About this event:

Writing Instruction That Accelerates Language & Literacy Growth: Unit Planning with the WIDA Standards, L³IFT Framework, and SFL

Join educators Jennifer Sprenger, Megan Merkel, and CESA 2 Consultant Gretchen Lettau for an immersive, four-part professional learning experience designed to strengthen writing instruction and accelerate students’ academic language and literacy development across content areas.

Grounded in the L³IFT framework, WIDA ELD Standards, and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this series connects research-based approaches with authentic classroom practice. Jenny and Megan will share real examples of collaborative planning, instruction, student tasks, and assessment from their classrooms, while Gretchen will help participants make explicit connections to the WIDA Standards and L³IFT framework and apply those principles to their own instructional contexts.

Whether you are new to L³IFT or looking to deepen your implementation, this series provides practical strategies, authentic classroom examples, collaborative learning, and supported time to design instruction you can use with students.

What You’ll Learn & Do

Sessions 1 & 2: The Teaching & Learning Cycle in Action -- Virtual

See what language-rich, standards-aligned instruction looks like in practice. Jenny and Megan will unpack authentic classroom materials, integrated learning activities, student work, and rubrics developed through collaboration between general education and multilingual learner educators. Gretchen will connect these examples to the WIDA Standards and L³IFT framework, helping participants examine how language expectations, instructional scaffolds, and the Teaching and Learning Cycle work together to support academic writing and language development.

Session 3: Collaborative Planning Workshop -- Virtual or In Person

Move from seeing the approach in action to designing for your own students. Bring curricular resources, grade-level or content standards, and instructional materials and work collaboratively to develop a ready-to-use unit. Participants will receive guidance and feedback as they integrate content and language goals, the WIDA Standards, L³IFT, and SFL-informed practices into their planning.

Session 4: Cross-Content Expansion & Collaborative Roundtable -- Virtual Extend the learning beyond writing and consider how these approaches support language development across reading, math, science, social studies, and other content areas. Participants will share implementation successes and resources, examine challenges that emerged in practice, and collaborate with the facilitators and one another to refine and extend their work.

Who Should Attend

K–12 general education teachers, multilingual/ELL specialists, literacy and instructional coaches, and curriculum specialists. Teams of general education and multilingual learner educators are especially encouraged to attend to strengthen collaborative planning and build cohesive, language-rich instruction across classrooms and content areas.

Schedule:

In-Person

• November 16, 2026: 8:30 am - 2:30 pm

Virtual

• October 5, 2026: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

• November 4, 2026: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

• February 22, 2027: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Price: $325, lunch included on the in-person day

Content Questions: Gretchen Lettau (gretchen.lettau@cesa2.org)

Registration Questions: events@cesa2.org