“I am currently the Special Program Coordinator for Los Alamos School District. Previously I was a primary grade teacher for many years. I was introduced to the Santillana Intensive English Program by a former teaching colleague.

Our district has one school with about 230 students in grades Kdg. through eighth. We have 57% Hispanic and, of those, 38% are classified as Limited English Proficient. Three years ago our faculty received an in-service conducted by a Santillana USA representative and began using the SIE [Santillana Intensive English] program.

Our classroom and Migrant aides use SIE as the primary program for our EL students. For students with no English language skills, the "survival" pages at each grade level are extremely helpful. They give the non-English speaking student the basics needed to survive in a classroom where the student understands little if anything.

As a primary grade classroom teacher, I found aspects of the program useful for all my students. Especially helpful were the workbook pages on which the students picked a word, used that word in a sentence and made a picture to illustrate the word.”

Jan Van Dorn
Los Alamos Public Schools District, New Mexico

“Santillana is a program that has allowed me to teach all levels of ELD in my class using one comprehensive ELD program. Santillana Intensive English has excellent supplemental materials such as the The Activity Book and Vocabulary Development Workbook or "Opening Doors" that give students the opportunity to use their new vocabulary. The Intensive English Lesson Cards give an excellent variety of cross-curricular ideas that are easy to teach. The lessons allow me to adapt to different ELD levels within my class. I have truly enjoyed using the program and especially like its compact size, which allows me to teach without having to flip through many manuals.”

Maria Huerta
Third Grade Teacher
Hapgood Elementary,
Lompoc Unified School District, California

”As a the Director of the ESOL and Bilingual programs in Philadelphia School District I have found the Santillana Intensive English Program very accommodating and flexible to meet the needs of our diverse English language learners. The activities for language development and the different content-based topics are aligned to our State Standards for ESL, literacy and content area instruction.

My ESOL teachers value the variety of ways and resources that they can use to develop English language skills and the cognitive academic language that their students need to achieve standards. The other component that I personally appreciate is the continuous support that Santillana personnel provide to ESOL teachers and ELL Academic Coaches by assisting with professional education and prompt response to their enquiries. The flexibility of the resources included in each kit, the research-based strategies suggested for instruction and the strong standards-based content have made this program very effective for our students and user-friendly for our teachers.”

Ana Sainz de la Peña
Director of ESOL and Bilingual Programs
Office of Language, Culture and the Arts
School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“The teachers in Pasadena Unified School District are very pleased with Santillana Intensive English program for English Language Development. It is both user-friendly for teachers and engaging for students. Teachers like the fact that all their instructional materials are included in one handy box. Not only do the lessons cover both English Language Arts and English Language Development standards, but they also cover Science and Social Studies as well. One lesson covers a lot of material, and the first two units of the box teach “survival words” for newcomers. Santillana Intensive English is a great program all around!”

Joan Morris
Language Development Specialist
Pasadena Unified School District, California

“I enjoyed working with the Santillana series this year for the 5th grade ELL students. The lesson cards are very easy to understand and all the standards are aligned and listed on the cards. The pictures and visuals on the lesson cards and vocabulary cards were very helpful to the ELLs. Each lesson card has beginning, intermediate and advanced activities so it's easy to apply them to the students' levels. Many of the lessons were also a great supplement to their classroom curriculum.”

Dora Tamez
Pershing Elementary School
Berywn, Illinois

“All of our teachers that taught ELD during the past two Summers in Fremont Unified School District loved the Santillana Intensive English kits. They appreciate the visuals and the cards are very teacher friendly. Plus, the lessons are all connected to the California Standards so for a very intensive short amount of time, the kits are a perfect teaching tool!”

Silvia Rojas
ELD Compliance Support Teacher
Fremont Unified School District
Fremont, California

“Santillana’s Intensive English has energized our ELD curriculum. We are so pleased with it that we have made it mandatory for all King students, not only English Language Learners, but also English Only students.”

Dr. Alane Calhoun
Principal
Martin Luther King Elementary School
Compton, California

“My students have certainly benefited from Santillana Intensive English. Last year’s second grade SAT reading scores for ELD students increased by 22 percentage points!”

Lucinda Mok
Third grade teacher
Susan B. Anthony Elementary School
Sacramento County, California

“Santillana Intensive English is a wonderful program to promote oral language development. The visuals are beautiful; all vocabulary is taught in context. You teach content-area material as you teach a second language –FCAT readiness early on! SIE definitely enhances my ESOL program. My students love it!

Gloria Negron
Leisure City Elementary, K-8 Center
Dade County, Florida

“Teacher’s in LAUSD use SIE [Santillana Intensive English] because it is easy-to-use, it is written to the California Language Arts Standards, and ELL learn social and academic language that they can bridge to OCR”

Joanne Cluxton,
Title 1 Coordinator
Los Angeles Unified School District, California

“Santillana Intensive English is an excellent tool for developing both oral and written language in an ESL setting. It’s lesson design allows for several opportunities to teach the information in an active, non-threatening environment which fosters success for the student and teacher.”

Lori Simone
ESL teacher
Carrolton, Texas

“Yes, I love Santillana. I have used Santillana as a tool for intervention. The students liked it, and they were successful doing the spiral activity book. Sometimes there was a game; other times skills for the board. I liked the variety of activities. It is extremely easy to use.”

Maribeth Petro
Julius Corsini Elementary School
Desert Hot Springs, California