Curriculum & Standards

Standards

ELA Standards: Shifting the Focus to the Common Core Comments from the Standards and Curriculum Chairperson for NYS TESOL Estee López, October 2010

As a result of the Race to the Top initiative, the New York State Board of Regents has accepted and approved the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) instead of the work that evolved from the New York State ELA/ESL Standards Review Initiative (SRI).  To that end, the leadership of the ELA/ESL SRI and the CCSS met last spring to discuss the differences and similarities of both initiatives. The differences pointed to gaps in the common core such as the lack of standards for pre-school, the need for more fiction literature in secondary schools, explicit standards that scaffold learning for ELLs, among others. The New York State Education Department plans to add 15% into to the CCSS, which may help fill the existing gaps.

After careful review, we realize that there is overlap between ELA/ESL SRI and the CCSS such as standards, strands, and performance indicators that we expect teachers to teach and children to learn. We also must recognize that there are instructional issues that New York State must consider if we are to meet the needs of all children, especially English language learners. To that end, it is important that the TESOL membership become informed as to the evolving process concerning the Common Core State Standards.

Update (Oct 20, 2010): Have your voices heard! During the period of October 20 - November 21, 2010, the Board of Regions requests your input on possible additions to the Common Core State Standards. To review the materials and survey questions, please go here. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/

Goals of the Common Core State Standards and Race to the Top:

1. Adopting internationally-benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace
2. Building instructional data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practice
3. Recruiting, developing, retaining, and rewarding effective teachers and principals
4. Turning around the lowest-achieving school

What does this mean for English language learners?

This effort has enormous implications for the education of ELLs. Building teacher and administrator capacity will be essential so that the educational needs of ELLs are addressed properly. Curriculum development must focus on the approaches to learning for English language learners. Academic language and language development will need to evolve simultaneously. Assessments will need to be developed so they can inform educators about the learning pathway of ELLs over time and within the school year. The work of the ELA/ESL SRI was deliberate in ensuring that ELLs were addressed in every standard and performance indicator. Yet, unlike the ELA/ESL SRI team, the Common Core did not view the work from the stand point of ELLs. However, the ELA/ESL SRI team, of which I was a member, agreed that due to the overlap within the Common Core there is an opportunity for ELLs to thrive.

It will be up to NYSED and many organizations, curriculum writers, and others to ensure that the roll-out of the new Common Core State Standards reach the hands of practitioners in a meaningful and pragmatic way so that the discussion of how educators are to approach teaching and learning ensure the language proficiency and academic success of ELLs.

The following is a reprinted document from the Common Core Standards introductory materials which relate to English language learners. It is retrieved from and located at the following website:
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/intro.pdf

Application of Common Core State Standards for English Language Learners

English language learners (ELLs) must be held to the same level of standards expected of students who are already proficient in English. However, these students are acquiring both English language proficiency and content area knowledge concurrently, so some students will require additional time, and all will require appropriate instructional support and aligned assessments.

ELLs are a heterogeneous group with differences in ethnic background, first language, socioeconomic status, quality of prior schooling, and levels of English language proficiency. Effectively educating these students requires diagnosing each student instructionally, adjusting instruction accordingly, and closely monitoring student progress. For example, ELLs who are literate in a first language that shares cognates with English can apply first-language vocabulary knowledge when reading in English; likewise ELLs with high levels of schooling can bring to bear conceptual knowledge developed in their first language when reading in a second language. However, ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling will need to acquire background knowledge prerequisite to educational tasks at hand. Those ELLs who are newcomers to U.S. schools will need sufficiently scaffolded instruction and assessments to make sense of content delivered in a second language and to display this content knowledge.

English Language Arts

The common core standards for English language arts (ELA) articulate rigorous grade-level expectations in the areas of speaking, listening, reading, and writing to prepare all students to be college and career ready, including English language learners. Second-language learners also will benefit from instruction about how to negotiate situations outside of those settings so they are able to participate on equal footing with native speakers in all aspects of social, economic, and civic endeavors.

ELLs bring with them many resources that enhance their education and can serve as resources for schools and society. Many ELLs have first language and literacy knowledge and skills that boost their acquisition of language and literacy in a second language; additionally, they bring an array of talents and cultural practices and perspectives that enrich our schools and our society. Teachers must build on this enormous reservoir of talent and provide those students who need it with additional time and appropriate instructional support. This includes language proficiency standards that teachers can use in conjunction with the ELA standards to assist ELLs in becoming proficient and literate in English.

To help ELLs meet high academic standards in language arts it is essential that they have access to:

• 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 that enable 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; and
• Speakers of English who know the language well enough to provide ELLs with models and support.

Mathematics

ELLs can participate in mathematical discussions as they learn English. Mathematics instruction for ELL students should draw on multiple resources and modes available in classrooms—such as objects, drawings, inscriptions, and gestures—as well as home languages and mathematical experiences outside of school. While mathematics instruction for ELLs should address mathematical discourse and academic language, this involves much more than vocabulary instruction.

Language is a resource for learning mathematics; it is not only a tool for communicating, but also a tool for thinking and reasoning mathematically. All languages and language varieties (e.g., different dialects, home or everyday ways of talking, vernacular, slang) provide resources for mathematical thinking, reasoning, and communicating.

Regular and active participation in the classroom—not only reading and listening but also discussing, explaining, writing, representing, and presenting—is critical to the success of ELLs in mathematics. Research has shown that ELLs can produce explanations, presentations, etc. and participate in classroom discussions as they are learning English.

ELLs, like English-speaking students, require regular access to teaching practices that are most effective for improving student achievement. Mathematical tasks should be kept at high cognitive demand; teachers and students should attend explicitly to concepts; and students should wrestle with important mathematics.

Overall, research suggests that:

• Language switching can be swift, highly automatic, and facilitate rather than inhibit solving word problems in the second language, as long as the student’s language proficiency is sufficient for understanding the text of the word problem.
• Instruction should ensure that students understand the text of word problems before they attempt to solve them.
• Instruction should include a focus on “mathematical discourse” and “academic language” because these are important for ELLs. Although it is critical that students who are learning English have opportunities to communicate mathematically, this is not primarily a matter of learning vocabulary. Students learn to participate in mathematical reasoning, not by learning vocabulary, but by making conjectures, presenting explanations, and/or constructing arguments.
• While vocabulary instruction is important, it is not sufficient for supporting mathematical communication. Furthermore, vocabulary drill and practice are not the most effective instructional practices for learning vocabulary. Research has demonstrated that vocabulary learning occurs most successfully through instructional environments that are language-rich, actively involve students in using language, require that students both understand spoken or written words and also express that understanding orally and in writing, and require students to use words in multiple ways over extended periods of time. To develop written and oral communication skills, students need to participate in negotiating meaning for mathematical situations and in mathematical practices that require output from students.