During the ELD instructional block, instruction is differentiated in order to meet the needs of students who are at various levels of English language development. There are five different English proficiency levels within the second language development continuum: 1) Beginning proficiency level; 2) Early Intermediate proficiency level; 3) Intermediate proficiency level; 4) Early Advanced proficiency level; and, 5) Advanced proficiency level. Instructional techniques and language development expectations will vary depending upon each student's particular needs as well as their respective English proficiency levels.
NCLB accountability requirements for English learners stipulate that students should master one English proficiency level per year. This requirement is consistent with the second language acquisition research-base which demonstrates that students typically need five to seven years in order to achieve academic fluency in English.
ELD standards have been adopted by the California Department of Education, as well as other states. A sample of the California ELD standards can be found here. The ELD standards are aligned with the state-adopted English Language Arts (ELA) standards and consist of the following strands of English language development:
- Listening and Speaking
- Reading Word Analysis
- Reading Fluency and Systematic Vocabulary Development
- Reading Comprehension
- Literary Response and Analysis
- Writing Strategies and Applications
- Writing Conventions
The state-adopted ELD standards range in spans from grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The ELD standards are designed as differentiated performance expectations for students as they develop their proficiency in English and works towards mastery of the grade-level English Language Arts (ELA) standards. The ELD standards are differentiated expectations of the English Language Arts standards for students at each of the five levels of English language proficiency.
The Wested organization has created a teacher-friendly alignment of the English Language Arts (ELA) grade-level content standards and the ELD standards. Wested's Map of Standards delineates the connections between English Language Arts and English Language Development standards in an easy to use format. The Map of Standards is organized in a "side-by-side" format, with the English Language Arts and English Language Development standards placed on the same page in order to visually view the connection between the standards. You can view a sample reading comprehension page from the grades 3-5 Map of Standards here.
We recommend that teachers take advantage of this valuable resource because it can be a tool utilized for planning effective ELD lessons. The K-5 Map of ELD Standards can be purchased here for a minimal price:
The Map of ELD Standards is also available in a 6-12 format:
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