ESL Program Overview

 English as a Second Language (ESL) is a course which supports English Language Learners (ELLs) in their process to achieve English language proficiency with daily instruction in the four language domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  A student-centered instructional approach is preferred, in order to best meet the needs of our ELLs who are entering the program at various stages of language acquisition.  A general structure is laid out below:

Pull-out

• Excellent for beginning ELLs for oral language development and to build confidence

• Small group instructional setting

• Slower pace than mainstream classroom

Push-in

• Excellent for intermediate and advanced ELLs

• Grade-level academic support is provided to ELLs in the mainstream classroom

• ESL teachers provide scaffolds and content-area language development

 Structured English Immersion

• Recommended for advanced ELLs

• Inclusion setting of instruction

• Mainstream teacher takes responsibility for language development

• ELLs have access to grade-level content 

The ESL department collaborates with the educators, administrators, parents, and school counselors of the English language learners we share in order to ensure that appropriate supports are provided for the academic success of all students.

As members of the WiDA Consortium, our ELLs are assessed every winter with the WiDA Access for ELLs exam to measure growth of academic language skills over extended periods of time.  In addition, mainstream teachers are encouraged to use WiDA’s CAN DO Descriptors to further inform them of each ELL’s strengths and abilities in the target language.