Guideline 1

Interactive oral language development

Interactive oral language development activities (including speaking and listening) build opportunities for students to engage with grade-level content and to develop disciplinary practices and knowledge of the subject matter.

Guideline 14

Consistent formative assessment and feedback strategies

Materials provide teacher guidance for consistent formative assessment and feedback strategies that support students’ language proficiencies and content understanding.

Specification 1A

Units include pair or group conversation activities that help students hear and imitate more fluent others as they build their abilities to develop and challenge ideas using evidence-based reasoning, allowing them to engage with ideas and ELA practices before writing extensively about them.

Specification 1B

Teacher materials provide guidance on how to engage students in productive and sustained academic discussions in which students negotiate meaning (ask and answer questions) and co-construct knowledge about grade-level texts and content.

Specification 1C

Teacher materials include instruction on grouping strategies that encourage students to leverage their oral language resources in order to engage with complex disciplinary ideas and practices and to support each other in developing disciplinary language in English.

Specification 14A

Teacher materials guide formative assessment and feedback strategies for teachers during student-led discussions and presentations. The materials should guide teachers to assess students’ oral language abilities, content knowledge, and disciplinary practices and to determine how students need support in developing the concepts, practices, and oral language to express them.