Language Supports by Proficiency Level Descriptor
Total Recall
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Pre-Production
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Pair students with a bilingual or supportive peer to discuss ideas before writing. Provide structured sentence frames such as “One important word is ___.” or “It means ___.” or “This picture shows ___.” Allow drawing or pointing to visuals to support explanations. |
Beginning
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Provide examples of different types of visuals (diagrams, timelines, charts) to guide student responses. Encourage students to add labels or captions to their drawings or visuals to clarify their ideas. |
Intermediate
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Provide academic connectors such as “Additionally, this connects to ___.” or “This relates to ___ because ___.” Encourage students to compare their responses with a partner and justify their reasoning. |
High Intermediate
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Ask students to reflect on how their understanding has changed and explain what helped them learn the concept. Encourage students to connect their learning to prior knowledge or other topics. |
Advanced
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Challenge students to synthesize their learning, explain the significance of the concept, and apply it to new situations while using precise academic language and well-supported reasoning. |
