<p>Criteria for Evaluating ELL Materials </p><p>Assessing Prior Knowledge and Building Background  Methods for assessing a student’s prior knowledge and connecting that knowledge to new learning  Ample resources and activities for building background knowledge and skills (if necessary)</p><p>Standards and Learning Objectives  Explicitly stated big ideas/key concepts that express what students should understand related to the theme and standards  Clearly and explicitly defined content and language objectives tied to grade level content area and ESL/ELD standards in every lesson  Language objectives differentiated for ELLs of varied levels of English language proficiency</p><p>Lessons and Activities  Integration of all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing  Accessible and challenging activities for ELLs of all levels of English language proficiency  Lessons that are connected to past and future lessons, building patterns and connections over time  Activities and visuals that preview what is most important to understand in ways that are not dependent on English language proficiency or literacy skills  Culturally appropriate activities that include multicultural perspectives and content  Explicitly modeled skill and strategy instruction</p><p>Engagement, Motivation, and Interaction  Activities that hook the learners and create interest in the theme  Purposeful and meaningful activities that encourage critical thinking  Opportunities for student interaction, with variable grouping strategies, within every lesson  Procedures for ensuring engagement of all learners and individual accountability</p><p>Text Accessibility and Challenge  Texts that are accessible to ELLs of all levels of English language proficiency  Texts that offer rich language and content  Texts from a wide variety of genres, subject areas, and difficulty levels  Text that introduce increasingly difficult language and skills within a theme and offer quality support resources for diverse readability levels  Texts and support materials that promote use of real-world resources: technology, parents, and the community  Texts that promote critical thinking for students at all English language proficiency levels</p><p>The ELL Outlook Developed by Jeanette Gordon & Alex Ragan Page 1 of 2 Criteria for Evaluating ELL Materials </p><p>Teacher Support  Clear and easy-to-understand instructions  Well-defined, research-based approach to ELL instruction  Ample and continuous support for untrained or inexperienced ELL teachers  Opportunities for further professional development in effective ELL instruction</p><p>Assessment  Directly tied standards and specific content and language objectives  Regular and frequent assessments integrated within instruction  Considers both the language abilities and content knowledge of students  Offers standardized and performance based methods for evaluating student learning</p><p>The ELL Outlook Developed by Jeanette Gordon & Alex Ragan Page 2 of 2</p>