Building Background

1
Building Background

• What Makes Reading Hard for ELLs?
• Tapping into Prior Knowledge

2
Objectives

• Content Objectives
• We will develop an understanding of what makes
  reading hard for ELLs and be able to debrief our
  understandings.
• We will explore ways to tap into prior
  knowledge.
• Language Objectives
• We will view and discuss a video.
• We will read and jigsaw an article.

3
Agenda

• I. Sensitivity exercise
• II. Video (first part)
• III. Debrief with a partner
• IV. Video (second part)
• V. Debrief at your table
• VI. Handouts and a storybook
• Break

4
Agenda continuedTapping into Prior Knowledge

• Showcase for dual language literacy
• Jigsaw an article
• Debrief
• A storybook closure

5
Building Background

• Concepts explicitly linked to students
  background experiences.
• Links explicitly made between past learning and
  new concepts.
• Key vocabulary emphasized (e.g., introduced,
  written, repeated, and highlighted for students
  to see).

6
Four Principles of Instruction

• Increase comprehension.
• Increase student-to-student interaction.
• Increase higher order thinking and the use of
  learning strategies.
• Make connections to students background
  knowledge.
• Whats Different About Teaching Reading to
  Students Learning English? Delta Publishing Co.,
  2007.

7
Lets Look at Some Words

• Sound out the phonemes with me.
• Pronounce the words.
• Does this help?
• Lets draw the pictures.
• These are English cognates.

8
What Makes Reading Hard?

• View Part I of the video.
• Debrief with a partner.
• Read and predict.
• View Part II of the video
• Discuss at your table what surprised you or what
  you took from this part of the video.

9
The Old Woman and the Eagleby Idries Shah

• Listen to a story from Afghanistan.
• Discuss the meaning of the story.
• Mark your glove for retell and share the story
  with a partner.

10
Take a Break 15 minutes
11
Showcase for Dual Language Literacy

• View examples of what has been done.
• Dual Language Literacy Examples
• Jigsaw the article.
• Number off 1-4
• Read your assigned part.
• Group yourselves by the same number and discuss
  what are the main points.
• Come back into a group with 1, 2, 3, 4.
• Each expert shares their part.

12
What is currently being done?

• Discuss at your table what things are being done
  or have been done at Tyson to tap into prior
  knowledge and dual language?
• What do you see as a new possibility, or even a
  previous idea that is no longer being tried as
  something to utilize for tapping into background
  knowledge?

13
The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal
by Idries Shah

• Someone at the table (the one with the longest
  hair) reads the story.
• The person with the most buttons will use the
  glove to tell the story.
• Be sure to share the heart of the story.
• Read Clever Boy Online
• Online Multilingual Library

14
Good Evening

• Dont forget to sign the attendance sheet!
• Thank you for your excellent participation and
  for all of the hard work you do for children at
  William Tyson.