New Common-Core Unit for ELLs: No support from research, no evidence they will work.
Re: Three Districts Test Model Common-Core Unit for ELLs.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/16/17ellstanford_ep.h32.html
We are told that the newly announced unit on Reading and Writing Persuasion features a “shift”: the two elements of this shift are “an explicit focus on language” and “complex texts.” Both are bad ideas. Decades of research tell us that focus on form does not help in the acquisition of forms: rather, forms are acquired through focus on meaning. Also, making texts complex and rigorous will not help language acquisition or literacy development. Texts need to be interesting (even compelling) and comprehensible without a struggle. Academic literacy development comes from massive exposure to interesting reading, not brief and intensive instruction on texts that may or may not be interesting and that are only comprehensible with complex interventions.
Neither the designers of the new materials nor Education Week appear to be even aware of the conflict between