Writing books for LESLLA learners

1. Writing books for LESLLA learners August 27, 2010

2. Context Bow Valley College is a community college with: • A Large population of learners with interrupted formal education • A range of ESL Literacy classes • Foundation to Phase III in the Canadian Language Benchmarks document for ESL Literacy learners

3. the perceived need • Limited number of books written for LESLLA learners • Anticipated benefits of reading books for new readers • Books learners can keep = increased opportunities for independent practice

4. the task To write... • Books/stories at 9 different levels • 45 books/stories in total • Focused on settlement themes • Books/stories that learners can read independently. 6 writers and 2 editors worked on the books.

5. developing criteria to write at each level We looked at: • Existing materials • the Canadian Language Benchmarks for literacy • Reading Grade Equivalency • The Northwest Territories Literacy Council’s ‘Write for Your Reader: A Plain Language Handbook’

6. Existing Materials In order to identify characteristics of effective materials, we compared texts’: • Font, text placement • Graphics • Language (eg. vocabulary, sentence stems, repetitive structure)

7. Canadian Language Benchmarks (Literacy) To define what text would look like at each level, we used also used the CLB Literacy document. It outlines: • Font • White space • Words per sentence • Sentences per page • Sentences per story • Grammatical Structure • Phonetics (blends and vowels sounds) • Repetition of Phrases, Sentence Stems and Language

8. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Equivalency (GEs)

9. NWT Literacy Council’s Recommendations for Plain Language Considerations included: • Active vs. passive voice • Overuse of prepositions • Use of white space • Use of jargon and idioms • Definitions of new words in text • Number of ideas in a sentence • Developing a positive tone in text

10. Themes and Key Words • Writers selected: • 15 settlement themes • 3 common keywords per theme Writers suggested additional thematic vocabulary

11. Phase I Initial Story Original version Final Draft Mei Li Makes Soup Mei Li makes soup. She puts cabbage in the soup. She puts an onion in the soup. She puts noodles in the soup. She puts chicken in the soup. She puts chicken broth in the soup. She puts a little oil in the soup. The soup is ready. Mei Li eats the soup. The soup is good. 0.0/100 Mei Li Makes Soup This is Mei Li. This is her mother. Today is a special day. Today is her mother’s birthday. This is special birthday soup. There is some cabbage in the soup. There are some noodles in the soup. There are some eggs in the soup. This is Mei Li’s kitchen. This is her stove. Mei Li makes the soup. Mei Li serves the soup. ‘Happy birthday!’ ‘This is good soup!’ This is good soup for her birthday. 0.3/100

12. we learned… • The importance of sentence stems at lower levels • What makes a story accessible to learners • Interpretation of CLBs varies amongst teachers  perception of what level a story is suitable varies as well • To become aware of how many verb tenses we put in a story • To use idioms selectively • How to format stories into books

13. writers’ feedback We… • enjoyed working collaboratively • would have liked to meet as a group more often • will use what we learned to continue to develop materials for our learners

14. recommendations • Follow-up study on materials effectiveness • Further materials development

15. resources we used • Canadian Language Benchmarks 2000: ESL for Literacy Learners • ‘Write for Your Reader: A Plain Language Handbook’ by the NWT Literacy Council

16. accessing the materials Books will be available online to teachers, free-of-charge in the new year.

17. Writing books for LESLLA learners August 27, 2010