Unlocking High-Quality Materials: Adopting Literacy Materials for Emergent Bilinguals in Texas #4
What makes literacy instructional materials truly high quality—and why does that matter so much for emergent bilingual students?
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.
Together, these insights will demonstrate how intentional literacy materials and coherent implementation practices can expand opportunity and accelerate learning for every emergent bilingual student in Texas.
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














