At Bridger we have an inclusive ESL Program Model that provides ESL services to students in their general classroom and integrated with content areas. Research shows that Emergent Bilingual students acquire English faster, make greater academic gains, form stronger relationships with their classmates, and better engage in classroom tasks if they remain in core classes with their peers and are not pulled into a separate class to receive English language instruction.

K-5 Content-Based ELD Push In

Content-Based ELD provides an instructional approach to language instruction that integrates the presentation of topics or tasks from subject matter classes (e.g., science, social studies, LA) within the context of teaching the English language (Collier & Thomas). At Bridger students receive ESL services during their Science, Social Studies and Health content. Instruction is delivered either by the classroom teacher if they have an ESOL endorsement, OR with a co-teaching model that utilizes push in support from one of our ESL specialisists.

6-8 Integrated ELA/ELD

In an integrated ELD classroom, students receive English instruction alongside another subject or content area. At Bridger students in grades 6-8 receive support in a grade-level language arts classroom taught by a teacher who is certified in both English language arts and ESL OR a pair of teachers who teach together to support English language development and language arts learning for all students.