rel="nofollow" href="#u53a004ee-ecbb-4c26-a3ae-dd48367fc2a1">* These broad types of writing include many subgenres. See Appendix A in the Common Core State Standards for definitions of key writing types.
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Language
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Knowledge of Language
3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.
Key Principles and Additional Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners K–2
Nancy Akhavan
For each standard throughout this book, suggestions for supporting English language learners appear at the ends of the “What the Teacher Does” pages. Here, these instructional ideas are supplemented with additional background, including information on the stages of language acquisition and the implications for differentiated scaffolding.
Focus on Acquisition
The young students in our K–2 classrooms, both native English speakers and English language learners (ELLs), are learning language. In many respects they are remarkably the same in their quests for language acquisition. Both groups of students are rapidly developing their vocabularies, using language to communicate, and learning about academic language and formal English.
However, there is a difference between students who are native English speakers and those who are ELLs. ELLs are acquiring a second (or even third) language when they learn English at school; they already have their primary language with which they communicate at home and in the community. Thus, many of these children are fluent in their first language, an important point to remember so that our mind-set as teachers isn’t that these young kids are struggling learners overall.
We learn language through two processes. One process is called acquisition, and the other is called language learning. Language acquisition is “picking up” a language. Language learning is what we experience when we take a class in a foreign language.
In our classrooms we want to focus on the natural process of “picking up” a language. Thus, for both native English speakers and English language learners, this book is filled with strategies and lessons to teach the standards through natural, motivating, and supportive teaching.
Consider the Five Stages
To understand the best ways to help your English language learners, and to differentiate instruction
