Chapter One
English Language Learners and the Common Core: An Overview
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
āJohn F. Kennedy1
Change is a constant in life, and this is especially true in education. When faced with change some people cling strongly to the past, others dive in headfirst without question, and some take a more measured approach by evaluating both past and present as they move forward.
In terms of education, it is important to look to past research on effective teaching and learning, but not to cling to outdated, ineffective practices. It is also important to be in the present, the era of āCommon Core,ā and to try new strategies, while not ignoring what we already know about good teaching practice.
When teaching English Language Learners, we need to evaluate current standards and consider how to teach them in light of what has already been learned about language acquisition. In our classrooms, we acknowledge our students for who they are in the presentāgetting to know their interests, assessing their current proficiency levels, and identifying their academic strengths and challenges. But, we also look to their pastāinviting them to share the prior knowledge and rich experiences they bring with them.
It is this balanceālooking at both past and present in order to shape the best futureāthat we hope will be apparent in this book, and particularly in this chapter. We start with an overview of general information related to teaching ELLs. While many of the topics in the first few pages are similar to those in our first book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide,2 the information has been updated with recent research and demographics. Of course, the biggest change since we wrote our first book 4 years ago is the implementation of the national Common Core standards and new state English Language Proficiency standards occurring throughout the country. While many of the strategies outlined in our last book are compatible with Common Core, we've learned a lot in the past 4 years.
In this book, we will explain how we've used the Common Core standards to improve some of the ideas from our last book while also laying out new strategies we are using to help our students meet the challenges of Common Core. Obviously, it is not realistic for early Beginners to meet grade-level Common Core standards. However, the strategies for Beginning ELLs described in our first book and further developed in this book, lay the groundwork for them to do so as quickly as possible. For example, the pattern-seeking strategies in the Picture Word Inductive model3 help prepare them for the pattern-seeking needed in the close reading required by Common Core. The use of Text Data Sets helps students develop preliminary essay writing skills as they organize and summarize categories. In addition, the dialogues we use with Beginners prepare students for the communicative tasks in the Speaking and Listening Common Core Standards, and the many vocabulary activities described for Beginners in our first book set the stage for the acquisition of the academic vocabulary required in the Language standards.
ELL Population Growth
It is hard to find a school or district in this country that doesn't have an English Language Learner population, and in many states, it is hard to find a classroom without any ELLs. English Language Learners represented nearly 10% of the total Kā12 student population with 4.85 million ELL students enrolled in public schools during the 2012ā2013 school year.4
California has the highest percentage of ELLs at 24% of enrollment in public schools, about 1.1 million students, followed by Texas with 832,000 ELLs comprising 17% of public school students.5 In Nevada and New Mexico, ELLs represent nearly one in five students (18% and 17%, respectively). ELL students account for 17% of the student population in Colorado, 10% in Florida, and 9% in both New York and the District of Columbia.6
It is clear that the number of ELL students across the nation continues to steadily grow. However, some states, including South Carolina, Kentucky, Nevada, Delaware, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, and North Carolina, have experienced huge increases in their ELL populations. According to the Annenberg Institute, āwhile the U.S. ELL population has grown 18% from 2000ā2001 to 2011ā2012, which is a significant increase, these states have experienced ELL growth ranging from 135% in North Carolina to an astonishing 610% in South Carolina.ā7
Languages Spoken by ELLs
While English language learners in the United States speak roughly 400 languages, the majority (approximately 80%) are Spanish-speakers.8 In 2011, Latinos represented 24% of public school enrollment and are projected to be 30% by 2023.9
As of 2013, more than two-thirds of ELL students in 45 states and the District of Columbia spoke Spanish. In 19 states, including Texas and California, more than three-quarters of all ELL students spoke Spanish. Other states, like West Virginia, Minnesota, and Ohio among others, were less homogeneous and their ELL populations spoke a diverse set of languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Somali, Hmong, and Arabic.10
How Are English Language Learners Described?
ELLs are a diverse, dynamic group, which is evident in the large number of ālabelsā used to describe them. Here are some of the most common:
ELL, or English language learner: ELL (or EL) is the most current term used in the United States to describe students who are in various stages of acquiring English. The U.S. Department of Education defines an ELL (or EL) as:
