(e.g., group presentation of research project), context (e.g., classroom, community), purpose (e.g., to
persuade, to provide arguments or counterarguments), and audience (e.g., peers, teachers, college
recruiter).” This is another example in which the CA ELD Standards augment and amplify the CA CCSS
for ELA/Literacy.
Accordingly, teachers prepare units and
lessons carefully to focus purposefully on content
understandings and language and literacy
development. Teachers select challenging texts
that are worth reading and rereading and that
are relevant to students. As a part of planning,
teachers read the texts ahead of time to determine
which concepts, elements of comprehension, and
language (including vocabulary and grammatical
structures, as well as poetic or figurative uses of
language) might pose challenges for their students
and which might also present opportunities for
students to extend their content understandings,
linguistic repertoires, and their abilities to interact
with and question the texts they read. Teachers
plan a sequence of lessons that builds students’
abilities to read and understand complex texts
with increasing independence in ways that constantly and progressively work toward larger goals,
such as end-of-unit performance tasks. This requires teachers to analyze the cognitive and linguistic
demands of the texts, including the sophistication of the ideas or content, students’ prior knowledge,
and the complexity of the vocabulary, sentences, and organization. Teachers consider the kind of
language required by the planned oral and written tasks and prepare many appropriately scaffolded
opportunities for students to use this language meaningfully before they are asked to produce it
independently. Teachers present and discuss mentor texts so that students have models to analyze
and emulate.
Teachers also provide clear scaffolding to help students read texts analytically. High school
students need many opportunities to read a wide variety of texts and to discuss them, asking and
answering literal and inferential text-dependent questions to determine the meanings in the text
and to evaluate how well authors present their ideas. To this end, teachers—as expert readers
themselves—can demonstrate close reading by modeling a think aloud for students, highlighting the
literal and inferential questions they ask themselves and emphasizing the features of language and
ideas they notice while reading. In addition, teachers can provide
opportunities for students to engage meaningfully with Web-
based and other multimedia resources (e.g., videos, multimedia
presentations, photographs) on topics related to the reading, to
expand students’ knowledge and to support comprehension as
well as discussion of high-level concepts. Integrating technology
reflects students’ lived experiences, which typically involves
immersion in various types of media.
Importantly, for all students, and especially ELs, teachers
should explicitly draw attention to the language of texts,
including how different types of texts are organized and how
writers use particular language resources (e.g., text connectives,
long noun phrases, types of verbs, general academic and
domain-specific vocabulary) to achieve specific purposes (e.g.,
As a part of planning, teachers read the
texts ahead of time to determine which
concepts, elements of comprehension,
and language (including vocabulary
and grammatical structures, as well as
poetic or figurative uses of language)
might pose challenges for their
students and which might also present
opportunities for students to extend
their content understandings, linguistic
repertoires, and their abilities to interact
with and question the texts they read.High school students need
many opportunities to read
a wide variety of texts and
to discuss them, asking
and answering literal and
inferential text-dependent
questions to determine the
meanings in the text and to
evaluate how well authors
present their ideas.790 | Chapter 7 Grades 11 and 12