New ELPS: Understanding, Unpacking, and Application
This 3-hour interactive session is designed for teachers, instructional coaches, interventionists, and educators who support emergent bilingual (EB) students across grade levels and content areas. Grounded in current Texas Education Agency guidance, this session will provide educators with a practical look at the 2026–2027 English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) and what the changes mean for instruction.
Rather than simply reviewing the new standards, participants will have time to dig into the ELPS, unpack student expectations, and consider how the revised structure can be applied in their own classrooms. We’ll look closely at grade-band expectations, language domains, Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs), and the connection between language development and content-area instruction.
Participants will:
- Unpack the revised ELPS and Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs)
- Explore expectations across grade bands and language domains
- Develop and refine language objectives that connect to content-area learning
- Identify practical scaffolds and supports for EB students at different levels of language proficiency
- Explore classroom resources and tools that can support planning and implementation
- Consider ways to intentionally build language development into everyday content instruction
The goal of this session is to move beyond simply knowing what changed in the ELPS. Participants will have opportunities to work with the standards, talk through their implications for instruction, and begin making connections to the work they are already doing in their classrooms and schools.
By the end of the session, educators will have a stronger understanding of the new ELPS and practical ideas they can use to support language development and plan meaningful, accessible instruction for EB students.
BESL Cooperative Member Fee: $0.00