Designated ELD Vignette
The example in vignette 4.3 illustrates good teaching for all students, with particular attention
to the language needs of ELs through integrated ELD. English learners additionally benefit from
intentional and purposeful designated ELD instruction that stems from and builds into content
instruction. Vignette 4.4 illustrates how designated ELD can build from and into content instruction.
Vignette 4.4. Analyzing Complex Sentences in Science Texts
Designated ELD Instruction in Grade ThreeBackground
Mr. Franklin has noticed that some of his EL students at the Expanding level of English
language proficiency find the complex informational texts the class is using in integrated ELA
and science very challenging. (See vignette 4.3.) In particular, he has noticed that some of
the domain-specific and general academic vocabulary and dense grammatical structures of
these complex texts are unfamiliar. Mr. Franklin often paraphrases and explains the meaning
as he reads complex informational texts aloud to students; however, he wants students to gain
greater independence in understanding the language of the complex texts, because he knows
that the language they will encounter as they move up through the grades will be increasingly
challenging. Therefore, he would like students to develop strategies for comprehending the
complex language they encounter in science informational texts that they can use when they
are reading independently or with peers, and he also wants them to learn to use a greater
variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures in their writing and speaking about science.
Lesson Context
The third-grade teaching team plans their upcoming designated ELD lessons together. They
begin by analyzing the language in the texts they use for instruction. One text that students
will be reading in small reading groups during ELA instruction is called From Seed to Plant,
by Gail Gibbons. As the teachers analyze the text, they note several potentially new domain-
specific words (e.g., pod, pistile, ovule), that they will teach during science. In addition, the
text contains several long, complex sentences that they anticipate their EL students will find
challenging. The team also notices that there is a pattern in many of the complex sentences;
they contain subordinating conjunctions that create a relationship of time between two events
(e.g., Before a seed can begin to grow, a grain of pollen from the stamen must land on the
stigma.). The team discusses the challenge students may face if they miss the meaning these
relationships between clauses create, and they plan several designated ELD lessons, adjusted
to different English language proficiency levels, during which they can discuss this way of
connecting ideas. The learning target and cluster of CA ELD Standards Mr. Franklin focuses on
in the lesson are the following:382 | Chapter 4 Grade 3