News
California English Language Development Standards Process- 2012
Take a look at the DRAFT English Langauge Development Standards that are in process at the CA state level! They are correlated to the CA Common Core ELA and Math Standards. Take a look at the three different stages of the new continuum of language acquisition. I am interested in hearing your first impressions of the new standards. Let’s talk about it!! eldstdkindergarten eldstdgrade1 eldstdgrade2 eldstdgrade3 eldstdgrade4 eldstdgrade5 eldstdgrade6 eldstdgrade7 eldstdgrade8 eldstdgrade910 eldstdgrade1112 Below is a Powerpoint presentation used to explain the structure of the new standards! Do you think this would be useful to you and your district/school? Let...
Read MoreTransitional Kindergarten and the English Learner
I have to express how exciting it is to be working in the area of Transitional Kindergarten with English Learners! I have been working with the Fresno County Office of Education and the Merced County Office of Education promoting the use of children’s music to teach and reinforce language development with English Learners. Here is a list of songs and the literacy skill(s) that are developed as teachers use each song with their students: The Hokey Pokey- vocabulary related to parts of the body, directional words (right, left), directional prepositions (in, out), rhyming, TPR (Total Physical Response), humor and student engagement! This Ole’ Man- ordinal...
Read MoreAcademic Talk
1. If you counted the instructional minutes, and sorted them by who is talking during a period or block of instruction, are the minutes that the students are talking the majority on your list? Are you, the teacher, talking more than your students? I suggest you think about, “WHO is DOING the talking in your classroom?” Think about getting your students to talk MORE! But NOT JUST ANY TALK! 2. When the students ARE talking, what are they saying? Are they using the academic vocabulary that you would like them to be using? Are they talking in a way that, if they wrote like they talk, you would be really satisfied with their writing? So…...
Read MoreClassroom Practice
Content and Language Objectives Those of us in the firld of English Learner student achievement have been working with Content Objectives (what students will learn in a lesson) and Language Objectives (what specific language is required for the students to prove that s/he has learned what they are to learn) for quite a few years now. The question is… If you ask a student in your classroom (1) what they are learning, then (2) what s/he needs to do to prove they they have learned it, will the answers to those questions be similar to the communicated objective? Every student needs to answer that question with an understanding of what you, the teacher, wants as an...
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