Social Studies Middle School Guide

Canyons School District

Instructional Supports Department

Multilingual Learners Implementation Tools & Resources

Critical Actions for Educators —-------------------------- ● Access WIDA scores on Data Dashboard ● Use WIDA reports, other data and key uses to support students ● Understand how academic language uses vary across levels of profciency ● Determine the language expectation language goal (words & phrases, sentence structures, succeed on an end of unit competency or assessment ● Identify and prioritize specifc language functions and features needed to comprehend and demonstrate understanding discourse markers) students will need to access the content and

Utah is part of the WIDA Consortium, which is dedicated to the research, design and implementation of standards and high quality language profciency assessments for multilingual learners (MLs). Multilingual learners move through six stages of language development that are characterized by what students can do with language in four domains: reading, speaking, listening, and writing. Because everyone continues to develop language throughout life, we are all language learners. For this reason, the WIDA framework and intentional language connections have been integrated throughout this instructional guide to support ALL students in advancing their language skills. Embedded in the scope and sequence are: - Prominent Key Language Uses for each unit - End of unit competency with language expectations - Language functions and features Key Language Uses emphasize language use for a particular purpose in order to integrate content and language. The four Key Language Uses--Narrate, Inform, Explain, and Argue have commonalities across all grade levels and disciplines though application across disciplines may vary in how the uses overlap, inform each other, and/or the prominence of one use over another. The Key Language Uses serve as an organizing principle for language expectations. For each unit, the most prominent Key Language Use has been identifed. End of Unit Competency with Language Expectations defne the overall outcome of what students will learn in the unit and how students will demonstrate their learning within the four domains of language: reading, writing, listening, speaking or as described in the scaffolding pages, WISR. The language expectations in each unit are anchored in the prominent Key Language Use identifed from content standards. Language Functions and Features are the common patterns of language use specifc to how the language is used within the discipline (function) and the specifc language in terms of sentence structure, clauses, phrases, and word types (feature).