EL Program Overview 

 

The English Language (EL) program serves students who:

• have a primary language other than English or they are new to the country,

• have a home language that has had a significant impact on their English language development, and score Beginning or progressing on the ELPA Screener or, 

• have been receiving ESL services while attending another district.

 

The EL program provides techniques, methodologies and specialized curricula designed to teach students English language skills, including: listening, speaking, reading, writing, study skills, content vocabulary and cultural orientation.  Instruction is mostly in English with limited use of native languages.  Our goal is for students to reach English language proficiency, as demonstrated by a score of Proficient on the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA).  

 

Elementary Program

 

ELL K-5 students attend regularly scheduled English Language Development (ELD) classes taught be an ESOL endorsed teacher.  Lessons in these classes are designed to teach English language development, literacy, and content area vocabulary.

In addition, all K-5 ELL students will participate in general classes throughout the day.  Students are assigned to grade-level cluster teachers who have additional training, experience and/or are ESOL endorsed to serve this population.  Our sheltered instruction (SI) is an approach for teaching content to ELL students in strategic ways that make subject matter concepts comprehensible while promoting a student’s English language development.

 

Secondary Program

 

Our programs at the middle and high schools focus on students attending ELD classes as a part of their regular schedule.  Lessons in these classes are designed to teach English language development (ELD), literacy, and content area vocabulary.

 

For their general classes throughout the day, ELL students are placed into classroom with teachers who have had or will participate in a professional development program that emphasizes best practices in sheltered instruction techniques, through SIOP and/or GLAD strategies.  ELL staff also work directly with subject teachers to provide effective strategies to address each student’s needs in language acquisition.