CONNECTION TO CURRICULUM STANDARDS:

Students exhibiting project reports based on their reading of Sandra Cisnero's House on Mango Street

The ELD/ELA Standards are designed to ensure that English Language Learners develop proficiency in English Language Arts and have been used to design this lesson. The following elements are excerpts from the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP) and these elements are incorporated in an effort to connect the House on Mango Street curriculum with the Oakland Unified School District Standards:

Key Elements:

• Connecting student’s prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests with learning goals.
• Apply a variety of instructional strategies and resources to respond to student’s diverse needs.
• Facilitate learning experiences that promote autonomy, interaction, and choice. Engage students in problem solving, critical thinking, and other activities that make subject matter meaningful.
• Promote self-directed, and reflective learning for all students.
• ‘Foundation for the Standards, the CSTP is based on…best teaching practices. The Standards address the diversity of students and teachers in California today, and reflect a holistic developmental view of teaching,’" (37).

Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) ELD/ELA Standards:
The Reading Comprehension Standards that frame the series of lessons and assignments include:

• ELD Standards: Level 9-12
  • I: Apply knowledge of common English morphemes in oral and silent reading to derive meaning from literature and texts in content areas.
  • EI: Read own writing of narrative and expository text aloud with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression.
  • EA: Use connectors to appropriately sequence written test (e.g., "first, then, after that, finally").
  • EA: Use common idioms, some analogies and metaphors (e.g., "shine like a star," and "let the cat of the bag").
  • B: Read aloud simple words presented in literature and content area texts; demonstrate comprehension by using one or two words or simple sentence responses.
  • Use a standard dictionary to determine meanings of unknown words.
  • B: Respond with appropriate short phrases or sentences n a variety of social and academic setting (e.g., answer simple questions).
  
  EA/A: Apply knowledge of word relationships, such as roots and affixes, to derive meaning from literature and texts in content areas.
  
  ELA Standards: Level 9-10
  • 1.1: Identify and use the literal and figurative meanings of words and understand word derivations.
  • 2.3: Generate relevant questions about readings on issues that can be researched.
  • 2.8: Evaluate the credibility of an author’s argument or defense of a claim by critiquing the relationship between generalizations and evidence…(primary source material).

The Listening/ Speaking Standards that frame the series of lessons and assignments include:

ELD Standards: Level 9-12
• EA: Be understood when speaking, using consistent standard English grammatical forms and sounds, intonation, pitch, and modulation, but may have random error.
• EA: Recognize appropriate ways of speaking that vary based on purpose, audience, and subject matter.
• EA: Listen attentively to more complex stories/information on new topics and identify the main points and supporting details.
• EA: Summarize literary pieces in greater detain, including character, setting, plot and analysis.

ELA Standards: Level 9-10:
• 1.3: Choose logical patterns of organization… to inform and to persuade, by soliciting agreement or action, or to unite audiences behind a common belief or cause.
• 1.4: Choose appropriate techniques of developing the introduction and conclusion (e.g. by using literary quotations, anecdotes, references to authoritative sources).
• 1.6 Present and advance a clear thesis statement and choose appropriate types of proof…that meet standard tests for evidence, including credibility, validity, and relevance.
• 1.9: Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience and choose effective verbal and nonverbal techniques (e.g., voice, gestures, eye contact) for presentations.
• 1.11: Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication and make an impact on the audience.
• 2.1: Deliver narrative presentations: narrate a sequence of events and communicate their significance to the audience….

The Writing Strategy Standards that frame the series of lessons and assignments include:

ELD Standards: Level 9-12
• I: Write responses to selected literature that exhibit understanding of the text using detailed sentences and transitions.
• EA: Write reflective compositions that explore the significance of events.
• I: Develop a clear thesis and support it using the rhetorical devices of analogy, quotation, and fact.
• EA: Write detailed autobiographies.
• EA: Use strategies of note taking, outlining, and the writing process to structure drafts of simple essays, with consistent use of standard grammatical forms.

ELA Standards: Level 9-10
• 1.2: Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate modifiers, and the active rather than the passive voice.
• 1.4: Develop the main ideas within the body of the composition through supporting evidence.
• 1.9: Revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone by taking into consideration the audience, purpose, and formality of the context.
• 2.1: Write autobiographical narratives or short stories….

The Writing Convention that frame the series of lessons and assignments include:

ELD Standards: Level 9-12
• EA: Revise writing for appropriate word choice, organization, consistent point of view, and transitions, with some variation in grammatical forms and spelling.
• EA: Create coherent paragraphs through effective transitions.ELA Standards: Level 9-10
• 1.1: Identify and correctly use clauses… phrases… and mechanics of punctuation….
• 1.3: Demonstrate an understanding of proper English usage and control of grammar, paragraph and sentence structure, diction, and syntax.

The Literary Responses that frame the series of lessons and assignments include:

ELD Standards: Level 9-12
• I: Read and use detailed sentences to orally explain the literary elements of theme, plot, setting, and characters.
• EI: Briefly describe what a character is like by what he/she does in a familiar narration, dialogue, or drama, using simple sentences.
• EA: Identify several literary elements and techniques (e.g., figurative language, imagery, and symbolism.

ELA Standards: Level 9-10
• 3.6: Analyze and trace an author’s development of time and sequence, including the use of complex literary devices (e.g. foreshadowing, flashbacks).
• 3.8: Interpret and evaluate the impact of ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and incongruities in a text.