Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Middle School (6-8)

ELLs and Academic Conversations

Oakland Unified School District, the Teaching Channel, and Stanford University’s Understanding Language Group have collaborated in this three-part series on English language learners (ELLs) and academic conversations. Teachers create classroom structures that encourage students to talk to and learn from each other. Academic conversations (Zwiers & Crawford, 2011) have the following characteristics: Purposeful and sustained […]

Video: Conjecturing about Functions

In this video of middle school math instruction aligned to college and career ready standards, the teacher asks students to solve problems related to a set of functions. The teacher’s goal is for students to find the pattern among the set of functions and from that identify a math concept that is true for the […]

Video: Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action

This video illustrates ways to incorporate formative assessment into a middle school science classroom. The teacher starts the lesson off with the students sharing challenges from the previous lesson. She uses this as a formative assessment opportunity to gage where students are in their learning. Each of the subsequent activities serves as an evidence gathering […]

Changes in the Expertise of ESL Professionals: Knowledge and Action in an Era of New Standards

This professional paper published by TESOL discusses the shifting landscape surrounding the new Common Core Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and their implications for building and enacting ESL teacher expertise. The authors explain the challenges and the possibilities associated with the new Standards for the ESL profession in the K-12 context, […]

Overview of the Common Core State Standards Initiatives for ELLs

The purpose of this brief from TESOL is to provide an overview of the policies behind the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. The paper outlines some initiatives that are in place (as of the time of publication) to address the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in relation to the […]

TextProject Word Pictures

The main goal of TextProject Word Pictures is to help English Language Learners (ELLs) connect key words to concepts they may already know. It provides QuickReads, Literature Words, Content Area Words, and Core Vocabulary.