• Common Core State Standards

Additional Information & Support

  • Supporting Students with Disabilities
    Students with disabilities (SWDs) may need access to a variety of supports, aids, services, accommodations, and/or modifications in order to access the Reading Like a Historian lessons. It is the responsibility of both general education and special education teachers to ensure that SWDs are provided with sufficient time and support to access the RLH curriculum. Chapter 9 of the ELA/ELD Framework (California Department of Education, 2014) outlines specific strategies and supports for SWDs, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles that teachers can utilize to provide greater access to the RLH curriculum.   
     
    Supporting High Achieving Students
    Teachers should consider providing high achieving students will access to original, unmodified texts. Additionally, teachers should gradually release the responsibility of document analysis to students, as appropriate. 
     
    Supporting Low Achieving Students
    Low achieving students should be taught using a gradual release methods. Students should receive explicit instruction and modeling until they have achieved a level of confidence in using the text. Then, the teacher should gradual allow students to take greater control over their own document analysis. 
     
    Supporting English Learners
    The CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and all other content standards are intended to apply to all students… However, these students may require additional time, appropriate instructional support, and aligned assessments as they acquire both English language proficiency and content area knowledge.” (NGA/CCSSO 2010, Application of 382 the Standards for English Language Learners, as cited in the California ELA-ELD Framework, Ch. 1, p. 19).

     

    All ELs must have full access to the types of high quality curriculum and instruction called for by the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and other SBE-adopted content standards in all disciplines … (California ELA-ELD Framework, Ch. 1, p. 19).

     

    Because they are derived from the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and from current research and theoretical frameworks, the CA ELD Standards feature several concepts that may represent “shifts” from previous notions of English language development and how to use ELD Standards. Another concept from the CA ELD Standards is that, for ELs at all levels of English language proficiency, meaningful interaction with others and with complex texts is essential for learning language and learning content Frame work, Ch. 1, p. 21).

     

    The standards make clear the Goal established for all ELs in California and the “Critical Principles for Developing Language and Cognition in Academic Contexts” (hereafter, Critical Principles) that all California educators must consider when designing and implementing instruction for ELs (Framework, Ch.1, p. 26). 

    Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging Proficiency Levels

    The three English language proficiency levels- Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging- represent three general stages of English language development and describe student knowledge, skills, and abilities as they gain increasing proficiency in developing English as an additional language. (California ELA-ELD Framework, Ch. 1, p. 28).

     

    The highest English language proficiency level- Bridging- is intended to represent a student’s readiness to be successful with the demands of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy with minimal support. However, the extent of support students will need varies depending on the familiarity and complexity of the task and topic. Three general levels of support are identified in some of the grade level/grade span standards: substantial, moderate, and light. These general levels of support are intended to signal the extent of linguistic scaffolding most likely needed for students at each proficiency level. They are not intended to explain how to provide support or differentiate instruction for ELs at each level (Framework, Ch. 1, p. 29).

     

    ELD Instruction

    Integrated ELD, in which all teachers with ELs in their classrooms use the CA ELD Standards in tandem with the focal CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and other content standards
     
    Designated ELD, or a protected time during the regular school day in which teachers use the CA ELD Standards as the focal standards in ways that build into and from content instruction in order to develop critical language ELs need for content learning in English

    “Integrated and designated ELD” may be unfamiliar terms.  These new terms now encompass elements of previously used terms, such as, sheltered instruction, SDAIE, dedicated ELD. (Framework, Chapter 2, p. 77).

    Scaffolding
    The metaphorical term scaffolding (Bruner 1983; Cazden 1986; Celce-Murcia 2001; Mariani 1997) refers to particular ways in which teachers provide temporary support to students, adjusted to their particular learning needs. Scaffolding is temporary help that is future-oriented. In other words, scaffolding supports students to do something today that they will be able to do independently in the future (CELDS, Appendix C, p. 3).

     

    As Hammond (2006) has emphasized, scaffolding “does not just spontaneously occur” (271), but is, rather, intentionally designed for a learner’s particular needs, and then systematically and strategically carried out. Scaffolding does not change the intellectual challenge of the task, but instead allows learners to successfully participate in or complete the task in order to build the knowledge and skills to be able to perform the task independently at some future point (CELDS, Appendix C, p. 3).

     

    Examples of planned scaffolding include, but are not limited to, the following:

    ·      Taking into account what students already know, including primary language and culture, and relating it to what they are to learn

    ·      Selecting and sequencing tasks, such as providing adequate levels of modeling and explaining, and ensuring students have opportunities to apply learning (e.g., guided practice)

    ·      Frequently checking for understanding during instruction, as well as thinking ahead about how to gauge progress throughout the year

    ·      Choosing texts carefully for specific purposes (e.g., to motivate, to build content knowledge, to expose students to particular language)

    ·      Providing a variety of opportunities for collaborative group work where all students have an equitable chance to participate

    ·      Constructing good questions that are worth discussing and that promote critical thinking and extended discourse

    ·      Using a range of information systems, such as graphic organizers, diagrams, photographs, videos, or other multimedia to enhance access to content

    ·      Providing students with language models, such as sentence frames/starters, academic vocabulary walls, language frame charts, exemplary writing samples, or teacher language modeling (e.g., using academic vocabulary or phrasing) (Framework, Ch. 2, pp. 68-69).

     

    This type of scaffolding occurs when teachers engage in in-the-moment formative assessment, closely observing their students’ responses to instruction and providing support, as needed.  Examples of this type of scaffolding include the following:

     

    ·      Prompting a student to elaborate on a response in order to clarify thinking or to extend his or her language use

    ·      Paraphrasing a student’s response and including target academic language as a model while, at the same time, accepting the student’s response using everyday language or the variation of English students speak at home

    ·      Adjusting instruction on the spot based on frequent checking for understanding 

    ·      Linking what a student is saying to prior knowledge or to learning to come (previewing) (Framework, Ch. 2, p. 69).

     

    In the CA ELD Standards, the three overall levels of scaffolding that teachers provide to ELs during instruction are substantial, moderate, and light. This does not mean that these students always will require substantial/moderate/ light scaffolding for every task. English learners at every level of English language proficiency will engage in some academic tasks that require light or no scaffolding because they have already mastered the requisite skills for the given tasks; similarly students will engage in some academic tasks that require moderate or substantial scaffolding because they have not yet acquired the cognitive or linguistic skills required by the task. (Framework, Ch. 2, p. 69).

     

    Since scaffolding is intended to be temporary, the gradual release of responsibility is one way to conceptualize the move from heavily scaffolded instruction to practice and application in which students are increasingly independent. What comes in between these two extremes is the gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student, or what Rosenshine might call ‘guided practice’” (Pearson and Gallagher 1983, 330). Duke, Pearson, Strachan, and Billman (2011) update this definition by identifying five stages of gradual release of responsibility in reading comprehension instruction:

     

    1. An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used

    2. Teacher and/or student modeling of the strategy in action

    3. Collaborative use of the strategy in action

    4. Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility

    5. Independent use of the strategy (Duke, and others 2011, 64-66) (Framework, Ch. 2, p. 70).