
Effective Practices that Support Emergent Bilingual Students
- Identify your students’ language backgrounds and Proficiency Levels (please see page 18 of the ELD Standards Framework)
- Provide effective Integrated ELD and Designated ELD instruction
- Use appropriate and planned scaffolds to support academic language development and content knowledge
- View SOE Module #6: Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students for more effective practices and strategies.
Build Connections with Families
- Access students’ “Funds of Knowledge” via a Family Survey or Inventory, such as this one from the Learning for Justice website: Family Interview.
- Connect learning to students’ lived experiences.
- Ask students to share any extenuating circumstances you should be aware of regarding their learning.
- Encourage families to have conversations in their home language to aid academic language development.
Provide Opportunities to Build Academic English
- Restorative Circles: Use a version of Restorative Circles to give Emergent Bilinguals opportunities to hear and speak English daily.
- 40 Intriguing Photos to Make Students Think: You can use pictures to encourage and scaffold conversations in the classroom
- QSSSA: More Thank Turn and Talk – Try QSSSA Method: Question, Signal, Stem, Share, and Assess