Strategies for Providing Differentiated Reading Activities in Multilevel Adult ESOL Classes

1
Strategies for Providing Differentiated Reading
Activities in Multilevel Adult ESOL Classes

• Robin Lovrien Schwarz, M Sp Ed LD Ph D
• Consultant in Adult ESOL and Learning Difficulties

2
THREE TYPES OF MULTILEVEL CLASSES

• 1. One class, one program
• Must encompass
• All ages
• All levels of
• Education
• English
• Reading
• All needs for English

3
THREE TYPES OF MULTILEVEL CLASSES

• 2. The so-called leveled class
• Students place in by moving up or by testing
  in---supposedly all one level, BUT
• Because of placement criterion-- usually
  speaking-- class will have mixture of
• Education backgrounds/literacy skills
• English skills
• Reading skills

4
THREE TYPES OF MULTILEVEL CLASSES

• 3. ABE classes having ELLs/non-native English
  speakers
• ELLs may place in because they topped out of
  BEST test or other testing
• ELLs always at a terrible disadvantage because of
  the BICS/CALP discrepancy
• (Oral skills far surpass reading skills-- a
  normal language acquisition pattern)

5
ONE TRUTH

• A SINGLE LESSON, NO MATTER HOW WELL DESIGNED, LED
  BY ONE TEACHER IN FRONT OF SUCH A MIXTURE CANNOT
  POSSIBLY MEET THE NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS.

6
WHAT TO DO??

• DIFFERENTIATE
• DIFFERENTIATE
• DIFFFERENTIATE

7
READING NEEDS

• VOCABULARY
• PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
• FLUENCY (VISUAL FLUENCY)
• GRAMMAR

8
Three Approaches to Differentiation

• 1. Divide and conquer-- breaking the class up
  into groups of similar proficiency levels
• 2. Individual learning folders --students work on
  individual learning plans
• 3. Learning centers-students choose among a
  variety of activities to focus on reading skills

9
For ALL approaches

• Shift thinking to
• Multi-level planning instead of single plan
• More student-directed learning, less direct
  teaching from you
• Abandon the viewItll be good for the advanced
  ones to review and the very low ones will pick up
  something. It is justification for not
  differentiating.
• Constantly build in ways for students to
  self-check, work independently of you.

10
For ALL approaches

• Avoid using more proficient students as tutors
• Focus on goal of moving reading skills ahead, not
  just keeping students busy
• Be ready to tweak and adjust as you and students
  learn how to learn differently

11
APPROACH 1 DIVIDE AND
CONQUER

• SUBDIVIDE YOUR CLASS INTO GROUPS OF SIMILAR
  READING ABILITY/LITERACY LEVEL.
• HOW MANY WILL THAT BE?
• AT LEAST LOW, INTERMEDIATE, HIGH (RELATIVE TO
  YOUR GROUP)
• POSSIBLY AN ARCH-BEGINNER GROUP--THOSE WE
  ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST WEBINAR WHO HAVE NO PRIOR
  LITERACY

12
WHAT YOULL NEED TO DO

• THEN, CONSIDER YOUR SPACE, MATERIALS
• How/where can you group students?
• Add surfaces with large sheets of foam board
• Use walls (wall pockets) for some activities
• Separate groups as much as possible
• What materials have you got at your disposal?
  (I.e materials that are already differentiated or
  a variety of things to use, or only one basic
  text book?)

13
Leveled Reading Groups

• Can do more or less the same topic at different
  levels of difficulty
• Good for classes with clear, mandated curriculum
• Reduces the planning
• Should have different skill goals, similar
  content goals understanding the topic/reading
• Each group can have its own routine --good for
  ABE or higher ESL--work on most-needed
• skills-- e.g. extensive reading, vocabulary
  building, learning to read sentences with more
  complex grammar

14
Leveled Reading Groups

• Students within a group can
• Work all together, pairs or alone on a reading or
  activity--maximizes English use, too!
• Self-check if you have made sure they can AND
  they know how and why
• If you have only one student at a level, make
  sure s/he gets to interact with others in games,
  or pair dictations, etc. once in a while.
• You can do direct teaching with each
  group--especially low-skilled learners--because
  others are self-directed.

15
Approach 2 Individual Learning Folders

• Good for small class--up to 10 or 12 at most
• When fully implemented, each student has a
  folder with individualized work.
• You may need to start out with
  some activities that are the
  same for all to introduce the
  idea of finding work in the folder.

16
Learning Folders

• Folders can include
• Work for students to do individually (higher
  level students can be encouraged to find reading
  activities they want to have in their folders)
• Directions for doing something with a pair or
  group play Go Fish to practice long and short
  vowels, work with a partner to complete a strip
  story, do specific exercises on a computer
  reading program

17
Learning Folders

• Folders can be highly responsive to individual
  student needs
• A student who needs to work on job-related
  vocabulary
• Another who expresses a preference for
  doing grammar
• One who is very challenged in decoding and needs
  lots of very basic practice.

18
Learning Folders

• Very low literate students will find folders
  difficult at first.
• Be sure to give lots of guidance
• Include familiar activities and content at first
• Have another student or students demonstrate and
  explain if necessary and possible
• Use time you will have because others are
  usefully engaged to work with these lowest
  students individually and in groups. Help them
  learn activities they can continue on their own.

19
Learning Folders

• Keep up with students needs and desires by
  placing new work in the folders
• Develop a system for correction--have as many
  self-correcting activities as possible
• Keep folders in a handy crate or drawer where
  students can access them

20
Approach 3 Learning Centers

• Centers can be any activity that focuses or
  extends any aspect of reading that students can
  do in pairs or small groups or alone.
• Widely used in K-8, very effective in adult ESL
• Extremely well-suited to truly multilevel class
  (Type 1, where students of all levels must be in
  the same class)
• Another truth specific skills vary in students
  high oral, low literate weak oral, high
  literate, etc.

21
Learning Centers

• Centers allow the broadest range of
  differentiation
• Skill, focus, content, type of learning
• Centers are the most student focused students
  mostly choose for themselves which center and
  content to interact with
• Centers promote a high level of independence in
  learning
• Activities are ALWAYS self-checking so students
  can move at their own pace and intensity.
• Students should choose for themselves which
  centers they will use.

22
Learning Centers

• Differentiating with a center with one skill
  focus and many levels of difficulty Center
  focus RHYMING
• V. Low-- match rhyming pictures
• Low--match easy words that rhyme in
  concentration game
• Intermediate-- Go Fish with Rhyming words that
  are spelled differently
• Advanced---find pairs of oddly spelled rhymes
  comb/home laughed/raft was/does

23
Learning Centers

• Differentiating in a center with one type of
  activity Go Fish
• V. low pictures (photos) of objects (to learn to
  recognize pictures and associate words with
  pictures) pictures that start with same sound
• Intermediate Any topic food Go Fish, Jobs, or
  phonics (e.g. long vowels with different
  spellings)
• Advanced Cause and effect Go Fish advanced
  grammar synonyms or antonyms word families
  (suggest, suggestion, suggestive, suggestible)

24
Learning Centers

• To differentiate levels, color code or indicate
  with a symbol
• ? easy
• ? medium (intermediate)
• ? hard
• Levels will be relative to your group or class
• NOTE!! A student can choose an activity at ANY
  level-- again, more student focused than the
  other two approaches, where choice of level is
  more difficult or less obvious.

25
Learning Centers

• Students MUST be familiar with the activities or
  games (to be able to focus on content or skill
  being targeted)
• Content and level of difficulty can then change
  without distressing students
• Example Bingo (everyone knows it)--
• easy bingo pictures, words, numbers
• intermediate answers to questions two parts of
  verbs
• hard bingo forms of words (hear verb, find noun
  form), or complex grammar (object pronouns),
  inferences in picture
• TEACH each type of activity or game before using
  in center

26
Learning Centers

• Focusing on a topic Reading about a season
  WINTER
• Easy matching words to picturessorting pictures
  by first sound (snow, sled, scarf)
• Intermediate Strip story about winter spelling
  words about winter, putting words into correct
  sentence order
• Hard Reading about winter and answering
  questions Go Fish about Winter (4 sports, 4
  kinds of clothing, 4 kinds of work, 4 ways
  scenery looks different, lots of reading!)

27
Using Learning Centers

• If you use centers
• Be sure to use them most of the time for the
  learning to be effective
• BUT move into them gradually-- students are
  suspicious unless they see they are learning
• Be sure the activities are fully self-checking
• Have enough centers so no more than four students
  are at each one
• Rotate centers to prevent boredom, and keep
  increasing challenges at them
• Help students learn to keep track of reading
  progress

28
Other Advantages of Folders and Centers

• Students have something to do when they arrive--
  no waiting for class to start
• Easy to absorb new students-- centers are easy to
  be part of folders can have generic work to
  start and for you to begin informal evaluation
• Students can work at their own pace-- no waiting
  for you to check.
• YOU can use centers to measure learning-- use the
  activity as a test when the student indicates he
  or she is ready to be tested.

29
For ALL of these Approaches Remember

• To have a group or activities that include ALL
  levels of students in the class
• To introduce the idea of the new class slowly
  and carefully to students
• To help students see the advantages of a
  differentiated class--some will want you
  to run the class as a unit no matter what.

30
Remember

• To include technology whenever you can
• Use computers for
• reading programs as centers for practice and
  learning
• more advanced students to answer questions about
  readings, or to write about readings
• for students to find information about a topic
  they like or need to know about, or to learn
  about using online dictionaries.
• Use tablets if you have them for phonics
  practice, spelling practice (instead of erasable
  boards)
• Use Smart Boards if you can--put lessons on that
  are interactive

31
For best results.

• Use a wide variety of activities and materials
  for students to master reading skills
• Manipulatives realia (games, sorting, wall
  pocket activities)
• Listening (computer, tablets, CD players,
  Ipods/MP3 players)
• Variety of text and activity books,
  materials--raid yard sales, thrift stores, you
  neighbors kids outgrown materials, craft
  stores, the drug store!!

32
A VERY Quick overview of these three approaches

• Differentiation is the goal
• To assure that students are working at the most
  appropriate level on their reading
• To honor those who are at high levels and should
  be able to move more quickly in their learning
• To support those who are at very low levels and
  need lots of time and practice to master skills.
• To allow those with mixed level skills to
  strengthen ALL skills in different ways without
  embarrassment or frustration