Relating language objectives to Bloom’s taxonomy: how to talk to your mainstream colleagues about language objectives

Abstract

In response to No Child Left Behind (2001) pressures on schools to show that ELLs are making academic progress, many school districts are embracing sheltered instruction. Among other best practices, sheltered instruction requires that mainstream instruction include language objectives that support the content curriculum. Increasingly, ESL teachers are put in the role of coaching their colleagues on how to write language objectives that are linked to content. This article shows ESL professionals how to use Bloom’s taxonomy, familiar to most teachers, to help them open the door to collaborative discussion about academic language function and language objectives.