Whether adolescent ELs are newcomers to English, are
progressing steadily in their development of English, or have
stalled in their development of academic English and content
understandings, teachers are responsible for meeting each
of their students wherever they are and facilitating their
accelerated cognitive and linguistic development. This entails
not only outstanding teaching; it also requires building
relationships with students. Like all students at this age,
whether it is apparent or not, ELs in middle school look to
their teachers as guides and mentors in their continuing
apprenticeship in academic subjects and their transition
from childhood into and through the teenage years. Like
all adolescents, EL students are more deeply engaged
with school learning when their teachers are respectful of who they are as individuals and of their
communities and families and when they are confident that their teachers believe they can succeed
at challenging academic tasks, care about their success, and provide high levels of support. Teachers’
respectful attitudes and positive dispositions toward their EL students are critical for academic success
and healthy social-emotional development.
The CA ELD Standards support teachers to focus on critical areas of English language
development, and they set goals and expectations for how EL students at various levels of English
language proficiency will interact meaningfully with content, develop academic English, and
increase their language awareness. The CA ELD Standards are used in tandem with the CA CCSS
for ELA/Literacy and other content standards in all classes that include ELs as learners, and they are
used as the focal standards for targeted language instruction that builds into and from the types of
academic tasks EL students are engaged in throughout the day. The goals for comprehensive ELD are
the following:
- Building students’ abilities to engage in a variety of collaborative discussions about academic
content and texts - Developing students’ academic vocabularies and grammatical understandings
- Building students’ metalinguistic awareness in order to support close reading and writing of
different text types - Building students’ abilities to write coherent and cohesive academic texts in English
Integrated and Designated English Language Development
This ELA/ELD Framework promotes the implementation
of carefully designed and comprehensive systems that
support all ELs to develop advanced levels of English in
all content areas. This comprehensive approach to ELD
includes both integrated and designated ELD. Integrated ELD
refers to ELD throughout the day and across the disciplines
for all ELs. In integrated ELD, the CA ELD Standards are
used in all disciplines in tandem with the CA CCSS for
ELA/Literacy and other content standards to support ELs’
linguistic and academic progress. Teachers use the CA ELD
Standards to inform their planning of intellectually rich
academic experiences that are provided through English.
Through these experiences using English meaningfully
(e.g., through collaborative conversations, interpreting texts
Like all students at this age,
whether it is apparent or not,
ELs in middle school look to
their teachers as guides and
mentors in their continuing
apprenticeship in academic
subjects and their transition
from childhood into and
through the teenage years.This ELA/ELD Framework
promotes the implementation
of carefully designed and
comprehensive systems that
support all ELs to develop
advanced levels of English
in all content areas. This
comprehensive approach to
ELD includes both integrated
and designated ELD.Grades 6 to 8 Chapter 6 | 545