The California ELD Standards Companion, Grades 9-12

“This is an era of extraordinary promise and support for addressing the needs of California’s English learners. That’s why this book, The California ELD Standards Companion, is so important. It’s exactly the kind of bridge teachers need between standards and what it looks like in the classroom.” 

—LAURIE OLSEN, Strategic Adviser,

The Sobrato Early Academic  Language (SEAL) Initiative 



California teachers: you’re going to love this! Here at last is that single teaching resource for making the critical link between our ELD Standards and the CCSS ELA Standards. Standard by standard, you’ll quickly discover how to integrate language development into your day-to-day content instruction, armed with an insider’s understanding of how best to support our many English learners.  



Modeled after Jim Burke’s Common Core series, this Grades 9-12 volume of The California ELD Standards Companion is every bit “that version of the standards you wish you had” because it’s just so easy to digest and apply. It’s all here:

• Horizontal and vertical views reveal how each ELD Standard changes and progresses grade by grade and proficiency level by proficiency level. 


• What the Student Does Sections, also scannable by grade and proficiency level, unpack in student-friendly language what meeting a standard looks like in practice. 


• CCSS ELA Standards are displayed side by side with California’s ELD Standards so you can appreciate the purposeful alignment between the two as the basis for remodeling instructional practice.


• What the Teacher Does Sections provide specific instructional guidance by grade band, including student prompts and tips for differentiation across proficiency level.


• A dedicated vocabulary section offers a quick-reference glossary of key words and phrases as they are used within each ELD Standard.


• Each section concludes with a vignette from the California ELA/ELD Framework to illustrate exemplary standards-based instruction.

Thanks to the ELD Standards, we are now free to teach our ELs the way we knew best all along: language and content taught hand in hand across the school day. Lean on Ivannia Soto and Linda Carstens’ California ELD Standards Companion as your one-stop guide for delivering that excellent education our ELs so deeply deserve.