Teacher Resources

Massachusetts is part of the WIDA Consortium. WIDA stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. It is an organization that has developed standards and assessments for our EL students. These standards are based on the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) standards and are aligned with the Common Core Standards. Along with assessing our EL students, WIDA provides very descriptive information as to what the classroom teacher can expect from their EL students in the form of CAN Do Descriptors at each grade level span, proficiency level and content area, available here. https://wida.wisc.edu

Our EL students come from many different cultures. Some of these are Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and Indian. Below are links that can provide you with more information about these cultures:

• WIDA Consortium
• Student Guide - The 50 best ESL Resources for kids
• OEDb - 50 Essential Resources for ESL Students
• Colorincolorado - A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners
• Kidworldcitzen.org - Choose a country from a map of the world and learn about its culture, food,, music, crafts, celebrations, arts, etc.
• Spanish - Countries, nationalities, lesson plans, activities, language
• Chinese - University of San Diego’s resource site for teachers and tutors of English As a Second Language
• Russia - All about Russia - history, land, animals, artists, etc.
• Portugal - National Geographic website about facts, geography, nature, etc.