Massachusetts
Next Generation ESL Project:
Model Curriculum Units
“Do you know what a foreign accent is?
It’s a sign of bravery.”
Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
http://www.doe.mass.edu/ell/curriculum.html
Agenda
Project Overview: State Level
Collaboration Tool: Classroom Level
Necessary Structures: District Level
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Welcome!
Fernanda Kray, EL Curriculum & PD Coordinator, MA DoE
Kellie Jones, Director of Bilingual Education, Brockton
Meghan Brennan, Middle School ESL Teacher, Brockton
Nina West, Middle School ESL Teacher, Brockton
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Project Overview
ELBPO
WIDA?
SEI,
ESL & SCI?
CCSS & MA
Frameworks?
NCLB
ESSA?
Ed
Eval?
MCAS
PARCC
MCAS 2.0?
What we do – is it still best practice?
Is it still supported by research?
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Project Overview
PD
ESL &
CCSS?
12 ESL
MCUS
ESL Curriculum
Resource Guide
WIDA?
ESL &
SCI?
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Operationalize broad WIDA standards
Define focus of ESL instruction
Clarify roles in a coherent, comprehensive language & content program
Project Overview:
ESL Curriculum Resource Guide
1. Definition of focus of ESL Instruction / role of ESL teacher
2. Collaboration
3. Template/tool
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Project Overview:
ESL Curriculum Resource Guide
Focus Language
Goals
Collaboration
Tool
Lang & Key
academic
practices
Curriculum
Resource
Guide
Templates,
tools,
processes,
protocols
Focus Topics:
text complexity,
UDL, EL/SWD,
critical stance,
social justice,
etc.
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Project Overview: Foundational Beliefs
My humanity is tied to your humanity
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Project Overview: Teach to Lead…
Open-ended: knowledge is not finite
Field-based: Teachers are researchers and intellectuals
Focus: thinking processes
Voices from the Classroom
Meghan Brennan – ESL Teacher – Brockton, MA
Nina West – ESL Teacher – Brockton, MA
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Our Reasons ‘Why’
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Puts language development first
Helps us become more effective language teachers
Focuses on language progression
Is teacher designed, rather than textbook designed
Makes learning meaningful and shifts power from teachers to
students
Addresses the “achievement gap”
Infuses social justice themes
Increases student agency
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Designing Language-Driven Units
NEEDS:
Meet WIDA (Key Uses, Performance Definitions) and state
standards
Prioritize what academic language to teach in what context
Establish clear learning goals
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool
Key linguistic
interactions
that support
academic
practices
Key
Academic
Practices
Strategic
Language
Functions
Embedded
Language
Forms
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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The Collaboration Tool
Designing the Goals to Drive Instruction
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
What is the purpose of the Collaboration Tool?
 Assist with COLLABORATION between content
and ESL experts
 It is a powerful brainstorming tool:

Establish clear learning and language goals for unit / UbD stage 1

Focus on strategic teaching of language functions firmly grounded
within the rich context of key academic practices
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Helps identify content standards that connect to the language being
learned
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Personalized and flexible to your students’ language and academic
needs
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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Collaboration Tool- Top Row
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration ToolLanguage: Key Uses
Strategic Language FunctionsKey Uses of AL (Macro Functions)
Key Uses
Key Uses of Academic Lan
(Macro Functions) R E A D
RECOUNT
EXPLAIN
ARGUE
DISCUSS
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“Discuss” points to the importance of the oral, interactive c
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool- Language: Micro
Micro Functions - hyperlinks
Micro Functions

Micro functions can be mixed or created according to need and context. Click on HYPER LINKS for sample progre
1. Name/label/ Identify
2. Describe
3. Sequence
4. Summarize
5. Elaborate
6. Compare/ Contrast
7. Describe Cause/effect
8. Classify/ categorize
9. State an opinion/ claim
10. Predict
11. Contradict/ disagree
12. Evaluate
13. Justify
14. Inquire
15. Insert any micro-function as necessary.
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Microfunctions Hyperlinks: samples of progression
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education
Disclaimer: Students may demonstrate a range of abilities within and
across each levels; language acquisition does not necessarily occur in a
linear fashion within or across proficiency levels.
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool: Key Academic
Practices
Key Academic Practices
Key Academic Practices 
In listening, speaking, reading, and writing with literary and informational language:
* Key Academic Practices may be replaced with the state standards themselves.
ENGAGE with COMPLEX ACADEMIC LANGUAGE:
a. Participate in grade-appropriate exchanges of information
b. Produce clear and coherent language in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose
audience
c. Support analyses of a range of complex texts with evidence
d. Use English structures to communicate context specific messages
EVIDENCE-BASED COMMUNICATION – with opinions, claims, concepts, arguments, or ideas:
e. Paraphrase
f. Analyze
g. Summarize
h. Challenge
i. State (name) one’s own
j. Support with reasoning and evidence
RESEARCH:
k. Plan and carry out inquiriesMassachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
l. Evaluate sources
m. Build and present knowledge through research by integrating, comparing, and synthesizing ideas
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Key Academic Practices: Relationships
and Convergences
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool: WIDA
Performance Definitions
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool: Thinking Space 1:
Creating Focus Language Goals
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Collaboration Tool: Flexible Formulas
Key Uses (Macro) + Key Academic Practices
Key Uses (Macro) + Micro Function + Key Academic
Practices
Key Uses (Macro) + CCSS Stem
Key Uses (Macro) + Micro Function + Key Academic
Practices + Content Connection
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Examples from ESL Model Curriculum Units
K LoMa
RECOUNT by sequencing to participate in grade appropriate
exchanges of information
Gr 1-2, LoSS
ARGUE by stating one’s own opinion on a substantive topic
Gr 3-5, LoSc
EXPLAIN causes and effects of weathering and erosion supported
with reasoning and evidence
Gr 9-12, SIL
DISCUSS by building upon ideas of others and articulating your
own
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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Drafting Focus Language Goals
with a team
1. Know your students
2. Select the language of which content area(s)/WIDA standard(s) for
the ESL unit
3. Discuss grade-level content units/themes and expectations
4. Collaboratively identify the driving language demands
5. Collaboratively identify the Key Uses, language functions, and Key
Academic Practices
6. Use the flexible formulas to create Focus Language Goals for the ESL
unit
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Now You Try
Context: You are on a writing team. You are designing an ESL unit for ELP 12 and for Grade Band 6-8. You are working with the language of Social
Studies.
You have identified a connecting content unit and it deals with the
Model United Nations.
1. Refer to the assessment on Page 64 in your Resource
Guide
2. Using the Collaboration Tool, analyze the assessment
looking for language demands (MACRO, MICRO, Key
Academic practices)
3. Use the thinking space on the
Collaboration Tool to draft one
or two possible Focus Language
Goals
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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The Collaboration Tool: Flexible Formulas
Key Uses (Macro) + Key Academic Practices
Key Uses (Macro) + Micro Function + Key Academic
Practices
Key Uses (Macro) + CCSS Stem
Key Uses (Macro) + Micro Function + Key Academic
Practices + Content Connection
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Brockton Public Schools
2015-2016
 Diverse urban district located 25 miles south of Boston,
Massachusetts
 Student enrollment 17,102
 37 languages represented
 36.9% identify as First Language Not English (FLNE)
 3477 students identified as English learners
 1855 are Cape Verdean speakers
 711 are Haitian/French speakers
 520 are Spanish speakers
 181 are Portuguese speakers
 589 identified as FLEP/FEL
 1639 students are in the first two years in EL Status
Brockton Public Schools
Programming for English Language Learners
Elementary
Middle School
High School
Structured English
Immersion
Integrated Structured
English Immersion
Two-Way
Transitional Bilingual
Education
Structured English
Immersion
Integrated Structured
English Immersion
Advanced Spanish for
Two-Way
Spanish Heritage
Language
Transitional Bilingual
Education
Structured English
Immersion
Integrated Structured
English Immersion
Literacy Cluster
Medical Interpretation
Upcoming: Heritage
Language
Brockton Public Schools
English Language Development Instruction
Elementary
Schools
WIDA Levels 1-3
WIDA Levels 3-5
Middle Schools
High Schools
Level
Level
Level
Level
Literacy ESL
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
1
2
3
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Brockton Public Schools
Curriculum Goals
Moving from curriculum as a scope and sequence attached to
a published series/program
Moving to the CCSS as the driver of instruction, not the
adopted program.
Using Understanding by Design (UBD 2.0) approach to unit
development
Moving from ESL Curriculum based on 2003 Massachusetts
ESL Standards to the development of a WIDA/CCSS ESL
curriculum.
Laying the Groundwork
 Relationship building between Office of Learning and Teaching
(OLT) and Department of Bilingual/ESL Services
 Regular meetings between Bilingual Department and OLT
administrators around curriculum development
 June 2012 –Administrative level conversations to develop
support for cross-disciplinary curriculum planning incorporating
WIDA ELD Standards in Brockton
 Integration of curriculum development goals into the Brockton
Public Schools Strategic Plan
Pronged Approach to ESL and Content
Curriculum Development
Prong One – WIDA Standards
Training
Prong Two – WIDA Study
Groups
Prong Three – WIDA
Curriculum Development
Committee
12 hours professional
development
Teams of teachers
collaborate for unit
development
30 hours
Facilitated by English
language acquisition
coaches
Teacher leaders who
Teachers implement
review, revise and edit the units and revise as
units for publication
needed
20 hours
Ensure consistency,
cohesiveness of the
units
2013
In-district
2013-2015
In-district
2015-present
In-district and
with the State
Prong Four – Pilot Units
2015-present
With the State
ESL Curriculum Development
Access to Clean Water
Developed a solid language-driven curriculum ESL unit
Halo Effect
Support from colleagues
Increased visibility in school
Personal and academic connections with school staff
Use of academic language outside the classroom
Increased agency of students
Student awareness of global issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3Pl-ZYB30
Key Components of the Model
Peer to peer collaborative practice
Cross-disciplinary working groups
Academic language across contexts
Engagement of curriculum leaders
Coaching and school-based support strategies
Multi-year approach for professional growth
English language development and content integration
Points for Success
Build on positive relationships
Establish long-term vision
Create short-term goals
Engage key stakeholders
Create a clear structure
Integrate into goals and plans
Invest in Planning
Thank you!
Contact information
Fernanda Kray: [email protected]
Kellie Jones: [email protected]
Meghan Brennan: [email protected]
Nina West: [email protected]
To access the Next Generation ESL Project Materials, please
visit the OELAAA Curriculum page:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/ell/curriculum.html
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Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education