The “Ls” ELLs Need:
Learning, Language and Literacy
Instructional Shifts to Meet the Common
Core Demands
Maryann Cucchiara
Pathways to Success: Learning, Language and Literacy
macucchiara@gmail.com
Module 1
3 Core Shifts in Common Core: The “Ls”
ELLs Need
• Learning: Building Knowledge Through Content Rich
NF
• Literacy: Speaking, Reading and Writing Grounded in
Evidence from text, both literary and informational
• Language: Regular Practice with complex texts and its
syntax and vocabulary.
Totally Aligned to
DOE Citywide Expectations
• Productive Struggle with Complex Texts, Talk
and Tasks
• Language Development: Academic Language
across Content
• Evidence in argument: Developing Robust
ArgumentativeTalk & Writing to Convince
Common Core-Common Sense-Common
Practice
• “The proposed amendment to section 1 of article 14 of
the Constitution would authorize the Legislature to
settle longstanding disputes between the State and
private entities over certain parcels of land within the
forest preserve in the town of Long Lake, Hamilton
County. In exchange for giving up its claim to disputed
parcels, the State would get land to be incorporated
into the forest preserves that would benefit the forest
preserve more than the disputed parcels currently do.
Shall the proposed amendment be approved?”
•
Common Core, Common Sense,
Common Practice
• Deb is stuck in a big traffic jam on the freeway and she is
wondering how long it will take to get to the next exit,
which is ½ miles away. She is timing her progress and finds
that she can travel 2/3 of a mile in one hour. If she
continues to make progress at this rate, how long will it
be until she reaches the exit? Solve the problem with a
diagram and explain your answer.
• At a certain time of year, the square distance from 3908
Nyx to the Sun is equal to the product of the average
distance from Venus to the Sun and the average distance
from Jupiter to the Sun.
Common Core, Common Sense,
Common Practice
“ It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently,
and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole
American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in
foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a
day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly
due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October
A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Common Core, Common Sense,
Common Practice
“Notwithstanding its checkered past, Thanksgiving’s
traditional emphasis on gratitude and togetherness has given it
special appeal during nation-shaping periods that called for
great solidarity. It was first observed as a holiday in New York in
the 1700s, around the time of the American Revolution, when the
disparate colonies were thrown together in the face of war.
Thanksgiving again rose in prominence after the Civil War, when
the bitterly divided country – and its grieving homes – were
encouraged to seek solace in the “common ideals” of America’s
roots. At that time, an executive order by President Lincoln made
Thanksgiving a national observance for the first time. It was later
moved to its present date during the Depression in order to
extend the commercial holiday season.”
Jessica Crabtree,
Journal of Cultural Perspectives
Questions for Reflection
• “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?”
• What do we know about learning our first
language that is consistent about how we
learn languages?
What is the Pathway to Learning,
Language and Literacy?
• “With ample input and support for learning,
a different progression”
• The data must be true to target
• “Flashes of insight as to how things work as
the gather more and more evidence”
“Flashes of Insight”: A Different Progression
The Centerpiece of the Lesson:
The Text
“The giraffe can keep most large
predators at bay with sharp hooves and
a powerful kick but like many wild
animals, it is tormented by tiny ticks and
other skin parasites.”
Steve Jenkins, How to Clean a Hippopotamus
Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool for CCSS Alignment in EL
A Grades 3 -‐12 (IMET)
Student Achievement Partners
• Non-‐Negotiable 1. COMPLEXITY OF TEXTS:
• Non-‐Negotiable 2. RANGE OF TEXTS: Materials must reflect the distribution of t
ext types and genres required by the standards.
• Non-‐Negotiable 3. QUALITY OF TEXTS: The quality of texts is high—
they are worth reading closely and exhibit exceptional craft and thought a
nd/or provide useful information
• Non-‐Negotiable 4. TEXT-‐DEPENDENT AND TEXT-‐SPECIFIC QUESTIONS:
•
Non‐Negotiable 5. SCAFFOLDING AND SUPPORTS:
ed regularly and systematically.
This opportunity is offer
Quality of Texts:
• Complex: In Ideas, In Language, In Structure, In
Style, In Purpose
• Compelling: Rich, Controversial, Charged -So
that Students Put Forth the Effort
• Concise and Complete: For a 3 Ts Close Reading
Modeling
• Connected: To the Ideas/Themes/Topics
The Culprit: Simplified Texts
The Seasons of the Year
There are four seasons.
I love the fall.
Fall is my favorite time.
Leaves fall.
I like to jump in the leaves.
Look, look at the colors! Orange, red, purple, brown!
Look at the branches. There are no more leaves.
The fall is over.
Winter is coming.
The Reality
The bright reds and purples we see in leaves
are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like
maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after
photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool
nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this
glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees
like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.
It is the combination of all these things that
make the beautiful fall foliage colors we enjoy
each year.
The Culprit: Tasks
What is your favorite season? Why?
Write a story about something that happened
to you in the fall
Name and Illustrate the Four Seasons of the
Year
The Reality: Writing to Convey or
Convince
 After reading about the fall and all the changes that occur, explain how
leaves change color to create a beautiful fall foliage. Cite evidence from
the texts you read in class.
 Explain how temperature, cloud cover and rainfall all impact the
intensity and duration of the fall.
 Fall is a most active season, a busy time of change. Do you agree or
disagree? Support your idea with evidence from the texts you
read/researched.
 Is a leaf turning brown physical change or a chemical change? Support
your response with evidence from the texts you researched.
Re-visioning Curriculum:
A Blueprint
Knowledge
Learning
Literacy
Language
3 Ts: Text, Talk, Tasks
Why do the leaves change color in the fall?
TEXTS
TALK
TASKS
Close Viewing
Questions for Reflection and Meaning
• What is the artist causing me to see or feel?
• How is the artist creating a mood?
• What if the artist used black and white
instead of color?
• Is the artist trying to tell me something? If so,
what? What gives you a clue?
• How does the artist choice of color give you a
perspective?
Close Reading of Texts:
The majority of O’Keeffes’s landscapes are painted in the
vibrant yellows, glowing gold, and fiery crimson of autumn,
the artist’s favorite season on Lake George and the one that
seemed to elicit the greatest aesthetic response in her work.
By September, the summer guests retreated to the city, and
the surrounding hills and mountains were ablaze with
autumn’s palette. Paintings such as “Lake George Autumn”,
made in 1927, exemplify O’Keeffe’s passionate response to
fall at Lake George, as she admitted, “I always look forward
to the Autumn-to working at that time-and continue what I
had been trying to put down of the Autumn for years.”
Thames and Hudson, 2013
Common Core Assessments:
Language is the Key!
• Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and
wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her peignoir. Blowing out the candle, which her
husband had left burning, she slipped her bare feet into a pair of satin mules at
the foot of the bed and went out on the porch, where she sat down in the wicker
chair and began to rock gently to and fro. It was then past midnight. The cottages
were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house.
There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a
water- oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft
hour. It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night.
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
• The author’s choice of language in lines 42 through 50 serves to emphasize Mrs.
Pontellier’s sense of
(1) isolation (2) boredom (3) disbelief (4) inferiority
Common Core: Shifts in Range of Texts
This policy would work powerfully to induce the rich man to attend to
the administration of wealth during his life, which is the end that
society should always have in view, as being that by far most fruitful for
the people. Nor need it be feared that this policy would sap the root of
enterprise and render men less anxious to accumulate, for to the class
whose ambition it is to leave great fortunes and be talked about after
their death, it will attract even more attention, and, indeed, be a
somewhat nobler ambition to have enormous sums paid over to the
state from their fortunes.
Andrew Carnegie, “The Wealth”
The expression “sap the root of enterprise” (lines 16 and 17) refers to
the(1)decline in consumer confidence (2)reduction in government
funding (3)discouragement of private business (4)harm to
international trade
Demystifying Figurative Expressions
Figurative
Expression
“It broke like a
mournful
lullaby at
night.”
Meaning
Why it Works
Just like a….
….., so too, ……
Where Information and Inferences Reside:
Language
• This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an
example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or
extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of
those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus
revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called
upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to
administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to
produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of
wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer
brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience
and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or
could do for themselves. .
• The author’s tone in lines 52 through 62 can best be described as(1)
confident (2) indifferent (3) humble (4) sarcastic
Phrasal Frames: Academic Language
Functions
•
Winds knocked out power as far west as Michigan. But the most serious damage, including
the flooding of New York’s subway tunnels and the broad destruction along the Jersey
Shore, came as the storm pushed roiling ocean waters onto land, a phenomenon known as
storm surge. The surge set records in some places, including the Battery in Lower
Manhattan.
•
Hurricane Sandy, dubbed “Frankenstorm” by the news media, hit during Halloween week
2012, leaving behind a path of devastation and destruction thousands of miles long. While
movie monsters like Jason or Freddy Krueger may keep some up at night, they’ve got nothing
on the horror wrought by the Superstorm Sandy.
•
From the darkened living rooms of Lower Manhattan to the wave-battered shores of Lake
Michigan, the question is occurring to millions of people at once: Did the enormous scale and
damage from Hurricane Sandy have anything to do with climate change?
Climbing the Staircase of Complexity
Native Americans
The Lenape are more commonly known as the
Delaware. William Penn called them “the most
merry Creatures that Live, Feast and Dance
almost perpetually…”
At least three separate communities seem to
have inhabited Manhattan. They grew corn,
beans, squash, and tobacco, and hunted the
abundant wildlife, but agriculture probably
provided only a secondary part of their diet.
Seafood was the staple. They fished for shad in
the spring, trapped eel in the fall, and ate huge
numbers of shellfish. Downtown’s Indians were
known as the Manahate. They had a settlement
on the Collect Pond as well as on harbor islands.
They may have been connected to the Canarsee,
of Brooklyn. Their enemies were the Sankhikan,
of central New Jersey.
Bigger ideas, more complex
The Iroquois and Algonquian found this material
suitable for protection from the rain. As a result
More complex
of the introduction of these European trade
goods, the nature of the environment in which
the Indians had lived for hundreds of years was
forever changed.
The fur trade introduced a new idea of
territoriality among the Indians in the Hudson
Valley. This sense of having a rightful claim to
land had not existed prior to the introduction of
fur trading. As beaver pelts became scarce,
Indians expanded their hunting territory, which
soon led to competition over trapping areas. This
conflict escalated in 1624 when the Mohawk
opened a trade war which later became known as
the Mohawk-Mahican War.
The incentives related to the fur trade should have
improved the climate for colonization, but
unfortunately a poor choice in colony director led to
problems, and eventually to war. It was in 1638 that
Willem Kieft was appointed the sixth Director of New
Netherland. Kieft was selected based on his skill in
business, not his governing experience. Kieft decided to
form a Council of Twelve Men to advise him on
relations with the Native Americans, though it has been
noted that Kieft mainly ignored the recommendations
of the council. He decided to tax the Indians as a way to
collect revenue for the colony, but the Indians rebelled
and the conflict turned into a war which lasted two
years. The violence that erupted led settlers from
outlying regions to head to New Amsterdam (presentday Manhattan) for safety. By 1645 more than one
thousand native men, woman and children had been
killed. The Dutch withdrew their support of Kieft and
asked that he be replaced.
“Backward Planning: The Tasks”
• Task 3 Template: After researching ________ (informational texts) on ________
(content), write a/an ________ (essay or substitute) that compares ________
(content) and argues ________ (content). Be sure to support your position with
evidence from the texts. (Argumentation/Comparison)
• Task 9 Template: After researching ________ (informational texts) on ________
(content), write a/an ________ (essay or substitute) that argues the causes of
________ (content) and explains the effects ________ (content). What ________
(conclusions or implications) can you draw? Support your discussion with evidence
from the texts. (Argumentation/Cause-Effect)
•
Task 25 Template: [Insert question] After reading ________ (literature or
informational texts) on ________ (content), write a ________ (report or substitute)
that examines the cause(s) of ________ (content) and explains the effect(s)
________ (content). What conclusions or implications can you draw? Support your
discussion with evidence from the texts. (Informational or Explanatory/CauseEffect)
Literacy Design Collaborative, Nov. 2011
Developing a Planning Guide for Close
Reading of Texts
• Collect Compelling, Complex, Concise and Connected
Texts centered around a Theme Explored
• Arrange the texts in a spiral fashion from foundational
to ever-increasing complex ideas and language
• Plan an excerpt for each day on the 3 Ts Planning Guide
• Develop a Culminating Task after reading/researching
the theme and building knowledge through the texts
read
• Plan mini culminating writing tasks throughout the unit
so that students have been adequately prepared for the
culminating writing task.
Academic Language at Play
•
•
•
•
Generative Tree for “coherent”
Lexical array for: angrily, bitterly, resentfully, strongly
Talk session for difference between “destroying and decimating”
Negatively charged: From Least to Most
ostentatious, showy, flamboyant, pretentious
Parse this sentence:
Notwithstanding its checkered past, Thanksgiving’s traditional
emphasis on gratitude and togetherness has given it special appeal
during nation-shaping periods that called for great solidarity
Academic Word Play: A Perfect Vehicle for
Demystification of Academic Language
From the Secondary CC Language Standards
• Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
• a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in
context.
• b. Use the relationship between particular words to better
understand each of the words
• c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of
words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g.,
bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).