The Impact of the Common Core State Standards on Instruction for ELLs

1. The Impact of the Common Core State Standards on Instruction for ELLs June 12, 2012 FLDOE CCSS Institute Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D.

2. Presentation Goals • Increase understanding of: • ELL demographics in FL as compared to nation • Common Core State Standards’ challenges for English language teaching and learning • Interplay between academic language and CCSS for ELLs • Features of academic language and challenges it poses for ELLs • How to better support content and language development of English learners in standards-based instruction

3. ELL Demographics Nationwide • The face of public schools has changed dramatically over the past 3 decades • Over the past 15 years, ELL student enrollment has nearly doubled • ELLs now constitute nearly 11% of the PreK-12 population, close to 6 million students • 80% of ELLs speak Spanish but not a monolithic group • Experts predict that one-quarter of the total U.S. public school population will be made up of ELLs by 2025 • It is imperative for ELLs to access the content of the CCSS and to demonstrate proficiency on assessments

4. ELL Demographics in Florida (2010-2011 Data) • Approximately 240,000 ELLs in FL K-12 (~9% of students are ELL) • State with the 3rd highest number of ELLs in the US (CA is #1, TX is #2) • FL ELL graduation rate: 59.7% • FL overall graduation rate: ~80%

5. Application of Common Core State Standards for English Language Learners (2010)

6. CCSS and ELLs • ELLs require “appropriate instructional support.” What does that mean? • How will your district or school ensure that teachers are “diagnosing each student instructionally, adjusting instruction accordingly, and closely monitoring student progress?” • How will you support these strategies? • Are your teachers prepared?

7. Role of Academic Language ELLs’ ability to access the CCSS and achieve on the PARCC assessment (and English Language Proficiency assessment) is predicated on their ability to acquire academic language

8. Defining Features of Academic Language • Academic language is language that stands in contrast to the everyday informal speech that students use outside the classroom environment • How it differs from social English • Discourse level: Discourse complexity – quantity and variety of oral and written text • Sentence level: Language forms and conventions – types, array, and use of language structures • Word/phrase level: Vocabulary usage – specificity of word or phrase choice • Defining features of academic language all operate within a sociocultural context for language use World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), 2011

9. Adapted from World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), 2011 Defining Features of Academic Language V Sociocultural Context Discourse Complexity Discourse Level Grammar (Language Forms & Conventions) Sentence Level Vocabulary Word Level

10. Language with Content • The challenge: ELLs must have access to the grade-level content knowledge included in the CCSS • Prerequisites for ELLs to access the CCSS: • Building background • Comprehensible input • Develop language and literacy skills in the context of content area instruction • Scaffolding instruction • Practice and application • Frequent, formative assessment

11. Strategies to Better Support Content and Academic Language Development of English Learners in Standards-Based Instruction • Knowledge of the population of ELLs served (culture, level of literacy in students’ native language, prior schooling, etc.) • Knowledge of students’ English language proficiency level across all domains (Speaking, Listening, Reading & Writing) • Appropriate use of ELL scaffolds that directly support both content and academic language acquisition

12. Sample CCSS Addressed by Unit Using “We the People” Text ELA Standards – Reading: Informational Text (Grade 8) Key Ideas and Details • RI.8.1. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. • RI.8.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text. • RI.8.3. Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories) 12

13. Use Features of Academic Language to Analyze the Following Text’s Demands for ELLs

14. Text Analysis: Grade 8 From “The Preamble: We the People” (Monk, L.) The first three words of the Constitution are the most important. They clearly state that the people—not the king, not the legislature, not the courts—are the true rulers in American government. This principle is known as popular sovereignty.But who are “We the People”? This question troubled the nation for centuries. As Lucy Stone, one of America’s first advocates for women’s rights, asked in 1853, “‘We the People’? Which ‘We the People’? The women were not included.” Neither were white males who did not own property, American Indians, or African Americans—slave or free.

15. Analysis of the Text’s Academic Language Demands for ELLs

17. How Can Teachers Teach A Lesson Using This Text to ELLs at Different Levels of English Language Proficiency? • ELL scaffolding strategies • Building background knowledge • Designing content and language objectives • Targeting instruction based on language objectives • Pre-teaching academic and content-specific vocabulary and idiomatic expressions • Engaging ELLs before, during, and after reading • Providing targeted support for academic language

18. The Role of Teachers in Implementation of CCSS for ELLs Staehr Fenner & Segota, 2012

19. Robert Linquanti, 2011 CCSS Assessment Considerations for ELLs • Results of ELLs’ standardized tests are “far from valid” due to English Language Proficiency (Plank, 2011) • How standards and assessment systems support ELLs will depend largely on how we develop and implement next-generation assessment systems and relate them to instruction, PD, and accountability • Formative assessment is the most important aspect of the comprehensive assessment system to get right for ELLs because it is the most instructionally relevant • Strengthen use of accommodations that address ELLs’linguistic needs

20. PARCC’s Plans to Address ELLs • Established Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness Technical Advisory Committee, comprised of state leaders, educators and researchers that have extensive expertise with this population • Will make use of the principles of "universal design" in developing assessment tasks to ensure that extraneous factors do not impede students from demonstrating what they know and can do • Up to local, state and federal policy makers to determine exactly how PARCC assessment results are used for accountability purposes

21. Goals and Outcomes Self-Assessment • Do you have a better understanding of Common Core State Standards’ impact on English language teaching and learning? • Can you recognize features of academic language and challenges it poses for ELLs in accessing the CCSS? • Do you have a clearer understanding of the considerations to better support ELLs in standards-based instruction framed on the CCSS?

22. CCSS for ELLs Resources • Application of CCSS for ELLs http://www.corestandards.org/assets/application-for-english-learners.pdf • CCSSO CCSS ELL Meeting Materials http://programs.ccsso.org/projects/ELLCONF/material.php • Colorín Colorado http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/common_core/ell/ • Strengthening Assessment for ELLs http://www.stanford.edu/group/pace/PUBLICATIONS/TECHNICALREPORTS/2011_PACE_RENNIE_ASSESSMENT_REPORT.pdf • Stanford University’s Understanding Language Project www.ell.stanford.edu • WIDA Academic Language http://www.wida.us/research/agenda/AcademicLanguage/index.aspx

23. For More Information • Diane@DSFConsulting.net • www.dsfconsulting.net