Scaffolding for ELLs in Content Classes: A Guide for Math, Science, and Social Studies Teachers

You are a math teacher. Or a science teacher. Or a social studies teacher. You did not train as an ELD specialist, but you have ELL students on your roster — some at beginning proficiency levels — and you are expected to make your content accessible to them. This page gives you the practical tools to do that without a graduate degree in linguistics.

Language Demands vs. Content Demands

A student who understands photosynthesis conceptually but cannot read the word chlorophyll is not failing at science. They are failing at the specific language of science. These are different problems with different solutions.

  • Content demand: Do they understand the concept?
  • Language demand: Can they access, process, and produce the language the concept is wrapped in?

Your job is to reduce the language demand enough that the content demand becomes manageable — without eliminating the language entirely. The goal is access, not avoidance.

Content Language Objectives: What They Are and Why They Matter

A content objective says what students will know: Students will understand the causes of World War I.

A language objective says how they will demonstrate it: Students will explain one cause using the sentence frame "One cause of World War I was ___ because ___."

Writing a language objective forces you to make the language demand explicit — which means you can scaffold it. One language objective per lesson. Keep it simple. Make it visible.

Tiered Vocabulary: The Three Tiers Explained

Tier 1 — Basic words: everyday words most students know. book, walk, hot, big. Beginning ELL students may need these but they are not your priority for content instruction.

Tier 2 — Academic vocabulary: words that appear across disciplines. analyze, compare, significant, demonstrate, evidence, interpret. High-leverage for all students, especially ELLs. Teach these explicitly and repeatedly.

Tier 3 — Content-specific vocabulary: discipline-specific terms. mitosis, photosynthesis, denominator, sovereignty. Continue to teach them — but pair with visuals, gestures, and student-friendly definitions.

Subject-Specific Sentence Frames

Math
  • The problem is asking me to ___.
  • I know that ___, so I can ___.
  • I used ___ to solve this because ___.
  • The answer makes sense because ___.
  • A pattern I notice is ___.
Science
  • The purpose of this experiment was to ___.
  • We changed ___ (independent variable) and measured ___ (dependent variable).
  • The data shows that when ___, then ___.
  • My claim is ___. My evidence is ___. My reasoning is ___.
  • One thing I wonder is ___.
Social Studies / History
  • This primary source shows ___.
  • The author's perspective is ___ because ___.
  • One cause of ___ was ___. One effect was ___.
  • ___ and ___ are similar because ___. They are different because ___.
  • I think ___ was a turning point because ___.

Task Supports That Work in Any Content Class

Word banks: Provide 8–10 key terms for any writing task. Removes the vocabulary retrieval barrier without removing the thinking.

Graphic organizers: Cause-effect charts, T-charts, Venn diagrams, and sequence frames reduce the language demand while preserving the conceptual work.

Sentence stems for discussion: Post 3–4 discussion stems in your room and refer to them every time you ask students to talk.

Sentence-level writing before paragraph-level: Before asking for a paragraph, ask for one sentence. Build up gradually.

Scaffolded note-taking: Provide a partial outline with key terms and blank spaces rather than expecting students to generate their own notes from a lecture.

Co-Planning With Your ELD Specialist

If you have access to an ELD specialist, 15 minutes of co-planning before a unit will pay dividends across the whole unit.

What to bring: your key vocabulary list, your main tasks, and your assessments. What to ask: what language demands should I reduce? What sentence frames fit this content? Are there specific students I should plan for?

You know your content better than anyone. They know language acquisition. Together you can design instruction that serves every student in the room.

How Assist ELD helps

Paste your lesson or upload your worksheet and Assist ELD generates tiered vocabulary, subject-specific sentence frames, and task supports calibrated to ELP 1–2 and 3–4 — in under 60 seconds.

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