The Center: Early Childhood Professional Learning (ECPL) leverages its partnerships with local and national providers to bring you FREE high quality, relevant professional learning focused on preschool English learners (ELs). As part of ECPL's and ISBE's partnership with WIDA Early Years, you have free access to WIDA Early Years eLearning resources which include self-paced, on demand courses and downloadable resources. That's right - free online professional learning resources at your fingertips! ISBE and/or Gateways credit is available.
Live Webinars
11/16/22 - Understanding How Young Children Learn Multiple Languages
02/22/23 - Supporting Young ELs' Social Emotional Development in Culturally Appropriate Ways
03/15/23 - Unleash Their Play by Tapping Into Children's Home Cultures
Live Online Administrator Academy
01/26/23 - Cultural & Linguistic Diversity in Early Childhood Education
On Demand Courses from WIDA Early Years
WIDA Early Years eLearning is intended for ECE professionals, including pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators, practitioners, coaches, trainers, and leaders/administrators. One hour of ISBE and/or Gateways credit is available upon completion of each course.
Ready to start an On Demand Course from WIDA EY eLearning?
- Go to https://go.wisc.edu/2ik3k9
- Follow the directions to create a WIDA Secure Portal account.
- You will receive a confirmation email to finalize setup of your WIDA Secure Portal account. Follow the directions in the email and click the link provided to confirm your account and setup a password.
- After you are logged in to the WIDA Secure Portal, select "Professional Learning" from the main menu.
- Learn more about the available courses by selecting "Course Details", and click Enroll Now" to enter the course!
- Dual Language Learners and their Families
- Dual Language Learners with Disabilities
- Making Connections
- Scaffolding Language Learning
- Promising Practices
- Are We Ready? What K-12 Educators Can Do to Support Young Multilingual Children
Recorded Webinars
5/18/2022 - Frequently Asked Questions about Serving English Learners in Preschool Programs
Recording is now available in the WIDA Secure Portal for Early Years account holders. Follow the steps above if you need to create an account. If you log in and click on "Webinars", you can scroll to find it, or you can apply the Early Years filter to search for it.
4/19/2022 - Promising Practices Implementation Kit Roll-out
Downloadable Resources
Making Connections, is a comprehensive resource that offers suggestions, tools, and sample plans for teachers who use the Illinois Early Learning and Developmental Standards and WIDA Early Years resources to plan equitable learning opportunities to young multilingual children.
Multilingual Children and Their Families - Snapshot
Promoting Equity for Young Multilingual Children and Their Families
WIDA Early Years Guiding Principles of Language Development
We gratefully acknowledge our partnership with ISBE that brings these resources to the early care and education (ECE) community across Illinois.
Questions? Issues with content on this page? Contact ec@cntrmail.org