Close Reading - Understanding and Unpacking Language - Informational Texts

Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to Build Meaning, Precision, and Power in Student Writing

LIVE Zoom Workshop REPLAY with Dr. Ruslana Westerlund, co-author of the WIDA 2020 ELD Standards

(includes handouts and slides)

Informational texts in science, social studies, and technical subjects are often challenging because they are lexically dense—they pack large amounts of meaning into tightly structured sentences. Rather than simplifying texts, this virtual professional development session helps educators learn how to scaffold students’ understanding by making disciplinary language visible.

This meeting was a training session on functional language analysis for close reading of informational texts, led by Dr. Ruslana Westerlund and hosted by Kelly Reider from English Learner Portal. Dr. Westerlund presented key concepts from systemic functional linguistics (SFL), focusing on how meaning unfolds across texts rather than focusing solely on sentence-level grammar. The session covered four main language features that make informational texts complex: causality through verbs, nominalization for abstraction, noun group density, and theme-rheme patterns. Participants worked in small groups to analyze a tornado text, identifying causal chains, noun groups, and theme patterns. The training emphasized teaching students to understand how language functions across texts rather than simplifying content, with particular attention to how multilingual learners can develop disciplinary literacy skills in science.