A WIDA Can Do Student Portrait is a document that focuses on a student’s strengths with specific information about the learner’s educational background, languages, family and interests, in addition to what the student can do in English with information from the WIDA Can Do Descriptors and Proficiency Level Descriptors. This sample WIDA Can Do Student Portrait provides an example of one of the ways teachers may create student portraits.
Resource Details View Download NowThis WIDA Focus Bulletin provides examples of specific macro-scaffolding and micro-scaffolding practices in action in a math classroom and includes guidance for developing these scaffolding practices over time.
Published June 2018
Authors: Jen Daniels, Ruslana Westerlund
This WIDA Focus Bulletin explores ways to strengthen reasoning and language in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.
Published January 2017
Author: Rita MacDonald
This WIDA Focus Bulletin focuses on the needs of students who have limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). Because the vast majority of students in this group are enrolled in grades 6 through 12, we will focus on those grade levels. However, many of the tips and suggestions can be applied in lower grade levels as well. Throughout the bulletin we will explore academic and social-emotional factors that may affect this group of students, examine the benefits of building community partnerships, address how to assess student readiness levels, and offer a checklist of considerations for instructional planning.
Published May 2015
Authors: Lauren Keppler, Lucia Morales, Julia Cortada, Maria Austin
This Focus Bulletin illustrates how teachers and students can use language development portfolios to interpret and document language growth. The bulletin follows the story of how a grade-level team introduced portfolios to their practice, posing several questions the team asked as they refined their usage. It closes by offering two sample tools that teachers can use and adapt to capture multilingual learners’ language growth using modified Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) from the WIDA English Language Development Framework, 2020 Edition.
Published: December 2022
Authors: Fernanda Marinho Kray, Margo Gottlieb, Lynn Shafer Willner
This Focus Bulletin illustrates how educators in featured International Baccalaureate schools are integrating WIDA resources as they design lessons for multilingual learners.
Published June 2019
Authors: Jon Nordmeyer, Ruslana Westerlund, Elizabeth Cranley, Anne Katz
This WIDA Focus Bulletin addresses how English Language Learners engage with technology within the classroom.
Published October 2014
Authors: Meagan Rothschild, Julia Cortada
The Framework for Equitable Instruction (FEI) is an instruction-focused resource designed to promote the equitable engagement in disciplinary learning and language development of multilingual learners. The FEI complements the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. This working paper can inform teachers’ practice, support teacher collaboration within and across disciplines, and serve as a foundation for the design of professional learning opportunities and resources.
Resource DetailsThis focus bulletin explores translanguaging from the perspective of four educators, spanning kindergarten through high school. Translanguaging, a common practice among multilingual people, can be explained as using all languages and language varieties available to communicate and understand the world around oneself. The bulletin provides specific ideas on how to use translanguaging to create spaces for students' multilingualism and includes reflection questions to help educators adopt translanguaging strategies in their practice.
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As teachers, staff and administrators in school buildings, district offices and educational agencies across the country, we play a critical role in responding to the individual needs of students in our teaching and learning settings. Trauma can be experienced by any student, but for those who are also learning English as an additional language or who are adjusting to a new culture, these experiences add another dimension of care to be addressed by educators. Through this focus bulletin, readers will be introduced to a research based guide for working with multilingual learners who may benefit from trauma informed practices, including discussions on special populations, the sharing of empowering and engaging strategies, a raising of awareness about prompting adverse behaviors, and building rapport across whole school, student and family networks.
Resource Details View Download NowCollaboration is one of the four Big Ideas of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework. This two-page "comic" strip shows the story of how a science teacher and an ESL teacher work together on their multilingual learners' language development and ways of meaningfully engaging with the content of a science unit. This step-by-step example can be used in tandem with Section 4 of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition, that has a more detailed look at the collaborative planning process.
Resource Details View Download NowLearn how WIDA is more than a test! Mr. Vega is a 6th grade EAL (English as an Additional Language) teacher at an international school who works with colleagues and families to support multilingual learners. Follow Mr. Vega all year long, as he focuses on what his students can do, using WIDA resources to collaborate and plan effective learning activities throughout the school year.
Resource Details View Download NowThe WIDA Early Years Guiding Principles of Language Development provide practitioners with a broad perspective on key concepts related to the language development of young children learning multiple languages. To further clarify the guiding principles, these research highlights provide practitioners with research-based descriptions and examples of effective practices.
Resource Details View Download NowThis webinar offers guidance on using the implementation guide for the WIDA English Language Development, 2020 Edition.
Resource DetailsThis snapshot will give K-12 educators ideas on how to apply the Proficiency Level Descriptors as they consider scaffolding practices that support multilingual students in meeting grade level content learning goals.
Resource DetailsWhen educators think of language instruction in science, the traditional practice of pre-teaching vocabulary comes to mind. This Focus Bulletin builds on new research and offers resources for embedding vocabulary instruction into students’ participation in the science and engineering practices.
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