1. Benefits of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms 2 nd grade student Theo * *name changed

2. Student – Theo* name has been changed  Age: 8 years old  Gender: Male  Grade: 2 nd  Home Language: Spanish  Socioeconomic Status: Low (below poverty)

3. Academic Challenges  Up until recently Theo has been without medication that is necessary to his academic success. He needs this medication to stay focused, in his seat, and on task.  Theo is unable to read at grade level. He currently is at a kindergarten reading level.  Lacks decoding skills and phonemic awareness even with additional support (tutoring, small group foundational skill instruction).

4. Funds of Knowledge  Resources in each student’s background to identify sources of strength and support (Mazur & Doran, 2010).  Linguistic  Cultural  Family/Experiences  Practical

5. Funds of Knowledge: Linguistic  Theo is a bilingual student.  Theo can fluently speak English and Spanish in a social setting.  Knowledge of cognates and words that relate to each other in Spanish and English.  Some ability to translate to non-English speaking students in the classroom.

6. Funds of Knowledge: Cultural  Theo is Hispanic.  Theo’s cultural competency resembles many of his peers, because most of my school is made up of Hispanic families and students.  Theo can connect with other students because they share a similar “story”.

7. Funds of Knowledge: Family, Experience & Practical  Theo lives in a single-parent home with his mother, brother and sister.  He lives in a low-income housing neighborhood, near many other students in the school.  He brings a lot of practical, basic skills that could be used and applied in a variety of lessons to meet his needs as diverse learner.

8. The Common Core, English Learners, and Morphology 101: Unpacking LS.4 for ELLs  We see the importance of morphological awareness in the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards, every grade level contains a standard for its achievement.  Grade 2 CCLR Standard: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies  Hickey and Lewis (2013) explain that the standards have created high expectations for all students, including ELL’s, but they do not offer a road map on how to provide effective instruction and supports for ELL’s to meet those expectations.  In order for teachers to facilitate students’ growth in morphological awareness, teachers must be open to the funds of linguistic knowledge students (Hickey & Lewis, 2013).

9. Common Core State Standards and Implications for Special Populations  Teachers of ELL’s may aid in students’ success by assessing how culture impacts the way in which they approach equations, texts or perform CCSS- related tasks (Best & Cohen, 2013).  This may require working with ELL specialists to create collaborative lesson plans and to diversify or scaffold instruction. (Best & Cohen, 2013)  When working with ELL’s, teachers may need to be especially sensitive to students who are not at the CCSS-expected academic skills level. When foundational skills are addressed, future lessons are significantly more successful (RTI Action Network, 2013).

10. Strengths and challenges related to literacy expectations of the CCSS & CCLS  Challenge: After review of two peer-reviewed articles, it is clear that the state standards have some specifications that need to be made in order to more adequately guide teachers in the teaching of the standards to ELL students.  Strength: We as teachers know the starting point of instruction when teaching ELL students. Phonemic awareness and morphology are two areas in which ELL’s can benefit from additional support.

11. References  Best, J., Cohen, C., & McREL, I. (2013). Common Core State Standards and Implications for Special Populations. Mcrel International.  Hickey, P. J., & Lewis, T. (2013). The Common Core, English Learners, and Morphology 101: Unpacking LS.4 for ELLs. Language And Literacy Spectrum, 2369- 84.  Mazur, A., & Doran, P. (2010). Teaching diverse learners: Principles for best practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.  RTI Action Network. (Producer). (2013). Implementing the Common Core State Standards for students with learning disabilities. [Webinar]. Retrieved from https://ncld.adobeconnect.com