English as a New Language (ENL)

The English as a New Language (ENL) program at the East Ramapo Central School District offers intensive instruction to students whose first language is not English and who have limited English proficiency. Students learn to understand, speak, read and write English via academic subjects in a supportive and non-threatening environment. The program allows our English language learners (ELL) students to learn English and make the necessary academic and social adjustments. The goal of the program in the high schools is to prepare the ELL students to meet the academic challenges of mainstream in English, math, science and social studies, leading to successful completion of the New York State high school diploma requirements.

ENL courses are offered at the Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding and Commanding levels. These multi-level courses are specifically designed to develop English language proficiency skills as they apply to the New York State Bilingual Common Core Language Progressions.

The ENL Student with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) Program

The SIFE Program is designed for ELL students who:

• come from a home where a language other than English is spoken and enter a school system in the United States after grade two;
• upon enrollment, have had two years less schooling than their peers;
• function at least two years below expected grade level in reading and in mathematics; and
• may be preliterate in their first language.

In addition, SIFE students may be offered one additional period of Native Language Arts, which provides them with opportunities to further develop and increase their native language literacy skills through intense practice of the four language modalities (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in their native language. Once mastered, the SIFE students are taught to transfer those skills to English.

The ENL SIFE Program in the High Schools

Our SIFE Program in the high schools integrates the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) in all the ESL classes that the students attend. An ELL student placed in our SIFE program receives six periods of English as a second language that covers the needed literacy skills as well as the content-area subjects (English, mathematics, science, and social studies).

Integrated Courses

Course information can be found under each of the core content areas (English, Math, Science and Social Studies). Integrated courses are offered in all sections with course numbers ending in “IE.”