New York was not one of the states I contacted when reporting for an article recently about how not many states are offering detailed guidance or workshops for school districts on how to write a curriculum for English-language learners. “States Lag in ELL Curriculum Guidance” was published July 5 on edweek.org.
A reader of the article thus sent me an e-mail to let me know that New York--like Florida and Massachusetts--provides advice on how to create curricula for ELLs. Terri Brady-Méndez, a specialist in programs for ELLs for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Bellport, N.Y., informed me that since 2000 New York has published a series of documents about the teaching of language arts to ELLs, all of which contain information about designing curricula for them. The publications have sample lessons and descriptions of standards-based instruction. (Click on the three documents in the top row.)
She--along with a number of teachers and researchers from the state--was a contributor. I appreciate her filling us in.