The Must-Haves Every Content Developer Should Know

District leaders have been asking us for clarity: what should they actually be looking for in materials that claim to support multilingual learners? The research is clear on what makes effective instruction for multilingual learners (MLLs). The Math and ELA Must-Haves are built on that research; the same research as our Guidelines. Both are aligned with the research behind why content developers have trusted ELSF’s guidance for years. Districts have also responded strongly.

If you've worked with ELSF before, this probably already feels familiar. If not, here's what we tend to see: most content development teams we partner with are already planning for language development and doing it in good faith. What's usually missing isn't intention. It's timing.

Language support is often planned separately from the content and addressed later, once the lessons and page design are mostly set. MLL support boxes and translations have become the standard response. Both are genuinely useful tools. Translations open a door to access. Support boxes offer a place to scaffold content or language. What neither one does is build language into the foundation of a lesson. That takes planning from the start, not a tool added once the page is already built.

Here's what we hear in nearly every closeout conversation with a content development team: 

“There's a part of me that thinks, ‘Why weren't we doing this [planning for content and language simultaneously] from the beginning?’ What this up-front design process has shown me is that it's even more efficient to do it this way, doing all the thinking up front so it steers everything that goes on the page. It helps me understand exactly what the discussion questions should be and what the whole-class discourse should focus on.”

When language and content are planned separately and language comes in later, the changes that would make the biggest difference are often the hardest ones to make, especially under state submission deadlines, tight staffing, and budget constraints. Planning early means having a clear destination and roadmap, and that's what ELSF's Must-Haves provide.

The Problem with Surface-Level Features

Support boxes and translated texts are the most common go-to fixes for multilingual learner support. They're not wrong to include. But on their own, they don't guarantee that language development is built into instructional materials. When added after the lesson's core content is already locked in, they can feel generic rather than integrated.

What to Actually Build In

Based on the most recent research and nearly 10 years of working directly with content developers across the country, ELSF has identified three non-negotiables: features every ELA and math curriculum must include to truly serve all students, especially multilingual learners. The Math and ELA Must-Haves are both available and are built on the same body of research on effective instruction for MLLs. They are three of the essential product features ELSF has identified that are most often missing or underdeveloped, so they must be intentionally integrated into materials. We are releasing these three Must-Haves first so the field can act on them sooner. 
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Must-Have 1: Mapping Content and Language Development

• Description: An outline, map, or scope and sequence of the language that students need in order to engage with grade-level content, lessons, and activities throughout the program.
• Essential Question: How does disciplinary language develop across the unit, in support of key disciplinary content and skills?
• In Practice: A scope and sequence where language demands and content demands grow together across the unit.

Must-Have 2: Monitoring Content and Language Development‍

• Description: Tools and guidance to support students and teachers in assessing both content and language development together, and using that information to shape next steps for teaching and learning.
• Essential Question: How are teachers equipped to provide actionable feedback to students so both can make teaching/learning decisions to advance language and content development?
• In Practice: Assessments that surface how students are progressing in both language and content.

Must-Have 3: Making Connections Through Student Collaboration and Conversation‍

• Description: Opportunities that engage all students to build on, question, and refine each other's ideas and language.
• Essential Question: What opportunities do students have to communicate with each other in multiple modes (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) to deepen their disciplinary content knowledge while simultaneously developing their disciplinary language?
• In practice: Built-in structures for peer talk throughout each lesson.

These three are only the starting point. What they look like in practice shifts with your product, your grade band, and your team's process. That's usually where the work with us picks up.

Why This Matters for the Curriculum You’re Building

As a content developer, you have real influence over how well multilingual learners are served by what you produce. We are working directly with states and districts to recognize these Must-Haves and prioritize them in their selection process to best serve MLLs, so having them clearly present in your product is about good design and getting ahead of what buyers will be looking for.

If You've Worked With Us Before, You've Already Started This

If you've partnered with ELSF on an ELA or math product, this way of working probably already feels familiar.

As one content developer partner put it, "we didn't realize how much we were retrofitting until we started planning language and content together from day one." Another put it more simply: "once we saw how the Must-Haves fit into our existing process, it wasn't a lot of extra work, it was just doing the work in a different order."

The foundational research and core design principles for MLL-inclusive instructional materials are similar across content areas. But we know that each new product raises the same questions again, in a different content area, with a different team, at a different stage of development. That's exactly where a continued partnership with ELSF earns its keep: helping you apply what you've learned to what comes next.

What Comes Next

The Must-Haves are just the beginning. While there are additional product features that can help you go even deeper for MLLs, the work that counts most right now is getting the Must-Haves into your product.

If you want a partner in making that happen, that's exactly the work ELSF does with content development teams, from early design through review. Reach out anytime to talk through what the Must-Haves could look like in your ELA and math products.

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