Planning Common Core Instruction for ELLs
The Common Core's focus on language and literacy provides an opportunity to help ELLs access more rigorous materials. The following strategies, tools, and recommendations are designed to help educators of English language learners and may prove to be very effective for other students as well, particularly in areas such as academic language.
Blog Posts
- Teaching Informational Text to ELLs
- Instructional Suggestions for ELLs: PARCC Assessment Task (Part 2)
- An Innovative High School CCSS Lesson for ELLs: Letters from John Smith
- Common Core and ELLs: Classroom Videos from Colorín Colorado
- Creating Text-Dependent Questions for ELLs: Examples for 6th-8th Grade (Part 3)
Related Video
Research and Reports
- What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students?
- Advancing Our Students' Language and Literacy: The Challenge of Complex Texts
- Beyond Comprehension: We Have Yet to Adopt a Common Core Curriculum That Builds Knowledge Grade by Grade, But We Need To
- Unlocking Learning: Science as a Lever for English Learner Equity
Recommended ELL Resources
Classroom Strategies for ELLs
The following resources can be used to support ELL instruction with the Common Core standards. They include articles, blog and journal entries, classroom video clips, and interviews with educators.
- Language Arts Instruction for ELLs
- Writing
- Close Reading
- Reading Non-Fiction / Informational Text
- Math Strategies & Resources
- A Teachers' Guide to the Common Core
Related Topics & Tools
Many of these resources and tools have been developed with the Common Core in mind and are featured on our Common Core and ELLs blog. Others highlight best practices that veteran ELL educators recommend using with ELLs across content areas.
- Tools to Help with Lesson Planning
- Background Knowledge
- Academic Language
- Teaching Vocabulary
- Cognates
- Speaking & Listening
Classroom Videos & Lesson Plans 
These classroom video modules and lesson plans produced by Colorín Colorado offer a model of Common Core-aligned instruction with English language learners at different grade-levels.
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