Standards

    As general education teachers we are all familiar with and maybe have even memorized the core content standards for the subject area that we teach.  We use it to guide us in creating engaging curriculum in hopes that each of our students will master each learning target.  English language learners have standards too.  The ESL teacher in your school should be very familiar with these and should be using them to guide their instruction of each ELL student.  Below is a simplification of the standards and a link to acquire more information for each.

TESOL - Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
http://www.tesol.org/

This organization has developed standards to describe the competencies and skills that ELLs ought to develop to be considered proficient English speakers.  These standards are focused around skills that ELLs need to function socially, academically and culturally.

TESOL Technology Standards - Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
http://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_technologystandards_framework_721.pdf
http://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/standards/technology-standards

TESOL has created a set of standards to insure that ELLs are being taught and can master 21st century skills.  It is more important than ever that we include technology in our lessons in a meaningful way in order to engage the students and teach them the skills they will need to be successful in the future.  There are three overarching goals and each one has two to five standards within it.

WIDA World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment
http://www.wida.us/index.aspx

WIDA standards have been "adopted" by the state of Kentucky and these standards are aligned with TESOL standards as well.  WIDA is a consortium that was created to take the assessment of ELLs a step further.  The consortium has created different forms of assessments that are used throughout the country to insure the students are being tested fairly and accurately.  They have a great website that is easy to use, especially if you are looking up a specific standard.

WIDA - Kentucky Contact Information
http://wida.us/membership/states/Kentucky.aspx