Adapted grade-level texts

When to use it

Use adapted texts when an emergent bilingual student can engage with the grade-level concepts but the linguistic load of the original text (sentence complexity, idioms, low-frequency academic vocabulary, dense reference chains) is the barrier rather than the cognitive demand. It is most appropriate across the Pre-Production through Intermediate range and in content areas (science, social studies, math word problems) where students must read to learn rather than learn to read. It is also a useful bridge during the opening weeks of a new unit, for newcomers, and for students with developing English literacy who bring strong first-language schooling. It is less appropriate as a standing arrangement for High Intermediate and Advanced students, who should be moved toward the unmodified text with lighter, on-demand supports. Adapted texts should never replace exposure to authentic, challenging language entirely, and should always be paired with home-language and background-knowledge supports so the adaptation builds on, rather than bypasses, students' existing resources.

How to implement it

1. 1Start from the grade-level text and identify the non-negotiables: the central concepts, key academic vocabulary, and the standard and ELPS objectives. Adapt the language around these, never the concepts themselves.
2. 2Reduce linguistic load without removing content: shorten long sentences, replace low-frequency idioms with plainer wording while keeping target academic terms, make pronoun and reference chains explicit, and add transition words that signal structure.
3. 3Add embedded supports: margin glosses or in-line definitions for key terms, Spanish or Portuguese cognates where they exist, labeled visuals, captions, headings and subheadings, and a graphic organizer that mirrors the text structure.
4. 4Preserve a path back to the original: keep the same paragraph order and key sentences, and provide the unmodified passage alongside the adapted one so students can move between them and you can fade support over time.
5. 5Pair the text with comprehensible-input and translanguaging routines: pre-teach background knowledge, invite home-language discussion and annotation, and use think-alouds so the adaptation supports meaning-making rather than replacing the reading.
6. 6Differentiate by proficiency level using the revised (2026-2027) Texas ELPS Proficiency Level Descriptors, and plan the fade in advance: decide which supports you will remove as the student moves toward High Intermediate and Advanced, and document the criteria for returning to the full text.
7. 7If you use AI text-leveling or rewriting tools to speed adaptation, review every output: verify that the concepts, factual accuracy, and key vocabulary survived the rewrite, and that the result is accurate, asset-based, and culturally appropriate before giving it to students.

Examples

• •In a 7th-grade science unit on cells, the teacher keeps every key term (nucleus, membrane, organelle) and the full diagram but rewrites three dense paragraphs into shorter sentences with a labeled cell diagram and margin definitions, and provides the original textbook page alongside so an Intermediate student can compare the two.
• •For a U.S. history reading on the Constitution, a Beginning-level newcomer receives a chunked version with one idea per line, bolded vocabulary glossed in Spanish, and a timeline graphic organizer, while completing the same analysis task at the same cognitive level as peers.
• •A teacher uses an AI leveling tool to produce a parallel version of a grade-level article, then reviews it to confirm that the main argument, the evidence, and the target vocabulary all survived, and discards changes that flattened the content before giving it to students.
• •In a math class, word problems are adapted by simplifying the narrative wording and adding a small diagram, while the mathematical reasoning and the numbers stay identical to the whole-class problem set.
• •An Advanced student reads the original novel excerpt with only a five-word glossary of idioms attached, having moved off the fully adapted version used earlier in the year, which demonstrates the planned fade of the scaffold.