Introducing: WIDA Webinars

WIDA Webinars are a new, free, virtual learning opportunity that offers educators insights and resources on a variety of topics relevant to educators of multilingual learners. In these webinars, you’ll hear from WIDA's expert staff, researchers and facilitators, dive into specific topics crucial for multilingual education, and have the opportunity to ask questions and interact in real time.

Can't make it live? No worries! All webinars will be recorded and readily available on the WIDA Webinars page for your convenience.

Here are the four webinars we’ll bring you in 2024:

January 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM CT

WIDA ELD Framework Implementation: What, When, and How?

The newly released implementation guide for the WIDA English Language Development Standards, 2020 Edition, offers practical guidance on ways to use the different resources in the WIDA ELD Standards Framework. Focusing on two components of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, language features and proficiency level descriptors, we will examine a science unit plan and consider when and how language features and proficiency level descriptors can be used to support multilingual learners in developing both their content knowledge and their language proficiency.

February 6, 2024 at 3:00 PM CT

Desarrollando el español: Guiding bilingual instructional planning with Marco DALE

Bi/multilingual students across a variety of program models and instructional contexts need instruction that uplifts and recognizes their assets through a transcultural and translingual approach. The components of the Marco de los estándares del desarrollo auténtico del lenguaje español de WIDA (Marco DALE) can support educators’ planning processes for culture and language-rich instruction. Join the WIDA Español team on this WIDA Webinar to explore and connect transculturalismo, multiliteracidades, and intentional planning for language development.

This WIDA Webinar will be presented primarily in Spanish and builds on the foundational webinar, Desarrollando el español: Authentic Spanish language development with Marco DALE, presented in November 2023.

May 2, 2024 at 10:00 AM CT

Using Data and Research to Inform Practical Issues in EL Proficiency and Growth

This session examines ways in which large-scale assessment data can be used to extract important, practical and useful insights on average patterns and high-level trends in English learners’ education and academic outcomes. More specifically, we will examine the latest data on the impact of COVID-19 on English learners’ proficiency as measured by ACCESS, and how the pandemic has exacerbated some of the existing disparities in outcomes across various student groups. We will examine differences across student groups based on grade-level, ethno-racial, gender, ability-based, institutional and other intersectionalities before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

May 8, 2024 at 12:00 PM CT

Administrator Supplement: WIDA ELD Standards Framework Implementation, What, Why, and How?

The newly released Administrator Supplement: WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework Implementation Guide offers practical guidance for administrators who wish to focus on strategic and programmatic aspects of standards implementation. This webinar introduces the supplement, talks about its purpose and discusses four key areas for systemic implementation: professional learning, collaboration for content and language integration, curriculum and instruction, and data and assessment. Additionally, we will highlight and explore a variety of resources from the supplement, including WIDA resources, implementation discussion tools, reflective prompts, questions and stories of practice.