Common Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms: Essential Practices for Developing Academic Language and Disciplinary Literacy

The Common Core State Standards require students to do more with knowledge and language than ever before. Rather than be mere consumers of knowledge, students must now become creators, critics, and communicators of ideas across disciplines. Yet in order to take on these new and exciting roles, many students need daily teaching with an extra emphasis on accelerating their academic communication skills. Common Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms: Essential Practices for Developing Academic Language and Disciplinary Literacy describes seven research-based teaching practices for developing complex language and literacy skills across grade levels and disciplines: using complex texts, fortifying complex output, fostering academic interaction, clarifying complex language, modeling, guiding, and designing instruction. Most important, you will find clear descriptions and examples of how these essential practices can-;and should-;be woven together in real lessons. The book: Clarifieshow to support the learning of complex language that students need for reaching Common Core and other standardsProvides practical ways to realize the instructional shifts needed with the implementation of new standards in diverse classroomsIncludes frameworks and descriptions on how to develop students' complex language, speaking, and writingHelps maximize strategies and tools for building system-wide capacity for sustained growth in the practicesCommon Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms is a concise guide for helping us improve our practices to strengthen two vital pillars that support student learning: academic language and disciplinary literacy.

DR. JEFF ZWIERS is a senior researcher at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. He supports the Understanding Language Initiative and codirects the Academic Language Development Network (aldnetwork.org), a research and professional development project focused on the education of academic English learners. He has published articles and books on literacy, cognition, discourse, and academic language. His current research focuses on effective lesson planning and classroom practices that foster academic interactions and literacy. DR. SUSAN O’HARA is executive director of the CRESS Center at the University of California, Davis, and cofounder of the Academic Language Development Network. Her research agenda focuses on teacher professional development and on instructional practices that are associated with improved outcomes for English learners. DR. ROBERT PRITCHARD is a professor of education at Sacramento State University. A former ESL teacher and reading specialist, Dr. Pritchard works extensively with teachers and administrators in a variety of professional development settings. He has authored numerous publications related to language and literacy development of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.