The English As a Second Language(ESL) Program

Mr. Mario Godoy

Introduction:

The ESL/Bilingual Program at Royal High School is designed to provide ELL; English Language Learners focused English language development acrodd curriculum while concurrently increasing the number of classes in the regular mainstream curriculum they can take.

A typical ELLstudent requires anywhere from 4 to 6 years to acquire academic English proficiney in order to be able to compete academically with the native English peers. To be proficient in a second language means to effectively communicate or understand thoughts or ideas throughthe language's grammatical system and its vocabulary, using its sounds or written symbols. Language proficiency is composed of oral(listening and speaking) and written (reading and writing) components as well as academic and non-academic language (Hargett,1998).

To meet the academic needs of incoming ELL students, the ESL/ Bilingual Program at Royal High School ahs been divided into six classes: World History and Geography, English I, English II, Physcial Science, Biology and Math. Students may spend up to four periods in the ESL classroom. All the courses offered in the ESL/Bilingual classroom have been aligned to the Washington State Learning Goals and its Essential Academic Learing Requirements (EALRs) as well as the Washington State English Language Development(ELD) Content Standards.

Students are placed in the ESL/Bilingual Program based on their scores in the WLPT(Washington Language Proficiency Test) that will rank them on a proficiency level: Beginning (I); Advanced Beginning (II); Intermediate(III); Advanced (IV); and Trasitional (V). Teachers' classroom assesments and counselor's advice may also serve as guidance for placement in the program.

The Program has been divided into six classes: World History, English I, English II, General Science, Biology, and Math. You may spend up to four periods in my classroom.

The General Classroom Rules are:
1. Come to school every day on time
2. Come to school prepared
3. Respect self and others
4. Respect school property
5. Obey schoolrules
6. Do assigned homework on time and neatly
7. Seek help BEFORE faling behind
8. Use as much English as possible

All the classes in ELL/Bilingual Program have been aligned with the Washington State Learning Goals:
1. Read with comprehension, write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsible in a variety of ways and settings.
2. Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics; social physical, and life sciences; civics and history; geography; arts; and health and fitness.
3. Think analytically, logically and creatively, and integrate experience and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems.
4. Understand the importance of work and how preformance, effort, and decisions directly affect career and educational opportunities.

The Washington State Migrant and Biligual Education Program also recommends the following standards for ELL Students:

LISTENING, READING, WRITING, AND COMMUNICATION:
1. To listen and observe to gain understanding.
2. To check for understanding.
3. To communicate effectively in social settings.
4. To communicate in academic settings.
5. To communicate in socially and culturally appropriate ways.
6. To use appropriate skills to make sense of written text.
7. To connect writing to reading, listening, observing, and speaking.
8. To integrate listening, speaking, reading, and writing across the curriculum.

World History and Geography:

The curriculum for this one-year is designed to help ELL students acquire an understanding of world history from prehistory to the Renaissance period. It provides students with a series of reading comprehension, note taking, vocabluary, timelines, graphic organizers, and group discussion activites to enable students realize that their world is directly connected to cultures from distant times and remotes places.

English I:

This course is an adaptation of the mainstream English 9 class. It uses the same textbook, but with an emphasis on its Adapted Reader curriculum to help students improve their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students read as many selections as in the English 9 class and receive extra support with the understanding of the reading throught summaries in Spanish, graphic organizers, and the recorded version of the selections by professional actors. Students have the opportunity to use the online support offered by the textbook publisher to boost their technology and English skills.

English II:

This course is an adaptation of the maninstream English 10 class. It used the same textbook as the mainstream class, but with an emphasis on its Adapted Reader curriculum. English II focuses on enhacing students' competency in listening, speaking, reading comprehension, and writing. Reading includes a selection of classic and contemporary American Literature in both written and recorded forms. Writing units comprise the six traits of writing and detailed rubrics to guide students through the basic steps into the creation of descriptive, expository, persuasive, and narrative essays.

Physical Science:

The major goal for this one-year is to enable students to study the physical and chemical laws under which man exists. Through classroom and hands- on experiences and experiments, students acquire the ability to observe and interpret scientific phenomena. Techniques and skills, which the students develope, are expanded through a study of enviromental qualitied. The second semester of this course is an introducation to scientific research and topics to be covered in a life science class.

Biology:

A one- year course desgined to assist ELL students who are experiencing difficulty with a traditional biology textbook. The course integrates academic vocabulary and definitions, content-specific concepts, and learning strategies with hands-on activities that will help ELL students purse higher-level content- area schoolwork. Topics covered are : Botany, Genetics, Biotechnology, Human Anatomy, Human Ecology, Human Physiology,and Zoology.
This course pormotes scientific thinking through problem solving, a process that encourages curiosity and careful inquiry. Each chapter begins by introducing basic concepts and reviews them wherever they apper in other chapters throughout the book. This approach helps ELL students understand these concepts more easily, and uses clearly written headings, subheadings, outlines, and illustrations to highlight important ideas.

Math:

This course has been developes to strengthen students' basic skills in math so they can succeed in the pre-algebra class. It offers students the possibility of working with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, mesurements, formulas, equations, ratios, proportions, and probelm-solving at their own pace.

Mario Godoy-Gonzalez
ESL/Bilingual Teacher

Royal High School