a guide to differentiated instruction for english learners

A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners:

Ellevation Strategies

The Challenge

The Solution: Ellevation Strategies

English Learners now represent approximately

10% of all public school students in the U S and

this percentage is expected to increase over the

coming years As the number of ELs continues

to grow, it is important to note that they spend

a majority of their time in schools with content

area teachers, who according to a study by

Walker, Shafer, and Liams, feel overwhelmingly

underprepared to teach linguistically diverse

students At the same time, research indicates

that language is best learned within the context

of grade-level content

How can we best develop teacher capacity so

students are able to build language proficiency

and learn necessary content in the classrooms

where they spend most of their time?

The challenge is unmistakable All teachers

must develop the capacity to teach language

through content so ELs can build language

proficiency and learn the necessary academic

content at the same time

Every teacher who works with English

Learners can create a classroom that fosters

authentic learning, regardless of the student’s

proficiency in English By understanding a few

key principles of second language acquisition

and integrating best practices into planning,

instruction, and assessment, all teachers can

become teachers of language

Ellevation Strategies is an

effective and easy-to-use

instructional resource that

enables differentiated instruction

for ELs in all grades and content

areas Ellevation offers more

than 80 classroom activities

that teachers can incorporate

into existing lessons, ensuring

best-practice instruction

for ELs and making language

and content accessible to

every learner

A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies

Differentiating instruction for English learners

may seem daunting, but Ellevation can help.

The activities represent powerful teaching techniques

that empower teachers to enhance their practice

making grade-level content accessible for ELs while

engaging all students in sound pedagogical practices

Each activity has essential details to support quality

instruction: key student information, clear instructions,

downloadable resources, student-specific scaffolds,

demonstration videos, and more

The activities allow students to practice learning

language in various ways, while using content area

subject matter In a classroom using Ellevation,

students will better develop language proficiencies

and progress on the path to reclassification and

grade-level mastery of content

“Ellevation Strategies reflect best practices for ELs and are

research-based. The strategies are presented in a practical,

teacher-friendly way so that they can be used effectively during

instruction in any grade level. The instructional activities include the

elements necessary to improve both language acquisition and

content learning, and they address the unique needs, struggles,

and gaps in instruction that often affect ELs.”

—Dr Jana Echevarria

Built in Collaboration With Leaders in Language Education

The development of Ellevation Strategies was guided by contributions from top experts in the field of

language learning and instruction


Tim Boals, Ph.D., Executive Director of WIDA

Dr Boals holds a Ph D in curriculum from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with

an emphasis in the education of English learners His background includes language

education, educational policy for ELs, and Spanish language and literature

Jana Echevarria, Ph.D., Professor Emerita at California State

University, Long Beach

A founding researcher of the SIOP® Model, Dr Echevarria’s research focuses on effec-

tive instruction for English learners, including those with learning disabilities Her pub-

lications include over 50 books, book chapters, and journal articles

John Seidlitz, Founder and CEO of Seidlitz Education

John Seidlitz is an independent educational consultant and the author of numerous

books and resources on improving academic achievement for ELs Mr Seidlitz has

been a member of the SIOP® National faculty and guest lecturer for many regional

and national language development conferences

Dr. David Holbrook, Executive Director of Federal Compliance

and State Relationships, TransACT

A nationally recognized leader in federal programs administration and monitoring with

expertise in Title I, Title III, Native American Education, and Federal Programs Dr Holbrook

has also worked as a consultant with Title III of the US Department of Education

Jeff Zwiers, Ed.D.,

Senior Researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the

Director of Professional Development Understanding Language/SCALE

Dr Zwiers has consulted for national and international projects that promote literacy,

lesson design, and formative assessment practices He has written articles and books

on literacy, cognition, discourse, and academic language


Instructional Framework: Built on Research, Supporting Quality Professional Development

Ellevation Strategies was built upon the most relevant research-based, best practices of English

Language Development Our three-tiered Instructional Framework is organized into Practices,

Strategies and Activities which provide clear opportunities for teachers to develop their expertise and

help build engaging, language-rich classrooms that benefit all learners

In addition to being the organizing template for the activities, the Instructional Framework is uti-

lized by numerous partner districts as a guide for improving teacher practice through job-embedded

Professional Development such as supporting PLCs, collaborative planning and training to build edu-

cator capacity

The Framework Consists of Three Tiers: Practices, Strategies and Activities

Practices

The six vital, pedagogical building blocks that form the foundation of high-quality instruction that

meets the linguistic needs of ELs

Build Background

Learning takes place when it connects to students’ previous knowledge, experience, and capabilities

By taking purposeful time to both activate and build background knowledge, teachers can provide powerful pathways to new learning

Clarify Input

New language and content can only be learned when the student is able to clearly understand the input It is the responsibility of educators to ensure that students’ access to spoken and written language is appropriate and clear by attending to the special needs of English learners

Fortify Output

When students are given multiple writing and speaking opportuni-ties that are authentic, targeted, and meaningful, their language will become stronger and clearer Oral language development supports written language proficiency Incorporating writing activities into all content areas is critical for language and content knowledge development


Strategies

The six Practices are broken into more than a dozen strategies, each focused on a specific instruc-

tional approach to meet the unique challenges ELs face in the classroom From sentence structure and

vocabulary to academic conversations, these teaching strategies will maximize language and

content learning for all students The strategies are put into action using 80 activities that teachers

can incorporate into existing standards-based lesson plans

Activities

An activity is a strategy in action It’s a way to enhance content and language for ELs by comple-

menting the instruction that is already in place These specific activities can be integrated in daily

lesson plans Each activity includes differentiated supports designed to address specific students’

language learning needs

“While content standards are the what to teach, Ellevation Strategies is the how to teach a

classroom of linguistically diverse students.”

Foster Interactions

Creating authentic interactions in which students are meaning-fully communicating develops language proficiency To be effective, these authentic interactions cannot be sporadic, but rather should constitute a consistent work-in-progress as stu-dents continue to become stronger and clearer communicators

Develop Academic Language

Academic language, the language of school and work, includes content-area vocabulary as well as sentences and messages Student development of grade-level academic vocabulary results from explicit teaching, modeling, and practice reading a wide range of authentic texts Attending to academic language and vocabulary will increase students’ ability to comprehend text at a higher level

Assess Language and Learning

Providing consistent opportunities for students to voice instructional needs, lack of understanding, and areas of mastery will drive effective ongoing instruction It’s critical that educators modify summative assessments to ensure that content, rather than language, is assessed


Discover ActivitiesTeachers will find research-based instructional activities in ways that reflect their preferred method

of planning Whether using our content-focused Collections or our language-centered Practices,

teachers will find instructional activities that provide them with everything they need to know to incor-

porate the activity into any upcoming lesson to improve instruction and outcomes for their ELs

In addition to teachers being able to find the right “instructional moves”, we’ve aligned student

needs to instruction, providing practical ways to differentiate instruction for specific students Our

Support Suggestions, based on student proficiency levels, help teachers group students and scaffold

instruction, providing actionable tips for specific students Through use of these activities teachers will

improve their practice, support language development while teaching grade-level academic content,

and create classrooms that ensure every student succeeds Further, activities provide teachers with

in-depth instructions, videos and downloads including graphic organizers and other templates

“Ellevation Strategies equip teachers with specific approaches they can use to effectively facilitate academic conversation and writing

in content-area classrooms. Ellevation is particularly helpful in allowing mainstream, classroom teachers to target instruction to the

needs of their English learners by efficiently connecting particular content-area topics to the language levels of their students.”

—John Seidlitz


Content

Our instructional activities are organized into hundreds of Collections that can be found by grade,

subject, and content-specific topics with relevant state standards Collections provide classroom

teachers who are teaching ELs with a way to find activities that best connect to the topics and

standards in their specific lessons Each Collection provides meaningful context for how to effectively

integrate the activities into lesson plans

Language

Educators can also discover activities based on Ellevation Instructional Practices, which allow

teachers to find instructional activities created to meet the linguistic needs of ELs

“Ellevation Strategies has selected and clarified the most powerful teaching

strategies for integrating content learning and language development for

a wide range of students. Rather than “watering down” learning, rigor, and

engagement, these strategies challenge English learners and their

classmates to think and use language in authentic ways across disciplines.”

—Dr Jeff Zwiers


What Features are Available With Ellevation Strategies?

More than just a bank of activities, Ellevation ties the instructional content to student data to enable

differentiated instruction Here are a few more helpful features and functions you’ll find in Ellevation:

Saving Activities

With so many high-quality activities to choose from, Ellevation allows users to save their favorites

in custom folders Planning a future unit on the water cycle and want to save activities that focus on

academic language to try later with your students? Simply create a new folder for your water cycle unit

and sequence the activities you’d like to try, days or even weeks ahead of time!

Sharing Activities

Improve collaboration and fidelity across all of the classrooms in your school All Activities can be

shared by any user of Ellevation, so principals or instructional coaches can share with teachers, or edu-

cators can share with the other members in their team or department When an activity is shared, the

receiving teacher gets an email directly into their inbox - making Ellevation’s resources visible and easy

to access for everyone

Recommending Activities

A feature of Ellevation Strategies is one that will have a persistent impact on students’ mastery

of language: the ability for an EL Specialist to recommend an activity for specific students With

Strategies, users can simply visit a student’s record in Ellevation, and recommend some carefully

selected activities for that student based on his or her most pressing language need or based on a

student data meeting Once the recommendation is made, all of the student’s classroom teachers will

instantly see the activity on the student profile, and can start immediately planning to use it in

their lessons

Content Examples

Each activity has an ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies example for its identified grade bands

In total, in the 80 activities there are more than 1,100 content examples

Every content example includes:

■■ Content Objective

■■ Language Objective

■■ 4-6 procedural steps for teachers and students which summarize the activity with content

Implementation


Grounded in research-based practices around implementation, Ellevation provides a comprehensive

package of services delivered by an experienced team of education and language experts From the

initial consultation with the district to support post-training, the implementation of Ellevation is based on

proven methodology to ensure a long-standing and successful partnership Furthermore, we understand

the importance of ensuring that Ellevation Strategies connects to ongoing initiatives at the district and

campus level We look for ways to create synergies across the entire district and work to bring everything

together so that teachers and administrators are able to see how we are a support structure for the work

that they have already been doing

The implementation process includes a series of strategic conversations focused on listening to the

vision and needs of the school or district, understanding the district instructional landscape and initia-

tives, and creating viable solutions that best leverage the work of the district

Our phased project management approach to implementation of Ellevation Strategies includes:

■■ Conducting a kickoff with key stakeholders, including leads from EL, Curriculum & Instruction,

Professional Development and site administrators, and establishing a District Success Team that

will ensure advocacy, investment and reinforcement of expectations for engagement throughout

the implementation

■■ Developing SMART goals and an implementation plan that includes communication, profes-

sional learning, and expectations for engagement

■■ Organizing regular check in meetings to support in assessing plans, monitoring and reflecting

upon progress, sharing best practices and making adjustments as needed

PREPARE DISCOVER PLAN DEPLOY ENGAGE


Professional Learning Ellevation provides blended and differentiated professional development that puts administrators,

teachers, specialists, and/or coaches at the center of their learning At Ellevation, we believe thoughtful

planning, sustained learning, consistent implementation, and evaluating success are key to an effective

implementation

What Does This Look Like?

District partners engage in Professional Learning that is blended and sustained over the course of a year

and is inclusive of training district personnel, campus administrators, teachers and specialists Professional

Learning includes understanding Ellevation, both use and implementation, aligning to district goals,

developing the knowledge and skills of teachers, both content and EL specialists, and ongoing support

Ellevation’s Professional Learning approach for Strategies training includes administrator work-

shops, curriculum alignment sessions, district staff training, and Train-the-Trainer for campus teams

See below for descriptions of a few training sessions available post-implementation, as well as

blended opportunities that are available

Ellevation Strategies I: Blazing the Trails (Train the Trainer)

Are you ready for campuses to blaze the trails with Ellevation? Ellevation Strategies Train-the-Trainer

Workshops are designed to accelerate the adoption of Ellevation Strategies by preparing participants

to deliver turnkey trainings in their school or district The training is a combination of content, practice,

and planning

Leveraging Leadership: Implementing Ellevation at Your Campus

Tailored for an audience of campus administrators, Leveraging Leadership is an opportunity to

provide campus leaders with a deeper understanding of how Ellevation supports English Learners, both

from a programmatic and an instructional lens Campus administrators will walk away with a clear plan

to “make it happen” at their campus to ensure a successful implementation

Ellevation Academy

These courses encompass both asynchronous (on-demand courses) and synchronous courses

(Webinars: Instructor-Led and Recordings) to support ongoing learning Webinars are hosted at con-

venient, regular intervals over the course of the year Users engage in a live instructor-led environment

with other districts On-Demand Learning Courses provide self-guided exploration and practice with

Ellevation through a variety of micro-learning (5-7 minutes) and macro-learning (lengthier and include

concepts and practice)

a guide to differentiated instruction for english learners

Documents