will come away scratching his or her head and saying, “Where did they go? What are these things in place of the standards that I know?”
Because the CA ELD Standards form the basis of the content for our ELD Standards Companion, it is a good idea to take a brief look at the organization of these standards, revised in November 2012. Here are the distinctive features in the organization of the CA ELD Standards:
The ELD Standards are now organized into two main parts, each with three subcategories based on language function. The page following this introduction provides a summary of each of the main parts and subcategories. The traditional areas of Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking have been subsumed within areas of productive and receptive language, oral and written production, and comprehension.
But that doesn’t mean teachers can’t find how the ELD Standards are related to the ELA standards. On each page of ELD Standards, there is a left-hand column titled “Texts and Discourse in Context,” which lists the corresponding ELA standards for each ELD Standard.
There are now three proficiency levels—Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging—instead of the five from earlier standards documents. The reduction from five to three offers a broader “catchment area” for describing student performance within the level. The highest level, Bridging, has been aligned with the California and Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts.
But Wait . . . There’s More!
In addition to the ELD Standards themselves in grade spans K–12, the California ELD Standards document also contains several chapters related to the research and practice of teaching English Language Learners.
Chapter 4, “Theoretical Foundations and the Research Base of the California ELD Standards,” provides research evidence and theory that was used in the development of the CA ELD Standards. These underpinnings ensure that the ELD Standards are aligned with current language and content learning research, and also that they provide commensurate expectations with ELA standards and content standards in other disciplines.
Chapter 5, “Learning About How English Works,” provides a current base in supporting ELLs in understanding academic English and in using it proficiently.
Chapter 6, “Foundational Literacy Skills for English Learners,” offers key findings regarding foundational literacy skills instruction for ELLs.
The Glossary of Key Terms, which is also available online, provides definitions and examples of key terms used in the CA ELD Standards.
Classroom Snapshots and Vignettes are also available online from www.cde.gov, highlighting classroom practices at various grade levels and subject areas related to each ELD Standard. These snapshots and vignettes have been summarized in this ELD Standards Companion for easy correlation to the specific standards for their use.
A Brief Orientation to The California ELD Standards Companion
Our California ELD Standards Companion takes the substance of the California ELD Standards document and rearranges it into manageable chunks for easy reference. For example, our organization highlights one ELD Standard at a time, building in the performance levels, links to ELA standards, key terms, and classroom snapshots and vignettes. Teachers will not have to flip pages and sections in order to see the related materials for a standard—they are all together and handy to use!
By design, our ELD Standards Companion has a number of features in common with Jim Burke’s format in the Common Core Companion series, which focus on the Common Core English Language Arts standards. These complementary features make it possible for someone familiar with the Common Core Companion series to pick up the ELD Standards Companion and get right to work. These familiar features include
Clearly-organized standards and kid-friendly translation. Each CA ELD Standard appears at the beginning of the section, incorporating the grade levels in the grade span (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, or 9–12) and the three performance levels of each standard (Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging). The same standard is “translated” into “kid-friendly” language (called the Gist) on the next page, so that teachers can see what students need to do in order to show mastery of the standard, again organized by grade level and performance level.
Incorporation of literature and information reading standards listed together, not separated out. This design makes it easier to see how the standard builds across literary genres, performance levels, and grade levels.
Instructional techniques/What the teacher does. In this section, there are specific suggestions for teaching related to the standard itself, providing an answer to the question, “What would this look like in practice?” For each standard, there is instructional differentiation provided by language performance level.
Academic vocabulary: key words and phrases. Each standard is highlighted by a specific glossary of words, terms, and phrases that form part of the understanding of that standard. In many cases, there are examples of the word or term in use.
Equally important are the ways in which this ELD companion also has several unique features. These unique features include
Inclusion of the corresponding ELA Speaking and Listening and ELA Language standards. Each CA ELD Standard is correlated with its Common Core ELA Speaking and Listening and Language standards so that the teacher has a sense of confidence that teaching ELD Standards is also working toward mastery of ELA standards. These correlations were developed by the writers of the California ELD Standards document itself.
Snapshots and vignettes. The final section for each standard summarizes appropriate snapshots and vignettes of classroom practices that demonstrate progress toward the standard. These are classrooms with successful instruction designed for English Language Learners. Teachers are encouraged to read the entire snapshot or vignette on the California Department of Education website if they want more information.
All together, we hope that the familiar features and the new ones of both the CA ELD Standards and the ELA Companion add up to a valuable resource for teachers working with English Language Learners in classroom settings.
Part 1 Interacting in Meaningful Ways A Collaborative Mode
Introduction
Part I of the California ELD Standards promotes English Language Learners’ abilities to interact in meaningful ways so that they acquire English and develop content knowledge simultaneously. Part I comes first in the standards to emphasize that students need to interact with adults and each other about meaning and content in order to build background knowledge and provide context before they enter deeply into how the English language works. Part I, Interacting in Meaningful Ways, is subdivided into three clusters of standards that emphasize student participation in the major modes of communication: Collaborative, Interpretive, and Productive.
Cluster A: Collaborative Mode Standards have the same general descriptions K–12 for the four standards in the cluster, related to engagement in dialogue with others. These include
1 Exchanging information and ideas with others through oral collaborative conversations on a range of social and academic topics. Teachers
