ELL Endorsement Portfolio By: Sydney Freel

Evidence & Rationale for Competency 5.3

5.3 Candidates know and understand how to advocate for the English
language learner in a school environment.

Document Components Overview:

Rationale
Evidence 1: Introduction to ESL: Response Paper
Evidence 2: TL 333 Week 1 Reading Guide
Evidence 3: Communicating in Diverse Classrooms: End of Unit
5 Activity

Rationale:
According to this competency, in order to be met, my evidence
must prove that I know and understand how to advocate for the
English language learner in a school environment. My first piece of
evidence is a response paper I wrote for introduction to ESL. In this
essay I demonstrate my ability to advocate for ELL students, by
explaining to my readers why standardized testing isnt fair to ELL
students.
The second piece of evidence that proves this is a reading guide
that I completed for one of my endorsement classes. In this reading
guide I answer questions about the necessary skills effective ELL
teachers must possess, and cultural components that affect the
high dropout rates among ELL students. In this assignment I have
demonstrated my knowledge of the types of support that ELL
students need from their teachers. Knowing how to support ELL
students in school, and understanding the affect that cultural

factors can have on their education, proves that I am able to

advocate for them.
The third piece of evidence I included is a mock letter to a
concerned parent. This assignment was based off of an article
written by a Native American father, about the concerns he had
about his son in the public education system. In the article he wrote
an open letter to teachers about the cultural factors/prior
experiences that have an influence on the way his son learns, and
how the public education fails to meet his individual needs. Our
assignment was to act as his sons teacher, and write a mock-letter
to him.
In this letter I demonstrated my ability to communicate with
parents of ELL students, by acknowledging their feelings/concerns,
expressing my own care/interest in the students culture,
encouraging the parent to share about how their child learns best,
letting the parent know that I will use the information they shared to
improve my instruction to meet their childs specific needs, reassuring parents that any bullying will be handled with the help of
them letting us know about incidents that take place, and making
sure that parents know that our intention is to create a safe
environment where diverse cultures are celebrated, not ignored.
Being able to communicate with parents is a huge component of
advocating for ELL students.

The various coursework Ive provided as evidence for this

competency demonstrates how Ive grown as a student in my
understanding in advocating for ELL students. It shows how I was
given real-life prompts that were related to course texts on
advocacy that allowed me to practice in a realistic context. In the
future I will have more opportunities to learn about advocacy as I
gain practice during my own experiences in my future classroom(s).

 Evidence 1: Introduction to ESL: Response Paper

Common Core Standards & What They Mean for ELL Students
Today in the world of education, there is an ongoing debate over the recently
implemented Common Core State Standards (CCSS). According to their official website,
the CCSS were specifically designed to ensure all students graduate from high school
with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life (Initiative,
2014). Despite these claims, many argue that in practice, the new standards are not
beneficial to education. Jerry Call suggests that the new Common Core Standards will be
even more concerning to students who are non-native speakers of English (Call, 2013).
The CCSS contain new academic expectations for language arts and mathematics that
require much more sophisticated uses of language, making education a lot more
challenging for English Language Learners (ELLs). Standards are an important part of
education, but under the new CCSS, ELLs are put at an unfair disadvantage. There needs
to be some sort of reform of the CCSS on behalf of ELL students.
The new standards are more challenging and demanding then standards from the
past. The curriculum of each grade level was designed with the assumption that every
student will have already mastered the curriculum of the grade before. Kelly Freel, a third
grade teacher at Hutton Elementary, explained how this structure can become challenging
when students are already behind from previous years. With little wiggle room for
recapping and backtracking, students that are behind are more vulnerable to getting
further behind, under the intense requirements of the CCSS.
The more-rigorous CCSS are affecting teachers and students across all content
areas. Many claim that they demand too much from students. In the article, Warning:

The Common Core standards may be harmful to children, Joanne Yatvin argues that the
expectations of the CCSS are unrealistic. She feels that they are a misrepresentation of
what young children are able to do. She supports her argument with an example of an
unrealistic expectation within the Common Core. RI.2.3 reads Describe the connection
between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical
procedures in a text (as cited in Yatvin, 2013). In Yatvins opinion it is extremely
unrealistic to assume second graders are familiar with a series of historical events, so to
expect them to take that a step even further and describe the connection between a series
of historical events is, in her words, delusional (Yatvin, 2013, p. 42-44).
Although the CCSS are making things harder for everyone, they are hitting ELL
students the hardest. Students learning English face unique challenges with the common
core. ELL students are expected to engage in meaningful debates and discourse with their
peers in all the content areas, while their English is still developing, as well as acquire the
academic language that is unique to each task they are assigned. Some argue that the
expectations of the CCSS are foreign enough for children who grew up speaking English,
but for those still learning the language, it's a daunting new expectation (Gerwertz,
2013, p. S4).
The CCSS have unrealistic expectations for ELL students. The use of academic
language is required largely in every content area of the Common Core. The CCSS
expect students to have the ability to read, understand, analyze and cite information
within complex texts. Students are required to construct responses that use formal and
content-specific language, verbally and in writing. They are also expected to demonstrate
their ability to engage in formal debates and higher-level discussions (Maxwell, 2013, p.

S14). Research suggests that these expectations are unfair to ELL students, because
proficiency in academic language takes a minimum of five to ten years, and even longer
without a literacy base in social language (Ovando, 2005, p. 128-130). Acquiring
academic language is often the highest hurdle to clear before ELLs are deemed proficient
in English are able to fully engage in the rich content that will help them succeed later in
college and a professional work life (Maxwell, 2012, p. S34).
Many educators share the concerning questioning, of how they will be able to
successfully teach their ELL students under the CCSS. Putting them into practice in
classrooms will be a monumental change for teachers in the nations public schools, but
for ELLs, the shift in instruction is expected to be even more groundbreaking. Language
scholars, policymakers, advocates, and educators around the country continue to consider
the important questions about how the language needs of English-learners will be met
under the more-rigorous standards (Maxwell, 2013, p. S14).
The Common Core Standards are unfair to ELL students because of
unrealistically high, language intense, expectations. To provide ELL students with a fair
and quality education, the new standards need to be re-evaluated. Although a solution has
not been agreed upon, most people have recognized it as an issue. The Common Core
Standards claim they were created to ensure that all students graduate with the skills and
knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life. ELL students shouldnt be
robbed of these benefits either.

References
About the Standards (2014). Common Core State Standards Initiative About the
Standards Comments
Freel, S. (2014, October). ELL Education [Interview with Jerry Call].
Gewertz, C. (2013). A Common Core for Everyone. Education Week,
33(10), S4.
Maxwell, L. A. (2012). Sophisticated Language Use Awaits ELLs in
Standards. Education Week, 31(29), S34.
Maxwell, L. A. (2013). Language Demands Rise With Common Core.
Education Week, 33(10), S14.
Ovando, C. (2005). Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching
Multicultural Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Porter A., & McMaken, J. Common Core Standards: The U.S. Intended
Curriculum. Educational Researcher 40(3), 103-116.
Yatvin, J. (2013). Warning: The Common Core standards may be harmful to
children. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(6), 42-44.

 Evidence 2: Week 1 Reading Guide: T&L 333

Your name: Sydney Freel

8/28/14

date:

Please answer the following questions (in complete sentences). Please

base your answers on the course readings from this week (see your
syllabus for course readings). Once completed, please turn this in via
Canvas at the end of the week, before we meet as a class.
Unit 1: Introduction (week 1)
1. Necessary knowledge/skills for ESL teachers.
a. In your coursebook readings for this week (p. 9-11), what do the
authors (Crawford & Krashen, 2007) say are the three necessary
things to be aware of or do in order to best serve English
language learners?
The readings suggested that teachers should appreciate
dimensions of demographic and cultural changes, know the
difference between conversational and academic language, be
able to cope with external pressures, and become strong
advocates for supporting programs.
b. What is one more skill or type of knowledge that you would add
to that list and why?
I would suggest that teachers also be flexible and more opt to
thinking out of the box in order to reach out to English Language
students and their families.
2. Two of your texts for this week (the NPR broadcast from the Urban
Institute and a few pages from Crawfrod [2004]) discuss drop-out
among immigrant students. Briefly explain: 1) the range of issues that
both texts discuss on this topic and 2) the relevance of student dropout to the field of ESL/TESOL [teaching English to speakers of other
languages]. (For example, you can talk discuss the causes of drop-out,
comparisons of immigrant and non-immigrant youth, issues of
race/ethnicity, and more)

They both contemplated the reasons behind ELL students

dropping out and the discussions suggested that it wasnt
necessarily about academics. ELL students were found to be
dropping out to work and support their families. ELL drop out

students compared to English native student drop-outs theres

not a huge difference. But when compared to students who drop
out and dont work there was a major difference. ELL students
had a huge tendency to drop out for the sake of work to earn
money. I think this speaks volumes to the fact that there is a
huge cultural barrier in some situations as well as a language
barrier. So along with ELL students who struggle in academics
because of their language barrier, they may also feel pressures
from their families to join the workforce making them even more
likely to drop out.

Evidence 3: Communicating in Diverse Classrooms: End of Unit

5 Activity

Mr. Lake,
I want to thank you for your letter, I really appreciate that you are
making an effort to communicate with me about the concerns you
have about your sons education. I can tell that you love your son, it is
very clear how much you care about him. I hope you know that I care
about your son as well. It is my goal to give him the best education
possible. I agree that as his teacher I will have a significant effect on
Wind-Wolfs future. We both want what is best for Wind-Wolf, so I think
working with each other will be a great strategy in improving his
educational experience.
I apologize for your frustration with the education system. I understand
why you may feel disappointed. I was unaware of many of the things
you mentioned in your letter, like the reasons why Wind-Wolf may find
himself daydreaming out the window during class, and the ways that
he has experienced education in the past. Knowing those things will be
really helpful for my future instruction. I will keep those things in mind
when working with your son in my classroom from now on. I was also
unaware of the bullying that has been going on, and I will take the
necessary precautions to stop this from happening immediately.
I am sorry to hear that Wind-Wolf has began to express shameful
feelings about his culture because of things he has been experiencing
under my watch. I will make efforts to change this by making my
classroom a place where diverse cultures are celebrated instead of
ignored. In fact, Id like to take some of your advice about allowing
Wind-Wolf to teach his peers about things that he has to offer. I am
sure he has plenty to teach us, and wed love to learn more about his
culture and heritage.
In the future I hope you are able to maintain this type of
communication with Wind-Wolfs teachers, because like me, Im sure

many will be simply unaware. Having open communication is the best

way to solve problems like these, so again Id like to thank you for
initiating that with me.
If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to stop by
my classroom, email me, or call me.
Best,
Miss Freel