COURSE DESCRIPTION

ELD Early Emerging / ELD Emerging is a student-centered, communication-based course designed for students with limited English Proficiency. The principal course objective is English language development, with steady progress toward developing advanced levels of English. This ELD course emphasizes cross-disciplinary and meaningful interactions with complex texts and intellectually rich tasks. Throughout the course, students will be provided with appropriate linguistic supports, as determined by the familiarity and complexity of the tasks and topics (substantial for new tasks, more moderate as students progress). At the end of this course, students will demonstrate increasing levels of independence, at their language proficiency level, as deliberate readers, knowledgeable and proficient writers, and effective communicators prepared for mainstream English courses. Specifically, they will use language to gain and exchange information and ideas in three communicative modes (collaborative, interpretive, and productive) and apply knowledge of language to academic tasks via three crossmode language processes (structuring cohesive texts, expanding and enriching ideas, and connecting and condensing ideas) using various linguistic resources.

Designated ELD lessons will have the 10 Essential Features of Designated ELD Instruction as defined in the ELA/ELD Framework (Ch. 2 Figure 2.23). This course is aligned to the California English Language Development Standards (2012) and meets the requirements for Designated ELD instruction for English Learners as defined by the ELA/ELD Framework (2014). Because content and language are inextricably linked, the three parts of the CA ELD Standards should be interpreted as complementary and interrelated dimensions of what must be addressed in a robust instructional program for English learners.