This brief is part of a series that highlights key features of high-quality instruction for English learners and the role formative assessment plays in their success. Formative assessment supports teachers to enact these features by providing them with tools to gauge and react to student learning in real-time. These practices also support students to assess their own learning which enhances their sense of agency. Overall, the series illustrates how instructional methods and assessment practices work together to improve English learner outcomes. This brief addresses the following two features: (1) quality instruction for English learners supports them to engage in structured opportunities for collaborative discussion in which they develop ideas and make meaning with peers, and (2) quality instruction for English learners nurtures a learning culture in which all students (ELs and non-ELs) participate together to support each other's learning.