Ryan Elementary School provides an English as a Second Language (ESL) Program
for students who speak another language and are not yet proficient in English.
The English Language Development Standards for the State of Colorado, as well as
the Boulder Valley Schools ESL Curriculum are used to guide instruction in the
areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students receive services
until they are performing at grade level with minimum modifications of
instruction from the regular classroom teacher.
At Ryan Elementary, ESL is delivered exclusively in English in small grade level
groups to better meet the needs of individual language needs of each student.
The ESL teacher uses specific techniques to make instruction comprehensible for
students. These techniques include hands-on activities, using visuals, providing
demonstrations and repetition, incorporating song, graphic organizers, gestures,
drama and much more. Instruction addresses specific language skills through the
social studies, science and literacy themes that are being taught in the regular
classroom. In this way, ESL instruction is relevant to and supportive of the
regular classroom instruction.
Currently, there are forty six students participating in the Ryan Elementary ESL
Program. The home languages spoken by our students are Spanish, Hmong, Tibetan,
Cambodian, Indonesian, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese and Punjabi.
