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Read and comment on at least 2 of your colleagues’ discussion posts (at least 150 words each). Comments should be positive and professional. Make sure to review the Forum Rubric to ensure full points.

1. Thomas Woolford

Hi everyone,

Designing lessons for English Language Learners requires us to acknowledge that these students face a double challenge: they must learn language and content at the same time. My approach to lesson design focuses on reducing the cognitive load of language decoding so students can access the academic content. To achieve this across multiple proficiency levels, I prioritize “scaffolding,” which involves putting in place temporary supports that are “gradually removed as students build proficiency”.

To implement this using multi-sensory instruction, I would utilize the following two activities:

1. Building background with real-life objects or concepts. In social studies, we would call these artifacts from history or even Primary Sources. For the opening of a lesson, specifically in social studies, I would use realia (real-life objects) to build background knowledge. As noted in the readings, “background knowledge is the hook that students hang new information on.

The Activity: If teaching a unit on the Civil War, I could purchase relics on eBay like musket balls or coins. Students would then engage in a concept sort. This is where students are given the objects and asked to group them into categories based on shared characteristics. This forces them to engage in critical thinking and recognize patterns.

Differentiation: This is inherently multi-sensory (tactile and visual). For entering/emerging students, I would ask them to simply group the objects by physical traits (color, texture) and label them with single vocabulary words I have pre-taught. For bridging/expanding students, I would ask them to sort the objects based on abstract categories (“Confederate vs. Union”) and justify their sorting in writing. This allows all students to engage with the same materials but at their own linguistic level.

1. To support speaking skills, I would implement think-pair-share. This cooperative learning strategy allows students to process information individually before sharing, which lowers anxiety.

The Activity: After a lecture or reading, I would pose an open-ended question.

Differentiation: To ensure success for lower proficiency levels, I would provide sentence frames. A newcomer might receive a frame like, “I think ___because___.” An intermediate student might receive, “I agree with ______ because ______.” This provides the academic language they need to write or speak in complete sentences.

The challenge in applying these strategies often lies in pacing. As Kristina Robertson (from the Colorin colorado! Website) advises, we should “only introduce one new thing at a time”. If the content is brand new and complex, I must ensure the language structures (like the sentence frames) are familiar, or vice versa, to avoid overwhelming the students.

2. Lena Alabed

Making lessons for English Language Learning requires flexibility with your planning because there could be various levels of ELLs in each classroom. In math, I try to focus my attention on making the material easy to understand through visuals, kinesthetic, and movement. I try these multisensory strategies instead of always providing verbal explanations. These types of differentiated strategies help students make a deeper connection with the content and the meaning of the standard and hopefully becoming less overwhelming for students.

As a teacher, I love using visuals and hands-on modeling with manipulatives. For example, when teaching linear versus exponential functions, I have the students create a comparison chart that requires them to color code using graphs, formulas, and real-world examples. This helps students who have a lower language proficiency be able to identify key differences that help support them when solving math problems. Visuals for vocabulary support the concept of ELLs. Making this a class work assignment allows every student to participate and make the English Language Learners feel supported, and not isolated.

Another activity that helps ELLs is structured partner talk with sentence frames. Using frames like The visual difference between the graphs is _____ I notice that your initial value and your y-intercept are the same color, this is because _____. This can be a turn and talk where students discuss their ideas and practicing their language and sentence structure before presenting their ideas to the class. This helps support oral language development while supporting content understanding.

A challenge with lesson planning is being able to get all students to the same standard at the end of the unit. Providing rigor and support can be a challenge. Scaffolding helps this challenge, however, sometimes lowers the academic content. My goal is to teach a lesson where language becomes a bridge to learning and not a barrier.

Read and comment on at least 2 of your colleagues’ discussion posts (at least 150 words each). Comments should be positive and professional. Make sure to review the Forum Rubric to ensure full points.

1. Thomas Woolford

Hi everyone,

The assessment tool that I chose to take a closer look at is the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment). In Florida, this is the primary tool for placement. WIDA ACCESS is the standardized metric used to comply with federal law ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and determines if students are ready to exit support services. ESSA replaced No Child Left Behind in 2015.

The greatest strength of the WIDA ACCESS suite is that it provides a standardized framework for understanding what a student can do across four distinct domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It supports student success by moving beyond a simple “pass/fail” metric. For example, teachers can use the “Individual Student Report” to analyze a student’s “Confidence Bands,” which show the range where a student’s score is likely to fall. This data allows educators to utilize “Can Do Descriptors” to tailor instruction to the specific proficiency level of the student. In my view, this is critical because it shifts the focus from what the student lacks to what the student can achieve with the right scaffolds.

Relying solely on WIDA for placement presents significant challenges regarding validity. The text in Module 4 explicitly notes that these scores “do not measure academic content knowledgethey only show English language proficiency”. A major challenge is that a student might be cognitively advanced in Science or Math but tests poorly due to the language barrier, leading to placement in remedial courses that do not challenge them intellectually.

Furthermore, “Composite Scores” can be misleading. As the reading warns, combining reading and writing into a single literacy score “can mask strengths/weaknesses”. A concrete example of this would be a student who has excellent listening comprehension (Level 5) but struggles significantly with writing (Level 2). If a teacher looks only at the overall composite score, they might remove necessary writing supports too early.

Ultimately, while WIDA provides necessary accountability, it is only a “snapshot”. To ensure a truly valid assessment of a student’s placement, I believe we must pair these formal scores with the “informal assessments” discussed in the Module 4, such as “observations and anecdotal records,” which capture the student’s ability to use language in authentic social contexts. A portfolio of student works is a valid measure of assessment.

2 Lena Alabed

An ESOL assessment that stands out with me is the WIDA ACCESS assessment. This assessment is used to determine English language proficiency skills. This assessment evaluates listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills of students. This helps teachers determine where their students are in their language development. This WIDA assessment gives a quantified measure that monitors growth over time. This helps the school set up a successful plan to continue the language development support each individual student needs. Whether an English language learner is a level 1 or a level 4, there are measures that can be put in place to support everyone. As a math teacher, this helps me provide scaffolding, visuals, and support to support their language barrier. Realizing that difficulty in a math class can be a language barrier issue, rather than content, is important to note.

Another benefit of WIDA ACCESS is that it provides reports to teachers to help them provide support for a student. The detailed report has a Can do within each report. For example, a level 1 English Language learner might be able to explain a math problem using visuals, while a more advanced student can apply the vocabulary that supports the math problem. This gives teachers an insight into being able to provide differentiation within the classroom for all learners.

The downside of WIDA ACCESS is the assessment portion of it. Standardized tests typically do not capture a students full capability. Whether its academic knowledge or language proficiency. I have students who excel in class but struggle with assessments.

ACCESS should not be the only resource to determine a students language proficiency. Other assessments can be used like observations and performance tasks. As a teacher, I can assess how a student conversates in group discussions about a math problem. Overall, WIDA ACCESS is a useful tool, but I believe a combination of classroom assessment with it will provide the best support for ELLs.