The Academic Language Plan is based on these principles:

Opportunities for Learning:

• Instruction provides ELLs with opportunities to engage in discipline-specific practices to build conceptual understanding, analytical practices, and language competence simultaneously 
• Standards-aligned instruction for ELLS is rigorous, grade-level appropriate, and provides deliberate and appropriate scaffolds 

Asset Orientation

• Instruction leverages Ells' home language(s), cultural assets, and prior knowledge
• Instruction moves ELLs forward by taking into account their English proficiency level(s) and prior schooling experiences

Developing Autonomy

• Instruction fosters ELLs' autonomy by equipping  them  with strategies necessary to comprehend and use language in a variety of academic settings
• Formative assessment practices, and language development simultaneously