District Vision

English Language Development  is a component of the instructional program for all English learners. ELD instruction is based on the student's level of English proficiency.  The purpose of ELD is to explicitly and intentionally teach English in order to  develop a strong English language foundation for success in both social and academic settings.  

District ELD instruction k-12 is built around language functions, language forms and developing accuracy and fluency in language use across all four domains: speaking, listening, reading, writing. 

The district provides training, instructional materials and follow-up coaching and collaboration to fully implement ELD instruction. 

Learning a language takes lots and lots of practice. Every student needs multiple opportunities to speak every day. It is impossible to provide this by only calling on individual students, one at a time. Structured language practice routines maximize opportunities for all students to be producing language. The goal is to have at least 50% of ELD time devoted to Structured Language Practice. In order to reach this goal, students will need to spend at least 23 minutes of a 45 minute ELD block producing language.  These 23 minutes of Structured Language Practice should be woven throughout your lesson: I Do, We Do, You Do.

A suggested sequence for introducing these routines to your students would be to start with Echo (also known as Repeat or Hear it, Say It.).  Next introduce My Turn, Your Turn (Whole Class variation).  Once students have internalized these whole class routines, introduce them to My Turn, Your Turn with A/B partners.  With these basic routines in place, students will be ready for more complex practice structures such as Lines of Communication and Talking Stick. We will be featuring each of these routines over the next month or so in our "Teacher Talk about Student Talk" section below.  We'll be updating this page regularly with different routines and tips*. Check back often and send us your ideas.   --Meghan and Sofia

*Elementary teachers can also refer to the Sys ELD Cue Cards flip book in the Sys ELD Support Kit