Unlocking High-Quality Materials: Adopting Literacy Materials for Emergent Bilinguals in Texas

Grounded in ELSF’s Materials Must-Haves—Mapping Content and Language Development, Monitoring Content and Language Development, and Making Connections through Student Collaboration and Conversation—this webinar will examine how high-quality literacy materials support knowledge-building, language development, and meaningful engagement with grade-level texts for multilingual learners.

Participants will explore what strong literacy instruction and materials look like in Texas classrooms, how the Materials Must-Haves come to life in literacy curricula, and how leaders and educators can apply a Curriculum Literacy lens to evaluate and implement HQIM effectively. The session will also feature a district perspective on adopting and implementing literacy HQIM, highlighting key lessons learned and the impact on emergent bilingual student learning.

By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify the essential features of high-quality literacy instructional materials that support both content knowledge and language development for emergent bilingual students.
  
• Understand how literacy HQIM promotes rigorous learning by embedding opportunities for reading comprehension, academic language development, writing, and meaningful student discourse.
  
• Apply a Curriculum Literacy lens to evaluate literacy materials for rigor, clarity, access, and alignment to ELSF’s Materials Must-Haves for multilingual learners.
  
• Recognize the district- and classroom-level conditions that support successful literacy HQIM adoption and implementation, including professional learning, collaboration, and monitoring practices.
  
• Connect Texas-specific examples and lessons learned to strengthen their own district’s literacy materials adoption and implementation processes.

Speakers:

• Zamira Torres-Banda, Associate Director Multilingual and Migrant Department, Goose Creek ISD
• Samantha Apponte-Atkins, ELSF, ELA Instructional Specialist
• Dr. Rebecca Blum-Martinez, ELSF, Dual Language National Advisor

Intended Audience:

• District and campus leaders overseeing curriculum and instruction.
• Educators supporting bilingual, ESL, or dual language programs.
• Advocates and partners working to advance educational equity for multilingual learners.

This webinar builds on the English Learners Success Forum’s Unlocking High-Quality Materials series, including:

• Unlocking High-Quality Materials: Transforming Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals Across Texas
• Unlocking High-Quality Materials: Why Materials Matter for Emergent Bilinguals in Texas
  
• Unlocking High-Quality Materials: Adopting Math Materials for Emergent Bilinguals in Texas‍

Together, these sessions have explored why instructional materials matter, how they shape equitable learning opportunities, and what strong adoption and implementation look like in practice. This session takes the next step by focusing specifically on literacy instructional materials and what it means to adopt and implement high-quality literacy HQIM with emergent bilingual students at the center.