1 / 49

Promoting Literacy

Promoting Literacy in Elementary Classes When Students Don’t Speak English Allison Cummings Deborah Sams Sevier County Schools ELAP Program. Promoting Literacy. in Elementary Classes. When Students Don’t Speak English. Allison Cummings Kindergarten ELAP Teacher. Deborah Sams

shyla
Download Presentation

Promoting Literacy

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Promoting Literacyin Elementary Classes When Students Don’t Speak EnglishAllison CummingsDeborah SamsSevier County Schools ELAP Program

  2. Promoting Literacy in Elementary Classes When Students Don’t Speak English Allison Cummings Kindergarten ELAP Teacher Deborah Sams ESL Teacher Sevier County Schools

  3. Anticipation Guide • Part One: Exploring Theory • Part Two: Strategies and Practices • Part Three: A Make and Take Session!

  4. Objectives • Gain an awareness of second language acquisition • Empathize with English Language Learners (ELLs) • Make instructional decisions with ELLs in mind • Discover new ways to promote literacy in elementary classrooms

  5. The Menu Activity • Take your menu. • Select 6 things on the menu. • Write your order. • Send one person from your table to ‘pick up’ the orders. • Enjoy!

  6. The Menu ActivityDiscussion Questions • How did you feel during this activity? • What strategies would have improved comprehension? • What did you learn?

  7. A Few Myths of Second Language Acquisition Answer the following statements as True or False 1. Middle and high school students learn second languages more quickly and easily than primary students. 2. Second language learners will acquire academic English faster if they speak English at home. 3. Once students can speak English, they are ready to undertake the academic tasks of the mainstream classroom. 4. Student should be strongly encouraged to speak English from the first day of class.

  8. Krashen, 1985 The Silent Period

  9. Stevick, 1977; Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Krashen, 1985. Occurs when the learner is… Unmotivated Lacking in self confidence Anxious On the defensive Fearful that their weakness will be revealed When there is a possibility of failure The Affective Filter

  10. Building Background Knowledge • Don’t just rely on definitions • Use words aloud frequently • Use visual representations (pictures, mental pictures, act it out, etc.) • Require multiple exposures to the words • Students should discuss words, use words, and play with the words Marzano, 2005

  11. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (social language) Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (academic language) Cummins, J. ,1991 BICS and CALP

  12. BICS • Social situations • Day-to-day language • Used on the playground, in the lunch room, on the school bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone • Context embedded • Not very cognitively demanding • The language required is not specialized • Develops within six months to two years Cummins,1991

  13. CALP • Academic learning • Listening, speaking, reading, and writing about content • Essential for success in school • ELLs need time and support • About 5-7 years, but with no prior schooling 7-10 years • It includes skills such as comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating, and inferring • Information is read in a textbook or presented by the teacher • Academic language tasks are context reduced • Cognitively demanding Cummins,1991

  14. Dumfrase Needed The bogo also recognizes the need to invest more in cucio themselves, 40 percent of which now lack basic sumwalz. Ligachev said cicio for 28 million monus will be frazequack by the year 2006, and that capital expenditures in blocka will increase drastically. 8 unknown words About 80% known words. Source: Gickling E.,& Thompson,V. (1992) Curriculum based assessment: A naturalistic guide to reading and mathematics instruction. Workshop presented at the Council for Exceptional Children, Baltimore.

  15. A Common Teaching Sequence • Read the text • Answer the questions • Discuss the material • Do the applications/expansions Sometimes we should teach the text backwards

  16. Principles Which Help ELLs Succeed in School • Increase comprehensibility • Increase interaction • Increase thinking skills

  17. Check vocabulary before lessons for … • Key terms • Words with multiple meanings • Cognates • Advanced vocabulary • Idioms and figurative language • Complex grammar structures Adapted from Calderon, August, Slavin, Duran, Madden, &Cheunget, 2005 By Arguelles 2008

  18. Instructional Routine • Introduce • Write and say the word/ have students repeat it • Explain • Use a ‘student friendly’ explanation • Show picture/demonstrate • Provide sample sentences • Engage students in activities/elaboration • Monitor understanding • Revisit words over time From Arguelles 2008

  19. Less effective strategies “ Does anyone know what ____means?” Look it up in the dictionary. Then, copy it into a sentence. Copying words several times each. Activities that don’t capture deep processing (crosswords, word search, fill in the blanks, etc)) Rote memorization. Teaching words in isolation. Passive reading. Adapted from Arguelles 2008

  20. Add… A copy of notes Examples Word banks Audio books A dictionary Assign a buddy Visuals Allow extra time Limit… Limit the number of questions Limit the length of response Limit reading requirement Accommodations and Modifications

  21. Differentiating Instruction for English Language Learners • View ELLs as a resource; draw on personal experience • Use concrete objects/visuals to reinforce verbal content (hands-on demonstration) • Focus on a limited number of vocabulary words and concepts in each lesson • Limit the amount of information an ELL student needs to learn

  22. Use graphic organizers • Teach reading strategies • Use both oral & written modalities frequently • Use cooperative learning techniques • Substitute alternativetext(s) • Substitute alternativeassignments

  23. Test students in concrete terms • Allow brief answers instead of full sentences • Modify assessment tools as necessary • Allow use of a bilingual dictionary OR English/English dictionary

  24. Ideas for Adapting Texts(especially for higher elementary grades and beyond) • Give language chunks to use in writing • Brainstorm vocabulary and themes (in small groups, if possible) • Use graphic organizers to gather facts (use in sentences when possible) • Show ELLs good writing models for their grade level • For editing, choose one skill to work on and pair them with a partner Haynes, 2007

  25. Adapting Text (cont.) • Teacher written summary of content (the ESL summary) • Give vocabulary words with simple definitions • Students can make vocabulary flash cards and study them • Students can find words in the ESL summary, highlight them, then write a sentence with each word • Make vocabulary matching activities with word banks for student practice Haynes, 2007

  26. Summarizing Text for ELLs • Use controlled vocabulary • Simplify sentence structure • Define vocabulary words in context (when possible) • Identify and highlight main ideas • Use cloze activities (paragraphs with ‘fill in the blank’ format) Haynes, 2007

  27. Recipe for Structured and Predictable Lessons 1. Chapter summary 2. Vocabulary page 3. Vocabulary matching 4. Cloze activities Haynes, 2007

  28. Part Two Reading Strategies Best Practices and Good Ideas

  29. Read! Read! Read! Books + Access to libraries + Allowing student choice in books + Providing time to read books ________________________________ = Keys to developing literacy • Krashen, 1985, 2001, 2004, 2007

  30. Reading Strategies

  31. Phonics

  32. Decoding and Word Building

  33. Sentence Building

  34. Read Aloud and Interactive Storybook Readings • engage children with books • help students explore language and literacy • help develop ideas of text ‘words’ and ‘letters’ • important for ELLS who may have little experience with storybooks • develop appreciation of text • share the joy of reading • motivate children to learn to read themselves. Holdaway, 1979; Martinez et al., 1989;Snow and Tabors, 1993 In Snow, C., Burns, M.& Griffin, P. (1998)

  35. Big Books • are large enough to share with a large group or entire class • perfect to read with ‘finger wands’ • can help teach directionality of print • help students become familiar with text and repetitive features • make it easier to compare words in text • allow student to hunt for letters, sounds, sight words, rhyming words, etc. Snow, C., Burns, M. S., and Griffin, P. (Eds.), (1998).

  36. Predictable and Repetitive Books • allow students to predict a story • teach students to use pictures to support reading • offer a perfect way for students to practice handling books Martinez et al., 1989

  37. Vocabulary

  38. Model academic language • I know/ believe/find • I agree/disagree • I expect/learn/think • It seems that... • How do you say…? • How do you write…? • Where can I find…? Girard, 2003

  39. How well do you know these words? pedantic erudite book From Arguelles 2008

  40. More ideas to support reading instruction… • books on tape • dramatic play/puppet theater • computer-based reading, writing, and storybook activities • board games • children's magazines • individual and group projects Snow, C., Burns, M. S., and Griffin, P., 1998

  41. Make it comprehensible! Krashen, 1985

  42. Graphic Organizers

  43. Use graphic organizers and thinking maps Newcomers Bears can swim. Bears have fur. Intermediate Bears have claws and teeth to help them eat nuts. Advanced Berries and nuts supply bears with food so they can hibernate all winter. 8 From Arguelles 2008

  44. Games

  45. Sentence Scramble Gameexpand vocabulary and content by card games Plants use sunlight, water, and air for photosynthesis. air for photosynthesis and Plants sunlight, use water,

  46. Discussion Question and Answer Session

  47. Make and take!

  48. Deborah Sams ESL Teacher Sevier County Schools Sevierville, Tennessee Deborahsams@sevier.org Doctoral Student IUP Comp/TESOL program Indiana University of Pennsylvania Allison Cummings Kindergarten / ELAP (English Language Acquisition Program) Sevier County Schools Sevierville, Tennessee AllisonCummings@sevier.org Enjoy teaching your English language learners!

  49. References Cummins, J. (1991) Language Development and Academic Learning. Haynes, J. (2007). Getting Started with English Language Learners: How Educators Can Meet the Challenge. ASCD. Holdaway, Don. 1979.The foundations of literacy. New Hampshire: Heineman. 232 pages. 0868960144. Krashen, S.D. & Terrell, T.D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe. Krashen, Stephen. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. New York: Longman Press. Krashen, S. 2001. Do teenagers like to read? Yes! Reading Today 18(5): 16 Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Westport, CONN: Libraries Unlimited and Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Krashen, S. 2007. Literacy Network News, Spring, 2007, page 7 (Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles) http://www.sdkrashen.com/ Snow, C., Burns, M. S., and Griffin, P. (Eds.), (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

More Related