1. The Common Core State Standards and English Language Learners
February 16, 2012

2. Agenda: Text complexity Exploring exemplary CCSS texts How do ELLs access exemplary texts? Focused Instruction

3. Three Part Model for Measuring Text Complexity

4. Quantitative Usually measured by a computer program
Difficulty of a text
Word length or frequency
Sentence length

5. Qualitative Difference between a classic and just a good read
Levels of meaning (literature) e.g. text requires the reader to make inferences in order to construct meaning
Purpose (informational text)
Text structure
Knowledge demands
Language conventionality – literal to figurative
P 6 of Appendix A

6. Reader and Task
Variables specific to particular readers - motivation, knowledge, and experiences
Particular tasks - purpose and the complexity of the task assigned
Best made by teachers employing their professional judgment, experience, and knowledge of their students and the subject.

8. Leveling Resources

9. Let’s explore some texts

10. What does a reader need to bring to the reading of this text in order to make meaning?
Quindlen, Anna. “A Quilt of a Country.” Newsweek September 27, (2001)
America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever- changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone. “Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image,” the historian Daniel Boorstin wrote. That’s because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.
Common Core Standards Appendix B

11. Let’s Consider this Piece’s Text Complexity
Quantitative: Difficult language (discordant, improbable, mongrel, disparate), long + complicated sentences.
Qualitative: Informational text. Text requires reader have background knowledge, quilt symbolism is tricky and asks reader to recognize the symbolism.
Reader & Task: Teacher would need to provide a context and a purpose for reading this text.
Common Core places this text in the Grades Band.

12. Strategies for ELLs to access more rigorous material

13. What the Common Core has to say about ELLs
Teachers and personnel at the school and district levels who are well prepared and qualified to support ELLs while taking advantage of the many strengths and skills they bring to the classroom;
Literacy-rich school environments where students are immersed in a variety of language experiences;
Instruction that develops foundational skills in English and enables ELLs to participate fully in grade-level coursework;
Coursework that prepares ELLs for postsecondary education or the workplace, yet is made comprehensible for students learning content in a second language (through specific pedagogical techniques and additional resources);
Opportunities for classroom discourse and interaction that are well-designed to enable ELLs to develop communicative strengths in language arts;
Ongoing assessment and feedback to guide learning
Speakers of English who know the language well enough to provide ELLs with models and support.

14. What we can do to support ELLs
Provide access to grade level content
Build on students first language skills and knowledge
Build on effective practices used with native English speakers
Make adjustments
Have ELL students interact with other students
Access to grade level content – content lessons - can build background knowledge, before class lesson pre teach academic and content vocab. Can use videos, photos, pictures, other texts etc
Build on L1 – at times may be appropriate to provide a translation of the material, use cognates- english word and meaning and spanish word and meaning where appropriate
Effective practices - have been covered in previous workshops – teach one thing, allow time for independent, model your thinking and writing, use short texts to teach, read and write across a variety of genres, let students rehearse their thinking, differentiate instruction by conferring and group work, enrich vocabulary
Make adjustments – focus students on important ideas in a text by asking guiding questions

15. How do ELLs access exemplary texts?

16. Teacher reads aloud text Student reads text independently
Oral retell of text with a partner
Teacher guided discussion
Student written summary with partner work with sentence frames/cloze passage/word bank when appropriate
Orally present summary
Affirmation of ELLs participation
Diane August 2011

17. Focused Instruction

18. Warm-Up
Purpose: To set the stage for the teaching that will be shared in the lesson. Connect previous teaching, capture students’ attention and interest, and activate prior knowledge.
Methods: Refer to yesterday’s lesson; refer to an anchor chart; share an example/excerpt from your own reading/writing experience; share an analogy that connects to the upcoming teaching point; share an example/excerpt from a student’s reading/writing experience.
Possible Language: Varies according to angle/content of the warm-up, which may include a connection to a previous lesson, a related anecdote, a brief read-aloud, and/or other devices to set the stage “Yesterday we learned…”, “For the past week we have been studying…”, “In this unit we are exploring…”

19. Teach
Purpose: To state your explicit teaching point. DEMONSTRATE using your work, examples, students’ work and anecdotes, and published work.
Methods: Be very explicit - read/write in front of your students, modeling your process and naming it; read aloud a portion of text that supports your teaching point or display it in some way as a shared reading; role-play with a student to demonstrate a successful strategy
Possible Language:
First to signal the teaching point…“ Today I am going to teach you how readers/writers…”
Next to demonstrate the teaching point…“Watch me as I…” or “Look how this reader/writer…”

20. Try
Purpose: To practice the skills/strategy with guidance; to assess students’ understanding of the teaching point; to engage students
Methods: Try this strategy/convention/genre element/process in your own reading/writing; turn and talk with a partner to restate what you have just learned; talk through your thinking; practice a strategy, convention, process with a partner; try the teaching as a shared writing experience, create a shared text to be used the next day.
Possible Language: “Now, it’s your turn to…”, “Think about what I have just said, and practice this strategy with a partner beside you: think, turn and talk”, “Take a few minutes to try this in your own writing while we are here together.”

21. Clarify
Purpose: To connect your teaching point to ongoing independent practice
Method: Restate your teaching point. Have students restate the teaching point.
Possible Language:
To connect to lives as readers/writers—“So whenever you are reading/writing…”
and/or
To connect to day’s independent practice—“Today in the workshop, you will…”, “When you are reading/writing today, I want you to…”, “Today we learned … and we are going to … in our own reading/writing”, When you return to your Independent Practice today, I will be looking for…”

22. A planning template might look like this…

23. Reflection
Think about lesson planning and reflect upon each component of focused instruction. Is it a challenge or a strength for you? Why?
Warm Up
Teach
Try
Clarify

24. Next Steps Consider your students – identify their needs.
Consider text and task – what do you need to teach your students to help them grow as readers and writers?
Try your hand at planning a few mini lessons – use the LitLife template to guide you.
Next time – come with artifacts! Mini lesson plans, text, and anything that you’ll need to plan. We’ll be writing lesson plans!

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