INTRODUCTION

 

Welcome to the Manhattan High Schools Bilingual/ESL Network! It is our hope that this website will be a valuable resource for educators in New York State as they endeavor to develop the language arts instructional programs necessary to help English Language Learners (ELLs) meet the challenge of the English Language Arts standards and assessment.

 

The idea for the Bilingual/ESL Network website grew out of the Manhattan High Schools BESARS (Bilingual/ESL Staff Academy for Raising Standards), a program that has been funded by a grant from the State Education Department since 1997. One of its components, the ESL/NLA/ELA Professional Development Academy, brings together school teams of teachers of language arts:  English as a Second Language, Native Language Arts and English, in both General and Special Education. This collaborative model is designed to tap into the background, knowledge, strengths and experiences of each team member to establish ways of helping students acquire the skills -- in English as well as the  native language -- that  they  will need for success on the English Language Arts Regents Examination.

 

As you explore the website, you will find a variety of materials – lessons and mini-lessons, thematic teaching units, original Regents tasks, annotated bibliographies – that were created by participants who have applied what they learned in the BESARS ESL/NLA/ELA Professional Development Academy to their classroom practice.  Feel free to use and adapt them, share them with your colleagues, and provide us with your feedback. 

 

Thanks go to the following people for their contributions:

-Barbara Rothenberg, Language Arts Consultant, who provided invaluable feedback and suggestions

-Bo Wu, English teacher, Murry Bergtraum HS, who worked tirelessly on the design and construction of the website

-Susan Morey, ESL teacher, formerly at Murry Bergtraum HS, who was involved in the initial development of the website

 

We are grateful to W. L. Sawyer, Superintendent, Janice Medina, Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, and Regina Schlossberg, Director of Instruction, who gave their support to this project.

 

The following funds were used in the development of the Manhattan High Schools Bilingual/ESL Network: BESARS, Refugee Children School Impact Grant, and  Emergency Immigrant Educational Program. Fran Lacas has been the Project Coordinator.