Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The "Turtle" Graphic

This graphic, which I have heard lovingly referred to as the "Turtle" graphic, is an excellent visualization of how the California English Language Development Standards and the California Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy are integrated and interdependent.



Outer Ring
The outer ring of this graphic gives us the four overarching goals of ELA/Literacy and ELD instruction. California's goals for each student by the time they complete high school is to: have developed college and career readiness, attained the capacities of literate individuals, become broadly literate, and have acquired the skills for living and learning in the 21st century.
White Field
The white field surrounding the "turtle" is designed to represent the context in which high-quality instruction occurs. The ELA/ELD Framework states that the context in which students are learning should be motivating, engaging, respectful (so that students can take risks), integrated (across the disciplines), and intellectually challenging (regardless of language proficiency level).
Circling the Standards
The small blue circles surrounding the standards are are the 5 key themes of the standards: meaning making, language development, effective expression, content knowledge, and foundational skills. These five themes exist at every grade level and increase in rigor and complexity as the CCSS spirals progress.
Center
In the center of the graphic, at the heart of instruction are the CA CCSS for ELA and Literacy. The CA ELD standards are embedded in this center circle. The standards provide teachers with year-end outcome statements for a wide range of student knowledge and abilities. The standards guide instructional planning and observation of student progress. The CA ELD standards provide English Learners with full access to the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy as well as other content areas. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

Academic Language Prezi

Here is the presentation I gave on Academic Language during our back-to-school staff development in August. Hope you enjoy! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!