The California ELD Standards Companion, Grades 3-5. Jim Burke

       3 L.3.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).Form and use regular and irregular verbs.Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses.Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.Write legibly in cursive or joined italics, allowing margins and correct spacing between letters in a word and words in a sentence.Use reciprocal pronouns correctly.

       3 L.3.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.Choose words and phrases for effect.Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.

       3 L.3.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them).

       4 L.4.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.Use interrogative, relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why).Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will be walking) verb tenses.Use modal auxiliaries (e.g., can, may, must) to convey various conditions.Order adjectives within sentences according to conventional patterns (e.g., a small red bag rather than a red small bag).Form and use prepositional phrases.Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons.Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their).Write fluidly and legibly in cursive or joined italics.

       4 L.4.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.Choose punctuation for effect.Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion).

       4 L.4.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) an14d that are basic to a particular topic (e.g., wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation).

       5 L.5.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.Explain the function of conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections in general and their function in particular sentences.Form and use the perfect (e.g., I had walked; I have walked; I will have walked) verb tenses.Use verb tense to convey various times, sequences, states, and conditions.Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.Use correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor).

       5 L.5.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.Expand, combine, and reduce sentences for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.Compare and contrast the varieties of English (e.g., dialects, registers) used in stories, dramas, or poems

       5 L.5.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships (e.g., however, although, nevertheless, similarly, moreover, in addition).

       As in Grades K–2, the emphasis on speaking and listening continues, but the expectations and routines should become more complex. Although basic routines can be reviewed at the beginning of the school year, ELLs should be taught more complex skills such how to clarify ideas, question, summarize, and provide detailed explanations for their opinions. Providing more complex sentence frames connected to these skills—such as What do you mean? or I have a question about ______ for clarification and Based on ______, I infer that _______ or I hypothesize that ______ for predicting—are important to prompt student thinking and language can scaffold these complex skills.

       ELLs should also move from merely one-on-one interactions and into collaborative or group-worthy tasks. One way to have student practice complexity, language, and collaboration is by using reciprocal teaching roles, where students are taught how to lead conversations on their own with roles such as summarization, questioning or clarification, predicting, and connecting.

       In order to move away from silent classrooms and into collaboration, language must be thoughtfully planned for by the teacher in advance and connected to the curriculum. One way to do this is by identifying the most cognitively and linguistically demanding skills or tasks being taught and by providing stopping points for student talk during these times. Another key shift within this grade span is that students should be required to talk across content areas and not merely during language arts or ELD time (see Vignette 4.3).

       Emerging—Small groups are given images of resources that accompany the day’s lesson and are prompted to draw on the images to capture what they learned during the lesson. Use sentence frames such as I think because ______ or I see because ______.

       Expanding—Students may respond to sentence frames about the images, such as This image shows ______, This image is important because