What Can Collaboration Look Like with the WIDA ELD Standards

Ms. Khoury is a 7th grade science teacher. Next month she will

teach a unit called “Where does food come from and where

does it go next?” She collaborates with Mr. Renner, the ESL

teacher, on ways to incorporate language development into her

daily lessons, and to expand the ways multilingual learners can

engage meaningfully with the content. Together, they use the ELD

Standards Framework to focus their approach.

They ask themselves, “What Key Language Uses best

reflect how students will interact with language?” Mr.

Renner and Ms. Khoury also take note of how both the

content standards and the science unit’s summative

assessment focus on explaining how things work

and why they happen, so they decide on the Key

Language Use Explain.

They ask themselves, “How are students

expected to use language to act and talk like

scientists?” Students use language in many

different ways! Given limited time with students,

“How can we prioritize instructional planning

to hone into the language students need to

demonstrate their learning in this unit?”

Ms. Khoury and Mr. Renner look at recurring tasks and assessments

in the science unit. They draw on what they know about WIDA Key

Language Uses to identify the driving language focus for the unit.

They start by identifying the academic content

standards that students will work toward

in the unit, and locate the corresponding

ELD Standards Statements. In this case,

they are Standard 1: Language for Social

and Instructional Purposes, and Standard 4:

Language for Science.

Explain

Argue

Narrate

Inform

Ms. Khoury gathers her unit plans and notes, along

with the 2020 Edition. She reaches out to Mr. Renner

and schedules time for collaborative planning.

What Can Collaboration Look Like with the WIDA ELD Standards Framework?

To learn more

about the

framework

components,

visit the ELD

Standards

Framework

webpage.

1 2 3 4

5 6

Steps 7-12

wida.wisc.edu

Now that their ultimate language destination for the unit is clear, the

teachers plan to meet again to review how a language lens is embedded

in the unit’s sequence of lessons. They will take into account students’

backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and home languages, as well as their

English language proficiency levels.

Throughout their discussion, Ms. Khoury and Mr. Renner

use their expertise in their respective fields to support and

inform one another as they discuss language use. They feel

confident their unit goals identify the language all students

should work toward using to meet content expectations.

The teachers are now able to identify aspects of language that will be most helpful for

students to develop in this unit. Under each Language Function, they consult Language

Features, which are examples of different types of sentences, phrases, and words that

students can use to carry out particular Language Functions. They see, for example, how

students might describe valid and reliable evidence through abstract nouns (e.g., growth,

germination), or how they might establish relationships among ideas through relating verb

groups (e.g., have, be, belong to).

They also explore Language Expectations for Social and Instructional

Purposes (ELD Standard 1: ELD.SI.4-12.Explain), and note that ELD-SI

functions will naturally interweave into daily lessons as students interact,

take notes, and engage in inquiry and discussion. They are reminded that

students communicate to learn, but also to convey personal needs and

wants, affirm their identities, and form and maintain relationships.

Next, they look at the bulleted Language Functions

that are part of the Language Expectations. Language

Functions are common patterns of language that students

need to interpret and express as they engage in scientific

explanations.

So far, Ms. Khoury and Mr. Renner have identified

the grade-level cluster, the ELD Standards, and the

Key Language Use. This leads them to the related

Language Expectations that can be used as unit-level

goals. Together they highlight Language Expectations

that are described in ELD-SC.6-8.Explain.Expressive.

GLC

KLU

Grow

Crecer

Let’s work

together.

If...

Then...

Photosynthesis

Plants get

energy from

the sun

wida.wisc.edu

Get a copy of the 2020 Edition and

related resources on the 2020 Edition

webpage.

7 8 9

Steps 1-6

Language

Expectations indicate

what students need to

know and be able to do

with language to meet

grade-level content

standards