This paper highlights challenges and opportunities as English Language Learners engage with the Next Generation Science Standards. These new standards represent a major shift in science instruction, toward an explicit focus on scientific sense-making, language use, and scientific practices. These practices also place significance on developing explanations and argumentation from evidence as well as on language learning opportunities. The authors discuss in detail how four core science and engineering practices provide opportunities for ELLs:
Okhee Lee says that science and engineering practices are an important new element in the Next Generation Science Standards. Understanding Language highlights four of the practices that are language-intensive: developing models, constructing explanations, evaluating and communicating information, and engaging in argument from evidence.
Helen R. Quinn is professor emerita of physics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. A theoretical physicist, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 and was president of the American Physical Society in 2004. In addition to her scholarship in physics, she has had long-term involvement in science education and in the continuing education of science teachers. She was an active contributor to the California State Science Standards development process. She recently chaired the Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards for the National Research Council. Steering Committee, Science Work Group (chair), and Public Dialogue Committee (co-chair)
Okhee Lee is Professor of Education at Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Her research areas include science education, language and culture, and teacher education. She is the principal investigator of the "Promoting Science among English Language Learners" project that implements instructional interventions to promote inquiry-based science and language development of English language learners in urban elementary schools within the policy context of high-stakes testing and accountability in science. Steering Committee, Science Work Group, and District Engagement Committee
Guadalupe Valdés is the Bonnie Katz Tennenbaum Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she specializes in language pedagogy and applied linguistics. Her work has focused on the English-Spanish bilingualism of Latinos in the United States and on discovering and describing how two languages are developed, used, and maintained by individuals who become bilingual in immigrant communities. Valdés works extensively with schools and organizations to serve the needs of young English-language learners. Steering Committee and Public Dialogue Committee (co-chair)
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
