English as a Second Language (ESL) at NNPS
Our Vision and Mission
Every student deserves the opportunity to learn and excel. The NNPS ESL Department is committed to nurturing confident English Learners by understanding their starting point, respecting their cultural background, and providing comprehensive support for their linguistic, social, academic, and cultural development—setting them up for success both in school and beyond.
Instructional Goals
Our ESL curriculum is organized around the following goals that guide instruction and assessment for our students to become proficient readers, skilled writers, and effective communicators.
- Narrate, representing experiences through stories and histories to instruct, entertain, teach, or support point of view.
- Inform, communicating factual information on a topic as they define, describe, compare, contrast, organize, categorize, or classify concepts.
- Explain, giving an account of how or why things work.
- Argue, justifying one's claims using evidence and reasoning, advancing or defending an idea or solution, changing the audience's point of view, bringing about action, or accepting a position or evaluation.
- Reflect, describing the role language plays in one's own life and growth toward social and academic linguistic proficiency.
Our K-12 Instructional Approach
Students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are at the heart of our mission in the ESL Department. We actively work to elevate their academic language skills and success, utilizing the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework. Through collaborative efforts across subjects, we provide students with effective instruction, valuable resources, and a range of diverse learning opportunities.
In our curriculum, students take the center stage. We emphasize both interpretive skills (listening, reading, viewing) and expressive skills (speaking, writing, representing), integrated into the content of core subjects. Students are empowered to engage and excel in their learning journey.
Students, at various proficiency levels, will not only develop their language skills but also expand their knowledge across subjects through meaningful, high-quality, and challenging instruction. The ultimate goal is to reach fluency and successfully exit the ESL program.
WIDA. (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition: Kindergarten–grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
