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States’ Commitment to English Learners Examined

Two reports have been submitted to the U.S. Department of Education which examine the extent to which states’ education plans are in step with guidance established by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) with regard to English learners (ELs). Advocacy groups UnidosUS and Achieve produced the briefs, entitled “How Have States Set Goals for English Leaners in ESSA Plans?” and “How Are States Including English Language Proficiency in ESSA Plans?,” to provide an analysis of the English Language Proficiency (ELP) indicators and academic achievement goals proposed in state ESSA plans. They examine whether states are taking meaningful steps to improve academic outcomes for EL students and provide recommendations to develop an accountability system that reflects that.

“Since its passage, the national education law, ESSA, has significantly altered the accountability landscape to ensure the academic performance and progress of ELs is a priority, and not an afterthought.  For the more than five million EL students in the K-12 school system, this has been a welcome shift – but our work is not over. We will continue to monitor statewide implementation of state’s EL goals and provide assistance where needed so that our most underserved students reach their full potential,” said Eric Rodriguez, VP of policy and advocacy at UnidosUS.

“We are pleased to see a sharper focus on English learner student achievement under ESSA,” said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve. “However, as these new reports show, there is still room for improvement with regard to goal-setting for EL students in states’ ESSA plans. We encourage states to set rigorous, meaningful academic achievement goals for English learners and to be transparent about how schools are helping – or not helping – students to progress.”

The briefs look at how states are defining and measuring ELP standards and including ELP indicators into their accountability systems. They also examine the varied approaches states are employing to create long-term goals for English learners.

Analysis of state plans revealed the following:

  • Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have set the same long-term achievement goals in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics for all student subgroups, while 29 states have set lower targets for their EL subgroups. Setting different goals for different groups of students only perpetuates disparities for historically underserved students; instead, states ought to be setting one high standard and offering the necessary supports to individual subgroups so that all students can reach that goal.
  • States’ target years to reach their long-term goals range from two to 30 years. There is also significant variation in how long states believe students need to become proficient in English, ranging from five to eight years.
  • The weight that states assign to the ELP indicator, which provides a strong signal to schools and districts about how EL progress is valued by the state, varies from three percent to 22.5% for high schools and from 3.5% to 30% for elementary/middle schools.

Recommendations for states to consider as they begin to implement their ESSA plans include:

  • Goals should be the same for all students.
  • Measures of interim progress should ensure ELs are on track to meet the state’s long-term goal.
  • ELP goals should be rooted in performance data.
  • ELP goals should be differentiated by grade level.
  • States’ goals for ELs must be developed within a framework that factors in the diverse characteristics of ELs.
  • States should make sure that data will help identify and provide resources and supports to teachers and students when they most need it.
  • States must value both proficiency and growth as demonstrated on the ELP assessment in their ELP indicator.
  • Public reporting on the ELP indicator should include the full breadth of the state’s indicator.
  • States’ public reporting on the ELP indicator must be discrete and transparent.
  • States must set an evidence-based time-to-proficiency window for ELs.
  • States must consider the demographic composition of the state’s student body when
  • setting the N-size.
  • States must ensure that the ELP indicator is weighted in a way that values EL
  • performance in the overall state system.

The full reports are available at: www.achieve.org/essa-goals-for-english-learners and www.achieve.org/english-language-proficiency-in-essa.

Community Colleges Bring in $2.4 Billion a Year from International Students


California’s Santa Monica College is popular with international students

The nearly 100,000 international students attending U.S. community colleges during the last academic year contributed $2.4 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 14,000 jobs.
Contributions from international students at community colleges in California alone neared the $1 billion mark, and exceeded $100 million in another four states according to the analysis, which was commissioned by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The data also show that for every six international students enrolled at U.S. community colleges, one U.S. job is created and supported by spending occurring in the higher education, accommodation, dining, retail, transportation, telecommunications and health insurance sectors.
The most recent data, released last November, show that international students at all U.S. higher education institutions contributed $36.9 billion and more than 450,000 jobs to the  economy, making a significant dent in the trade deficit. The U.S. services trade surplus with China increased from an annual average of less than $2 billion from 2000-2008 to $37.4 billion in 2016 (0.2 percent of U.S. GDP).

This community college-specific analysis was conducted in response to a renewed emphasis within the higher education community on the importance of international student recruitment to U.S. community colleges. “Community colleges provide a fertile environment for students of all walks of life to learn and develop vital skills that will lead to professional success,” stated Esther D. Brimmer, executive director and CEO at NAFSA. “The results of this analysis demonstrate that as community colleges continue to prioritize internationalization in their expansion efforts, and as they continue to welcome international students to their campuses, our country and our students are the better for it.”
The economic analysis was conducted by Jason Baumgartner of Indiana University’s Office of International Services, using enrollment data from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2017 report, which is produced in partnership with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, tuition and expense data from the U.S. Education Department’s National Center of Educational Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and jobs data from the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration and Bureau of Economic Analysis.

 

Global California 2030

Global California 2030 was launched at Cahuenga Elementary School in Los Angeles, which has a dual Korean/English immersion program and three separate programs to help English learners, especially students with Spanish as their first language.

California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today launched Global California 2030, which is a call to action “to vastly expand the teaching and learning of world languages and the number of students proficient in more than one language over the next 12 years.”

In recognition of their tireless efforts to expand multilingualism in California, Jan Gustafson Corea, CEO of California Association for Bilingual Education, mastered the announcement ceremony, and Shelly Spiegel–Coleman, executive director of Californians Together, delivered an inspirational speech.

The initiative’s aim is to better prepare California students for the 21st century economy, broaden their perspective and understanding of the world, and strengthen the diversity of backgrounds and languages that make California’s culture and economy vibrant and dynamic.

“The mission of Global California 2030 is to equip our students with the world language skills to succeed in the global economy and to fully engage with the diverse mixture of cultures and languages found in California and throughout the world,” Torlakson said. “We are setting high goals and dreaming big to help our students and our state.”

Global California 2030 goals include:

  • By 2030, half of all K–12 students participate in programs leading to proficiency in two or more languages, either through a class, a program, or an experience.
  • More than triple the number of students who receive the State Seal of Biliteracy, which is nationally recognized for college admissions and career opportunities, more than triples from 46,952 in 2017 to more than 150,000 in 2030. By 2040, three out of four graduating seniors earn the Seal of Biliteracy. The Seal is earned by demonstrating proficiency in a language in addition to English.
  • Quadruple the number of dual immersion programs that teach languages besides English quadruples from about 400 in 2017 to 1,600 in 2030.
  • More than double the number of new bilingual teachers authorized in world language classes between 2017 and 2030.

The initiative was inspired by the views California voters expressed so clearly in 2016, when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 58, a ballot measure to eliminate barriers to dual language immersion programs.

Its launch also coincided with today’s call for action by leaders in American business, government, and education, including Language Magazine, to support a national effort to strengthen language education so that individual Americans can more effectively participate in a global society, and the nation as a whole can prosper in a global economy. #AmericasLanguages

“As the world comes closer together, fluency in another language opens up opportunities for people to succeed economically and to take part in diverse cultural activities,” Torlakson said.

Torlakson called on educators, parents, legislators, community members, and business leaders to help create a multilingual California. Widespread support will be needed to expand access to world language classes, programs, and experiences; train more bilingual teachers; and improve the quality and availability of advanced language classes.

“Our ambitions for Global California 2030 are high, but so is our ability to work together with our partners toward common goals,” he said. “Together, we have the skills, creativity, and vision to give all students the opportunity to learn another language.”

For more information, visit Global California 2030 report (PDF) and the Global California 2030 Web page.

More in-depth coverage will appear in the July 2018 issue of Language Magazine

Keeping Up with les Voisins

Michael Ballagh questions the rankings race in study abroad participation

U.S. institutions of higher education have long sought validation in the rankings system dominated by entities such as U.S. News and Forbes. Less commonly known is the academic “arms race” around the number of students who study abroad; college websites tout these high rates as an indicator of institutional success, highlighting the presumed intercultural competencies students acquire as part of a concerted commitment to global education.

Moreover, aside from touting impressive statistics on study abroad numbers, rare is the institution of higher education that does not make broad claims to graduating “global or interculturally literate citizens.” On what basis are we making these claims?
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with heeding the college administration clarion call to increase student participation in study abroad programs.

Targeted outreach, support, and programming that enhance underrepresented student participation in study abroad are welcome trends. But in terms of raw numbers, one might argue that U.S. colleges and universities remain too beholden to the glamour of study abroad statistics; many baccalaureate institutions boast results that far exceed the 100% participation rate.

In many cases, these impressive statistics rely upon short-term programs (one to two weeks) that provide students an intense “global experience.” Can one confidently attest that a two-week program (or indeed a sojourn of any length) provides students the kind of learning sought and claimed by colleges and universities? Lost in the participation rankings race is a closer examination of study abroad goals and outcomes. More importantly, how can one accurately evaluate whether students have achieved the kind of global competencies that can actually benefit them beyond college?

At its core, study abroad aspires to heighten students’ levels of ethno-relative sophistication and (hopefully) forces them to examine their ethnocentric tendencies and privilege. Through a profound engagement with the host culture, students will begin to withhold their American judgment and see events and issues through the eyes (and morality) of their hosts. But is the very act of going abroad assisting such intellectual and emotional growth? Evidence clearly suggests that presence abroad in no way implies that sojourners will gain—or in many cases have any interest in gaining—a deeper understanding of the host community. Study abroad educators must acknowledge that many students and sojourners return home even more blinkered than ever. Being or even studying abroad in no way guarantees intercultural growth.

One needs to examine the structure of these programs to evaluate ways in which they are designed and taught to maximize students’ intercultural growth. Do the programs provide the means necessary to engage with host communities beyond the classroom? Do they employ host-family programs where families are not simply room renters but are key educators themselves? If students enroll in classes at partner universities abroad, are they required to examine their experiences through a cultural lens, or is the fact that they successfully completed a series of courses abroad sufficient evidence of their inter-cultural growth?

In many cases, students fully committed to engagement with a foreign culture are a self-selective bunch; they seek colleges that will allow them this kind of learning environment. Prospective students need to avoid being dazzled by the statistics thrown around by colleges. Does the fact that close to 100% of a student body “studies abroad” indicate that the college has a strong commitment to intercultural learning? Facile as it might sound, students need to look beyond the impressive quantitative statistics and examine the qualitative differences between educational philosophies (and the related programs) of study abroad.

While institutions of higher education are increasingly focused on extrapolating direct evidence of learning, study abroad assessment remains stubbornly beholden to an array of dated indirect instruments that calibrate self-reported student intellectual growth. When students are asked to rate generic questions such as “my study abroad experience allowed me to increase my empathy toward the host culture,” quite impressive would be the honest students who replied that their study abroad experience only served to heighten their sense of ethnocentrism and that they failed to ever reach a stage where they could seek to understand an event or issue through their host community’s eyes.

While one assumes that student responses are well intentioned, the reliability of such self-reported data is intrinsically problematic. Upon what direct evidence can an institution claim its graduating students have truly become these heralded “global citizens”? Pointing to students’ self-assessment does not suffice.

While relatively nascent, there have been encouraging efforts to analyze students’ intercultural growth abroad through observation and carefully defined writing assignments that enable educators to evaluate clear evidence of increased understanding of the host culture. Rather than brainstorming ways to further increase student participation, institutions of higher education must engage with the far more difficult task of articulating the real ways in which students have acquired not simply new knowledge but increased empathy for other communities.

Michael Ballagh is associate vice president of study abroad and international programs and the Ann E. Pitzer director of international programs at Pitzer College, which produced more Fulbright scholars than any other college in the liberal arts category for six consecutive years.

 

FY 2018 LRC Program Competition

The International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office at the U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce the opening of the competition for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRC) Program.

The LRC Program provides grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) or consortia of IHEs for establishing, strengthening, and operating centers that serve as resources for improving the nation’s capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages. Funded centers provide teacher training and conduct research, materials development, assessment, and dissemination projects.

The FY 2018 LRC application package is now available at www.grants.gov. The deadline for submitting applications is June 25, 2018.

IFLE expects to make 16 new awards totaling $2,746,768 under the FY 2018 LRC competition.

ICE Returns Ancient Texts to Iraq

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has returned 3,800 ancient artifacts, including cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, and clay bullae, to the Republic of Iraq. The artifacts were smuggled into the U.S. in violation of federal law and shipped to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc, a nationwide arts-and-crafts retailer.

Many of the tablets can be shown to come from the ancient city of Irisagrig. The tablets, primarily from the Ur III and Old Babylonian period (2100-1600 BCE), are mostly legal and administrative documents, but also include an important collection of Early Dynastic incantations and a bilingual religious text from the Neo-Babylonian period. Two clay cones are inscribed with royal inscriptions from the Early Dynastic Lagash II periods (mid-third millennium BCE). The clay bullae include artifacts believed to be of Parthian or Sasanian date (late 2nd cent. BCE – early 7th cent. AD).

“These pieces are very important to us and they should be returned home to Iraq, to the rightful owner of these pieces,” said Ambassador of Iraq to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen.

The artifacts returned were initially intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The shipping labels on these packages falsely described the cuneiform tablets as tile samples.

“CBP is honored to have played a role, together with ICE, in the return of these national treasures to their rightful owner, the Republic of Iraq.  In doing so, we ensure the protection of this priceless cultural heritage and secure a precious, tangible link to the past for future generations,” said U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner Ian Saunders.

“The Republic of Iraq, standing on the land that was once home to the storied city-states and kingdoms of Mesopotamia, has a celebrated heritage as a cradle of civilization,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.  “We are proud to have played a role in removing these pieces of Iraq’s history from the black market of illegally obtained antiquities and restoring them to the Iraqi people.”

ICE has returned over 8,000 artifacts to over 30 countries since 2007, including paintings from France, Germany, Poland and Austria, 15th-18th century manuscripts from Italy and Peru, cultural artifacts from China, Cambodia, and two Baatar dinosaur fossils to Mongolia, antiquities and Saddam Hussein-era objects returned to Iraq, ancient artifacts, including a mummy’s hand, to Egypt, and most recently royal seals valued at $1,500,000 to the Republic of Korea.

Losing Your Language in Prison

Listen to the story by pressing play below. 

 

With languages it’s often said that if you don’t use it you lose it. San Quentin Radio and NPR present this story of an inmate slowing forgetting his language in prison, Vietnamese. The inmate, who has been incarcerated in prison for over 10 years, shares his story on language, identity, and forgetting.

“Imagine if you forgot the language you learned how to speak as a child. A language that gave you an identity. A language says says, “Hey you belong here, you’re one of us.”

 

Mp3 Source: https://cpa.ds.npr.org/kalw/audio/2018/05/WEB_SQRLanguage.mp3

Deborah Short on TESOL 6 Principles

 

What Are The 6 Principles?

TESOL International Association has defined a core set of principles for the exemplary teaching of English learners. The 6 Principles are universal guidelines drawn from decades of research in language pedagogy and language acquisition theory. They are targets for teaching excellence and should undergird any program of English language instruction.

The 6 Principles:

  1. Know ​Your Learners
  2. Create ​Conditions for Language Learning
  3. Design ​High-​Quality Lessons for ​Language ​Development
  4. Adapt ​Lesson ​Delivery as Needed
  5. Monitor and ​Assess ​Student ​Language Development
  6. Engage and ​Collaborate within a ​Community of ​Practice

You must implement the 6 Principles as a whole. You cannot just know your learners, for example, and then not act on that knowledge when you plan instruction.

The 6 Principles were developed by a ​team of language experts. Grounded in research and with contributions and support from educators around the world, the TESOL Board of Directors, and TESOL Staff, these principles are the result of 2+ years of exploration, inquiry, conversation, and collaboration.

The 6 Principles Writing Team:

  • Deborah J. Short, Lead Writer
  • Helene Becker
  • Nancy Cloud
  • Andrea B. Hellman
  • Linda New Levine

Why Do We Need The 6 Principles?

  • TESOL’s mission is to advance the quality of English language teaching around the world. As the number of English learners soars, a common understanding of second language learning and effective instructional and assessment design is needed.
  • In some settings, teachers need more preparation to effectively educate English learners. When TESOL professionals fully implement the 6 Principles, their students participate in high-quality lessons for language development and experience educational success.
  • The 6 Principles provide teachers with the knowledge to make informed decisions to improve instruction and assessment, so curricula and courses for English learners are rigorous, relevant, and designed and delivered with second language acquisition in mind.
  • Using the 6 Principles for planning policies, programs, and practices will ensure curricula and courses for English learners are rigorous, relevant, and designed and delivered with second language acquisition in mind.
  • When the 6 principles are well implemented, students will participate in high-quality language lessons and experience educational success.

Who Can Use The 6 Principles?

The 6 Principles are for all educators who interact with English language learners. They are applicable across different educational contexts, such as classrooms with children or adults, dual language learners, emerging bilinguals, and multilingual students.

The 6 Principles will help educators:

  • respect, affirm, and promote students’ home languages and cultural knowledge and experiences as resources
  • celebrate multilingualism and diversity
  • support policies that promote individual language rights and multicultural education
  • guide students to be global citizens

 

Text Source: http://www.tesol.org/the-6-principles/about

Early Language Key to School Success

Kim Echart of the University of Washington News reports on a new study which shows that early use of words and grammar determine overall student success

Early language key to school successA new study indicates that children’s language skills in kindergarten predict their performance in other areas, including math and reading, throughout school. Not only does a child’s use of vocabulary and grammar predict future proficiency with the spoken and written word, but it also affects performance in other subject areas.

Language, in other words, supports academic and social success, says Amy Pace, an assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, which led the study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

“A lot of other research focuses on math, science and literacy, and they don’t even consider that language could be playing a role,” says Pace. “But really, it emerges as a strong predictor across subject areas. Why do kids succeed in math, for example? Part of it could be having a strong math vocabulary.”

The study was the first to look at a comprehensive set of school readiness skills and to try to determine which, of all of them, is the most solid predictor of a child’s later success. Language—the ability to fluidly learn words and to string them together into sentences—was the hands-down winner, said co-author Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University.

For this study, Pace and her colleagues from Temple University, the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina examined longitudinal data from more than 1,200 children in the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. That study used several measures of academic and social skills at specific ages and grade levels, including evaluations upon entry to kindergarten and in grades 1, 3 and 5.

While there is considerable research on how children develop specific skills over time, much of that research is focused on patterns of learning within a single subject area, like math or reading. Researchers in the UW study wanted to determine whether there are relationships between skills when considered in combination, and to think about how these combined abilities might predict gains, or growth, above what might be expected based on the skills the child demonstrates when they first enter a kindergarten classroom. The team analyzed academic and behavioral assessments, assigned standardized scores and looked at how scores correlated in grades 1, 3, and 5. Growth curve modeling allowed the team to look at children’s levels of performance across time and investigate rates of change at specific times in elementary school.

Researchers found that of the skills and milestones evaluated – social/emotional, attention, health, reading, math and language – only language skills, when a child entered school, predicted his or her performance both within that subject area and most others (math, reading and social skills) from first through fifth grade. Reading ability in kindergarten predicted reading, math and language skills later on; and math proficiency correlated with math and reading performance over time.

People often confuse language with literacy, Pace said. Reading skills include the ability to decode letter and sound combinations to pronounce words, and to comprehend word meanings and contexts. Language is the ability to deploy those words and use complex syntax and grammar to communicate in speech and writing. And that’s why it has such potential to affect other areas of development, Pace said. At a time when so much focus is on math and science education, it is language that deserves attention, too.

“It provides a foundation for social interaction. If you’re stronger in language, you will be able to communicate with peers and teachers,” she said. “Language also relates to executive functioning, the ability to understand and follow through on the four-step directions from the teacher. And it helps solve problems in math and science, because understanding terminology and abstract concepts relies on a knowledge of language.”

For example, language ability at school entry not only predicted language proficiency through fifth grade as expected, but it also predicted growth in literacy between grades 1 and 3, and a similar amount of growth between grades 3 and 5. In effect, language gave children a boost to help them learn more than researchers might have predicted based on the children’s performance at school entry.

Measuring the impact of one skill on another, in addition to measuring growth in the same skill, provides more of a “whole child” perspective, Pace said. A child who enters school with little exposure to number sense or spatial concepts but with strong social skills may benefit from that emotional buffer. “If we look at just a very narrow slice of a child’s ability, it may be predictive of ability in that area, but it’s not necessarily a good prognosticator of what’s to come overall for that child,” she said.

Researchers expected to find that the effects of kindergarten readiness would wear off by third grade, the time when elementary school curriculum transitions from introducing foundational skills to helping students apply those skills as they delve deeper into content areas. But according to the study, children’s performance in kindergarten continues to predict their performance in grades three through five. This was consistent for multiple skill areas, including language, math and reading, and suggests that bolstering children’s development in those first five years is essential for long-term academic success.

A few findings merit further study, Pace added, especially as they relate to educational policy. For example, children who entered kindergarten with higher levels of skills appeared to make fewer developmental and academic gains than those children who started at lower levels. That is consistent with other research, but, Pace said, it’s worth examining how to better serve high-performing students.

The study also represents an opportunity to rethink what skills are considered measures of kindergarten-readiness, she said.

“Language ability at school entry consistently emerges as an important predictor of student outcomes. This may be why the first three to five years are so critical for future academic and social development,” Pace said. “It is the child’s earliest, high-quality interactions with parents, teachers and caregivers that promote a strong communication foundation – and this foundation goes on to serve as the bedrock for future language and learning.”

The original Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development was funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Development. Additional co-authors were Rebecca Alper of Temple University; Margaret Burchinal of the University of North Carolina and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff of the University of Delaware.

 

 

Writing By Example

Isabel Haller-Gryc recommends using mentor texts to scaffold writing for English learners

Writing is a struggle for many people, but it is especially difficult for English language learners (ELLs). ELLs face many challenges when writing, ranging from unfamiliarity with text structure to difficulty with grammar usage, word order, sentence structure, and syntax (Haynes). How can educators help this ever-growing population of emerging writers? One solution is to use mentor texts. According to Stacey Shubitz, author of Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts, mentor texts are any pieces of exemplary writing that one can study during writing workshop to teach students how to write well. Children’s author Ralph Fletcher comments on how other authors’ works have influenced his writing in his book Mentor Author, Mentor Texts.

He writes, “Powerful writing seems to contain a magical essence, one we hope might somehow rub off on us” (3). In her April 2014 Educational Leadership article “Making the Most of Mentor Texts,” Kelly Gallagher points out that we often learn to do something unfamiliar by watching someone carefully, analyzing what they do, and ultimately copying their actions. Writing in another language is definitely “unfamiliar,” and what better way to help students master this task than to use high-quality examples—mentor texts?

To effectively use mentor texts in writing instruction, students must first be guided through the process of reading texts like writers. That is, they must be taught how to analyze writing for the qualities that they would like to implement. Analysis should focus on either the text organization and the features associated with it or on craft—the author’s style and use of literary techniques. It is only after students are aware of what mentor authors do that they can emulate them and incorporate the observed structure or craft in their writing.

When focusing on a specific organizational structure, during an initial lesson, consider instructing students to look carefully for the specific language of that structure, and encourage them to explain why they think that sample is evidence of the identified pattern. For example, when I start a unit on opinion writing, I use a simple graphic organizer (see Figure 1) to help students identify the opinions in a text. Consider doing something like this: Use a two-column chart with the heading “Examples of Opinion Writing” to record students’ analysis of multiple opinion pieces. I often use Amazon reviews or articles like “Guy Gear” from Boys’ Life as sample texts. In the first column, which is entitled “Examples of opinion writing,” students list actual examples of text that they feel are opinions. The opposite column, which is labeled “I know it’s opinion writing because…,” is where the students explain why their chosen examples meet the requirements for being opinion writing.

The goal is for students to be able to identify the features of opinions, because students must first understand what a specific structure looks like before they can attempt to compose it. Similar activities can be done with informational and narrative writing, as these texts all contain specific identifiable features.

When looking at craft, consider finding multiple texts that model the target technique, and have students again record their analyses. There are several different ways to chart authors’ craft. Author Lester Laminack includes a chart in his book Cracking Open the Author’s Craft: Teaching the Art of Writing that poses several questions to help elicit discussion about what an author is doing and why. Laminack’s chart could be useful to keep track of multiple techniques that one author is using, but I like to have students record the reverse—multiple authors using the same craft (see Figure 2).

The chart I use with students allows them to name the technique being studied and has two columns that analyze multiple texts/authors that showcase the same craft. The first column, labeled “Examples of this technique,” is used to record the title of the mentor text that demonstrates the desired element, and the second column, titled “How does the author employ this technique?”, is used to describe what the author does to implement the studied feature. To illustrate this process, let us look at how to utilize this chart during a narrative unit. When teaching narrative writing, it is often a common focus to teach students how to “zoom in” on a small moment. There are several books that exemplify this feature. Books like Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee, which takes the reader through the entire roller-coaster riding process, and Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe, which lets the reader follow a little boy through his excitement of catching fireflies and realization that he must set them free, are great stories to use to discuss how the author zooms in on a moment rather than merely writing a long list-like story.

To record this, list the titles of these texts and any others that model small moments under the first column, “Examples of this technique,” and then in the second column, “How does the author employ this technique?”, encourage students to explain how the author employs that technique. For example, with Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee, it can be recorded how each page takes the reader through the stages of riding a roller coaster (waiting in line, seeing the carts arrive, getting nervous and wanting to leave, buckling in, and actually riding the coaster). The goal of this process is for students to see multiple examples of a literary aspect that they could try out in their future pieces.

Now, with the shift to the Common Core standards, educators are faced with the task of preparing all students to write on a more advanced level. Students are expected to compose arguments and opinions, informative/explanatory pieces, and narrative texts and to focus on the use of evidence to substantiate their claims. ELLs already struggle with writing, and to ensure that they can employ desired features in their writing, teachers will need to make instructional shifts like using exemplar writing so that all students and especially ELLs can effectively meet the level of complexity required by the Common Core standards. A good writing program should use good literature, and using mentor texts to give ELLs insights into the art of writing and careful analysis can not only help in identifying what good writing looks like and sounds like but also aid in the implementation of specific writing skills.

References

Fletcher, R. J. (2011). Mentor Author, Mentor Texts: Short Texts, Craft Notes, and Practical Classroom Uses. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gallagher, K. (April 2014). “Making the Most of Mentor Texts.” Educational Leadership 71(7), 28–33. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr14/vol71/num07/Making-the-Most-of-Mentor-Texts.aspx.

Haynes, J. (n.d.). “Challenges for ELLs in Content Area Learning.” Retrieved May 31, 2017, from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/challenges_ells_content_area_l_65322.php.

Laminack, L. (2016). Cracking Open the Author’s Craft: Teaching the Art of Writing (revised). Scholastic.

Shubitz, S. (2016). Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Isabel Haller-Gryc has over 17 years of experience in the field of ESL. She is nationally board certified in English as a new language and works as a K–8 ESL instructional coach for the Pullman School District and as an adjunct instructor for Washington State University, both in Pullman, WA.

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