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If this step is not easy for you, consider what language students will need to succeed and create "an anchor chart" for yourself or to share with students that demonstrates what may success look or sound like in practice or what may be the most important or relevant expectations related to student success. For a short explanation of anchor charts, download the one-page PDF found HERE.

Step Three: Consult what your students What Your Multilingual Student(s) "Can Do"

Refer to WIDA's "Can Do" descriptors, linked for you in 6.5b Academic Language Objective: WIDA Resources - Teaching Multilingual Learners of this handbook and found on the WIDA website under "Resources" or "Recursos En Español."

Search for the grade level band, SWRL language modality, and level related to your student(s).Here . For future reference and convenience, I recommend downloading/printing the Can Do chart and writing the names of students for whom accommodations or supports might be needed based on their WIDA proficiency level results.

As an example, here is the WIDA Can Do Descriptor matrix that I would need to consult for our fictional student, Tuaha, based on his grade-level: 

Step Four: Select a SWRL Focus Area For This Lesson Objective

Based on my lesson's objectives and my example student, Tuaha, I am going to select discourse as academic language my focus. I do this because Tuaha has higher scores in the areas of Reading and Writing, but he could easily get lost in the extended narrative provided by the guest speaker as I see when I check what Tuaha "Can Do" in that are using the level 2 descriptor below:

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However, I also consider that my guest speaker will not be speaking in statements spaced by large amounts of "wait time", or a slower rate of speech than is normally used for story-telling and extended narration which can best be understood in a paragraph-like format. I then realize that Tuaha may need an accommodation or support to help him keep pace with this oral presentation by our guest speaker. I then consult tools like the matrices and charts below to inform my decisions and consider what may help Tuaha navigate this discourse level academic language need.

Step Five: Consider Recommended Accommodations According To Research

Any accommodations you decide to make for your multilingual students should be guided by the Five Principles for instruction of English language learners (Levine, et al., 2012). More information about these five principles and the evidence-based research grounding them are located here. In summary, Levine's Five Principles are: 

1. Focus on Academic Language, Literacy, and Vocabulary
2. Link Background Knowledge and Culture to Learning
3. Increase Comprehensible Input and language Output
4. Promote Classroom Interaction
5. Stimulate Higher-Order Thinking Skills and Use of Learning Strategies

For our example, I consider that "Tuaha" may have relevant background knowledge and experience in understanding and connecting with indigenous tribal cultures from his home country. I consider if Tuaha himself belongs to a dominant or non-dominant tribal culture or people, and if he might use that knowledge to infer key knowledge and insights throughout the guest speaker presentation. I decide that Tuaha most likely needs fewer accommodations for Principle number 2 (above) than many other students in the class. 

I then consider that Tuaha may need support and accommodation to assist with Principle #3- "Increase Comprehensible Input and Language Output" based on my selection of discourse as a focus for my academic language support for Tuaha and the need for him to understand the complex and extended narrative provided by our guest speaker. 

Finally, I consult the scaffolds to support Tuaha in the specific area of Listening using the "Go To Strategies Matrix" provided below. Here is the relative excerpt for "Listening":

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I see that strategy recommendations for supports and accommodations include the above "Level 2- Emerging" notations and look to where Tuaha is moving towards in "Level 3- Developing". I decide that I will request our guest speaker to take frequent breaks for questions and to provide "wait time" for Tuaha in chunks. I allow Tuaha to speak to peers in class in order to clarify his understanding in English or his native language during these "Turn and Talk" times (see "Strategy Cards" below). This should assist all students, as well as Tuaha. 

Next, I consider that Tuaha and my other level 2 and 3 proficient students may benefit from having a graphic organizer provided for them in order to contextualize the guest speaker's narrative within my objective. I decide to use a simple T-chart graphic organizer, with one side labeled for comments and dates describing the phenomena given by the guest speaker, and one side labeled for Inferences and Insights students may have that could support their final synthesis relative to the stated science objective.

More examples of scaffolds, accommodations, and supports that would be helpful for Tuaha are located in the sample "Multilingual Learner Profile" located above and linked again for you HERE for your convenience.

Since you may have a variety of WIDA proficiency scores represented in your class, you may need to examine the academic language and supports needed at more than one level (1-6). You may also decide that no further supports are needed for your multilingual learners to achieve their instructional goals, in which case-- you may want to consider extending your lesson's instructional objective(s), language modality (SWRL), or the complexity of the academic language used to challenge and support your learners for whom the lesson content may be too easy. 

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Included below are further tools which have been developed to help you with the initial decision-making process of what your multilingual student(s) may need based on their proficiency scores in order to achieve the instructional goals and lesson objectives.

                   Strategy Cards:                        The Go To Strategies Project:                Virtual Supports and Accommodations for ELs:

I highly recommend starting with the "Strategy Cards" as the most straightforward supports shown to be beneficial to all learners, including multilingual learners.

The "Go To Strategies Project" delivers a matrices based on the Five Principles that allow for a bit more nuanced support related to specific level and SWRL needs. For a deeper dive, a full copy of the "Go To Strategies Project" is available HERE, with pages 23-66 serving as an inventory of activities related to specific language proficiency levels aligned with Levine's Five Principles.

Thirdly, the "Virtual Supports and Accommodations for English Learners" document embedded below with accommodations by language level for sensory, graphic, and interactive supports relative to synchronous or asynchronous virtual learning and on-line tools used for each.

   Strategy Cards:                        The Go To Strategies Project:                Virtual Supports and Accommodations for ELs:

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