The ESL program at Fifth Avenue International Elementary is comprised of a very diverse student population. Serving grades K-6, our students come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and share in the commonality that all speak a different language at home. Although the large majority of our 74 students are Hispanic, several cultural backgrounds are represented, including students of Somali, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Italian, Kenyan, Dominican, and Vietnamese origin. Other students also represent Burundi, the Congo, Bangladesh, Jordan, Guinea, and Pakistan. As an internationally focused school, we embrace and are blessed to have such a unique representation of the global community in our classroom.

The primary objective of our ESL program is to equip students with an adequate understanding of the English language and to empower them to effectively communicate in English with their peers, their teachers, and in the real world. We strive to enable our students in making the necessary progress to reach their potential, adequately articulate their thoughts in the English language, and to become responsible, productive, and successful members of the community. As many of our students have complex obstacles to overcome to reach these goals, we are enthusiastic about the use of alternative methods of instruction in the classroom, including the use of technology, to allow us to best meet the needs of the students and enhance learning. 

There are a number of great English-learning, educational websites and computer programs that we expose our students to as much as possible. Many of our students are visual/auditory learners and these websites provide the necessary means for students to learn new concepts without becoming overwhelmed by an excess of new terms in English. For whole group lessons, we also like to incorporate the use of an LCD projector, especially when explaining how to navigate certain websites on the Internet.

In December 2010, the ESL program worked together to create a short Music Video to assist new learners in better comprehending the shapes of the letters of the alphabet and to improve letter writing. This Music Video, to the music of Dr. Jean’s Feldman’s “Letter Aerobics” features still shots of all of our ESL students holding hand-made letters. Tall letters are held above the head, short letters at one’s waist, and letters with a tail are held near the ground. The Music Video is comprised of the traditional ABC song sung through three times. During the first run-through, the letters are shown against a dotted background to increase student awareness of tall letters, short letters, and letters with a tail and to provide a definite visual of the height and placement of English letters. The second and third times highlights the students holding their letters, which were assigned according to the first letter of their first name, as much as possible.

Accompanied with the “Letter Aerobics” dance, the Music Video provides a fun, engaging way for students to learn their ABCs. They love to see themselves as part of a musical production, and the inclusion of all of our ESL students in the video has created unity within the entire program. The Music Video, geared toward our young learners and students at a very basic level of English acquisition, is also used by the Kindergarten classes at Fifth Avenue as well.