JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

 Philosophy

Every child deserves the opportunity for an equal chance to succeed in life.  The Jefferson Township School District is committed to providing limited English proficient (LEP) students with a thorough and efficient education while remaining sensitive to the unique challenges these students face in social and academic settings.  In addition to learning content area material, they must also at times negotiate confusing social and cultural differences as well as cope with emotional upheaval and feelings of isolation.  We recognize that becoming proficient in English is a process which is accomplished over time and influenced by many factors.  As teachers of ESL, we strive to meet the individual needs of these students through level- and age-appropriate second language and cultural instruction.

In concert with the May, 2004 New Jersey English Language Proficiency Standards, we base the rationale for our ESL program on Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act, which states, “Children who are limited English proficient [must] attain English proficiency, develop high levels of academic attainment in English, and meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet.”

While for ESL students, achievement in English is centered on language acquisition, we must recognize that this process also involves developing the content area abilities necessary for literacy in all academic areas.  Daily lessons will typically involve not only the content particular to ESL study, but also a collaboration with classroom teachers to promote student achievement in the mainstream curriculum.  In order to prepare students to fulfill the mandates of NCLB, we seek to correlate the New Jersey core content areas, especially the Language Arts Literacy standards, and Goal 2 of the TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Standards, which call for use of English to achieve academically in all areas, to the revised English Language Proficiency Standards. 

This curriculum parallels the format of the New Jersey English Language Proficiency Standards, which are organized by grade level clusters.  Organizing our instruction in this manner is appropriate to the typically small and very individualized ESL classes of this district, where a student’s grade level is less a factor in the instructional process than his or her English proficiency level.  Therefore, through the use of this curriculum format, ESL teachers will be better able to meet the needs of their students.