Participant Insights

• Critical Thinking

• Authentic Discourse

• Practice with Language Function Tools

​Benefits

Benefits and Best Practices

​Underneath the hood

How do you set up the classroom to actually do this activity? What about students who don't talk? How do you get students to talk? This is all...

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That is all great but...

• Model Early: Teach how to ask questions, cite text, and build on ideas.

• Set Norms: Create a safe space for risk-taking and respectful dialogue.

• Use Parlay Tools: Students track participation with visuals like chord diagrams and participation summaries.

• Reflect & Set Goals: Encourage metacognition and growth after each discussion.

• Step Back: Gradually shift ownership to students as skills develop.

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Setting the stage

" From Hot Mess to Honest Magic: Just Survive the First Web! " 

• Team Effort Counts: The class earns a shared grade based on how well they collaborate, stay focused, and engage in thoughtful dialogue.

• Built-In Peer Support: Students are motivated to include others and keep the discussion on track—because everyone’s performance matters.

• Still Fair: Individual grades are also given to recognize personal contributions and effort.

• Boosts Buy-In: Whole class

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Start with group grading

​All for One, Grade for All!

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Group Grading

Lessons Learned

• Encourages collaboration over competition

• Builds accountability and empathy among peers

• Motivates students to include and support quieter voices

• Reflects real-world teamwork and communication skills

• Reinforces norms for respectful, focused dialogue

• A teacher can create a grading category as 1% or 0% weight if uncomfortable with the whole class grade

" Running Parlay for the first few times is like hosting a dance party for statues—expect crickets, blank stares, and maybe one brave soul doing the academic equivalent of a slow head nod. Hang in there, it gets livelier! " 

Our grading systems reflect tradition: personal achievement, individually measured.

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Individual Grades

Individual Scoring

Around the Horn Style

You can structure Parlay Ideas discussions like “Around the Horn” by having participants share their thoughts on a topic in a roundtable format, with a moderator guiding the conversation and awarding points for insightful, creative, or well-supported contributions. As the discussion progresses, participants build on each other’s ideas in a collaborative yet competitive environment, and the top contributor at the end is recognized

The system totally purposefully unpredictable, is just like life, intentionally changing just like life. Some days stats got you big points. Here you go, big points Pablo. Other days the exact opposite. I wanted receipts, proof, timeline, everything. Also access journalists who were there. I would award points for that. Some days good fellas got you points one way. Some days the other way. And some days I was like "Hey what do you want from me?" And I banned cliches. Those were the bad phrases on the show.

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Ta-dah

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What about Writing?

Open Ended

Argue whether the fact that we often don’t make a conscious effort to incorporate EL Achieve strategies, such as structured speaking activities, in our high school classrooms is limiting opportunities for English Learners to develop their academic language skills. Support your position with at least one specific benefit we might see by adopting these strategies or one challenge we face that prevents us from doing so.

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​Incorporate your rubric to gain insight into student writing and provide quick feedback. The limitation is 1,000 characters, including spaces.

Quiziz

Activate the Genie Feedback to give students instant feedback on their writing. If writing will be used as a grade, deactivate the Genie Feedback system.

Paray Ideas

Create a verbal and a written Parlay Ideas about anything you wish (remember, your boss is in the room). One lucky participant will be sharing their experience.

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AI is your friend

Let's share.

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Your Turn