• Welcome to the ENL Teacher Page!
     
    The best help a teacher of English Language Learners (ELLs) can provide for his or her students is to create a culturally-responsive and safe environment in the classroom. English Language Learners often struggle to navigate the classroom environment because not only are they trying to learn a new language and vocabulary to understand their academic subjects, they also are trying to navigate a new culture (often accompanied with new food, climate, clothes, cultural norms, etc.), learn social language to make friends, attain background knowledge in cultural references (pop culture, history, etc.), as well as understand basic idioms and phrases or slang.
      
     
    This webpage is designed to help teachers and other educators understand ENL as a program, and also to provide resources to help teachers understand how to teach ELLs. 
     
    First, your student will be given a language level, either after the NYSESLAT exam (New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test), which is given in April and May every year, or after the NYSITELL test (New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners), which is administered the first ten days of school by the ESOL teacher when a student is newly registered in a New York State school.
     
    The different language levels are:
     
    Entering
    Emerging
    Transitioning
    Expanding
    Commanding
     
    When a student reaches the Commanding level on the NYSESLAT exam, he or she will no longer be considered an ELL and will receive two more years of ENL services and support before he or she exits the program. 
     
    The following are links to understand your students' ENL needs for the ENL program. The Units of Study are based on the student's language level (which is either assigned to them after taking the NYSESLAT exam, or assigned to them based on their scoring on the NYSITELL, administered by the ESOL teacher) and provide information for how much minimum time they are required to receive ENL services during the school day. 
     
     
     
     
     
    This link provides information on common ENL terms for the units of study (what is the NYSESLAT?, what is "co-teaching" in the ENL context?, what are the meanings of the different language levels?, etc.)
     
    This document is provided to explain the different screening processes in the ENL program, the identification process for determining if a student is an ELL, placement of that student once he or she is determined to be an ELL, and review and exit criteria for these students to exit the ENL program.