ELA, CCR & English Learners

Watch a video showcasing one class as Ms. Brewer works with a small groups of ELs to get students writing papers using evidence from the text. The video addresses how to get students started on writing their papers when analyzing a text in the context of the Common Core State Standards.

This post from Edutopia lays out eight strategies for teaching academic language to ELs:

1. Encourage students to read diverse text
2. Introduce summary frames
3. Help students translate from academic language to social language (and back)
4. Have students complete scripts of academic routines
5. Dynamically introduce academic vocabulary
6. Help students diagram similarities and differences
7. Have students write with a transition handout
8. Teach key words for understanding standardized test prompts

In order to address the language demands of the Common Core State Standards, Robert Manzano has put together a five-step process, as well as a list of 227 cognitive verbs organized into 24 categories of semantically related terms so that teachers can take advantage of semantic clustering to help students develop a deep understanding of these verbs.

Written by George C. Bunch (UC-Santa Cruz), Amanda Kibler (UVA), and Susan Pimentel (StandardsWork®) for Stanford University's Understanding Language, this brief paper is intended to contribute to a larger--and longer--conversation about what those collectively responsible for the education of English Learners must consider in order to maximize the affordances presented by the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects.

Common Core State Standards: Teaching ELA/Literacy to English Language Learners

This is a Powerpoint from a webinar that was presented by Kenji Hakuta and George C. Bunch of Understanding Language in collaboration with Lesli A. Maxwell for Education Week.

The presentation includes a brief history of the elements that have led to the creation of the Common Core, major shifts in the new standards, the demands of ELs within the new frameworks, and examples of ELA units in the classroom.

During our first webinar with Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner, "Introduction to the Common Core: Advocating for English Learners," Dr. Fenner mentioned this article by Timothy Shanahan (University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Literacy): Letting the Text Take Center Stage: How the Common Core State Standards Will Transform English Language Arts Instruction. The article describes some themes with regards to reading in the Common Core and presents guidance for teachers on how to engage students with texts, including providing and activating background knowledge.