Teaching challenges in Common Core when planning for English language Learners

The last two months, I have been planning my units of study and making sure that I meet the needs of all my students. Every year I have a class that is composed of at least 90% ELLs, hence ensuring that I meet their needs is essential. Here are a few resources and instructional strategies I have been incorporating in my lesson plans and overall units of instruction.  Culturally Responsive Teaching Instructional Strategies: Think aloud - Teacher reads passages and models thought processes for students on how to ask themselves questions as they comprehend text.  Reciprocal questioning - Teachers and students engage in shared reading, discussion, and questioning with the goal being to help students learn to ask questions of themselves about the meaning they are constructing as they read.  Interdisciplinary units - Recommended that teachers include and connect content learning with language arts and culturally diverse literature. Topics drawn from children’s lives and interests (sometimes from curriculum) demonstrate how to make connections across the curriculum through culturally relevant literature.  Scaffolding - Teacher explicitly demonstrates the difference between what students can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish with instructional support.  Journal writing gives students opportunities to share their personal understandings regarding a range of literature in various cultural contexts that inform, clarify, explain, or educate them about culturally diverse societies.  Character study journals permit students to make their own personal connections with a specific character as they read a story.  Open-ended projects allow students to contribute at their varying levels of ability and explore a topic of interest drawn from their readings of culturally rich literature. Artifacts, including writings, poems, and/or letters, from students’ lives or culture can represent an ethnic or cultural group.  Cross-cultural literature discussions groups - Students discuss quality fiction and nonfiction literature that authentically depicts members of diverse cultural groups.  Character reading - Students form opinions about a specific issue or cultural concept put forward in the text or respond to a significant event that occurred during the character’s life.  Click on the below links for resources to tailor your lessons to fit the needs of your classroom. Differentiation Instruction Checklist Integrated Differentiation Matrix Grid Sample of Integrated Matrix – Investigate a Book 8 Lessons Learned on Differentiating Instruction Flow chart that will help guide differentiation for EL's Classroom Practices Inventory (Differentiation) The Difference Between Mainstream Instruction and Embedded ELD Colorín Colorado.org is the leading national website serving parents and educators of English language learners (ELLs) in Grades PreK-12. In this classroom clip, Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava leads her students through an interactive reading of the end of "Burro's Tortillas." "Persuasion Across Time and Space" This intermediate unit (7th-8th grade) shows instructional approaches that are likely to help ELLs meet new standards in English Language Arts. The lessons address potent literacy goals and build on students’ background knowledge and linguistic resources. Built around a set of famous persuasive speeches, the unit supports students in reading a range of complex texts. Kindergarten through Fifth Grade Unit Guides (Level 1-5) Activities for English Language Learners  Kindergarten:   Grade K Q 1Topic 1 Grade K Q 1Topic 2 Grade K Q 1 topic 3 First Grade: Grade 1 Q 1 Topic 1_Mammals Grade 1 Q 1 Topic 2_Reptiles Grade 1 Q 1 Topic 3 Amphibians Grade 1-Biographical Comparison Matrix Grade 1 Q 2 Topic 1 EDITED 010913 Second Grade:   2nd Grade Checklist for Standards and MPIs in RI and RL 2nd Grade Q 1 Topic 1_Four Seasons 2nd Grade Q 1 Topic 2_Plants 2nd Grade Q 1 Topic 3_Water Cycle 2nd grade Q 2 The Wild West Tall Tales Final Third Grade:  3rd Q1 Topic 1 of 3 3rd Q1 Topic 2 of 3 3rd Q1 Topic 3 of 3 3rd Q2 MPI Checklist 3rd Q2 T1 3rd Q2 T2 3rd Q2 T3 3rd_Q3_Complete Unit Fourth Grade: 4th grade Checklist for Standards and MPIs in RI and RL 4th Q1 T1 Final 4th RI RL Q1 T2 4th_Q1_T3 4th- Q 2 Topic 1 Horses 4th Q 2 Topic 2 Dogs 4th Q 2 Topic 3 Mice 4th Q3 Revolutionaries from the Past Fifth Grade: 5th Theme Playing With Words Topic 1 Forces in Nature 5th Theme Playing With Words Topic 2- Change 5thQuarter 2 Theme- Clues to a Culture Topic 2 Native Americans Over Time, History and Present 5th Quarter 3 Unit 4 America in Conflict Topic 1 5th Quarter 3 Unit 5 Exploration, Real and Imagined Topic 1 Visit my NEA Greater Public Schools (NEA GPS Network) site to join me in a conversation about these resources. By providing me with feedback, it allows me to see what other educators across the nation are doing to meet the needs of our diverse population of students. This site is free and its the largest professional learning community in the nation. Click on the link HERE to take you there.