English Language Development

• Raising students’ language awareness, particularly of how English works to make meaning, in
  order to support their close reading and skilled writing of different text types
  Students build language awareness as they come to understand how different text types use
  particular language resources (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical structures, ways of structuring and
  organizing whole texts). Language awareness is fostered when students have opportunities to
  experiment with language, shaping and enriching their own language using these language resources.
  During designated ELD instruction children engage in discussions related to the content knowledge
  they are learning in ELA and other content areas, and these discussions promote the use of the
  language from those content areas. Students also discuss the new language they are learning to use.
  For example, students might learn about the grammatical structures of a particular complex text they
  are reading in science or ELA, or they might explicitly learn some of the general academic vocabulary
  used in the texts they are reading in ELA or social studies.

This intensive focus on language, in ways that build into and from content instruction, supports
students’ abilities to use English effectively in a range of disciplines, raises their awareness of how
English works in those disciplines, and enhances their understanding of content knowledge. Examples
of designated ELD instruction aligned to different content areas are provided in the following
snapshots as well as in the vignettes. For an extended discussion of how the CA ELD Standards are
used throughout the day in tandem with the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and other content standards
and as the principal standards during designated ELD, see chapters 1 and 2 in this ELA/ELD
Framework.

Snapshot 4.3. Language Used in Informational Text

Designated ELD Connected to Science in Grade Two

In science, Mr. Chen is teaching his students about interdependent relationships in

ecosystems. The students have planted different kinds of plants in the school garden and

are now determining which kinds of insects are beneficial or detrimental to the plants and

why, including the role of pollinating insects. The children engage in collaborative discussions

about the informational texts they read on the topic, the multimedia they view, and what they

observe in the garden and record in their science journals.

During designated ELD, Mr. Chen works with his EL students at the Bridging level of

English language proficiency. He facilitates a discussion about the language used in the

informational science texts the class is reading and the language needed to engage in science

tasks, such as observing insects in the garden and then discussing the observations or

recording them in writing. This language includes domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., beneficial

insects, pollinators, pests), general academic vocabulary (e.g., devour, gather), and adverbials,

such as prepositional phrases (e.g. with its proboscis, underneath the leaf, on the stem). He

highlights some of the language patterns in the informational texts students are reading (e.g.,

most aphids, some aphids, many aphids), as well as some complex sentences with long noun

phrases that may be unfamiliar to students (e.g., As they feed in dense groups on the stems

of plants, aphids transmit diseases. Whereas the caterpillars of most butterflies are harmless,

moth caterpillars cause an enormous amount of damage.). He guides the students to “unpack”

the meanings in these phrases and sentences through lively discussions.

Grade 2 Chapter 4 | 335