The School Program Addressing Non-attendance (SPAN) is an alternative program in Morton, Illinois, East High School addressing the needs of students removed from their regular classes for excessive absenteeism. Materials and activities used in the SPAN English program are both highly motivating and general enough to benefit students when they reenter the freshman or sophomore English sequence. To avoid repetition, literature is selected from works seldom read in the regular classroom. As there is little time to explore topics in depth, SPAN English emphasizes grammar, helps students identify and imitate five basic sentence patterns, and develops a basic vocabulary for discussing sentence construction. The program also requires that students write four or five multiple paragraph compositions during the 10-week term using the modes of persuasion, definition, or process. Reading activities involve developing strategies for reading textbooks and literature. In general, the program's important features are (1) limiting educational objectives to a manageable number, (2) stating the objectives clearly in language students can understand, (3) maintaining consistency with the regular English program, (4) coordinating reading and writing activities, and (5) providing students with frequent and positive feedback. (HOD)