Entry # 9 Graphic Organizer

Entry # 8 Sheltered Lesson

Shelter Instruction Videos

What does the teacher do to promote comprehension? What do the students do to         promote comprehension? List the strategies used in the video.

Previewing

The teacher first gives explicit review of reading strategies the students should use while they are tackling the book. The teacher also stops to help make background connections with the students. An important part in the comprehension strategies is previewing the key vocabulary words. In the video the teacher used pictures, stories, integrating the student’s native language, and asking students to sing the song that was referenced in the story.

The students were engaged in the lesson asking questions as they went along and participating in the vocabulary previewing by providing examples and meanings to the vocabulary words addressed. 

During

Teacher reads aloud slowly and clearly making sure to review vocabulary as it comes up in the story. The teacher also uses the projector so that students have an extra visual to the story being read aloud. Throughout the story the teacher asks questions to probe for understanding and comprehension. The questions also allow students to connect the story to their background knowledge.  When asking questions the teacher uses wait time to allow for thoughtful answers and allows the students to process the information given to them.

After

After the story is read students are asked to come up with ways they can connect the story to their background knowledge and what questions they may have.

Strategies

*Creating content and language objectives

*Connect to background knowledge

*Questioning

*Using pictures, songs, stories

*Using academic language

*Preview key vocabulary

*Provide context to key vocabulary

*Connect to cultural experiences

*Make predictions, group work, relate to students cultural backgrounds, make comparison charts

*Read stories aloud slowly and clearly

*Allow wait time to process information

*Help make connections from text to background knowledge

*Model reading strategies

*Teach students how to write well-written questions

Entry # 7 Word Recognition

I recently had the opportunity to Give The DRA assessment to my literacy class. I am thankfully pleased with the results but I have to admit I was a little surprised by some of the results. I thought I had done enough assessments along the way to know exactly what my ESL student’s struggles and strengths lye. I was excited that reading fluency seemed to come easily for my students however comprehension and meaning were not as strong as I had hoped.

One of my Spanish-speaking students consistently kept switching words around in the sentence but corrected her by using the pictures as clues and attempting to make meaning of what she was reading.

One of my Ethiopian students left words out of the sentences, they did not use picture clues as well as some of the other students, which made it a little tougher to sound out words.

Another one of my Spanish-speaking students read above grade level fluently but comprehension was completely lost.

It is important to note each student has different cultural experiences. The first Spanish-speaking student never went to pre-school and spoke very little English coming into kindergarten. The other Spanish-speaking student mentioned above went to pre-school but a Spanish speaking pre-school.

I believe it is important to be careful we do not intentionally label our students into categories.

My next steps in teaching strategies will be to work on vocabulary building to help with fluency and comprehension skills.

Entry # 6 Learning vs. Acquisition

Learning/Word Recognition vs. Acquisition

The Students:

L- Look up words in the dictionary to write definition

L-Make a Venn diagram to compare to stories

L- Practice sounding out words

A- Read in round robin fashion

A-Correct peers when they make mistakes during reading

A-Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound

AL-Group cards with classmates’ names by a criterion on such as first or last letter

A-Write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound

L-Ask the teacher how to spell any word they don’t know

A-Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher

A-Work in pairs to arrange words with a familiar chant into sentence

L-Divide words into syllables

L-On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the pictures that starts with the same sound

A-Make alphabet books on different topics

The Teacher:

L-pre-teaches vocabulary

A-Does a shared reading with a big book

L-Makes sure students only read books at their level

L- Has students segment words into phonemes

L-Writes words the students dictate for a story and have students help with the spelling of difficult words

A-Asks students to look around the room and find words that start with a certain letter

L- Uses decodable text

A-Set aside time each day for SSR

L-teaches Latin and Greek roots

L-Has students meet in Literacy circles

L-Conducts phonics drills

L-Chooses predicable text

A-Teaches student’s different comprehension strategies

A-Does a picture walk of a new book

L-Uses worksheets to teach different skills

This was really a tough task but made me think about the practice and not just the theory. I am positive that some of my answers would change depending on the context of the activity I would be using in the classroom. As I went to label each of these statements I tried to think about how the student would perceive thee activities. Would they feel like they were learning a language? Would hey feel like they were having fun, and enjoying the moment with their peers? What would be the long-term affect of each of these activities? Would this be a quick learning tool or something that the students would remember long term? As I have said before context is everything and there is probably a time and place that each of these learning strategies would make sense to some students. In my humble opinion it is all about how we use these strategies to differentiate instruction in order for our ELL students to thrive.

Freeman, D., and Y. Freeman. Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach: reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.