Integrated Curriculum Projects
Integrated Curriculum Projects are extended, multidisciplinary investigations in which emergent bilingual (EB) students apply academic content (such as science, mathematics, social studies, or the arts) and language at the same time to build a meaningful product that answers a driving question. Rather than treating content and language as separate subjects, the strategy fuses them, so a single project carries paired content objectives and language objectives across listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Grounded in project-based learning frameworks and in content and language integration, projects move students through inquiry, research, collaboration, drafting, revision, and a public product or presentation. Because the work is anchored in real-world, purposeful tasks, students use language for authentic communication, a condition that research links to second language development.
How it’s typically applied
- 1Define paired goals. Write content objectives tied to the grade-level TEKS for each discipline involved, and write companion language objectives across listening, speaking, reading, and writing tied to the relevant ELPS, so language and content advance together rather than competing.
- 2Craft an authentic driving question and a real product, for example a bilingual community resource, a science exhibit, a data story, or a documentary, so students use academic language for a genuine purpose and audience.
- 3Front-load background knowledge and academic vocabulary. Build shared experience, activate students' prior knowledge and cultural funds of knowledge, and pre-teach the key terms and language structures the project will require.
- 4Plan the project arc into visible phases (launch and inquiry, research and investigation, collaboration and drafting, revision with feedback, and the public product), and make each phase explicit to students with a planning graphic or project diary so they can track their own learning.
- 5Scaffold the language at each phase with sentence frames, word banks, graphic organizers, models or exemplars, visuals, and structured collaborative roles, and deliberately invite students' home languages as a resource for researching and making meaning.
- 6Build in structured interaction and opportunities for extended output, such as cooperative-learning structures, peer review, and rehearsal of presentations, so students produce, stretch, and refine academic language rather than only receiving it.
- 7Assess content and language separately and transparently using rubrics for both, and use formative checkpoints (drafts, conferences, exit tickets) so feedback shapes the work before the final product.
Why it works for emergent bilingual students
Integrated Curriculum Projects support emergent bilinguals because they create conditions that second language acquisition research associates with language development: abundant comprehensible, content-rich input together with repeated opportunities for meaningful output and collaborative dialogue (Krashen, 1982; Swain, 1985; Echevarria et al., 2017). The strategy is asset-based by design. It treats students' full linguistic repertoire, including their home language, as a resource for thinking, researching, and producing, consistent with translanguaging pedagogy and with Cummins's common underlying proficiency, in which academic concepts and literacy skills can transfer across a bilingual's languages (García & Kleifgen, 2018; Cummins, 1981). Because content and language objectives are paired in a single authentic task, students are never asked to wait for "enough English" before doing rigorous grade-level work. Instead, they engage cognitively demanding content while their academic language grows through it (Beckett & Slater, 2005). One mixed-methods study of middle-school students in robotics project-based learning found that emergent bilingual learners gained about 20 percentage points in academic content and about 29 points in language development, with effect sizes larger than those of their non-EB peers (Hardy, 2016). This approach aligns with the refreshed Texas ELPS for 2026-2027, which require schools to implement the standards as an integral part of every subject and frame language development as a responsibility shared across all content areas (Texas Education Agency, 2024).
Adapting it across proficiency levels
Pre-Production
At Pre-Production, give students a clearly defined, hands-on role in the project so they can contribute meaningfully through doing while their receptive language builds. Pair them with supportive peers, accept nonverbal and one-word responses, and use heavy visual support (photos, realia, gestures, labeled diagrams). Provide bilingual labels, picture word banks, and welcome the home language for note-taking and thinking. Comprehension and action-based participation, not production, are the goal at this entry stage (Asher, 1969; Krashen, 1982).
Beginning
At Beginning, students participate with short phrases and high-frequency project vocabulary. Provide sentence starters, cloze frames, picture-supported research texts, and word banks so they can label, sort, sequence, and caption parts of the product. Invite home-language brainstorming followed by simple English summaries as a translanguaging bridge, and let them present a small, scripted portion of the group's work with a partner (García & Kleifgen, 2018).
Intermediate
At Intermediate, students take on a fuller share of research and production using expanded but still scaffolded language. Provide paragraph frames, transition-word banks, structured peer-review protocols, and models of the target genre so they can write multi-sentence explanations and contribute to group discussion. Encourage extended output through assigned discussion roles and rehearsed presentations, prompting them to clarify and elaborate their ideas (Swain, 1985; Echevarria et al., 2017).
High Intermediate / Advanced
At High Intermediate and Advanced, students lead inquiry, synthesize multiple sources, and produce and present extended academic and technical language with light scaffolding such as checklists, exemplars, and targeted feedback on academic register. Position them to mentor peers, manage parts of the project, and craft the public product, while you continue to grow content-specific academic vocabulary and disciplinary writing conventions toward full grade-level academic proficiency (Cummins, 1981; Larmer et al., 2015).
In the classroom
A fifth-grade teacher launches a four-week project with the driving question, "How can we help our neighbors prepare for extreme weather?" Students integrate science (weather systems and data), mathematics (reading and graphing temperature and rainfall data), and writing to build a bilingual, illustrated preparedness guide for families in the school community. The teacher posts paired objectives each day, for example a content objective ("I can interpret a temperature graph to identify a trend") and a language objective ("I can explain a data trend orally using because and as a result"). Pre-Production and Beginning students label weather diagrams, sort hazard pictures, and build the bilingual glossary; Intermediate students write the safety-tip paragraphs using a frame; and High Intermediate and Advanced students synthesize the sections, lead the team, and narrate the final presentation to families. Throughout, students research in Spanish and English and use a project diary to track both their content and their language growth.
Research basis
Comprehensible, content-rich, and meaningful input is a central condition for second language acquisition, and integrated projects supply it in abundance.
Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Pergamon Press. [link]
Learners also need opportunities to produce extended, comprehensible output and engage in collaborative dialogue, which a project's authentic tasks and presentations provide.
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235-253). Newbury House.
Academic concepts and literacy skills are part of a common underlying proficiency that can transfer across a bilingual's languages, which supports using the home language as a resource in content projects.
Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In California State Department of Education (Ed.), Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 3-49). Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University.
Emergent bilinguals' full linguistic repertoire, including the home language, is an asset, and translanguaging pedagogy leverages it to build content understanding and English proficiency.
García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A. (2018). Educating emergent bilinguals: Policies, programs, and practices for English learners (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Effective instruction for English learners pairs explicit content objectives with language objectives and integrates the two within a single lesson, the structural backbone of integrated projects.
Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model (5th ed.). Pearson.
The project framework makes explicit how language, content, and thinking skills work together in academic project work, helping language learners see and engage the integration.
Beckett, G. H., & Slater, T. (2005). The project framework: A tool for language, content, and skills integration. ELT Journal, 59(2), 108-116. https://doi.org/10.1093/eltj/cci024 [link]
Gold Standard project-based learning centers a driving question, an authentic public product, sustained inquiry, student voice and choice, and revision, which together define the design of rigorous integrated projects.
Larmer, J., Mergendoller, J., & Boss, S. (2015). Setting the standard for project based learning: A proven approach to rigorous classroom instruction. ASCD.
In a mixed-methods study of middle-school students in robotics project-based learning, emergent bilingual learners gained about 20 percentage points in academic content and about 29 points in language development, with effect sizes larger than those of non-EB peers.
Hardy, M. (2016). The effects of project-based learning on the academic and linguistic achievement of emergent bilingual learners: A mixed methods approach [Master's thesis, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley]. ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. [link]
The refreshed Texas English Language Proficiency Standards for 2026-2027 use five proficiency levels (Pre-Production, Beginning, Intermediate, High Intermediate, and Advanced) and require schools to implement the standards as an integral part of every subject, making language development a responsibility shared across all content areas.
Texas Education Agency. (2024). English language proficiency standards (ELPS) update: 2026-2027. https://www.txel.org/elps [link]
Comprehension-based, action-oriented support such as total physical response lets newcomers participate and build receptive language before they are expected to produce, which informs roles for Pre-Production students in projects.
Asher, J. J. (1969). The total physical response approach to second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 53(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.2307/322091 [link]
Sources reviewed by an independent second-language-acquisition specialist and an adversarial citation audit.
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