Schools offer new English acquisition program

This school district has changed the way they teach English to immigrant kids and it seems to be working.   - - Donna Poisl

by Jennifer Smith

A shift in how Littleton Public Schools teaches kids who are learning English is going smoothly, say administrators.

Rather than pulling students out of regular classrooms to focus on language acquisition, LPS is piloting co-teaching at two of its schools. Under that model at Field Elementary and Goddard Middle School, a second teacher comes into a classroom to work on English acquisition.

“With our old pull-out model, students were spending lots of time in transition,” said Andrea Scott, an English-language acquisition teacher at Field. “They were leaving during tier-one instruction, not finishing the tasks in the classroom and then coming back into the classroom as lost little lambs, trying to catch up with what they missed. Now instruction feels more seamless. Students are a part of the magic that happens in the classroom.”
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