English As A New Language
Jennifer Egan, Director of World Languages & English as a New Language
914-630-3384
eganj@harrisoncsd.org
DISTRICT SERVICES OVERVIEW: K-12 ENGLISH AS A NEW LANGUAGE (ENL)
The Harrison Central School District continues to welcome students and their families who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and the richness that they bring to our school community. As we immerse our students in the English language, we assist them in developing a deeper understanding of their own cultures, as well as the diverse cultures in the United States and in the world. ELLs are capable of reaching the highest standards, but they need time and support to acquire the English language. Parental involvement is sought and nurtured to ensure the success of our students.
The work of the English as a New Language (ENL) teacher is to advocate for their students and to work with content area teachers to make content available to ELLs at their current level of proficiency. We believe that through dialogue and a shared understanding of curriculum at all levels with classroom teachers, guidance counselors and administrators, students in our ENL Program are provided with differentiated and carefully scaffolded activities and assessments to help improve and develop English language skills as well as deepening their understanding of the content. Our service delivery for ENL students is highly personalized. Students may receive support in an integrated ENL setting that consists of a co-teach pairing between and an ENL teacher and a content-area teacher in order to make content comprehensible; this approach is beneficial to all students, ELLs and native speakers of English. Students may also receive support in a stand-alone ENL setting, in which ELLs are scheduled for an ENL class for more targeted support.
To measure their growth in the English language, ELLs take The New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test yearly in order to determine their level of proficiency from year to year. Once a student reaches the level of Proficient, he/she is then exited from ESL services, but the district still supports ELLs for an additional two years of transitional services.