English Language Development

Integrated ELD happens DURING each core subject and Designated ELD happens in its own protected time, daily, with oversight by a certificated teacher.

• The focus is on the content standards. ELD standards are integrated and connected to content. 

• ELD is provided throughout the day and through ALL disciplines. Teachers use effective scaffolds and supports to assist students in their learning. These effective scaffolds and supports can include, but are not limited to: visuals, models and manipulatives, graphic organizers, color-coding, and sentence frames. 

• Instruction focuses on content learning and the academic language necessary for successful learning of the content, as well as transmission of that learning to others. 

• The focus is on the ELD Standards and connect to the content standards. 

• It is protected time (MUSD requires a minimum of 30 minutes daily) to develop language skills, building into and from content instruction. 

• Instruction focuses on meaning, forms, and functions of the English Language. 

• The teacher uses frequent formative and feedback for language development when planning designated ELD lessons.  

• During this time there should be a strong emphasis on oral language development. 

Teachers use McGraw Hill Wonders or StudySync Designated ELD supports keeping the ELD Standards in mind during the daily protected Designated ELD time.  

Lessons reference the California ELA/ELD Framework, which refers to three main premises: 

• Use English Purposefully: Students gain skill in using language that is appropriate to grade and content. They do this by practicing describing, explaining, persuading, informing, justifying, negotiating, entertaining, retelling, and so on. 

• Interact in Meaningful Ways: Students use three communication modes to gain and  exchange information and ideas. They collaborate, interpret, and produce meaningful messages. 

• Understanding How English Works: Students apply language to academic tasks in different content areas. They learn to structure cohesive texts, expand and enrich ideas, and combine and condense ideas.

There are three Proficiency Level descriptors based off the CA ELD Standards. Here are the three proficiency levels with brief descriptors taken from the California Department of Education: 

Emerging – Students at this level typically progress very quickly, learning to use English for immediate needs as well as beginning to understand and use academic vocabulary and other features of academic language. 

Expanding – Students at this level are challenged to increase their English skills in more contexts and learn a greater variety of vocabulary and linguistic structures, applying their growing language skills in more sophisticated ways appropriate to their age and grade level. 

Bridging – Students at this level continue to learn and apply a range of high-level English language skills in a wide variety of contexts, including comprehension and production of highly technical texts. 

The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) is the mandated state test for determining English language proficiency (ELP). It is administered as an initial assessment to students newly enrolled in a California school whose primary language is not English, as indicated on a home language survey; and annually as a summative assessment to students who have previously been identified as needing ELD services. 

The Initial and Summative ELPAC consists of four domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. 

Listening and Speaking combine into an ORAL LANGUAGE composite. Reading and Writing combine into a WRITTEN LANGUAGE composite. 

The ORAL LANGUAGE and WRITTEN LANGUAGE composites combine into an OVERALL ELPAC Score. 

UTK/Kindergarten teachers along with their administration team build Designated ELD models based on unique classroom demographics which meet each student's needs.