Integrating Science and language for All Students with a Focus on English Language Learners
The New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards (NYS P-12 SLS) were adopted in December 2016, and implementation began in July 2017. These standards represent contemporary perspectives on what counts as science and how P-12 students learn science. In addition, the new science standards stress that school subjects must “take a seat at the table” to serve all students, including English Language Learners (ELLs) who in general have not been the focus of previous science standards. The New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages (OBEWL), in association with the Office of Curriculum and Instruction, have released a series of seven new webinars and topic briefs to support equitable access to these new learning standards for ELLs and other Multilingual Learners (MLs).
This series has been created for NYSED by NYU researchers Dr. Okhee Lee, Dr. Lorena Llosa, Dr. Alison Haas, and Dr. Scott Grapin to promote the implementation of New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards with a focus on ELLs. These materials were constructed to build the instructional capacity of ELL and science educators and is based on cutting-edge research on integrating science and language for ELLs and all students.
We anticipate that this innovative work will support educators in making key shifts in their classroom instruction and assessment. This initiative provides a topic brief document and webinar on each of the following topics:
- Unpacking the NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards,
- Overview: Science & Language with English Language Learners
- Science Instructional Shifts
- Language Instructional Shifts
- A Classroom Example
- Science and Language Assessment Shifts
- Formative Assessment in the Science Classroom