Resources
Criticisms of the Common Core State Standards
This link leads to veteran educator Susan Ohanian's website where she has posted criticisms about the Common Core State Standards.
Publication: Caslon Community
Topic: Policy, Leadership, and Advocacy
Specialty:
Object(s): website
Differentiating Assignment Template
Complete the Differentiated Assignment Template for your students. The key is to align teacher expectations for use with what students at particular ELP levels can do with language.
Publication: Differentiating Instruction and Assessment for English Language Learners: A Guide for K-12 Teachers, second edition
Topic: Professional Development
Specialty:
Object(s): template
Dr. Sandra Mercuri Webinar
La enseñanza bilingüe: Planning for content, language, and biliteracy
This webinar shows biliteracy teachers how to design interdisciplinary units of study that are aligned with content standards; include reading, writing, and talking in both languages; and yield evidence of biliteracy learning. The presenter will share examples of a unit and lesson planning framework that teachers can use to design a bilingual interdisciplinary unit of instruction for any grade level in any type of biliteracy context.
Publication: La enseñanza en el aula bilingüe: Content, language, and biliteracy
Topic: Professional Development
Specialty:
Example of Differentiated Writing Rubric
Table 3-2 is an example of a differentiated rubric designed for scoring or grading content-based writing. It is not meant to be a perfect representation of how to grade ELLs across ELP levels; rather, it is meant to provide insight and to serve as a starting place for teachers to develop their own differentiated rubrics. Readers may notice that some language-related criteria are either not graded at all for students at lower ELP levels or are graded more “gently.” For example, as a general rule, no Ds or Fs are issued to students at level 1 because their language development does not allow much production; there are databased reasons for not requiring level 1 or 2 students to produce grammatical work.
Publication: Differentiating Instruction and Assessment for English Language Learners: A Guide for K-12 Teachers, second edition
Topic: Professional Development
Specialty:
Object(s): Rubric
Exemplar middle school ELA unit for ELLs - Understanding Language
This link leads to a middle school English language arts unit titled Persuasion across Time and Space that was developed by Understanding Language and is posted on their website. The unit shows instructional approaches that are likely to help ELLs meet new standards in English Language Arts. The lessons address potent literacy goals and build on students’ background knowledge and linguistic resources. Built around a set of famous persuasive speeches, the unit supports students in reading a range of complex texts. It invites them to write and speak in a variety of ways and for different audiences and purposes. The Understanding Language site includes examples of lessons, Guidelines for ELA Instructional Materials Development, and Frequently Asked Questions.
Publication: Caslon Community
Topic: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Specialty:
Object(s): website
Frequently Asked Questions
Wagner and King (2012) organized this list of frequently asked questions for readers of their book, Implementing Effective Instruction for English Language Learners: 12 Key Practices for Administrators, Teachers, and Leadership Teams. Questions 1 to 9 are questions that district-wide collaborative teams (administrators and teachers) often ask. Questions 10 to 14 are questions that teacher teams
often ask.
Publication: Implementing Effective Instruction for English Language Learners: Twelve Key Practices for Administrators, Teachers, and Leadership Teams
Topic: Professional Development
Specialty:
Object(s): FAQ
Interdisciplinary Biliteracy Planning Template
Mercuri and Musanti with Rodriquez created an interdisciplinary biliteracy planning template to showcase examples of instruction and assessment from bilingual classes across elementary grade levels, in different types of dual language programs, and serving different populations. In their book they also include a step-by-step guide on how to use the flexible interdisciplinary biliteracy planning template to teach for authentic interdisciplinary biliteracy.
Publication: La enseñanza en el aula bilingüe: Content, language, and biliteracy
Topic: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Specialty:
Key Practice 09: Implementing ESL Instruction checklist and templates
This downloadable pdf file includes the Wagner & King (2010) Key Practice 9 checklist and the templates included at the end of the Key Practice 9 chapter.
Publication: Implementing Effective Instruction for English Language Learners: Twelve Key Practices for Administrators, Teachers, and Leadership Teams
Topic: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Specialty:
Object(s): checklist, template