English Language Learners (ELL)

21st Century Curriculum Design in ACPS Content and Program Areas: English Language Learners (ELL)

Students with laptop English Language Learners will have the opportunities to succeed just like all other students. As a result of the programs and curriculum offerings in ACPS, 100% of the students will achieve proficiency in both language acquisition and content learning as well as acquire high levels of critical reasoning and other habits of mind. Students learning English will fully engage in all available programs - both academic and extracurricular - within ACPS, with the goal of ensuring graduation as students complete their course of studies.

Key Curriculum Design and Learning Principles for English Language Learners:

  • All students will achieve English Language proficiency while meeting or exceeding content standards identified for the core curriculum.
  • Differentiation (e.g., building academic background knowledge, tapping into students' prior learning) will occur for all students, based upon varying language proficiency levels, interests, and learning profiles.
  • Differentiation will ensure that students learning English will comprehend and interact with core standards and related knowledge, deepening their understanding as they grow more proficient in use of the language.
  • Effective ELL programs will provide common scaffolding strategies to accommodate and support students' language development.
  • All foundational courses instruct grade-level content while addressing students' language development needs. They do not represent a separate curriculum.
  • As students develop proficiency in their use of the language, they will also increase their levels of efficacy and enthusiasm for participating in academic experiences.
  • We will ensure that ELL students can express their thoughts and their learning via language reflective of higher-order thinking, reasoning, and related habits of mind.
  • Along with expressing via the printed and the verbal, ELL students will demonstrate comprehension of challenging and complex text, using inferences and conclusions to express critical, creative, and self-regulating reasoning and thinking.

Exemplary English Language Learner Programs Reflective of These Principles:

  • PACE: America, Let's Figure It Out: This interdisciplinary course is offered during the enrichment period at middle schools. Students develop their literacy skills by applying core knowledge in English, social studies, mathematics, and science, referred to as the "language through content" approach. This course is a simulation in which students "virtually" travel across the country, applying core competencies to such tasks as measuring the Statue of Liberty. ACPS is the first school division to design a literacy course using the state's crosswalk document.
  • ELL Cross-Walk Documents: These Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) documents cross-group Standards of Learning for English, social studies, science and mathematics with English Language proficiency standards. These resources help students to apply their SOL knowledge while supporting their language development needs.
  • K-5 Model Frameworks for Differentiation of Language Arts SOLs: Emphasizing read-aloud strategies and shared reading, this transforming approach to advanced literacy strategies is being developed by WIDA (World Class Instructional Design and Assessment). ACPS is the first IDEA school division in the state of Virginia to transform the WIDA models into comprehensive, district-specific resources. Ultimately, this resource will allow teachers to collaborate on the use of ELL strategies to address and accommodate students' varying language proficiency levels. This framework is an extension of the ESL teacher sharing a block with elementary students' K-5 homeroom period.
  • High School Four-Year Sequence: Students who are learning English will not have to wait until they have achieved language proficiency in order to earn high school English credits. Through summer school and during the academic year, students have the opportunity to earn English credits within the traditional on-time graduation rate.
  • ELL Program: Schedule designs will allow students to have access to the quantity (amount of service) and type (inclusion and pull-out models). English language development support needed to ensure academic success will be available to all students.