Resources/Recursos

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

This webinar offers guidance on using the implementation guide for the WIDA English Language Development, 2020 Edition.

This 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.

​When 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.