The IES Practice Guide provides four recommendations on how to teach academic content and literacy to English learners in Grades K–8. This document updates the 2007 practice guide, which focused on beginning reading, by expanding its reach to include academic vocabulary, writing, content literacy, and English learners who struggle, given the availability of more recent research in these areas.
For each recommendation, the guide describes the level of evidence, how to carry out the recommendation, instructional examples, and potential roadblocks and solutions. Below are the four recommendations:
- Teach a set of academic vocabulary words intensively across several days using a variety of instructional activities.
- Integrate oral and written English language instruction into content-area teaching.
- Provide regular, structured opportunities to develop written language skills.
- Provide small-group instructional intervention to students struggling in areas of literacy and English language development.
