Miguel Chavez

February 11, y

EDU 170
ELD and SDAIE
In a educational system that has a sink-or-swim feel to teaching non-native English
speakers the English language, I feel like there has been a transition for newer and innovative
strategies to help them out. The old way of handling EL students, I feel, would be just to toss
them in with the native English speakers, and in that way they can to pick up the language. This
is very important because according to the California Department of Education, In the 201415
school year, there were approximately 1.392 million English learners in California public
schools, which constituted 22.3 percent of the total enrollment in California public schools. Of
those 1.392 million English learners, the majority of English learners, or 73 percent, were
enrolled in the elementary grades, kindergarten through grade six and the rest, 27 percent, were
enrolled in the secondary grades, seven through twelve.1 I, for many reasons, don't believe in the
strategy that many high schools have nowadays, but I am impressed with the direction, albeit
slow, schools administrations and society are taking to accommodate EL students. Two strategies
I will be talking about will be ELD and SDAIE.
According to Kathleen Kenfield, ELD, which stands for English language development, and
SDAIE, which stands for Specially Designed Academic Instruction for English, are designed for
non-native speakers of the English language in the K-12 system. With this many EL students in
the California education system, it is not only important that we help each of those students
succeed just for the sake of a better, educated society, but it is also within their legal right to have
educational opportunities for themselves to prosper. Both ELD and SDAIE are very similar but
1 California Department of Education, Facts about English Learners in California (Last
Reviewed: September 21, 2015), http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/cefelfacts.asp.

also have some differences. Some similarities between the two strategies are that they both need
to maintain a supportive classroom environment in which the students can learn without feeling
judged by other peers. I see the importance of this supportive classroom environment at the high
school level because my EL student's attitude would change dramatically with a classroom the
same EL background in which he is more willing to participate vs when he is in a class room full
of native English speakers and is more timid to participate. Another similarity between the two is
their use of pictures, visuals, manipulatives, graphic organizers and, especially, technology. EL
students learn better if they see pictures or examples of a biosphere, for example, as opposed to
reading and writing down notes about what a is biosphere. Some of the differences between the
two are there purpose and language of instruction. The purpose of ELD programs are to develop
proficiency in English and not so much about learning content knowledge while SDAIE
programs purpose is to develop content knowledge not so much about learning the English
language. In ELD programs, the language of instruction is mostly all English, where students are
expected to use English to talk to their peers and their teacher. This is opposed to the S
DAIE program, of which students can use their native language, when necessary, and especially
when they are talking with their peers.
One pedagogical method that I could apply to my are teaching for ELs are to use visuals
and hands on examples in which they can understand a subject through actual stimulation. The
student I am tutoring, has just come from Mexico and doesn't know much of the written English
language. I have been working with him using alphabet flashcards with pictures and having him
sound out the letter, and describe the picture. I feel like this way the student uses the visual and
connects it with the sound and letter. Another is to use an English learners first language to
understand a difficult academic concept they might not have understood. This isn't the 20th

century were using your native language was a shame or any type of embarrassment, teachers
should be able to use language as a resource , and not punish them for using it.That is why its
important that we take a serious look at how we are handling our EL students.