The Innovation and Its Contributions
Partners in Innovation: Integrating ELD and Science
- How can limited English proficient students learn science?
- How can learning science help limited English proficient students develop their language fluency?
- How can elementary teachers support students in learning science and developing their language fluency?
- How can professional development support teachers in enhancing science and language instruction?
These were the core questions that drove the Integrating English Language Development (ELD) and Science program, a partnership between the Exploratorium and Sonoma Valley Unified School District (SVUSD), to seek answers through innovation. The program had two major educational purposes: 1) to teach science content, practices, and thinking skills to students, and 2) to simultaneously stimulate, accelerate, and expand their language development.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) intended to create projects that seek to provide innovative solutions to common education challenges, the Integrating ELD and Science program took a synergistic approach to the historically persistent and intractable problem of “closing the achievement gap” of limited English proficient students. The following report includes descriptions of the key design features of the program, as well as a summary of the major contributions of the program to the district, to teachers and to students’ opportunities to learn.
Introduction and Overview – The Innovation and Its Contributions (pdf, 7 pages)
Partners in Innovation: Integrating ELD and Science
Exploratorium and Sonoma Valley Unified School District
PROJECT PORTFOLIO:
Introduction and Overview – The Innovation and Its Contributions
Student Progressions in Science and Language Development:
What follows are five separate and brief reports focusing on various aspects of student progressions in learning science and language. We suggest that reader begin with the first, “Student Progressions in Science and Language Development: An Introduction and Rationale” that describes the idea of student progressions. The construct of student progressions serves as an alternative to standardized test scores as a way to assess and demonstrate student growth and development.
Progress in Developing Positive Attitudes and Confidence
Progress in Learning Science Content
Progress in Developing Science Practices and Thinking Skills
Progress in Developing Language Fluency and Complexity