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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners:
Ellevation Strategies
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Contents
A Letter From Our CEO 3
The Challenge 4
The Solution: Ellevation Strategies 4
Expertise In Action: Ellevation Instructional Advisory Board 6
Instructional Framework: Built on Research, Supporting Quality Professional Development 7
Discover Activities 9
What Features are Available With Ellevation Strategies? 11
Ellevation Strategies for Dual Language Programs 12
Implementation 15
Professional Learning 16
Appendix 18
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners:
Ellevation Strategies
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Here’s a Letter From Our CEO
Imagine a classroom where linguistically diverse students are raising their hands and engaging their
peers in academic conversation Ellevation has been developed to do just that This Program Guide
was created to provide you with an overview of our instructional content and explain how we help
classroom teachers skillfully and confidently differentiate instruction for English Learners
Our best-practice instructional strategies and activities, curated by leading academic minds in the
field, support teachers in their instructional planning Best of all, the strategies and activities are
accessible to teachers anytime, anywhere--even as they are working late to develop engaging lesson
plans or preparing for a PLC Ellevation takes aim at prevailing PD models that are comprised of
1-day workshops, and instead provides districts with sustained, job-embedded, results-oriented
professional development
Ellevation was initially conceived in 2006 by an EL coordinator in North Carolina The inspiration for
creating the product grew out of the frustration that many EL professionals like her experience every
day; namely, overwhelming administrative burdens and communication obstacles that divert attention
away from student instruction Today, with our focus still rooted in the experience of educators, we
develop tools that simplify administrative obligations, save time, and enable the delivery of more
effective instruction so that EL students can thrive in school and beyond
Our talented team is formed by educators to serve educators, and we bring a diverse array of
experiences and expertise to the work In fact, many of our current employees are former ESL
teachers, administrators and English learners We are fortunate to serve over 850 school districts
across the country and have offices in Texas, North Carolina, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts
We hope this information provides a helpful introduction to Ellevation and how we hope to inform your
practice and support you in helping English learners achieve their highest aspirations
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Sincerely,
Jordan Meranus
CEO & Co-Founder
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The Challenge
The Solution: Ellevation Strategies
English Learners now represent approximately
10% of all public school students in the U S and
this percentage is expected to increase over the
coming years As the number of ELs continues
to grow, it is important to note that they spend
a majority of their time in schools with content
area teachers, who according to a study by
Walker, Shafer, and Liams, feel overwhelmingly
underprepared to teach linguistically diverse
students At the same time, research indicates
that language is best learned within the context
of grade-level content
How can we best develop teacher capacity so
students are able to build language proficiency
and learn necessary content in the classrooms
where they spend most of their time?
The challenge is unmistakable All teachers
must develop the capacity to teach language
through content so ELs can build language
proficiency and learn the necessary academic
content at the same time
Every teacher who works with English
Learners can create a classroom that fosters
authentic learning, regardless of the student’s
proficiency in English By understanding a few
key principles of second language acquisition
and integrating best practices into planning,
instruction, and assessment, all teachers can
become teachers of language
Ellevation Strategies is an
effective and easy-to-use
instructional resource that
enables differentiated instruction
for ELs in all grades and content
areas Ellevation offers more
than 80 classroom activities
that teachers can incorporate
into existing lessons, ensuring
best-practice instruction
for ELs and making language
and content accessible to
every learner
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Differentiating instruction for English learners
may seem daunting, but Ellevation can help.
The activities represent powerful teaching techniques
that empower teachers to enhance their practice
making grade-level content accessible for ELs while
engaging all students in sound pedagogical practices
Each activity has essential details to support quality
instruction: key student information, clear instructions,
downloadable resources, student-specific scaffolds,
demonstration videos, and more
The activities allow students to practice learning
language in various ways, while using content area
subject matter In a classroom using Ellevation,
students will better develop language proficiencies
and progress on the path to reclassification and
grade-level mastery of content
“Ellevation Strategies reflect best practices
for ELs and are research-based. The strategies
are presented in a practical, teacher-friendly
way so that they can be used effectively during
instruction in any grade level. The instruction-
al activities include the elements necessary
to improve both language acquisition and
content learning, and they address the unique
needs, struggles, and gaps in instruction that
often affect ELs.”
—Dr Jana Echevarria
Ellevation Strategies has earned the Research-Based
Design product certification from Digital Promise This
product certification is intended to serve as a rigorous,
reliable signal to school administrators, educators, and
families, looking for evidence of research-based educa-
tional technology (edtech) products
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Built in Collaboration With Leaders in Language Education
The development of Ellevation Strategies was guided by contributions from top experts in the field of
language learning and instruction
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Tim Boals, Ph.D., Executive Director of WIDA
Dr Boals holds a Ph D in curriculum from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with
an emphasis in the education of English learners His background includes language
education, educational policy for ELs, and Spanish language and literature
John Seidlitz, Founder and CEO of Seidlitz Education
John Seidlitz is an independent educational consultant and the author of numerous
books and resources on improving academic achievement for ELs Mr Seidlitz has
been a member of the SIOP® National faculty and guest lecturer for many regional
and national language development conferences
Jeff Zwiers, Ed.D.,
Senior Researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the
Director of Professional Development Understanding Language/SCALE
Dr Zwiers has consulted for national and international projects that promote literacy,
lesson design, and formative assessment practices He has written articles and books
on literacy, cognition, discourse, and academic language
Jana Echevarria, Ph.D., Professor Emerita at California State University,
Long Beach
A founding researcher of the SIOP® Model, Dr Echevarria’s research focuses on effec-
tive instruction for English learners, including those with learning disabilities Her pub-
lications include over 50 books, book chapters, and journal articles
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Instructional Framework: Built on Research, Supporting Quality Professional Development
Ellevation Strategies was built upon the most relevant research-based, best practices of English
Language Development Our three-tiered Instructional Framework is organized into Practices,
Strategies and Activities which provide clear opportunities for teachers to develop their expertise and
help build engaging, language-rich classrooms that benefit all learners
In addition to being the organizing template for the activities, the Instructional Framework is uti-
lized by numerous partner districts as a guide for improving teacher practice through job-embedded
Professional Development such as supporting PLCs, collaborative planning and training to build edu-
cator capacity
The Framework Consists of Three Tiers: Practices, Strategies and Activities
Practices
The six vital, pedagogical building blocks that form the foundation of high-quality instruction that
meets the linguistic needs of ELs
Build Background
Learning takes place when it connects to students’ previous knowledge, experience, and capabilities
By taking purposeful time to both activate and build background knowledge, teachers can provide powerful pathways to new learning
Clarify Input
New language and content can only be learned when the student is able to clearly understand the input It is the responsibility of educators to ensure that students’ access to spoken and written language is appropriate and clear by attending to the special needs of English learners
Fortify Output
When students are given multiple writing and speaking opportuni-ties that are authentic, targeted, and meaningful, their language will become stronger and clearer Oral language development supports written language proficiency Incorporating writing activities into all content areas is critical for language and content knowledge development
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Strategies
The six Practices are broken into more than a dozen strategies, each focused on a specific instruc-
tional approach to meet the unique challenges ELs face in the classroom From sentence structure and
vocabulary to academic conversations, these teaching strategies will maximize language and
content learning for all students The strategies are put into action using 80 activities that teachers
can incorporate into existing standards-based lesson plans
Activities
An activity is a strategy in action It’s a way to enhance content and language for ELs by comple-
menting the instruction that is already in place These specific activities can be integrated in daily
lesson plans Each activity includes differentiated supports designed to address specific students’
language learning needs
“While content standards are the what to teach, Ellevation Strategies is the how to teach a
classroom of linguistically diverse students.”
Foster Interactions
Creating authentic interactions in which students are meaning-fully communicating develops language proficiency To be effective, these authentic interactions cannot be sporadic, but rather should constitute a consistent work-in-progress as stu-dents continue to become stronger and clearer communicators
Develop Academic Language
Academic language, the language of school and work, includes content-area vocabulary as well as sentences and messages Student development of grade-level academic vocabulary results from explicit teaching, modeling, and practice reading a wide range of authentic texts Attending to academic language and vocabulary will increase students’ ability to comprehend text at a higher level
Assess Language and Learning
Providing consistent opportunities for students to voice instructional needs, lack of understanding, and areas of mastery will drive effective ongoing instruction It’s critical that educators modify summative assessments to ensure that content, rather than language, is assessed
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Discover ActivitiesTeachers will find research-based instructional activities in ways that reflect their preferred method
of planning Whether using our content-focused Collections or our language-centered Practices,
teachers will find instructional activities that provide them with everything they need to know to incor-
porate the activity into any upcoming lesson to improve instruction and outcomes for their ELs
In addition to teachers being able to find the right “instructional moves”, we’ve aligned student
needs to instruction, providing practical ways to differentiate instruction for specific students Our
Support Suggestions, based on student proficiency levels, help teachers group students and scaffold
instruction, providing actionable tips for specific students Through use of these activities teachers will
improve their practice, support language development while teaching grade-level academic content,
and create classrooms that ensure every student succeeds Further, activities provide teachers with
in-depth instructions, videos and downloads including graphic organizers and other templates
“Ellevation Strategies equip teachers with specific approaches they can use to effectively facilitate academic conversation and writing
in content-area classrooms. Ellevation is particularly helpful in allowing mainstream, classroom teachers to target instruction to the
needs of their English learners by efficiently connecting particular content-area topics to the language levels of their students.”
—John Seidlitz
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Content
Our instructional activities are organized into hundreds of Collections that can be found by grade,
subject, and content-specific topics with relevant state standards Collections provide classroom
teachers who are teaching ELs with a way to find activities that best connect to the topics and
standards in their specific lessons Each Collection provides meaningful context for how to effectively
integrate the activities into lesson plans
Language
Educators can also discover activities based on Ellevation Instructional Practices, which allow
teachers to find instructional activities created to meet the linguistic needs of ELs
“Ellevation Strategies has selected and clarified the most powerful teaching
strategies for integrating content learning and language development for
a wide range of students. Rather than “watering down” learning, rigor, and
engagement, these strategies challenge English learners and their
classmates to think and use language in authentic ways across disciplines.”
—Dr Jeff Zwiers
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
What Features are Available With Ellevation Strategies?
More than just a bank of activities, Ellevation ties the instructional content to student data to enable
differentiated instruction Here are a few more helpful features and functions you’ll find in Ellevation:
Saving Activities
With so many high-quality activities to choose from, Ellevation allows users to save their favorites
in custom folders Planning a future unit on the water cycle and want to save activities that focus on
academic language to try later with your students? Simply create a new folder for your water cycle unit
and sequence the activities you’d like to try, days or even weeks ahead of time!
Sharing Activities
Improve collaboration and fidelity across all of the classrooms in your school All Activities can be
shared by any user of Ellevation, so principals or instructional coaches can share with teachers, or edu-
cators can share with the other members in their team or department When an activity is shared, the
receiving teacher gets an email directly into their inbox - making Ellevation’s resources visible and easy
to access for everyone
Recommending Activities
A feature of Ellevation Strategies is one that will have a persistent impact on students’ mastery
of language: the ability for an EL Specialist to recommend an activity for specific students With
Strategies, users can simply visit a student’s record in Ellevation, and recommend some carefully
selected activities for that student based on his or her most pressing language need or based on a
student data meeting Once the recommendation is made, all of the student’s classroom teachers will
instantly see the activity on the student profile, and can start immediately planning to use it in
their lessons
Content Examples
Each activity has an ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies example for its identified grade bands
In total, in the 80 activities there are more than 1,100 content examples
Every content example includes:
■■ Content Objective
■■ Language Objective
■■ 4-6 procedural steps for teachers and students which summarize the activity with content
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Ellevation Strategies for Dual Language Programs
To meet the needs of a growing number of dual language programs across the U S , we’ve developed an ex-
tended version of Ellevation Strategies specifically designed to strengthen all pillars of your dual language
program
Ellevation Strategies for Dual Language programs provides comprehensive, instructional resources for all
program types, and timely data at the student and program level
Realize High Academic Achievement for all Multilingual Students
Now you can provide dual language educators with high-quality instructional resources in both English
and Spanish With Ellevation’s Dual Language component, your team has access to over 100 profes-
sionally transadapted instructional activities, including downloads, ensuring teachers can integrate
effective, best-practice techniques into their regular routines
Promote Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Cross-Cultural Competency
In addition to resources that promote high-academic achievement, empower your teachers with
dozens of research-based unique activities that are authentic to the Spanish language and its varia-
tions Your teachers will be able to plan meaningful lessons in both languages, build biliteracy, develop
socio-cultural competency, and bridge your program’s two target languages
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Build Dual Language Teacher Capacity
Our Framework gives all dual language educators access to instructional practices specific to biliter-
acy and cultural competency With our Instructional Framework as a shared resource, you can advance
your teachers’ expertise with detailed explanations of key strategies and opportunities for rich discus-
sion and reflection The Framework addresses topics such as intentional cross-linguistic connections,
purposeful analysis of the two languages, translanguaging tips, and embracing cultural diversity that
welcomes all students and the language they bring Your teachers will better comprehend the ele-
ments needed in each lesson to address the three core goals of dual language
Visualize Key Data and Track Program Success
In addition to robust instructional support, you’ll be able to view language assessment data side-by-
side on dashboards, track language development, and better plan instruction for your target groups
To make program improvements and ensure continued support for your program, visualize and share
essential data about language of instruction, enrollment, performance on assessments, and more
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Developed in Collaboration With Leading Language Experts
Our Dual Language instructional strategies and routines were developed in collaboration with Dr José
Medina and Dr Sonia Soltero
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Dr José Medina is the founder and Chief
Educational Advocate for Dr José Medina:
Educational Solutions Prior to establishing
the boutique consulting firm, Dr Medina
served as Research Scientist and Director
of Dual Language and Bilingual Education
at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
in Washington, DC Dr Medina provides dual
language technical assistance, professional
development, and job-embedded support
to dual language programs across the
United States and globally He has served
as an administrator/educator/advocate at
the elementary, middle, and high school
levels Dr Medina is a co-author of the third
edition and widely-used Guiding Principles
for Dual Language Education
Dr. José Medina Dr. Sonia SolteroDr Sonia W Soltero is Professor and Chair of
the Department of Leadership, Language,
and Curriculum, and former Director of the
Bilingual-Bicultural Education Graduate
Program at DePaul University in Chicago
Soltero has numerous publications on
bilingual education, English Learners, and
Latino education, including three books, the
latest two titled Dual Language Education:
Program Design and Implementation and
Schoolwide approaches to educating ELLs:
Creating linguistically and culturally respon-
sive K-12 schools. Soltero has extensive
background in design and implementation
of dual language and bilingual programs
and has worked with school districts as well
as bilingual universities across the US
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Grounded in research-based practices around implementation, Ellevation provides a comprehensive
package of services delivered by an experienced team of education and language experts From the
initial consultation with the district to support post-training, the implementation of Ellevation is based on
proven methodology to ensure a long-standing and successful partnership Furthermore, we understand
the importance of ensuring that Ellevation Strategies connects to ongoing initiatives at the district and
campus level We look for ways to create synergies across the entire district and work to bring everything
together so that teachers and administrators are able to see how we are a support structure for the work
that they have already been doing
The implementation process includes a series of strategic conversations focused on listening to the
vision and needs of the school or district, understanding the district instructional landscape and initia-
tives, and creating viable solutions that best leverage the work of the district
Our phased project management approach to implementation of Ellevation Strategies includes:
■■ Conducting a kickoff with key stakeholders, including leads from EL, Curriculum & Instruction,
Professional Development and site administrators, and establishing a District Success Team that
will ensure advocacy, investment and reinforcement of expectations for engagement throughout
the implementation
■■ Developing SMART goals and an implementation plan that includes communication, profes-
sional learning, and expectations for engagement
■■ Engagement meetings to support in assessing plans, monitoring and reflecting upon progress,
sharing best practices and making adjustments as needed
Implementation
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Professional Learning Ellevation provides blended and differentiated professional development that puts administrators,
teachers, specialists, and/or coaches at the center of their learning At Ellevation, we believe thoughtful
planning, sustained learning, consistent implementation, and evaluating success are key to an effective
implementation
What Does This Look Like?
District partners engage in Professional Learning that is blended and sustained over the course of a year
and is inclusive of training district personnel, campus administrators, teachers and specialists Professional
Learning includes understanding Ellevation, both use and implementation, aligning to district goals, devel-
oping the knowledge and skills of teachers, both content and ELL specialists, and ongoing support
Ellevation’s Professional Learning approach for Strategies training includes administrator workshops,
curriculum alignment sessions, district staff training, and training for campus teams
See below for descriptions of a few training sessions available, as well as blended opportunities that are
available
Ellevation Strategies: Planning for Campus Implementation
In this course participants will deepen skills to leverage Ellevation Strategies and understand how to
integrate language development into content Participants will be leaders in supporting successful roll
out at a site level and leave with clear plans and work time to prepare for implementations and effec-
tive instruction
Ellevation Strategies: Introduction for Educators (Distance Learning Option Available)
Tailored for an audience of campus administrators, Leveraging Leadership is an opportunity to
provide campus leaders with a deeper understanding of how Ellevation supports English Learners, both
from a programmatic and an instructional lens Campus administrators will walk away with a clear plan
to “make it happen” at their campus to ensure a successful implementation
Ellevation Strategies: Introduction for Campus Administrators
Campus Administrators will utilize Ellevation’s tools to analyze EL data and develop a plan that lever-
ages Ellevation Strategies to support campus implementation Leaders will walk away from training
with a knowledge of Ellevation’s data and instructional tools and an excitement about how Ellevation
can support them in their role
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A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
Professional Learning Ellevation Academy
These courses encompass both asynchronous (on-demand courses) and synchronous courses
(Webinars: Instructor-Led and Recordings) to support ongoing learning Webinars are hosted at conve-
nient, regular intervals over the course of the year Users engage in a live instructor-led environment with
other districts On-Demand Learning Courses provide self-guided exploration and practice with Ellevation
through a variety of micro-learning (5-7 minutes) and macro-learning (lengthier and include concepts and
practice]
Appendix
A Guide to Differentiated Instruction for English Learners: Ellevation Strategies
An image is posted without any words or captions for all the students to see Students think about
and discuss the image After the discussion, students choose a word or short phrase that reflects their
interpretation about its meaning and write it on an index card with a hashtag A final discussion occurs
around shared and divergent words and ideas
Before Activity
✔ Select and post an image—without words—for the
activity Consider using photographs, magazine
clippings, cartoons, images from websites, or any
other visual resource
During Activity
✔ Direct the students’ attention to the posted image
Allow them to approach the image up close and
provide time for them to notice details
✔ In partners, groups, or as a whole class, have stu-
dents share their initial (direct) observations Then,
question students about the deeper (inferential)
meaning behind their initial observations
✔ After sufficient time is spent discussing the
image, ask students to think of one keyword or
short phrase that they think encapsulates the
image and write it on sticky notes with hashtag
(#) before it, the same way they might tag a photo
on social media
✔ As students finish their cards, have them come up
to the posted image and post their cards around
the image, creating a frame
✔ When the frame is finished and students have
had a chance to examine it, gather students
together as a whole class to reflect on similarities,
differences, surprises, context, or anything else
that they noticed about the words they assigned
to the image
Hanging Hashtags
Quick TipsThis activity may also be done with
videos or video clips, so long as an
image can be frozen on screen or
pulled from a printed source (such
as a movie poster)
Watch Out ForEmphasize the interpretative
freedom that comes with analyzing
art to create a safe place
where students feel free to share
their ideas
Evidence of SuccessStudents are able to discuss and
explain why they chose a word they
think is central to the image
Activity Details
Domain: Speaking
Grades: K-12
Grouping: Small Group, Full Classroom
Materials: Image, Think Sheet, Handout
Students organize vocabulary cards, called “bricks,” in an order that makes sense to them Next they
add their own words and phrases, or “mortar” to form sentences This constructivist activity has students
applying their knowledge and understanding of content terms to a more meaningful context
Before Activity
✔ Select 3-5 related vocabulary words or
key terms
✔ Write words or two-word terms on individual
index cards--one set per student or group
During Activity
✔ Model an example with other words that the
students know
✔ Pass out cards to students and instruct
them to order them in a way that makes the
most sense
✔ Allow students to share their work and
engage in collaborative discussion
✔ Instruct students to fill in words or phrases
to create sentences and a context Students
should pair with a peer and talk through each
sentence, comparing their application
✔ Gather students back together and talk
through the word cards and different ways
they can make sentences
Activity DetailsDomain: Reading
Grades: 2-12
Grouping: Pairs, Small Group, Full Classroom
Materials: Vocabulary words, Directions Slide
Building with Bricks and Mortar
Quick TipsIf students will be working in groups,
have them pre-planned; include
flexible grouping that allows for
peer language modeling
Encourage students to use oral
language first before they write the
connecting language
Watch Out ForCorrecting students on subject-verb
agreement and verb tenses could
raise anxiety Only model correct
grammar if it changes meaning
If students are very frustrated
they probably don’t have enough
knowledge of the vocabulary words
It’s time to back up
Evidence of SuccessStudents are adding the “mortar”
terms and phrases independently
or in groups
Students demonstrate flexibility
with their thinking and shift the
words as necessary