Shifting the ParadigmProviding Academic Language through

Complex Texts to ELLs October 17, 2012

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46% of BPS students speak a language other than English as their first language

BPS students’ families are from over 100 countries

BPS students speak over 80 different first languages

40% of BPS students are either currently learning English or mastered academic English while attending BPS schools

Data as of April 17, 2012 from MyBPS > ELD Level tabs & May 24, 2012 “AllBPSwithTests.xls” file generated by BPS OIIT

Who are Boston’s English Language Learners?

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What is the distribution of ELLs - by language?

57%

10%

7%

6%

5%

2%

2%1%

1%

9%

Spanish

Haitian

Cape Verdean

Chinese

Vietnamese

Portuguese

Somali

French

Arabic

Other

Language

# %

Spanish* 9,777 57%

Haitian* 1,636 10%

Cape Verdean*

1,259 7%

Vietnamese* 965 6%

Chinese* 948 5%

Somali 316 2%

Portuguese 305 2%

Arabic 187 1%

French 182 1%

Other 1550 9%

Total17,12

5100%Data as of April 17, 2012 from MyBPS > ELD Level tabs

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Commissioned research on BPS ELL's test results yields similar findings

BPS SY 2009 Elementary School (grades 3-5)

Findings English

Proficiency Level

MCAS ELA Pass Rate (NI+P+A)

MEPA Level 1

0.0%

MEPA Level 2

15.6%

MEPA Level 3

31.2%

MEPA Level 4

74.8%

MEPA Level 5

95.3%

English Proficient

84.0%

The Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy (2011) found that: “the command of English required to pass standardized tests designed for English proficient students, such as the MCAS, far exceeds the levels of English proficiency represented by MEPA Levels 1–3, and to some extent 4.

Critical Changes Across the District:

Adapting to Common Core and WIDA

Shifting paradigms: where we were

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LanguageCont

en

t

The Common Core for English Language Learners: Challenges and Opportunitiesell.stanford.edu

Mostly vocabular

y and

grammar

Shifting Paradigms: where we need to be

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DiscourseText (complex text)

ExplanationArgumentation

PurposeTypical structure of text

Sentence structuresVocabularypractices

ScienceMat

h

Language ArtsAdapted from: “The Common Core

for English Language Learners: Challenges and Opportunities” Webinar, presented by Kenji Hakuta, Understanding Language, Stanford University

2012-13 Office of English Language Learners Departmental Goal:

• Provide access to Common Core for all students regardless of program placement

• The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) but also for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects.

Common Core State Standards

…the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards:•readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. •habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally.•actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. •reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic.

WIDA CAN-DO DESCRIPTORS

Grouping Flexibility in Boston

Reconceptualizing the Role of Central

Office

• Reconceptualize the role of OELL as a key contributor to the discussion on instruction with the capacity to improve Language Proficiency outcomes for ELLs in ELD 1-3 and Language Proficiency and MCAS outcomes for ELLs in ELD 4-5.

• Moving beyond Compliance to Instruction (DOJ/OCR)

CURRICULUM MAPPING: CONNECTING WIDA/CCSS THROUGH COMPLEX TEXT

Boston Public Schools

WHY COMPLEX TEXT?

• Project Name: Re-visioning Instruction for ELLs : The “Ls” ELLs Need: Language, Literacy and Learning

• Project Purpose:The purpose of this project is to provide professional development for teachers, administrators, coaches and district leaders on how to re-vision ESL curriculum by building academic language through complex texts and tasks, which is one of the major shifts in instruction due to the changes in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks (Common Core State Standards).

Project Overview

The use of this integrated approach using complex texts and tasks will be piloted at the Hennigan and McKay Schools in 3rd grade and in SIFE classes and at a secondary level site later this fall.  In addition, support staff called capacity builders will also learn this approach to 1) support teachers at the Hennigan and other sites while implementing this approach; and 2) be able to teach and support other teachers as this pilot expands.

Complex Text Implementation

Role of Teachers: Teachers will learn about how to work with complex text- from choosing text to deconstructing text and incorporating academic language to curriculum mapping. Focus will be placed on thematic units aligned to the CCSS and scaffolds to support the teaching of the complex texts and tasks embedded in ever challenging units of study. Capacity Builders: (Content Directors and Coaches) Support staff will learn about how to work with complex text AND how to work with teachers who are learning how to use this approach. Understanding of the major shifts needed to align ESL curriculum to the CCSS and to increase the rigor so that ELLs can achieve and meet the high stakes assessments. Focus will be on the infrastructural, instructional and professional learning moves needed to support this approach/shift.

Boston’s Summer ESL Institute

• ESL Institute- Teacher/Principals: (With Lily Wong Fillmore*)

• First session where capacity builders explored how thinking differently about curriculum for ELLs and instruction create newer ways of working with ELLs in terms of instruction, infrastructure and professional learning. (August 2012)

Training for Central Office Staff

• Understanding of why and how complex text is important especially in light of the new demands of the Common Core State Standards

• Participants also were presented with an overview of how complex text can be used in the classroom. (April 11, 2012)

Teachers and Capacity Builders

• Hennigan 3rd Grade Teachers

• First session where teachers were introduced to complex text: What is it? Why is it important? How can it be incorporated into lesson (May 2012)

• Capacity Builders and Central Office Staff (Content Directors and Coaches) These participants must commit to being trained for all modules.

• Modules 1-3: First session where capacity builders explored how thinking differently about curriculum for ELLs and instruction to create newer ways of working with ELLs in terms of instruction, infrastructure and professional learning. (May 2012)

•

Boston Complex Text Sequence

• Module 5: Scaffolding Complex Texts: Deconstructing/Reconstructing/Mapping Meaning of complex sentences

• Module 6: Scaffolding Complex Texts: Demystifying Figurative Language and Understanding Language Functions across Content Areas

• Module 7: Developing Text Dependent Questions: Scaffolds for a Robust and Academic Talk around Texts

• Module 8: Developing an Integrated Lesson with a Focus on Learning, Language and Literacy

• Class walk-through and “correction”: Capacity Builders: See how implementation is going and observe how Maryann “corrects” and supports teachers during the implementation process.

• Module 9: Explicit Moves that Matter in Academic Writing: Writing to Convey Information and Convince

• Module 10: The Reading and Writing Connection: Developing Rigorous Tasks in Writing/ Performance Tasks as Assessment of Learning

• Module 11: Curriculum Mapping: Nesting Academic Language inside Compelling and Complex Units of Study

Internal Capacity Builders

• Elementary Site(Hennigan)• Secondary site to be chosen• Staff from other schools trained at

these satellite sites• Principal/teacher teams trained by

Boston OELL to sustain and practice key concepts

• Teams represent Gen. Ed./SPED as well

Shifting Paradigms

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Today, in higher education generally, you can choose to view this era as one of threatening change and unsettling volatility, or you can see it as a moment charged with the most exciting possibilities presented to educators in our lifetimes, with the possibility of better understanding how we learn, and of sharing the transformative power of education far beyond the bounds of any campus.

Susan Hockfield MIT President, May 2, 2012