How Do We Support English Learners in College and Career Readiness? Kentaro Iwasaki, Associate Director for Learning, Teaching, & Pathway Development ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career

About ConnectEd ConnectEd partners with school, district, and community leaders to transform education through Linked Learning pathways so that all students, regardless of background, are prepared to succeed in college, career, community, and life. www.connectedcalifornia.org ?

Objective and Agenda Share process and strategies to support ELs in College and Career Readiness Icebreaker/Meet and Greet/Introductions Background of the Project—What and Why? Implementation and Strategies—How? Q&A ?

To Begin… Please think of an English Learner you know… Maybe it’s someone you’ve taught, who’s in your family, or who’s a friend… Please keep them in the forefront of your mind during this session and use that person’s experiences to test the validity of the ideas from today… ?

For Me, I think of Axel… ?

Meet a New Person and Share… What skills and supports are needed in the workplace for English Learners to engage meaningfully? In the workplace, why is collaboration valued? What skills are needed for collaboration? ?

Industry Survey (Informal)… What skills and supports are needed in the workplace for English Learners to engage meaningfully? Reading, Writing Speaking, Listening Patience, Empathy, Openness to others Not Afraid to Make Mistakes, Take Risks, Confidence, Speaking Up ?

Industry Survey (Informal)… In the workplace, why is collaboration valued? What skills are needed for collaboration? No One Knows Everything—Diverse Skill Sets Diverse Experiences/Specializations (Exposing Issues, Assumptions or Ambiguity) Division of Labor; Speed and Efficiency ?

Where We Started… The Gates Foundation funded a CCSS-focused grant to support ELs in Linked Learning in San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (improve graduation rates and redesignation rates) Part of the process involved working with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ?

Improvement Science ?

Improvement Science ?

Improvement Science ?

Improvement Science ?

Where We Started… ?

Improvement Science What is the “problem” and where does it start? Data dive! Empathy interviews of students, families, teachers ?

Focusing the Aim High school ELs were not gaining equitable access to LL pathways due to math passing rates and were failing to graduate from high school due to math. Focus on a cohort before they get to high school LL pathways. Start with a small pilot to make sure it works. ?

Focusing the Aim Jeff Zwiers, Stanford Understanding Language Jenny Langer-Osuna, Stanford Math Education ?

8th Grade Math Focus—Shell Center’s Formative Assessment Lessons

Changing Classrooms and Instruction… Students need to productively engage with more language and produce more language Classrooms must become more collaborative Teachers (and Students) Need Strategies and Tools Students (and Teachers) Need to Feel Safe Students (and Teachers) Need a Reason to Collaborate

Building Backward from the Micro to the Macro Teachers want immediate strategies and tools to see if they work. If they are successful, they’ll buy in more. Then they may be more open to theory and approaches that change their instruction.

Stronger Clearer Circles Participants in the inner circle face those in the outer circle. Prompt given. Participants in inner circle share ideas with those in the outer circle and vice-versa. Inner circle then rotates one person over, and each participant shares ideas (borrowing and using language). Repeat.

Stronger Clearer Circles Take a moment to think about this Google interview question: How many golf balls fit in a school bus?

Stronger Clearer Circles How many golf balls fit in a school bus? Inner Circle Participants Share Ideas and Outer Circle Participants Also Share Ideas We will then rotate the inner circle twice

Stronger Clearer Circles Debrief Did the responses become stronger (with more reasoning and often longer)? Did the responses become clearer (with more precise terms and linked, organized language)? What did you think of Stronger-Clearer Circles?

Information Gap Often teachers over-scaffold for ELs but industry partners point to the need to collaborate because no one holds all the information. Tasks with an Information Gap: Require students to use resources to find needed information to complete the task Drive students by a “need to know” Appeal to students to “figure it out” through reliance on each other and/or resources

Information Gap Consider this task with two approaches. Which has more of an Information Gap and would require more collaboration and use of language? What has been your experience with how much scaffolding is given to ELs?

Discourse Tool Thanks to Garden Grove, Oakland, San Francisco Unified and Understanding Language and SERP! Consider the Discourse Tool: Quantity Collaboration Quality

Discourse Tool Choose one focus area from the Discourse Tool to look for evidence in the video: Quantity Collaboration Quality How might the Discourse Tool promote changes in instruction?

8th Grade Math Focus—Shell Center’s Formative Assessment Lessons

Class Video https://youtu.be/YXEX20TI-h0 16:25

Reading—Three Read Protocol Partner 1 Reads Problem to Partner 2: What is the problem asking us to do? Partner 2 Reads Problem to Partner 1: What do you know about the problem? Read the Problem Out Loud Again: What unknown information do you need to find in order to solve the problem? What formulas, operations, diagrams or pictures are useful for this problem?

Reading Non-Fiction--Notice and Note Three Big Questions when reading: (?) What did the author think I already knew? --Schema (!) What surprised me? -- New input (*) What challenged, changed, or confirmed what I already knew? --Input in light of conceptions or misconceptions Please debrief the Three Read Protocol and Three Big Questions

Understanding Language Principles Focus on students’ (mathematical) reasoning and not on their accuracy in using language Focus on (mathematical) practices or competencies and not on language as single words or definitions Treat everyday and home languages as resources and not as obstacles

Mindset

Complex Instruction

Competencies/ “Smartnesses”

Class Video https://youtu.be/YXEX20TI-h0 4:23-6:55

Q & A

Thank you! Kentaro Iwasaki kiwasaki@connectedcalifornia.org www.connectedcalifornia.org

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