This is the text transcript to the video Overview of the ELA/ELD Framework.
Welcome to the California Department of Education's Common Core video resources. These resources are designed to help educators and other stakeholders learn more about the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, also known as CCSS, or Common Core.
Curriculum frameworks are important tools for implementing the California Common Core State Standards, and they are especially critical for addressing the needs of California's diverse student population. This video provides an overview of the English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, or the ELA/ELD Framework.
In July 2014, the State Board of Education adopted the ELA/ELD Framework to support the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards for ELA and Literacy, or California CCSS for ELA/Literacy, and the California ELD Standards.
English language arts, disciplinary literacy, and ELD instruction are changing in California. Our new state standards call for students to engage in collaborative conversations, read more challenging and complex texts, and write for different purposes and audiences, using evidence to support claims. The ELA/ELD Framework breaks new ground by providing guidance for supporting all students to meet these challenges.
For the first time, our state has adopted a robust guiding document that integrates both the California Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy and the California ELD Standards in one publication. Uniting these two sets of standards in one framework helps California educators support all students as they learn to read, write, and communicate with competence and confidence. California's students will complete their K-12 education broadly literate, and prepared for college, careers, and civic life in the 21st century.
The ELA/ELD Framework is like a "roadmap" for curriculum and instruction, assessment, and professional learning and leadership. It offers direction to teachers and instructional specialists on meeting students' diverse instructional needs, and it provides concrete ideas for how educators can work collaboratively to create learning environments where all students thrive. The framework also advises curriculum experts, administrators, and other educational leaders on supporting teachers to provide effective, standards-based ELA and disciplinary literacy instruction for all students and ELD instruction for English learners. It provides research-based teaching principles, detailed examples of instructional practices, explanations and models of different approaches to teaching and learning, and examples of lessons that bring the California ELA/Literacy and the ELD Standards to life in the classroom.
The ELA/ELD Framework offers two types of chapters. Grade-span chapters focus on implementing the standards at specific grade levels and grade spans, while the other chapters address crosscutting topics such as access and equity, professional learning and leadership, learning in the 21st century, and assessment.
To begin exploring the ELA/ELD Framework, everyone - teachers, administrators, parents and guardians, and community members can read the Introduction, which explains California's vision and goals for all students, shares guiding principles used to develop the framework, and discusses the framework's special emphasis on English Learners.
Next, Chapter 1 provides an explanation of the organization and structure of both sets of standards, highlights their intent and critical components, and explains their interrelationship.
Chapter 2 explains the overarching goals for California's students, contexts for learning, and key themes in ELA/Literacy and ELD curriculum, instruction, and assessment. It highlights key considerations for ELA, disciplinary literacy, and ELD instruction that reflect California's vision for students' instructional settings and experiences. A unifying figure, which shows the circles of implementation, illustrates the vision of the framework. The figure is explained in Chapter 2 and used throughout the Framework.
Seen here, this figure ties together the overarching goals for ELA/Literacy and ELD instruction, contexts for learning, key themes of both sets of standards, and the standards themselves. The outer ring identifies the goals California has for all students: to develop readiness for college, career, and civic life; attain the capacities of literate individuals; become broadly literate; and acquire the skills for living and learning in the 21st century. The white field within the outer ring represents the context for high-quality learning needed to reach these goals. Instruction must be integrated, motivating, engaging, respectful, and intellectually challenging. The five circles represent the five key themes of both sets of standards: meaning making, language development, effective expression, content knowledge, and foundational skills. These themes help organize the grade span chapters. At the figure's center are the ELA/Literacy and ELD Standards, which describe student knowledge and abilities and guide instructional planning and observation of student progress. The ELD standards provide guidance on supporting English learners to interact meaningfully with the intellectually rich instruction called for in the ELA and literacy standards and on developing advanced levels of English in a timely manner.
The Framework's grade span chapters, Chapters 3 through 7, focus on the subject matter content and pedagogy of specific grade-levels and grade-spans. Each chapter contains:
- An overview of critical content and instructional practices organized around the five themes;
- A discussion of how the California ELA/Literacy and ELD Standards work, by theme;
- A focus on integrated and designated English language development;
- Guidance on supporting diverse learners; and
- Grade-level (or for grades 9-10 and 11-12, grade-span) sections that provide guidance on the five themes and multiple examples of instruction.
These chapters also present short snapshots and longer vignettes to illustrate the standards in action in ELA, ELD, and across the disciplines. For example, some snapshots and vignettes describe lessons that integrate the ELA and ELD standards. Others show how to foster disciplinary literacy in science or history/social studies using both content standards and the ELA/Literacy standards. Still others illustrate how students can use technology to develop content knowledge and cultivate 21st century skills, how teachers engage in formative assessment, and how teachers collaborate to adapt lessons for diverse learners.
Assessment is also changing. Chapter 8 explores educators' skilled use of assessment practices and tools to support student learning to attain ELA, literacy, and ELD standards. The chapter describes the different cycles, forms, and purposes of assessment, and what methods, information, and uses flow from these. In particular, it focuses on formative assessment as a process that teachers and students engage in during instruction - a process that provides timely feedback to teachers and students so that learning can move forward.
Every educator can benefit from Chapter 9, "Access and Equity", which describes California's diverse student population, then highlights approaches for supporting all students to thrive in California's classrooms. It includes sections on:
- Knowing and addressing the needs of all California's students, including those who are Standard English learners; English learners; biliterate; migrant; deaf or hard of hearing; living in poverty; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; advanced learners; and students with disabilities;
- Supporting a range of learners using Universal Design for Learning (or UDL), Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (or MTSS), and culturally and linguistically responsive teaching;
- Supporting students experiencing difficulty in reading.
Chapter 10 defines 21st century skills, describes their role in ELA/Literacy and ELD programs, presents instructional practices, and discusses equitable access, professional learning and teacher support, and future directions.
Chapter 11 explores how teachers, administrators, and other educators can successfully implement the ELA/ELD Framework within a collaborative environment that fosters a culture of learning. It highlights how professional learning, leadership, and program supports are critical to fostering such a culture. Topics include:
- Shared leadership and responsibility within a collaborative practice setting;
- Components of effective professional learning, including resources, research, and critical content;
- Other program supports, such as expanded learning, libraries, specialists, and partnerships with parents, families, and communities.
Finally, Chapter 12 provides guidance for selecting instructional materials, including the state adoption of instructional materials for kindergarten through grade eight and guidance for local educational agencies (or LEAs) on adopting instructional materials. Educators should consult this chapter when selecting instructional materials to support implementing the standards.
[Updated June 2019]
Thank you for viewing this Common Core video resource. We invite you to watch for other videos in this series and to stay informed about statewide implementation activities by joining the CDE Curriculum and Frameworks Updates listerv. To join, send a blank e-mail message to join-CFIRupdates@mlist.cde.ca.gov. For more information, please contact Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources office at 916-319-0881 or CFIRD@cde.ca.gov.