Weldon City Schools
ESL Program Description
Terry D. Alston, ESL Coordinator
Weldon City Schools has three students enrolled during the 2011-2012 school year. The students are in the following grades:
- Kindergarten
- Third Grade
- Ninth Grade
The district is required to provide educational services to these students to foster success in school and in life. The school system is continually working to improve the knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of teachers and administrators who work with diverse populations to ensure that equitable educational services are provided to all students. The ESL program of Weldon City Schools believes that an effective program is:
- Is geared to meet the unique linguistic, academic, and cultural needs of the students and
- Provides English Language Learners the necessary assistance and instruction to progress academically at a rate similar to their English speaking peers.
Weldon City Schools English as Second Language (ESL) model stresses instruction in English. Native language is used for clarification purposes but not as a means of primary instruction. Due to the small number of students, limited funding, and no English as Second Language teacher, there is no pull-out, Inclusion, or ESL Class period. The district provides Sheltered Instruction. ESL content or sheltered instruction provides access to the curriculum while students are learning English with both language and content objectives. Sheltered Instruction within the content area draws from students’ prior knowledge coupled with multiple strategies for presenting concepts to address different learning styles and educational background. The Sheltered Instruction model that is used is state approved researched based SIOP.
English as Second Language students are students who speak a language other than English as their native language and who may or may not be proficient in English. Such students must have their level of English proficiency assessed prior to being identified as limited English proficient. The identification and placement process consists of three primary steps that are outlined below:
- Home Language Survey - this survey is given to every student upon enrollment in the school system and used in identification. It is both state and federal requirement that all students have a completed Home Language Survey on file.
- Assessment- is conducted to determine limited English proficient identification. The assessment is WIDA – WAPT that is currently mandated by the North Carolina Department of Instruction
- Placement – in accordance with the Office of Civil Rights, studetns are placed in grade levels according to their chronological age (K-8). At the high school level students must accumulate a specific number of hours/credits in order to graduate. Therefore, students without high school records (from their home country) are considered to be ninth graders.