Special Education

The English Language Learner’s Course will provide explicit instruction to students that speak language other than English to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in all academic areas with the focus on academic language. The course provides integration of content and language which means that academic language is the context for language learning, and language is the means for learning academic content. Purposeful use of language will help students access academic content and become independent and successful learners. ACCESS for ELLs test measures yearly students’ progress in language development in four language domains. Since Minnesota is part of the WIDA Consortium, we use WIDA English language development standards (ELD).

There are six levels of English language proficiency in Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing domains. WIDA’s Key Language Uses—Narrate, Inform, Explain, and Argue—are present across all grade levels and disciplines and used for developing learning targets. Table below offers snapshots of some ways students engage in each Key Language Use throughout all grades. [WIDA English Language Development Framework, 2020]

Narrate

• Describe people, objects, and scenes using imagery, metaphors, and other stylistic devices
• Manipulate pace to bring attention to key points in the narrative
• Underscore the significance of events
• Create tension and suspense
• Interpret and use historical narratives as primary source evidence in constructing arguments

Inform

• Manage information about entities according to their composition, taxonomies, and classifications
• Identify and describe various relationships among ideas and information
• Interpret multiple sources of information to develop knowledge before reporting on topics
• Construct research reports that require multiple sources of&nbspfactual information

Explain

• Identify, analyze, and give account for causal, consequential, or systems relationships
• Apply scientific reasoning to show how or why something works
• Construct explanations using models or representations
• Use evidence in the construction of scientific explanations

Argue

• Interpret multiple sources of information to develop claims and counterclaims
• Construct claims and offer them for debate
• Respond to counterclaims
• Contextualize and evaluate primary and secondary sources
• Analyze literary techniques, such as the development of theme and characterization in works of fiction

Narrate

Students will

• Share ideas about one’s own and others’ lived experiences and previous learning
• Connect stories with images and representations to add meaning
• Identify and raise questions about what might be unexplained, missing, or left unsaid
• Recount and restate ideas to sustain and move dialogue forward
• Create closure, recap, and offer next steps

Inform

Students will

• Define and classify facts and interpretations; determine what is known vs. unknown
• Report on explicit and inferred characteristics, patterns, or behavior
• Describe the parts and wholes of a system
• Sort, clarify, and summarize relationships
• Summarize most important aspects of information

Explain

Students will:

• Generate and convey initial thinking
• Follow and describe cycles and sequences of steps or procedures and their causes and effects
• Compare changing variables, factors, and circumstances
• Offer alternatives to extend or deepen awareness of factors that contribute to particular outcomes
• Act on feedback to revise understandings of how or why something is or works in particular ways Language Expect

Argue

Students will

• Generate questions about different perspectives
• Support or challenge an opinion, premise, or interpretation
• Clarify and elaborate ideas based on feedback
• Evaluate changes in thinking, identifying trade-offs
• Refine claims and reasoning based on new information or evidence

Narrate

Interpretive: Students will interpret language arts narratives by

• Identifying a theme or central idea that develops over the course of a text
• Analyzing how character attributes and actions develop in relation to events or dialogue
• Evaluating impact of specific word choices about meaning and tone

Expressive: Students will construct language arts narratives that

• Orient audience to context and point of view
• Develop and describe characters and their relationships
• Develop story, including themes with complication and resolution, time, and event sequences
• Engage and adjust for audience

Inform

Interpretive: Students will interpret informational texts in language arts by

• Identifying and/or summarizing main ideas and their relationship to supporting ideas
• Analyzing observations and descriptions in textual evidence for key attributes, qualities, characteristics, activities, and behaviors
• Evaluating the impact of author’s key word choices over the course of a text

Expressive: Students will construct informational texts in language arts that

• Introduce and define topic and/or entity for audience
• Establish objective or neutral stance
• Add precision, details, and clarity about relevant attributes, qualities, characteristics, activities, and behaviors
• Develop coherence and cohesion throughout text

Argue

Interpretive: Students will interpret language arts arguments by

• Identifying and summarizing central idea distinct from prior knowledge or opinions
• Analyzing how an author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints
• Evaluating relevance, sufficiency of evidence, and validity of reasoning that support claim(s)

Expressive: Students will construct language arts arguments that

• Introduce and develop claim(s) and acknowledge counterclaim(s)
• Support claims with reasons and evidence that are clear, relevant, and credible
• Establish and maintain formal style
• Logically organize claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence; offer a conclusion

Explain

Interpretive: Students will interpret mathematical explanations by

• Identifying concept or entity
• Analyzing possible ways to represent and solve a problem
• Evaluating model and rationale for underlying relationships in selected problem-solving approach

Expressive: Students will construct mathematical explanations that

• Introduce concept or entity
• Share solution with others
• Describe data and/or problem-solving strategy
• State reasoning used to generate solution

Argue

Interpretive: Students will interpret mathematics arguments by

• Comparing conjectures with previously established results
• Distinguishing commonalities among strategies used
• Evaluating relationships between evidence and mathematical facts to create generalizations

Expressive: Students will construct mathematics arguments that

• Create conjecture, using definitions and previously established results
• Generalize logic across cases
• Justify conclusions with evidence and mathematical facts
• Evaluate and critique others’ arguments

Explain

Interpretive: Students will interpret scientific explanations by

• Defining investigable questions or design problems based on observations, information, and/or data about a phenomenon
• Determining central ideas in complex evidence and information to help explain how or why a phenomenon occurs
• Evaluating scientific reasoning that shows why data or evidence adequately supports conclusions

Expressive: Students will construct scientific explanations that

• Describe valid and reliable evidence from sources about a phenomenon
• Establish neutral or objective stance in how results are communicated
• Develop reasoning to show relationships among independent and dependent variables in models and simple systems
• Summarize patterns in evidence, making trade-offs, revising, and retesting

Argue

Interpretive: Students will interpret scientific arguments by

• Identifying convincing evidence from data, models, and/or information from investigations of phenomena or design solutions
• Comparing reasoning and claims based on evidence from two arguments on the same topic
• Evaluating whether they emphasize similar or different evidence and/or interpretations of facts

Expressive: Students will construct scientific arguments that

• Introduce and contextualize topic/phenomenon in issues related to the natural and designed world(s)
• Support or refute a claim based on data and evidence
• Establish and maintain a neutral or objective stance
• Signal logical relationships among reasoning, evidence, data, and/or a model when making or defending a claim or counterclaim

Explain

Interpretive: Students will interpret social studies explanations by

• Determining multiple points of view in sources for answering compelling and supporting questions about phenomena or events
• Analyzing sources for logical relationships among contributing factors or causes
• Evaluating experts’ points of agreement, along with strengths and weakness of explanations

Expressive: Students will construct social studies explanations that

• Introduce and contextualize phenomena or events
• Establish perspective for communicating outcomes, consequences, or documentation
• Develop reasoning, sequences with linear and nonlinear relationships, evidence, and details, acknowledging strengths and weaknesses
• Generalize multiple causes and effects of developments or events

Argue

Interpretive: Students will interpret social studies arguments by

• Identifying topic and purpose (argue in favor or against a position, present a balanced interpretation, challenge perspective)
• Analyzing relevant information from multiple sources to support claims
• Evaluating point of view and credibility of source based on relevance and intended use

Expressive: Students will construct social studies arguments that

• Introduce and contextualize topic
• Select relevant information to support claims with evidence gathered from multiple sources
• Establish perspective
• Show relationships between claims and counterclaims, differences in perspectives, and evidence and reasoning

• ELD Standards Framework/WIDA
• ACCESS: Newcomers
• Inside: Language, Literacy, and Content
• Edge: Reading, Writing, and Language
• “Outer Edge” Course
• “Wild Side” Course
• RAZ-KIDS: online reading program
• Scholastic News Edition 5⁄6
• Junior Scholastic