Principles of Standards-Based Assessment and Instruction

Elizabeth Jimnez, CEO GEMAS Consulting and Advocacy

Introduction
Educators will examine the commonalities and differences between English language arts standards and English language development standards. Educators will see examples of explicit teaching of formal academic speech functions Educators will discuss and practice the notion of Wiggins and McTighes backwards mapping and planning

Terminology to Know
Phoneme Grapheme Universal design Universal access Speech functions English language development English language arts

What do You Think?

ACTIVITY 1. Dene universal access. 2. If a school has EL students and their families do not speak English, what are some examples of access? 3. What are some reasons we dont always have universal access?

Universal Access Possible Answers

1. Universal access implies that all students have the same opportunity to succeed in school, and their teachers will make their instruction understandable so that students do not experience barriers to learning 2. EXAMPLES
IDEA barrier free design of buildings, software, and Websites ELL All communications are in English and the language of the community, use of multi-cultural literature, sharing the background information on school expectations at parent conferences, homework, back to school night, etc.

Source: Access Denied 2008

Universal Access Possible Answers

3. Why we dont have universal access Reasons given include: It costs more money If we do it for one group, and we cant do it for all, thats not fair Those kids need to learn the mainstream culture If we differentiate for them, they might be segregated If we do something different for them, it means we dont have the same high expectations

Think About This

Is it possible that we have an access gap rather than an achievement gap? Opportunity to Learn Movement

Applying Universal Access Principles to English Learner Instructional Materials

Building shared background Previewing vocabulary and pre-teach it Using L-1 resources to support comprehension Matching visuals and illustrations to the text Using graphic organizers to access higher levels of thinking without sole reliance on words Using individualized technology Other

Achieving Universal Access

Attaining universal access takes planning. Know students prociency levels well Have a repertoire of techniques to draw on Plan ahead and reect afterwards

View Video Lesson

Observe the lesson clip of Mr Tunnels class. Make note of the teachers universal access techniques and strategies. Look for evidence of teaching to the content standards. What did you observe? What else could you recommend to achieve universal access? Write down your observations.

Video Lesson Debrief

Did you see visual evidence in the classroom of prior group work? Were students engaged? Did the teacher restate ideas, enhance their responses, and model language for them? What evidence of the teaching to standards did you observe? What language development techniques did you see?

Backward Design
The backwards design model centers on the idea that the design process should begin with identifying the desired results and then "work backwards" to develop instruction, rather than the traditional approach which is to dene what topics need to be covered. The framework identies three main stages:
Stage 1: Identify desired outcomes and results. Stage 2: Determine what constitutes acceptable evidence of competency in the outcomes and results (assessment). Stage 3: Plan instructional strategies and learning experiences that bring students to these competency levels.
Source: Wiggins and McTighe

Backward Mapping
Pause the video You want to teach a new skill or concept such as combining sentences or multiplying fractions or the causes of the Civil War. Choose a skill or concept from your own classroom and think through the steps of backward mapping. Write down what you would do for each stage.

Think About This

Stage 2 of the backwards mapping model is to determine what constitutes acceptable evidence of competency in the outcomes and results (assessment). Standards help educators with this step. Does teaching the standards standardize instruction and curriculum? How does universal access and differentiation t in?

English Language Arts Content Standards for CA Public Schools

English Learners Approximately 25 percent of students in California are English learners. The standards in this document have been designed to encourage the highest achievement of every student. No student is incapable of reaching them. The standards must not be altered for English learners, because doing so would deny these students the opportunity to reach them. Administrators must also work very hard to deliver the appropriate support that English learners will need to meet the standards.

English Language Development Standards

In 1999, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted English language development (ELD) standards for kindergarten through grade twelve. These standards dene what English learners in California public schools must know and be able to do as they progress toward full uency in English and prociency in state English-language arts standards. The ELD standards are organized within the four domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing and separately by grade spans: (1) kindergarten through grade two, (2) grades three through ve, (3) grades six through eight, and (4) grades nine through twelve. The levels through which English learners progress toward the standards are identied as beginning, early intermediate, intermediate, early advanced, and advanced. The complete English Language Development Standards for California Public Schools Web document is available at http:// www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/fd/documents/englangdev-stnd.pdf.

English Language Arts Standards

Standards create a vision of a comprehensive language arts program. Standards describe what, not how, to teach. Knowledge acquisition is a part of literacy development. Standards are central to literacy reforms. Standards help to ensure equity and access for all.
Source: CA RLA Framework

How ELA and ELD Standards Work Together

ELD standards are by prociency level ELA standards are by grade level ELD standards are an on-ramp to the ELA standards EXAMPLE ELD 9-12 and ELA 9-10

How ELA and ELD Standards Work Together

ELD 9-12 Listening & Speaking
Restate in simple sentences the main idea of oral presentations in subject-matter content

ELA 9-10 Listening & Speaking

Standard 1.11: Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication and make an impact on the audience.

Speech Functions
Unlike vocabulary and grammar alone, speech functions deal with the uses of language. We use different language patterns to accomplish various tasks. The phrases we use to request something are different from those we use to demand. EXAMPLES Borrowing Inviting Requesting help from a stranger

Academic Speech Functions

There are many academic speech functions that students are unlikely to pick up on the playground, so we need to explicitly teach them in class. EXAMPLE Working in groups and/ or taking turns

Academic Speech Functions ACTIVITY

You may never have thought about this but.. Pause the video and jot down: What phrases do we use when reporting on other peoples ideas? What language do you use to paraphrase other peoples ideas? What do you say when you disagree with others?

Academic Speech Functions

Language function: reporting/citing other peoples ideas Casual conversational English _____ said that _____ told me that Formal spoken & written English My partner indicated that ___ pointed out that ___ concluded that ___ emphasized that .
Source: K. Kinsella 2004

Academic Speech Functions

Language function: reporting We agreed that We decided that We concluded that We discussed We came up with We observed that

We determined that We thought of

Source: K. Kinsella 2004

Academic Speech Functions

Language function: reporting disagreement We have different opinions. Some of us believe that One group member thinks that We thought of two different answers/ways We came up with several solutions/answers. Our ideas are similar to the other groups, but we also decided that
Source: K. Kinsella 2004

Academic Speech Functions

Language Function: Paraphrasing Casual Conversational English You mean that You think that Formal Spoken and Written English So what you are saying is In other words, you mean that If I understand you correctly, you are saying that
Source: K. Kinsella 2004

Academic Speech Functions

Determine which functions are needed Plan to teach them Set up authentic situations to use them Model them Reinforce their use with wall charts and editors word banks for writing

References
California Department of Education, Reading Language Arts Framework for Californias Public Schools, 2007 Jimnez, E. 2008 Access Denied Kinsella,K.Ed.d, Strategies to Structure Academic Language Use and Learner Engagement in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classrooms, San Francisco State University, Department of Secondary Education

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