Top Five Blog Posts of 2013-14 and End-of-Year Sign Off

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We made it to the end of the 2013-14 school year together! This year has certainly seen its share of ups and downs in terms of how English language learners fit in to the Common Core State Standards and how much attention “our” students and their teachers have been given. In my school year sign-off post, I’d like to share the blog posts that received the most views this academic year and give you a preview of what’s to come when I return to blogging in the middle of August. Thanks for sticking with me on this journey!

Analysis of Top Five Posts

A quick qualitative analysis of the most popular posts tells me that readers like you were most interested in posts that were "hands-on" – posts offering an analysis of what different aspects of the CCSS mean for ELLs as well as practical strategies to support ELLs in CCSS-based instruction. In particular, the two posts on text-dependent questions that included instructional suggestions seemed to go over quite well. You also liked in-depth analysis of CCSS assessment items and the CCSS Curriculum Rubric as a way for you to assess how well content curriculum is addressing unique challenges presented by ELLs. You still seem to be interested in how the role of the ESL teacher is evolving with the Common Core to support all of these changes taking place.

What’s to Come in 2014-15

Next year, I’ll continue to focus on the types of collegial relationships necessary to support ELLs in the CCSS by framing the posts through an ELL advocacy perspective. I’ll also devote more posts to pieces that offer practical strategies you can use to support ELLs’ access to the Common Core and will continue to share new resources as they become available.

Please email me at [email protected] or message me on Twitter @DStaehrFenner if you have any ideas for posts I should include in the new school year. And in the meantime, have a wonderful summer!