New Jersey Department of Education

1
Literacy Success for English Language Learners in
Middle Schools

• New Jersey Department of Education
• Dr. Gilda Del Risco
• Kean University of New Jersey
• November 18, 2004

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Many English Language Learners

• Come from countries where they have received less
  than age appropriate education.
• Some are illiterate in their native language.
• Some have never attended school.
• School has been interrupted by war or political
  reasons.
  

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Sheltered Instruction

• The term sheltered indicates that such
  instruction provides refuge from the linguistic
  demands of mainstream instruction, which is
  beyond the comprehension of English-language
  learners. (Echevarria Graves 1998).

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Meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target
language through the use of demonstration and
visuals.

• Make your instructional talk more understandable
  by speaking clearly.
• Repeat key points
• Define essential vocabulary in context
• Pair your talk with nonverbal communication cues
• objects, pictures, graphs, and
• gestures.

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Verbal and nonverbal communication

• When we pair these two communication channels,
  words and meanings become discernible to the
  learner.

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Strategies

• Try to make the information relevant to their
  lives - Learning occurs best when connections are
  made to existing knowledge.
• Make the students a part of the situation.
• Acknowledge their input Positive feedback is a
  powerful influence on the brains chemistry. It
  is essential for the development of a good
  self-concept (Sylwester 1997).

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Comprehensible Input

• Language that is used in ways that make it
  understandable to the learner even though second
  language proficiency is still limited.
• use visuals, realia, manipulatives, and other
  concrete materials.
• use gestures, facial expressions, and body
  language.
• repeat, rephrase, and/or paraphrase key concepts,
  directions, etc.
• build on what students already know.
• be careful of idioms and slang.

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READING IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

• Creating a literacy-rich classroom environment.
• Books, books, books
• Daily routines
• -morning message
• -wall dictionary
• Reading aloud to students
• Word Families

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Classroom strategies for
beginning readers

• Thematic Approach
• Literature Circles
• Language-experience approach
• Patterned books
• Illustrating stories and poems
• Direct Listening-Thinking Activity (DL-TA)
• Readers theater
• Story map
• (NJCCS 3.1)

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Classroom strategies for intermediate readers

• Cognitive mapping
• Literature Circles
• Direct Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA)
  (Fluency)
• Literature response journals
• Developing scripts for readers theater.
  (Fluency)
• Adapting Stories into plays and scripts for film
  and videotape)
• Literacy Centers
• (NJCCCS 3.1)
  
  

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Literature Circles

• Students are assigned one role for each
  discussion period.
• The groups stay together for one novel.
• Major roles for each discussion team include
  Questioner, Passage Master, Word Wizard and
  Artful Artist.
• Roles can change depending on the book and the
  level of the students
• Students take different roles for different
  discussion days.
• All the students take different roles for
  different discussion days (all learn to look for
  vocabulary, all learn to develop questions and
  serve as Discussion Director, etc.)
• (Daniels, 1996 Daniels
  and Bizar, 1999) (NJCCCS 3.2)

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StrategiesReflecting on Text

• SAY SOMETHING and SAVE THE LAST WORD FOR ME To
  help middle grades students make personal
  connections to the texts they are reading.
• Goal of the activity To establish clearly the
  need for personal engagement and commitment when
  reading.
• SAY SOMETHING
• - Students read in pairs
• - When they have read a section of the text,
  they turn to each other and say something about
  what they read. They may summarize what they
  think is most important, they may connect with a
  character or raise a question for their partner.

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Pantomime

• Mimicking without words
• Helps students deepen their involvement with the
  text
• A way for students to respond as they read
• Students stand up at intervals and transform the
  story being read by the group into a physical
  image.
• Class first reads a section of the story, then
  each small group meets and creates its own
  pantomime of that section.
• Share one at a time with the whole class.
• At the end, the teacher asks each group to create
  a prediction for what will happen in the next
  part of the story which can be pantomime by the
  groups again.
• As a way of retaining vocabulary Ask the
  students to pantomime vocabulary words.
• (Blachowicz Ogle, 2001)

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Readers Theater

• This form of oral reading that deepens
  students understanding of characters emotions
  and personalities and helps them to communicate
  to an audience.
• Text is turned into dialogue and divided into
  parts for different readers.
• Some parts should be reserved for the narrator.
• (Middle-grade students can create their own
  Readers Theater scripts).
• Prompts can be used hats scarves, etc.
• Students sit on chairs or stools as they read
  their parts
• (Blachowicz Ogle, 2001)

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Choral Reading

• We have found that for students who speak
  dialects of English or who are second-language
  English speakers, participating in both choral
  reading and Readers Theater helps build their
  familiarity with standard English pronunciation
  and makes learning this school dialect more
  enjoyable. Even attention to aspect of grammar
  comes more naturally through these activities.
• Works well across grade levels.
• The group reads a text together.
• Reserve some parts for individual voices and
  small groups.
• All students practice rereading the text
  individually before they determine where special
  inflections should be places.
• (Blachowicz Ogle, 2001)

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Choral Reading

• Recommended Poems
• Harriet and the Promised Land by Lawrence, 1968.
• Paul Gleischmans collections of poems about
  insects and birds Joyful Noises Poems for Two
  voices, 1988. I Am Phoenix, 1985.
• I Saw an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.
• (Blachowicz Ogle, 2001)

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Developing Word Awareness

• Teachers need to structure classrooms that
  develop Word-aware learners. motivation is an
  essential prerequisite for all learning.
• Word of the day
• Posterboard Word Wizard Walls students enter
  new words. Heighten students receptivity for
  learning new words incidentally.
• The more playful vocabulary activities can be,
  the more learning is likely to take place.
• (Blachowicz Ogle, 2001)

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Thematic approach

• Choose a theme Incorporate multiple curriculum
  areas.
• Allows all learning experiences to be
  interrelated and more meaningful to the students.
• It can incorporate higher-level thinking skill,
  open-ended activities, cooperative learning,
  writing , research, and individualized learning.

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Thematic approach

• Example - Rainforest
• Language Arts/Social Studies/Technology/Art
• Science/Art/Language Art
• Art/Science
• Social Studies/Technology/Language Arts-Webquest
• Mathematics/Technology
• Health

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Writing in a Second Language

• Strategies to assist beginning writers
• Oral discussion
• Partner stories using pictures and wordless books
• Personal journals
• Dialogue journals
• Buddy journals
• Free writing (NJCCCS 3.2)

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Strategies to assist intermediate writers

• Show and not tell - Provides descriptive details
  about what the writer wants to convey.
• Sentence combining
• Sentence shortening
• Sentence models
• Process Writing
• -Prewriting
• -Drafting
• -Revising
• -Editing
• -Publishing (NJCCCS 3.2)

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KWL

• Recognizing what they have learned by making a
  graphic organizer.
• Select categories and list facts under those
  categories (rethinking what they have learn ed)
• Write an essay) additional opportunities to
  consolidate learning)

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Phonics Instruction for English Language Learners

• The purpose of phonic instruction is to help
  students recognize words independently, not to
  have them state rules.
• Principles
• - Provide ample time for students to read and
  write for meaningful purposes, allowing. students
  to develop their own understanding of
  sound/symbol correspondences.
• - Teach phonics within a meaningful context.
  Enjoy the story or poem for meaning first, then
  teach the skill.
• - Remember that phonics and other word
  recognition strategies are a means to an end
  comprehension.
• (NJCCCS 3.1)
  (Peregoy and Boyle, 2000)

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Recognizing Words Independently

• Poems and song lyrics written in large format on
  chart paper
• (to teach sight words, to develop word
  recognition and phonics knowledge).
• Predictable books with repetitive patterns and
  phrases to teach or reinforce sound/symbol
  correspondences, including consonants, vowels,
  and letter sequences found in rhyming words.
• Ask the students to write their own stories
  following the pattern in predictable books that
  they have heard several times. This will provide
  a chance for the students to put their phonics
  and sight word knowledge into meaningful
  practice.
• Older students who are new to literacy Same
  strategies. Short texts with age-appropriate
  content. Fortunately by Remy Charlip.
• Song lyrics and poems Good sources of
  predictable texts. (NJCCCS 3.1)

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First Language

• During the initial years of exposure to English,
  continuing cognitive and academic development in
  first language is considered to be a key variable
  for academic success in second language.
• (Garcia 1994 Tinajero Ada, 1993. In
  Collier, 1995)
• Later on, apply the techniques used to teach
  English as a second language.

Quiero leer y escribir en mi idioma
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Initial Strategies to Teach English
Comprehension to English language Learners

• Pre-reading Strategies
  
• Background Knowledge
• 
  Necessary to
• 
  construct
• 
  meaning from text.
  
• Development of key vocabulary
• Background Knowledge Teacher builds upon the
  language, culture and experiential background
  that students bring to the classroom and relate
  knowledge to new information provided in the
  text.
• (NJCCCS 3.1)

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• Students may experience difficulties due to lack
  of prior knowledge on the particular topic to be
  read.
• Background knowledge can often be accomplished
  through a sharing of the groups knowledge.
• It may be recorded in a graphic format.

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Guided Reading Strategies

• Use questions before and during the reading to
  help the students to get meaning from the
  reading.
• Hypothesizing or predicting questions. What do
  you think this story is about? What do you think
  will happen next?
• Data acquisition questions
• Summary questions
• Reading aloud Teacher model predicting,
  inferring, and connecting mew text to prior
  knowledge.
• (NJCCC 3.1)

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Post-Reading Strategies

• Retelling a story after reading
• - Offers a means for reinforcing and
• supporting comprehension.
• - Provides a means for integrating writing
  into
• the program. It can be done in
  cooperative
• learning groups, paired writing, or
  individually.
• Building on the knowledge gained through the
  prereading activities.
• More reading
  (NJCCCS 3.1)

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Language Experience Approach

• - discussion bases on the content of
  the text
• - review vocabulary found in the
  reading
• - students summarize the reading or
  story
• for the teacher, who acts as a
  scribe and
• writes sentences on the board or
  chart
• paper.
• (NJCCCS 3.1, 3.2)

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ERRORS

• Teacher should take into consideration
• The students English language developmental
  level.
• The prevalence of the error type
• The importance of the error type for
  communication.
• Teachers specific goals for the students in
  terms of English language development
• Should be corrected in a non-threatening way.
• Repeat correctly what the student has said
  incorrectly.

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Assessment

• Portfolio Assessment
• Multiple Measures for Assessment
• - Do not assess only through written tests.
• If you do not assess the English language
• learners in many different ways, you will
• not find out what they really know.
• Observations
• - Anecdotal records
• - Check lists
• - Concrete materials. Opportunities to
• demonstrate that they understood the
• information.

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References

• Blachowicz C. and Ogle, D. (2001). Reading
  Comprehension. New York The Guilford Press
• Daniels, H. (1996). Literature Circles Voice and
  choice in the student-centered classroom. York,
  ME
• Stenhouse.
• Daniels, H. Bizar, M. (1999). Methods that
  matter Six structures for best practice
  classrooms. York, ME Stenhouse.
• Echevarria, J. and Graves, Anne. (1998).
  Sheltered Content Instruction Teaching
  English-Language Learners with Diverse Abilities.
  Boston Allyn and Bacon.
• Friedlander, M. (1991). The Newcomer Program
  Helping Immigrant Students Succeed in U. S.
  Schools.
• http//www.ncela.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/pigs/pigs.htm
• Carrasquillo A. and Rodriguez V. (2002). Language
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• Coolier, V. (1995). Promoting academic success
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• Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind The Theory of
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• Krashen, S., and Terrell, T. (1983). The Natural
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• Peregoy, S. F. and Boyle, O. F. (2000). Reading,
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• Rothman, B. Practical phonics strategies to build
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• Sternberg, R. J. (1994). Allowing for Thinking
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• Sylwester, R. (1997). The Neurobiology of
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• Tomlinson, C. A. The Differentiated Classroom
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• Willis, S. and Mann, L. (2000). Differentiating
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• Weinberger, S. (1992). Teaching Gifted Kids in
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