A Conversation: English Learners & the Common Core State Standards Lily Wong Fillmore • UC Berkeley Guadalupe Valdés • Stanford University Discussant: Judy Elliott • LAUSD 1
ELPS, ELPSA & the Common Core Standards 2 Work on developing English language proficiency standards (ELPS) that are aligned to the CCS is moving along quickly; The development of corresponding ELP assessments to be used for measuring student progress in the learning of English will soon follow, as required by Title III. The questions we will discuss today are concerned with the effect these assessments can have on instruction. Will English learners be given the instructional support they need to meet the new standards, or will they be left even further behind than they currently are?
Which “language standards” are we discussing? 3 The language standards that are part of the CCS are goals for all students . They cover the grammatical knowledge and skills educated people are expected to have and be guided by. The language proficiency standards that will form the basis for tests which will be used annually to assess the developing language skills and knowledge of English learners is another set of standards in play. What’s the relationship between the two?
Language & literacy expectations in the CCSS 4 The goals of the CCSS literacy standards are broad and necessary: all students will read and comprehend complex texts across disciplines, and be ready to construct effective arguments and convey intricate and multifaceted information in writing . The language standards are narrower and dicier: they tend to focus on some features of language that can vary across language varieties, and which are too often confused with proficiency standards. If the language standards, because they focus on correctness, become confused with proficiency standards, they can derail the language instruction English learners are provided. This is quite likely as past practice has shown, when progress by English learners is judged by grammatical accuracy and not by growth in communicative ability.
What might this mean for English learners? 5 Will the CCSS curriculum be withheld from ELs until they are judged proficient in English by standards based assessment? Are the CCSS meant only for native speakers of English and the most advanced ELs? Will those who fall short of either set of language standards be offered a watered down version of a CCSS curriculum on the grounds that they do not meet the proficiency standards for the CCSS? Or will we provide students with emerging English proficiency the necessary instructional support to participate fully in a CCSS curriculum and acquire academic language skills they need at the same time?
In this session... 6 We will expand on our concerns with these issues: how language assessment tends to drive language instruction, particularly when student test scores are taken as evidence of the success or failure of schools and programs; how language instruction becomes ineffective and counter- productive when standards are reduced to isolated but measurable component language skills & features; how we need to take a close look at how ELPS are being aligned to the CC standards to see if they make sense; consider the instructional support English learners need in order to handle the language and literacy demands of the CC standards.
How has ELP assessment affected English instruction? 7 Take a look at what has happened to language instruction for ELs since Title III began requiring that their English proficiency be tested each year. NCLB required that a state’s ELPS be aligned with the state’s academic achievement standards, and that annual measurable objectives be specified for both sets of standards. The ELPS were required to cover both spoken & written language proficiency, and the result?
Reductionism may be desirable in testing... 8 But not in teaching and learning! Especially not when the subject is language, which involves intricately interrelated systems of abstract and complex knowledge of structures and forms, the coordination of oral, aural, visual and intellectual mechanisms, and systems of social and pragmatic rules governing discourse and usage in cultural settings. The tendency is to teach bits and pieces of language (e.g., the possessive pronoun, regular past tense -ed, etc.) guided by a curricular framework that lays out a progression of forms and structural features, from simple to complex, that students need to learn. It is comforting to impose order to the seeming chaos that one encounters in thinking about linguistic knowledge.
An example––expressions of time & tense... 9 Stage 1a: “present” forms of simple verbs to refer to states and actions taking place in the here and now ( walk, tag, kick, sit, run, rain, etc.), and for habitual activities. Stage 2: “progressive” forms of verbs are taught for ongoing actions ( is/are walking, kicking, sitting, running, raining, etc.) Stage 3a: “regular past tense” forms of verbs are taught for actions that occurred in past time (walked, kicked, tagged, etc.) Stage 3b: “irregular past tense” forms (ran, sat, ate, etc.) Stage 4a: periphrastic future or intentional ( be going to) Stage 4b: expression of “future” (will)
• apple, apples • see apple, bite apple And so it goes... • one apple, one green apple • saw apple, bit apple, ate apple • apples are fruit • apples grow on trees • apple pie • He is the apple of his mother’s eye. • An apple a day keeps the doctor away. • The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the species Malus domestica, in the Rosaceae (rose) family. 10
A bottom up strategy for language instruction 11 Start with simple concepts, simple Advanced words, one to one relationships Level 4 between forms and meaning, forms and grammatical functions. Level 3 Have each small bit practiced until mastered, then move on to teach the next bit. Level 2 The idea? Small bits learned systematically eventually add up to 1 enough linguistic information to allow more complex patterns, structures, and functions to be learned.
But is this the way language is actually learned? 12 A linear progression from simple Why does it seem to take as to complex might make long as it does for students to pedagogical sense, but does it get reclassified? What about the make sense to the learner? growing ranks of long-term- English learners (“ESL-lifers”)? Evidence suggests that it may not. Is it a problem with the instruments used in assessing Are English learners making proficiency or with assumptions better progress in English & in of how perfectly i’ s should be English literacy since Title III dotted and t’ s crossed before required SEAs and LEAs to students can reclassified? improve English instruction for them?
That approach presents a problem of access for language learners 13 It imposes tight restrictions on the English input available for learners to work on, especially when they are segregated into classes where everyone is an English learner (this presents a problem of “junky data” in language learning). Can learners end up with a full working grammar of English when evidence of how it works comes in the bits and pieces they are taught and freer data from learners like themselves?
Compounding the problem of access... 14 Students who are classified as ELs are usually grouped for instruction. The instruction they are given is generally pitched at a lower level than instruction provided for English proficient students. The texts used in such classes are usually less complex, less informative, and less demanding than those ordinarily used. As a result such texts rarely if ever provide any exposure to the kind of language students need to learn and use in carrying out academic work (more on this shortly); Less is asked and expected of students in such classes, and many of them lose hope in making academic progress, and sadly––their faith in their own ability to learn.
The problem of progress is actually one of access... 15 What’s taught The linguistic data ELs need Thing1 Thing2 Thing3 Thing4 Thing1 Thing2 etc. Thing3 Thing4 etc.
The need for access to data in language learning... 16 In order to learn any kind of If the target is the registers that language, learners must have are used to do work in schools, access to data which allow them then the data must provide to discover not just its forms and adequate and sufficient structures, but more importantly, representation of the various the principles by which forms and types. constructions are deployed and The learner must take notice of exploited in communication. relationships between forms, The data must be true to the structures, meaning, and use. target. But what’s the target? Just Children do not ordinarily do English? What kind of English? this, however, so they need help There are many kinds of English. in attending to such information.
How will ELs fare under the CCSS literacy program if language instruction stays the same as it is now? Their current performance on the NAEP reading test paints a bleak picture. ELs included in NAEP testing have had at least 3 years of English instruction prior to the year of testing. The 8th and 12th graders may have had many more than that! A recent study of ELs in CA high schools report that 57% are long-term English learners. 17
Recommend
More recommend
