M/J English Language Development (MC)   (#1002180)

Version Description

The purpose of this course is to enable middle school students who are native speakers of languages other than English  to accelerate the development of communication and literacy skills that will promote English proficiency. This course will strengthen English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills so that students are able to successfully comprehend middle school grade-level text independently, as well as communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting.  Instruction will emphasize reading comprehension, writing fluency, and academic vocabulary through various levels of complexity. Texts used for instruction focus on a wide range of topics in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and academic language in order to support students in meeting the knowledge demands of increasingly complex text. Students enrolled in the course will engage in interactive text-based discussion, question generation, and research opportunities, as well as cite evidence when answering text-dependent questions orally and in writing. Scaffolding is provided as necessary as students engage in reading and writing increasingly complex text.  Explicit support is decreased or removed progressively as the reading and writing abilities of the students improve over time.  The course will also provide extensive opportunities for students to learn English by communicating and collaborating with their teachers and peers for social and acculturation purposes.

The multiple credit course is a multi-grade-level elective that should be designed with the following student considerations:

• grade-level content
• proficiency level in English
• instructional needs

This course should be tailored to meet the needs of the individual student.  Appropriate benchmarks from the following set of standards should be identified to develop an appropriate curriculum.

General Notes

Additional Notes: To ensure students have enough exposure to various text structures and academic vocabulary to develop skills necessary for college and career readiness, it is necessary to implement a combination of research-based programs and strategies that have been proven successful in accelerating the development of literacy skills in ELLs.  To do this, the following practices should be incorporated in the course:

1. Providing opportunities for listening, speaking, reading and writing English skills.
2. Scaffolding of close reading that does not preempt or replace text.
3. Delivering systematic instruction in academic and social vocabulary.
4. Applying grammatical structures and conventions through explicit instruction.
5. Increasing the amount and complexity of text read and independent writing.
6. Asking high-level, communicative and text-specific questions which requires high-level student responses.

English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Language Arts. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/la.pdf.