Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners. Sypnieski Katie
Jennings has been a mathematics educator in Sacramento City Unified School District for the past 13 years. She has degrees in anthropology (BA), mathematics (BS), and human behavior (MA). Wendy also works with the UC Davis C-STEM center on the integration of computer programming and robotics into mathematics curriculum.
Elisabeth Johnson is a National Board Certified Social Studies teacher who has been at Luther Burbank High School for nine years. She is a teaching consultant for the Area 3 Writing Project at the University of California, Davis.
Laura Prival coordinates the elementary science program of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Oakland, California. Laura has coached many elementary teachers in OUSD as they increase the quantity and quality of science instruction in their classrooms and developed curriculum to help teachers and students transition to the Next Generation Science Standards. Laura has designed and led numerous workshops for teachers focusing on hands-on science, strategies for developing language and literacy through science, watershed awareness, climate change, and outdoor education. She has taught science in both urban and rural settings and was previously a fifth-grade multiple-subject teacher in OUSD. Laura has also worked as a service learning specialist, a curriculum writer, and an education consultant for nonprofit organizations. She is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership at Mills College with a focus on equity in elementary science instruction.
Claudio Vargas is the Coordinator of Elementary Science at the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). He oversees and supports the implementation of the science program at the 54 district elementary schools. Before joining OUSD, Mr. Vargas served as the director of the Bay Area Science Project (BASP) at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS). Mr. Vargas has led numerous professional development programs throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Texas, and Central America. He has designed and implemented K–8 professional development programs that focus on developing teachers' science content knowledge and expanding their teaching strategies, with particular emphasis on strategies that provide English language learners with access to the core curriculum and accelerated language learning. Prior to joining LHS, Mr. Vargas worked for 10 years as a bilingual K–5 teacher and a science coach in the Oakland Unified School District.
Diana Vélez is a professional development specialist and curriculum developer at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She currently works with various science education projects in the area of English Language Development and the integration of literacy, as well as classroom and districtwide implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards. Before coming to the Lawrence Hall of Science, Ms. Vélez was a science and math coach for an elementary school in Oakland, California and taught in a Spanish dual immersion program at the primary level.
Acknowledgments
Larry Ferlazzo: I'd like to thank my family – Stacia, Rich, Shea, Ava, Nik, Karli, and especially my wife, Jan – for their support. In addition, I need to express appreciation to my coauthor, Katie Hull Sypnieski, who has been a friend, classroom neighbor and coteacher for 11 years. I would also like to thank Kelly Young at Pebble Creek Labs and my many colleagues at Luther Burbank High School, including former principal Ted Appel and present principal Jim Peterson, for their assistance over the years. And, probably most important, I'd like to thank the many English language learner students who have made me a better teacher – and a better person. I must also thank David Powell, who has done an extraordinary job in making presentable manuscripts for all of my books, including this one. Finally, I must offer a big “Thank you” to Marjorie McAneny, Shauna Robinson, and Victoria Garrity at Jossey-Bass for their patience and guidance in preparing this book.
Katie Hull Sypnieski: I would like to thank all of my family members, especially David, Drew, Ryan, and Rachel, for their love and support. I'd also like to thank my dear friend Hannah, my neighbor Nancy, and my father-in-law, Douglas, who made it possible for me to work on this book during the summer when my kids were at home! Thank you to my amazing colleagues at Luther Burbank, especially Pam Buric, Dana Dusbiber, and Lara Hoekstra, for their collaboration and support over the years. Thanks to my coauthor, Larry Ferlazzo, whom I'm proud to call my colleague and my friend. Thank you also to the many educators at the California Writing Project who have taught me so much over the years. I must also thank Marjorie McAneny, Shauna Robinson, and Victoria Garrity at Jossey-Bass for all of the help they've provided to us. Finally, to the many students whom I've had the honor of teaching – thank you for all the love, laughter, and learning you've brought into my life.
Both of us want to give a special thanks to the extraordinary educators who have contributed lesson plans and chapters to this book and to supplemental online content: Wendy Jennings, Elisabeth Johnson, Caleb Cheung, Laura Prival, Claudio Vargas, Diana Vélez, John Doolittle, Laura Gibbs, and Leticia Gallardo.
Introduction
The Common Core Standards, and the standardized tests tied to them, are now being implemented in most states. And the few states that have not adopted them have created their own very similar ones.1
This transition offers school districts, schools, and teachers an opportunity to pause and reflect on their practices and consider how to ensure that students, including English language learners, are developing the skills necessary to thrive in our changing world. Transitions are often breeding grounds for anxiety and fear of the unknown. However, they can also be a doorway leading to growth and new possibilities.
We know many parents, teachers, and students are feeling anxious, especially around the new Common Core assessments. We share those concerns, especially since we think there are more pressing issues facing our schools and students than a need for new Standards, such as the need for increased school funding, family services, institutional commitment to – and advocacy for – ELL students, and time for teacher collaboration, to name just a few. Nevertheless, we live in the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. Therefore, we are committed to facing change in ways that create the most positive outcomes for our students. Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners is written in this spirit of adaptation and openness.
We have taken the four years since the publication of our previous book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide,2 to reflect on, and review, our practice in light of the Common Core and apply what we consider to be its positive elements – particularly its emphasis on higher-order thinking – to improve our teaching. Though most of the content in our first book is certainly compatible with the Standards, and we still apply the practices described there in our classrooms, we have also developed new and refined older ones to make them even more effective for our students and more aligned to the new Standards.
Readers will find that at least 90 % of the content in this book is new material not found in our previous one. Even though the word count of this book has strained the outer limits of our publisher's guidelines, it is by no means exhaustive. Each domain – reading writing, speaking/listening, language – and each subject – math, social studies, science – deserves its own book. However, we don't have the time to write them and we know few teachers who would have the time to read them!
You will also find that, though many of the lessons we discuss in these chapters are applicable to Beginning English language learners, more are written with Intermediate and Advanced ELLs in mind.
We believe that teachers of ELLs and non-ELLS alike will find our Social Emotional Learning lessons, our clear analyses of the Standards, and our classroom recommendations helpful.
Our students, their families, and we as educators face some very big challenges ahead. We hope that this book can help make those challenges a little more manageable for all of us.
For downloadable versions of all lesson plans and student hand-outs found in this book, go to the “Downloads” section of this book's web page at www.wiley.com/go/navccss. In addition, you will find two “bonus” book chapters on that page: One is on using Art with English Language
Felton, E. (2015, May 28). Why are so many states replacing Common Core with carbon copies?
Ferlazzo, L., & Hull Sypnieski, K. (2012).