Students entering U.S. schools in eleventh and
twelfth grades at the lower levels of English language
proficiency need to develop these skills in an intensive
and accelerated program of English language
development study so that their academic studies are
not compromised. For newcomer ELs, schools need to
carefully assess language and literacy skills and content
knowledge in the primary language to determine an
appropriate instructional program. For students with
disrupted schooling backgrounds and no or low literacy
in their primary language, teachers need to explicitly
attend to foundational literacy skills in English. Long-
term English learners, that is, students who have been
in U.S. schools for more than five years and have still
not exited from EL status, are likely to need intensive
instruction in academic English. This instruction
includes many meaningful opportunities to interpret and
create complex informational and literary texts and to analyze the language features of these texts
(including the academic vocabulary, grammatical structures, and text organization) in order to develop
metalinguistic awareness and achieve standards. For additional information on a comprehensive
approach to ELD that meets the unique needs of ELs at different English language proficiency levels,
see English language development in the overview of the grade span in this chapter.
ELA/Literacy and ELD in Action in Grades Eleven and Twelve
Both the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and the CA ELD Standards call for students to develop
approaches for analyzing complex texts deeply and thoughtfully to derive meaning. For example,
CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy Reading for Informational Texts Standard 6 for grades 11–12 (RI.11–12.6)
requires students to “determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric
is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or
beauty of the text.” At the same time, CA ELD Standard 8 in Part I for grades eleven and twelve at the
Bridging level (ELD.PI.11–12.8.Br) calls for students to analyze authors’ language choices and “explain
how a writer’s or speaker’s choice of a variety of different types of phrasing or words (e.g., hyperbole,
varying connotations, the cumulative impact of word choices) produces nuances and different effects
on the audience.”
Both sets of standards also emphasize the importance
of academic language awareness—including how to use
general academic and domain specific vocabulary and
complex grammatical structures—when reading, discussing,
and writing literary and informational texts. For example,
the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy Language Standard 3 for
grades 11–12 (L.11–12.3) states that students should be
able to “apply knowledge of language to understand how
language functions in different contexts, to make effective
choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more
fully when reading or listening.” Similarly, and to emphasize
the importance of language in content learning, CA ELD
Standard 4 in Part 1 for grades 11–12 at the Bridging level
(ELD.PI.11–12.4.Br) calls for EL students to develop the
ability to “adjust language choices according to the task
For students with disrupted
schooling backgrounds and no
or low literacy in their primary
language, teachers need to
explicitly attend to foundational
literacy skills in English. Long-term
English learners, that is, students
who have been in U.S. schools for
more than five years and have still
not exited from EL status, are likely
to need intensive instruction in
academic English.Both sets of standards also
emphasize the importance
of academic language
awareness—including how
to use general academic and
domain specific vocabulary
and complex grammatical
structures—when reading,
discussing, and writing literary
and informational texts.Grades 11 and 12 Chapter 7 | 789