The WIDA English Language Development Standards were established to guide, support, and help multilingual learners in their curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The WIDA standards express the importance of giving multilingual learners an environment where they can learn both academic content and language hand in hand. It is important that multilingual learners are not only growing academically but that they are also being culturally sustained. The philosophy behind the WIDA standards is that multilingual learners and ELLs get a fuller and rich filled learning experience in both culture and curriculum. The WIDA standards were created to help ensure that multilingual learners receive equal instruction, assessments, and content curriculum throughout …show more content…
Having a standard solely focused on the purpose of communication for social purposes within the school will help multilingual learners not only feel a part of the classroom but feel like part of the school community and culture. Much of a student’s day is spent not only in the classroom, but outside of the class, at lunch, in the halls, in between classes, and before and after school. Not to mention extracurricular activities, sports, clubs, and school events. Multilingual learners must have the strategies and communication skills needed to interact with others outside of the classroom. Although the standards are clear and constructive in supporting multilingual students in the school environment, it should be noted that a standard should be in place to help multilingual students outside of the school setting. A majority of communication happens in the day-to-day activities that one experiences at home, at a store, at the doctor's office, in a work setting, and so on. The WIDA standards should help language learners feel not only