What’s Different About Teaching Reading to Students Learning English?

1
Whats Different About Teaching Reading to
Students Learning English?

• Presented By
• Bob Alexander, ELA Consultant
• K-12 Curriculum, Instruction, and
• Instructional Technology
• NCDPI

2
By the Numbers

• 2000-2001 school year, 8 of the student
  population identified as English language
  learners (ELL).
• Between 2001-2004 English language proficient
  (ELP) students PreK-12 grew by 46 in grades
  PreK-5, by 64 in grades 6-12.
• In 2004, 34.2 million people were foreign born.
• Less than 75 of eigth grades graduate in five
  years.
• 25 of all high school students read at below
  basic levels.

(Capps et al., 2005) (Joftus,
2002)
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The National Literacy Panel Findings

• the development of oral language skills and
  vocabulary knowledge, and opportunities for
  meaningful learning experiences, are key to
  developing the literacy skills of English
  language learners.
• (August Shanahan, 2007)

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Low Literacy

• low literacy levels also prevent students
  from mastering content in other subjects. The
  problem is exacerbated by the fact that many
  teachers in schools serving large numbers of
  low-performing students are neither trained to
  teach reading nor well qualified in the subject
  they teach.
• 
  (Joftus, 2002)

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Four Primary Principles of Instruction

• Increase comprehension
• Increase student-to-student interaction.
• Increase higher order thinking and use of
  learning strategies.
• Make connections to students background
  knowledge.

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Back to Basics
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So, BobWhat is different?

• Different
• Process
• Ability
• Level and ability
• Strategies

• Same
• Process
• Ability
• Acquisition
• Strategies

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Essential Components of Successful Reading
Programs
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• Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Beginning Reading Skills
• Fluency
• Content Area Reading and Study Skills

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• Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Beginning Reading Skills
• Fluency
• Content Area Reading and Study Skills

• Reading First
• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Reading comprehension

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Using Multiple Methods ofBeginning Reading
Instruction

• There is no one single method or single
  combination of methods.
• Teachers must have a strong knowledge of multiple
  methods for teaching reading.
• Teachers must have knowledge of their students.
• Knowledge balance of methods success

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IRA Position Statement for Second Language
Literacy Instruction
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IRA Position Statement for Second Language
Literacy Instruction

• Reading is a complex system of deriving meaning
  from print.

• The development and maintenance of a motivation
  to read

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Motivation

• Motivation (in reading) can be defined as the
  cluster of personal goals, values, and beliefs
  with regard the topics, processes, and outcomes
  of reading that an individual possesses.
• Guthrie Wigfield
  (2000, p. 404, as cited in Kamil, 2003, p. 7)

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What's in it for me?
Alexander, Bob. Here and Now. 2008
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What Can Teachers Do toMotivate Students to Read?

• Model good reading practices
• Create printrich environments
• Provide a variety of materials for choice

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What Can Teachers Do toMotivate Students to Read?

• Demonstrate incentives that reflect the values
  of reading, including the following
• Satisfy curiosity
• Experience emotional satisfaction
• Learn new information
• Foster creative and active responses through
  multiple modes of response

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What Can Teachers Do toMotivate Students to Read?

• Cash
• Moola
• Denaros
• Coin
• Cabbage
• Guidas
• Scamootz
• Payola

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The Hard and Easy of Learning English

• Hard
• Sounds of the alphabet
• Exceptions to rules
• Homophones
• Figurative language
• Sentence Construction
• Number of words
• Lack of prior knowledge
• Words with multiple meanings

• Easy
• Manipulatives
• Graphic organizers
• Pictures
• Posters
• Concrete objects
• High interest materials
• Gestures and facial expressions
• Choral reading
• Vocabulary
• Readers theater

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Whats Different About Comprehension?

• Some native English speakers may
• Share much of the same knowledge and experiences
  because they have grown up in the United States
  (Hirsch, Jr., 2006).
• Share many of the same values, beliefs, and
  attitudes about school and learning because they
  have attended U.S. schools (Hirsch, Jr., 2006).

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Whats Different About Comprehension?
Some English Language Learners May

• Enjoy pleasure reading in English if the topic is
  one that they would read about in their native
  language. (Krashen, 1982).
• Not have the prior knowledge needed to understand
• written texts because of socioeconomic status,
  educational background, cultural knowledge, or a
  combination of these factors.
• (Kamil, 2003 Peregoy Boyle, 2001)

• Benefit from using their native language to
  discuss a topic before and after reading about it
  in English. (Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998
  Tankersley, 2005)
• Need to learn about a new culture and the ways
  language is used in social and academic contexts.
  
• (TESOL, 1997)

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Factors to Keep in Mind

• Not all languages are alphabetic
• Not all languages share the same syntactic
  characteristics
• Reading modes include the same set of three
  processing dimensions
• Visual
• phonological
• Syntactic

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Factors to Keep in Mind

• What is NOT considered in reading models
• Second Language readers prior knowledge of the
  sound-letter connection in the native language.
• ELLs come from around the globe and bring
  different language experiences with them.
• Teachers need to understand nonnative's reading
  and writing systems in order to teach English

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Fluency and English Language Learners

• English language learners who know how the
  alphabetic principal works in their first
  language can transfer this knowledge to their
  learning to read English.
• (Birch, 2002)

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Fluency and English Language Learners

• Teachers of English language learners should
• Help students recognize that what they know about
  their native language can help them with reading
  English.
• Encourage students to read texts related to their
  native culture.
• Model, along with other students, fluent reading
  of brief text passages.

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Content and English Language Learners
Successful Strategies

• Setting a purpose for reading
• Thinking about what you already know about the
  topic.
• Thinking about what you do not know about the
  topic.
• Concentrating on getting meaning
• Underling important parts

• Asking questions as you read.
• Asking questions about parts you do not
  understand.
• Using other info to figure out what you do not
  understand.
• Taking notes.
• Picturing info in your head.

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Teaching Academic Language

• Academic language is the key to success in the
  grade-level classroom.
• Academic language is not usually learned outside
  the classroom
• Most ELL do not have fluency in academic
  language.
• Academic language provides students with practice
  using English.
• Learning strategies can be taught through
  academic language instruction.

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Assessment and ELL

• The goal of literacy assessment is to
• Help to motivate educators and guide them to
  understand the larger issues in education, frame
  important goals, gather multiple kids of
  evidence, and engage in rich discussions about
  how to help all students become better readers,
  writers, listeners, and speakers.
• (Winograd,
  Flores-Duenas, Arrington, 2003)

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Assessment and ELL

• Whats Different?
• Teachers need to discover which content
  objectives ELL have already achieved.
• Teachers need to use assessment aligned with
  students language proficiency levels.

• 3. recommended Assessments
• Performance assessments
• Portfolio assessments
• Student-self assessments
• Modified traditional assessments

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Testing and ELL

• Most standardized tests assess students English
  language proficiency and NOT their content
  knowledge and skills.
• The cultural content of the test questions may
  not be familiar to students.
• The test format may not be familiar to students.

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Whats Different?

• In a nutshell
• The same techniques and strategies that work w/
  native speakers work with ELLs, BUT
• Teachers must learn to MODIFY instruction.
• Teachers must learn to build in background.
• Teachers must learn to teach vocabulary
• (both in the language and the academic
  language)
• 4. Teachers should plan instruction that allows
  ELL students to interact with each other.

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Whats Different?

• The interaction should be socially, academically,
  and with a text.
• Teachers should still teach the Big 5, but they
  should teach it in a nontraditional order
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Content and academic language.
• (Alexander, B. Interview with Kauffman and
  Smallwood Jan. 30, 2008. Georgetown)

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Recommendations

• Teachers need more exposure to ESL, both prior to
  and during teaching.
• Instruction for teachers in language acquisition
  (both at the university and in local professional
  dev.)
• Consideration of ELL in all content areas in
  teacher ed. Programs.
• Teacher-friendly staff development that is
  ongoing, consistent, and supportive.
• Incorporate ELP standards into other state
  standards and district curriculum.

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Recommendations

• Mainstream teachers should work together and
  communicate beyond subject content (PLCs,
  Critical Friends Groups, etc.).
• Closer and more frequent collaboration between
  ESL and content area teachers.
• Continued financial support for ESL teachers and
  ESL programs.
• Create and cultivate a culture that enforces the
  idea that ALL content teachers are literacy
  teachers.
• (Alexander, B. Interview with Kauffman and
  Smallwood Jan. 30, 2008. Georgetown)