ELA AT IST

WRITING LANGUAG E
OBJECTIVES

BASICS WHY

A language objective ELs learn best

is the academic when explicitly taught
language students If we limit the content
will need to learn because of vocabulary,
and use to meet the
students will learn less
goals of the lesson
over time than English-
need to be clearly
shared with students speaking peers
orally and in writing

HOW EXAMPLE

Start with the content Objective: Students know

objective that matter has three
Think of which forms; solid, liquid and gas
language skill or Language objective: 
function in the lesson Students will be able to
is the most important describe characteristics of
for helping students liquids, solids and gases to
meet the grade-level a partner (scaffold as
standard and develop needed: i.e. orally describe
their language to a partner, describe in 3
proficiency sentences, etc.

Created by Irish Farley, 2018

6 T YP E S O F   L AN G UAG E O B J EC T IVE S
TYPE W H AT T H AT M E A N S EXAMPLE

K e y Vo c a b The technical terms, concept I will define the terms

words, and other words needed "chemical reaction"
to discuss read, or write about and "reagent"
the lesson topic

Language I will be able to write

functions The way students use language questions and
in the lesson (academic generate hypotheses
functions-describe, summarize, before conducting and
etc.) experiment

Language skills
Reading, writing, listening and I will be able to draft
speaking skills students need to a lab report
learn

Grammar or Structures that need to be

language I will be able to use
taught as they are prevalent in adverbs of time in my
structures the written or spoken discourse lab report
of the class

L e s s o n Ta s k s What language is embedded in a I will be able to

lesson that could be pulled and summarize a text and
turned into explicit instruction then teach the main
in language information to a
classmate

Language I will justify my

Learning These may include metacognitive, predictions to a
Strategies c o g n i t i v e a n d s o c i a l /a f f e c t i v e classmate.
strategies.

Created by Irish Farley, 2018

L AN G UAG E O B J ECT IVE

T E M P L AT E
REFERENCES

Barton, Rhonda. “What the

Research Says About Effective
Strategies for ELL Students.” Colorin
Colorado, Colorin Colorado, Jan.
2006,
www.colorincolorado.org/article/w
hat-research-says-about-effective-
strategies-ell-students.

Echevarria, Jana, et al.

Making Content Comprehensible for
English LearnersL The SIOP Model.
Pearson, 2004.

Himmel, Jennifer. “Language

Objectives: The Key to Effective
Content Area Instruction for
English Learners.” Colorin Colorado,
Colorin Colorado, 3 Mar. 2013,
www.colorincolorado.org/article/la
nguage-objectives-key-effective-
content-area-instruction-english-
learners.

Lewis-Moreno, Betsy. “Shared

Responsibility: Achieving Success
with English-Language Learners.”
Phi Delta Kappa International , vol.
88, no. 19, June 2007, pp. 772–775.
Jstor, Language Objectives.

Short, Deborah J., et al. “Developing

Academic Language in English
Language Learners Through
Sheltered Instruction.” Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other
Languages, Inc. (TESOL), vol. 46, no.
2, June 2012, pp. 334–361. Jstor,
Language Objectives.

Created by Irish Farley, 2018