Resources/Recursos

This Focus Bulletin emphasizes how multilingual learners' everyday language can be an asset to science teachers in their efforts to promote classroom engagement. It provides educators with real-world examples and guiding questions to help create learning spaces where sensemaking, co-construction, language development and equity can flourish simultaneously.

Published June 2022
Authors: Rita MacDonald, David Crowther, Jennifer Wilfrid

Marco de referencia de las artes del lenguaje del español de WIDA: Aplicación para la actualización y desarrollo de estándares is the first Spanish language arts framework of its kind in the United States. This document serves as a guide to learn more about the elements of Marco ALE and how to apply them in the enhancement, development, and alignment of Spanish language arts standards.

Written in Spanish with English summaries

Marco de referencia de las artes del lenguaje del español de WIDA: Aplicación para la enseñanza is the first Spanish language arts framework of its kind in the United States. This document serves as a guide to learn more about the elements of Marco ALE and how to apply them in the teaching of Spanish language arts. Note: This is a sample of the document. Visit the WIDA Store to purchase the complete version.

Written in Spanish with English summaries

This Focus Bulletin investigates how educators of bi/multilingual learners can leverage multiliteracies for instruction. Drawing from a fictional scenario in a language arts classroom, this bulletin shows how multiliteracies can be leveraged throughout the teaching and learning cycle. The Focus Bulletin includes various perspectives from experts in the field to illustrate the role of multiliteracies, as well as tools for reflection and implementation in the bilingual classroom.

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By addressing the intersection of practice and academia, teachers are encouraged to be more involved in implementing evidence-based approaches and becoming more familiar with research informing their classroom practice directly. Engaging in pracademics highlights the work of teacher experiences and promotes the inclusion of practitioners' voices in the field.

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This WIDA Focus Bulletin outlines ways in which educators can provide English Language Learners with disabilities access to complex language via classroom activities and engagement opportunities.

Published March 2017 
Authors: Lynn Shafer Willner, Cynthia Lundgren, Mira Monroe, Julia Cortada

In this webinar, the WIDA standards development team discusses and models the tools, provided in the 2020 Edition, for initiating critical conversations with school leaders and colleagues.

Developing a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Approach to Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI²) for English Language Learners: Connecting to WIDA Standards, Assessments, and Other Resources

Response to Intervention or Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) is one example of a multi-tiered system of support that helps educators identify the needs of all students as they develop more culturally and linguistically responsive educational systems. This guide includes tools and resources to help states, districts and schools address some of the unique needs of ELLs within a culturally and linguistically responsive RtI² system.

The RtI2 planning form is a resource to guide local educators in implementing a RtI² plan for their multilingual learners. The form accompanies the book Developing a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Approach to Response to Instruction & Intervention (RtI²) for English Language Learners: Connecting to WIDA Standards, Assessments, and Other Resources.

This 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

This 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.

Vea y descargue en español.

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.

Collaboration 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.

Learn how WIDA is more than a test! Mr. Vega is a 6^th 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.

The 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.