District/School Administration PK-16 Program Support
English Language Learners

Guide for Developing a Content-Based English as a Second Language Curriculum

Introduction

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 71A requires that most limited English proficient (LEP) students be educated in a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) program. This requirement applies to all districts that enroll LEP students, regardless of whether there is one LEP student or hundreds of LEP students enrolled in the district.

An SEI program consists of two components:

• sheltered content instruction and
• English as a second language (ESL) instruction

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (ESE) Office of English Language Acquisition, assisted by a team of Massachusetts educators, has crafted this document, Guide for Developing a Content-Based English as a Second Language Curriculum as an extension of the Massachusetts English Language Proficiency Benchmarks and Outcomes (ELPBO). The ELPBO was designed to be a framework for the development of an English as a second language (ESL) curriculum. This document takes the next step by suggesting components and steps for developing a content-based ESL curriculum.

The Guide for Developing a Content-Based English as a Second Language Curriculum consists of three parts and three appendices, briefly described below. Each part has been designed to be read and used in the order in which it is presented.

• Premises: descriptions of the four premises that are the foundation for the content of this document.

• The Process in Brief: an overview of the scope of work involved in ESL curriculum planning.

• Steps to Planning Curriculum: a step-by-step guide that takes the user through the process of content-based ESL curriculum development. Each step provides at least one link to a relevant tool available online.

• Appendices.
  • Appendix A: Acknowledgements
  • Appendix B: Roles and Responsibilities for Content-Based ESL Curriculum Development
  • Appendix C: References and Suggestions for Further Reading