Designed for multilingual learners
Nearly half of Global Academy's students are English learners. That fact shaped every design decision in this course — not as an afterthought, but as a first principle. The distinction matters: a course designed for ELs is structurally different from a course modified for them.
Scaffolds that are built in from the beginning are more coherent, more effective, and less stigmatizing than accommodations bolted on afterward. Students with full English proficiency benefit from them too — because good scaffolds are just good teaching.
Universal Design for Learning
The EL scaffolds in this course are also UDL scaffolds. Multiple means of representation, action, and engagement are not EL accommodations — they are the base design. Every student benefits from visual supports, sentence frames, and flexible expression options.
The SIOP framework
Every unit in this course is built on the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), a research-validated framework for making academic content accessible to English learners without reducing its rigor. In practice, this means three concrete things in every lesson:
Dual objectives: content and language
Every unit has both a content objective and a language objective. Example content: "Students will analyze how the Rondo neighborhood was displaced by I-94." Example language: "Students will use the sentence frame 'The evidence shows… because…' to support a claim."
Explicit vocabulary instruction
Key vocabulary is taught directly, in context, before students encounter it in reading or discussion — not defined in a glossary students never look at.
Visual supports built in, not bolted on
Graphic organizers, images, diagrams, and sentence frames are embedded in every lesson as core instructional materials, not optional supplements.
VTS as an EL entry point
The Visual Thinking Strategies protocol is itself an EL scaffold. Because VTS begins with an image rather than a text, students at all language proficiency levels can participate from the first moment of any lesson.
Partial sentences are welcomed. Pointing is a valid contribution. A student can say “I see here —” and gesture, and that observation receives the same facilitation move as a full sentence. The protocol is designed to honor what students can do, not penalize what they cannot yet do in English.
Multiple means of expression
Assessments in this course offer multiple ways for students to demonstrate understanding. A student might respond through drawing, speaking, writing in their home language, or a combination. This is not a lower standard — it is a recognition that comprehension and language proficiency are different things.
Home language use
When a student uses their home language to demonstrate understanding of ethnic studies content, that is a success. Translation is a cognitive skill. Using a home language to think through a complex concept and then rendering it in English — or in drawing — is rigorous bilingual work. Celebrate it as such.
A note for teachers
If you are not an EL specialist, you do not need to become one to use this course. The scaffolds are built in. What you do need to do is resist the instinct to simplify content when students struggle with language.
The content should remain rigorous. The scaffolds reduce the language barrier — not the intellectual demand. A student who cannot yet read a primary source fluently in English can still analyze a photograph with sophistication. Start there. Build toward the text from the image.
Watch for this
The most common mistake is conflating language proficiency with intellectual capability. They are not the same thing. A student developing English who cannot write a paragraph can still think systemically about power. Design your lessons to make that thinking visible.