Resources/Recursos

​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 report addresses three primary questions:
1. How do you determine a meaningful English language performance standard?
2. How do you establish a realistic, empirically anchored time frame for attaining a given ELP performance standard?
3. How can states take into account English learners’ English language performance level when setting academic progress and proficiency expectations?

Published May 2013

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 Language Development Standards, available for English and Spanish language development, are designed for use with children ages 2.5–5.5 years old and correspond to five domains of children’s development and learning: approaches to learning, language and communication development, cognition and general knowledge, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional development.

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 website serves as a digital database of the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework. It categorizes Language Expectations in two ways: by ELD standard statement and grade-level cluster, and by Key Language Use and communication mode. Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) can be explored by grade-level cluster and communication mode.

This resource includes the grade 1 materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade level have been pulled together to provide educators of students in grade 1 with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

This resource includes the grades 2-3 materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade-level cluster have been pulled together to provide educators of students in grades 2-3 with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

This resource includes the grades 4-5 materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade-level cluster have been pulled together to provide educators of students in grades 4-5 with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

This resource includes the grades 6-8 materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade-level cluster have been pulled together to provide educators of students in grades 6-8 with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

This resource includes the grades 9-12 materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade-level cluster have been pulled together to provide educators of students in grades 9-12 with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

This resource includes the Kindergarten materials that are part of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. The materials specific to this grade level have been pulled together to provide educators of students in Kindergarten with a smaller, more manageable booklet to support their implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework in their classroom.

WIDA intends to fully retire the WIDA English Language Development Standards and Resource Guide, International Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12. However, we recognize that schools have different timelines for implementation of the updated WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. With that in mind, the earlier International Edition will remain in the Resource Library so that schools that are still using it may access it as needed.

The international edition of the 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards was developed in response to growing interest from educators outside the U.S. for standards and assessments that can support and document the development of academic English among their students.

The 2012 ELD Standards Framework represented the social, instructional and academic language that students need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools and included examples of how language is processed or produced within a particular context through Model Performance Indicators (MPIs). MPIs were meant to be examples and not fixed guidelines of the language with which students may engage during instruction and assessment.

The WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten – Grade 12 is a document that provides a foundation for curriculum, instruction and assessment for multilingual learners in kindergarten through grade 12. The ELD Standards Framework is centered on equity and fosters the assets, contributions, and potential of multilingual learners. The 2020 Edition serves as a resource for planning and implementing language instruction and assessment for multilingual learners as they learn academic content.

Grade level cluster-specific versions of the 2020 Edition are also available.

WIDA conducted a research study that linked WIDA MODEL Online scale scores to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This video discusses the research study, the findings, and the Understanding WIDA MODEL Online Scale Scores in Terms of CEFR Levels tool.