365 students make up our English as a Second Language (ESL) program. This group includes students from Russia, Mongolia, Korea, Cambodia, Pakistan, Mexico, Vietnam, India, Brazil, and Honduras. We are working hard using as many methods as possible to reach each of these students and to improve their fluency with the English language.
Indiana has adopted Career and College Readiness Standards with which they implement new English Language Standards for EL learners. The emphasis of these standards is to provide English strategies to non-English speaking students, regardless of the subject being taught.
NAFCS provided professional development for teachers of EL learners. One strategy is using “Can-Do Descriptors”. This strategy assists teachers with understanding not only the students’ language proficiency, but also helping them to learn what each student “can-do” in the classroom at that level. Training with cultural and Individual Learning Plans (ILP) have been completed so that teachers can modify class content to improve learning comprehension for all of these students.
An immersion style English camp to h
elp EL students acquire vocabulary quickly before starting school has also been developed. Teachers are taught to look for “gaps” in the children’s education. Extra language immersion through mini camps for students as well as immersion nights for parents were made available. Last year, 99% of our students went up a full language level!
We are especially proud of our team and content area teachers who work with our EL learners!