Artifact Six

Academic Texts for ELLs and Sells  

Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) describe English development in terms of proficiency levels. It sets standards that students will communicate effectively in collaborative, interpretive, and productive modes. ("CA ELD STANDARDS INTRODUCTION VIDEO", 2019). This an academic way of stating students will demonstrate effective communication in speaking, reading, and writing. But these labels also have deeper meanings...

The chosen artifact for ITL520 is the essay Analyzing Texts within Proficiency Language Descriptors. This essay begins by breaking down the PLD or proficiency language descriptors. These descriptors include Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging ELL Students. The artifact then breaks down two textbooks, the former literacy text the Language of Literature and the often-used novel Holes. Each text is broken down into the strengths and challenges that Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging Students would face in using them. 

Emerging: Students at the emergent stages of proficiency may need a bilingual partner and intense language support in order to be successful in classroom instruction (Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2014). Emerging students would speak mostly about familiar topics. They are typically learning English quickly for their immediate needs. They are expanding their BICs (Basic Interpersonal Communications skills) and beginning to develop their academic vocabulary....

The artifact demonstrates a connection to the candidate’s professional growth and the State teaching Performance Expectations. Within the TPEs there is an obvious connection to TPE 1.1:  apply knowledge including their prior experiences, interests, and social-emotional learning needs, as well as their funds of knowledge and cultural, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds, to engage them in learning (Ctc, 2018). This is the foundation for breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of each textbook. 

Expanding: Expanding students would better understand how to use language in a variety of contexts or situations (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017, p. 7). These students will be able to talk about a wide variety of topics using an increased academic vocabulary and a wider range of linguistic tools. A 7^th grade expanding student would contribute to class discussions by asking relevant questions and adding information to the discussion. The expanding student will also begin paraphrasing key ideas and restating the story in his or her own words ("California English Language Development Standards", 2019).

The artifact contributes to the showcase in a positive way because the previous artifacts have covered concepts like the candidate’s backstory, how to get parents involved, and scaffolded lesson plans and learning maps. This is the first artifact that breaks down a tool all teachers will be expected to use in every year of their careers. 

Bridging: Bridging students would be able to deliver long oral presentations on a wide variety of disciplines.  They would be able to incorporate evidence and reasoning to back up their arguments and ideas. For them, active listening would include asking questions, getting clarifying information, analyzing narrative structure, and restating what is being read in new ways. Bridging students would also begin to break apart informative texts looking for clear writing, author’s bias, and cohesive reasoning ("California English Language Development Standards", 2019).

Non-Standard English can include any variety of dialects including African American Vernacular, which was originally called Ebonics when the Oakland School District attempted to define it as a separate language. Some have referred to African American Vernacular as lazy English, due to tendencies like deleting linking verbs like is and are. For instance, “He is working,” would become, “He working.” Far from being lazy, African American Vernacular (AAV) is dialect with clear grammatical rules and written expectations.

Text Types	Language of Literature	Holes (The Novel)
Levels of Reading	6 - 12	3 - 8
Emerging Proficiency Level	The LOL book is bright and colorful. Introductory vocabulary would help emerging readers. But they would find the book old and stale. While the book contains many classic authors like Twain, Asimov, and Shakespeare, often the selections can be dull and unrelatable. Many of the embedded grammar lessons would be above their ability level of emerging students.	While Holes has many universal themes and an interesting cast of characters, there are no pictures, vocabulary lessons, or extension material unless provided by the teacher. It would probably be best for the emerging student to hear the story read out loud, while following along in the text, and later to see the live action version of the novel play out.
Expanding Proficiency Level	For Expanding proficiency levels, the LOL book provides a lot of tools. There are vocabulary lessons, side bars, and related grammar lessons. Keeping similar genres together would help the expanding reader understand the genre’s structure. In turn, this would assist the reader in making predictions and inferring, thus assisting the student with their probabilistic reasoning skills.	Holes is short enough to sustain interest and engagement. And it is not written at a grade-level that would be overwhelming. Expanding students would get an opportunity to learn how character traits drive the main characters’ behaviors. They would also be able to make text-to-self and text-to-text connections between the book’s major themes and their own life experience.
Bridging Proficiency Level	Bridging proficiency readers would get bored with the LOL text. The stories are usually older excerpts. Rarely do they go into any depth. There are some activities that would let the reader analyze writing for clear writing and cohesive arguments. However, since the LOL textbook is a slanted towards narratives and away from expository writing, those opportunities would be limited at best.	The novel Holes would provide a good opportunity for engagement through reading grade-level texts. Bridging students would have more time to explore themes, motifs, and symbolism throughout the story. They wouldn’t be hampered by the lack of visual cues, as their own skills in imagery would be fill in the gaps using the story’s simple, yet engaging plot line.
Standard English Learner	The LOL book was created for a standard English learner. It would help them expand their knowledge of classic literature, literature genres, themes, and author’s purpose. However, many of the units don’t feel nearly as cohesive in theme as the newer My Perspective books. Therefore, book does not lend itself to comparing works. Also, since the book is older, it is not aligned to Common Core standards. In other words, the book addresses how to approach certain tasks when learning English, but not the metacognitive strategies of why each approach works..	One issue when standard English language learners read a novel that has already been adapted to film is that they often rely on the film adaptation because it is easier. This can cause the student to tune out the source novel since they already know the story line. The novel Holes itself is not written at such a high reading level that a student with other obstacles, like ADHD, will get lost. It is also engaging enough, that students not familiar with the plot tend to stay actively involved until they reach the final chapter.

With the advent of the Common Core State Standards CCSS and their emphasis on literacy, teachers need to expose students to complex texts and make them comprehensible (Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2014). It is through accessible texts that students will begin making connections between reading and the world they live in. Without that accessibility, the instructor may be mistaking unrealistic expectations for academic rigor (Tovani, Cris 2004). When selecting texts for students, a teacher will need to understand how emerging, expanding, and bridging students will interact with the text. In order to do so, that teacher must understand what those Proficiency Language Descriptors (PLDs) look like in practice. 

The reflection exhibits detailed evidence of growth as I become an inspired educator. One of my early long-term jobs teaching was literacy at EPHS, Educational Partnership High School. It was an independent study program, and therefore difficult for any students who read below grade level. Part of what we first did as a department was went looking for a text book to help students reading below grade level catch up. As a group we settled on a series called Globe Fearon by Weiser Educational. 

The books were ripe with graphic organizers, background, and the ability to annotate the stories as students read. Yet, the selection bothered me, and I could never put my finger on why. Now, I understand it was because while it had tons of tools for Standard English Learners, the needs of ELLs were not really addressed. This assignment inspires me by making me see new ways of handling old problems. I didn’t know how to reach a lot of my students at the time, because of this assignment, I have a better idea now. Based on this I can set a continued growth plan to

1. Scaffold resources for Standard English Learners, ELLs, and Students with Special Needs. 

1. As I do so, I need to ask myself what resources tailor themselves naturally to my student's unique demographics. 

Conclusion: This artifact shows the candidate’s growth as a professional educator. It connects clearly back to at least six different TPEs. It challenges the candidate’s knowledge about how much thought must be placed into textbook selection. And when text selection is outside the candidate’s control, it clearly shows how much thought needs to be applied to the required text to make any textbook an effective learning tool.