Topics for the month of July 2011

Teaching English, How To….
The July 1 topic is at the bottom of the list; the topic for July 29 is at the top of the list.

Story Grammar and ESL Students

Comprehension and ESL Students

Reading, Writing and ESL Students

ESL and Academic Language

Reading Materials for ESL Students

Summary of Working with ESL Students

Assessing ESL Students' Reading

Writing and ESL Students: The Writing Process

Writing and ESL Students

When ESL Students Read Aloud

Teaching Learning Strategies to ESL Students

Reading Aloud to ESL Students

Teachers and ESL Students: Activate Prior Knowldeg...

Teachers and ESL Students: Cognates

ESL: Reading and Comprehension

Language Experience for ESL Students

ESL Communication Activities

ESL Techniques in the Past and Present

Academic Language Skills and ESL Students

Goal of ESL Programs

Topics for Teaching English How To, June 2011.

Learning to Read as a Native Speaker of English vs...

Story Grammar and ESL Students

Question: How help ESL students comprehend stories?

Answer: A Story Grammar Sheet

“This Story is about ______________________________________________________________.
In the story the characters are _________________________________________________________. The main problem is that _____________________________________________________________, and it ends when _______________________________________________________________.”

Title: “Comprehending through Reading and Writing: Six Research-Based Instructional Strategies.” N Farnan, J Flood and D Lapp. Pp. 135-137. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994, 108-131.

Comprehension and ESL Students

Question: Can comprehension be taught?

Answer: “Flood and Lapp (1991) reviewed studies from the 1980s and concluded that ‘one has to be careful to add comprehension of what, by whom, under what conditions, and for what purposes?’ ”

Comment: In preparing any reading lesson, the teacher needs to be cognizant of these questions about what is to be read. I don’t know about my readers, but those questions make me think carefully about any reading assignment I am about to make. RayS.

Title: “Comprehending through Reading and Writing: Six Research-Based Instructional Strategies.” N Farnan, J Flood and D Lapp. Pp. 135-137. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994, 108-131.

Reading, Writing and ESL Students

Question: Why should reading and writing be taught together in working with ESL students?

Answer/Quote: “Most experts agree that although not identical, reading and writing are similar…and mutually supportive…language processes.”

Quote: “In her informative and thorough review of research on reading and writing relationships, Stotsky (1983) concluded that (1) good writers tend to be better readers than are less able writers, (2) good writers tend to read more frequently and widely and to produce more syntactically complex writings, (3) writing itself does not tend to influence reading comprehension, but when writing is taught for the purpose of enhancing reading, there are significant gains in comprehension and retention of information , and (4) reading experiences have as great an effect on writing as direct instruction in grammar and mechanics.”

Comment: My own experiences bear out the effects of reading on writing. In the early 1970s, I conducted a workshop for fifth- and sixth-grade teachers on establishing a writing curriculum for grades 5 and 6. In the course of the workshop, we invited six people for whom writing was an important part of their professions. They included children’s books authors, newspaper writers, and a lawyer. Five of the six writers said that they had never learned to write in school, but they never remembered being without a book as they passed through the grades. I think it’s pretty clear, both from the research and from my personal experiences, that reading influences writing—for native-English speakers and ESL students. RayS.

Title: “Comprehending through Reading and Writing: Six Research-Based Instructional Strategies.” N Farnan, J Flood and D Lapp. Pp. 135-137. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994, 108-131.

ESL and Academic Language

Question: What type of text is a special problem for ESL students?

Answer/Quote: “Unfortunately, the academic language and expository texts characteristic of content areas often act as barriers to the success of ESL students. In order to ensure that ESL students have equal access and keep pace with their native-English-speaking classmates in the mastery of content concepts, teachers must be able to implement instructional strategies that facilitate their ESL students’ understanding of academic language and their comprehension of expository text.” P. 133.

Comment: As I have said before, I’m learning ESL instruction right along with my readers. I’ve noted that two of the essential techniques—language experience and the directed reading assignment—are also appropriate for native speakers of English. We should see in the next couple of chapters whether the same will be true for helping ESL students to become familiar with academic language. RayS.

Title: “Selecting Materials for the Reading Instruction of ESL Children,” VG Allen in Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994, 108-131.

Reading Materials for ESL Students

Question: What are some criteria for selecting materials to be used by ESL students?

Answer:
. Language Experience. Use language experience as one method for reading lessons. Students individually or in groups dictate information or stories that are recorded by the teacher on chart paper o blackboard, etc., and the children then re-read aloud and silently what was recorded.

. Real-world print materials. Signs, advertising, etc.

. Basal readers in the past have been largely narrative. Content texts are usually expository and organized differently from narrative. Use the directed reading assignment for both types of material. (Find out what the students already know about the topic and/or build background by discussion, pictures, etc. Read the title, sub-title, first paragraph, first sentence of each intermediate paragraph, last paragraph. What have they learned? Raise questions that they want to answer. They read the text to answer their questions. Discuss. And apply the information in some way.)

. Children’s literature and trade books. Use books whose illustrations support and extend meaning.

. Read aloud, with discussion.

. Provide books dealing with the children’s native culture.

Title: “Selecting Materials for the Reading Instruction of ESL Children,” VG Allen in Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994, 108-131.

Summary of Working with ESL Students

Question: What have we learned about working with ESL (English as a Second Language) students from this article?

Answer:
Don’t assume that ESL students are dumb because they are not familiar with the English language.

Native speakers of English are able to relate the printed word to their oral (listening and speaking) language. ESL students may pronounce the words, but they might not be able to relate the words to their oral language.

Communication Skills and Academic Skills: Recognize that fluency in oral communication skills is not the same thing as the academic skills needed in the classroom.

Cognates: Relate cognates in the native language and in English.

Language Experience: Use language experience. Students dictate information; recorded by teacher on chart paper, blackboard, etc. ; students read back what was recorded.

Directed Reading Assignment: Use the directed reading assignment. Check on students’ prior knowledge of the topic; build up prior knowledge of unfamiliar topics with pictures, etc.; pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary; survey the chapter; read and discuss the title, sub-titles, the first paragraph, the first sentence of each paragraph, the last paragraph, raise questions to answer from the reading selection, read, discuss, apply the information.

Reading Aloud by Teacher: Read a variety of materials aloud to the students.

Learning Strategies: Teach learning strategies directly.

Oral Reading: Don’t focus on pronunciation when students are reading aloud; note the mistakes and deal with them later. Focus on comprehension.

Daily Writing. Corrected 10-minute essays. 10-minues a day. Write on topic of their choice. Teacher corrects at night. Students re-write corrected 10-minute essay. Students do not write complete essay in ten minutes. Stop in mid-sentence at the end of 10 minutes. [My idea. RayS.]

Writing process for complete essays: Brainstorm; thesis; draft, including topic sentences for paragraphs, last paragraph, introductory paragraph, revision and editing. [My idea. RayS.]

Use multiple assessments like tests of oral reading, levels of comprehension, etc.

Comment: I learned right along with my readers. I feel better equipped than before to deal with ESL students, but it won’t be easy. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Assessing ESL Students' Reading

Question: How use multiple assessments of ESL students’ progress in reading?

Answer/Quote: “Use multiple measures of reading progress that reflect comprehension and interest, not just skills. Such measures might include:

.checklists of oral reading performance.

.reading strategies the child uses

.reading comprehension skills (“comprehends oral stories,” “literal comprehension,” “inferential comprehension”)

.interests (“samples a variety of materials”)

.applications (“participates in reading groups,” “writes dialogue journal entries.”) Encourage students to maintain a dialogue journal with you in which they assess their own progress as readers.

Include all observations, checklists, and the students’ self-assessments in individual portfolios that are used to maintain information on students, to communicate with other teachers about the students’ progress, to communicate with students about their progress, and to communicate with parents.” P.100.

Comment: Once again, this advice seems to be pertinent to a self-contained class of ESL students, rather than the regular English teacher, but might be adapted to the regular teacher’s program. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Writing and ESL Students: The Writing Process

Question: How will you teach writing full-length essays to ESL students?

This is my suggestion. RayS.

Teach them the writing process.
Brainstorm the topic. .

Construct a thesis.

Write a draft. Begin with the thesis. Use topic sentences with paragraphs and include the last paragraph.

Write the introductory material, and place it before the thesis.

Revise.

Edit.

Write the final revised, edited copy.

RayS.

Writing and ESL Students

Question: How should writing be taught to ESL students?

Answer: “Teach writing at the same time as reading.” The authors suggest beginning with language experience:

“…start with a language experience approach in which the teacher or an aide transcribes a story that students dictate after they have developed it individually or collectively. These stories can be handwritten in large print on a chalkboard or paper and should be copied over by students so that they have their own record of the stories they have created and can read them later.

“Students’ stories should be written exactly as they are dictated. The teacher should use correct spelling, but preserve students’ sentence structures, even if they are incomplete or ungrammatical. Only in this way can students feel ownership of their stories.”

They should write for different purposes (“…to share experiences with a friend, tell a story, explain a concept, show a sequence of activities, persuade another person, or summarize information.”)

Comment: For older ESL students, I suggest 10-minute essays. At the beginning of each class period, students write for 10 minutes on a topic of their own choosing. The writing should be no longer than 10 minutes. They should not try to write a whole essay.


That night the teacher corrects what the students have written, completing sentence structure, correcting spelling, adding or subtracting punctuation, and altering word choice if the words are inaccurate.

The next day, the students study the corrections, ask questions about what they do not understand. That night they re-write the previous day’s 10-inute essay and keep in a folder a copy of the original and the corrected version for later reference.

Why? The teacher is modeling how to correct and edit problems in writing English.

Of course, students will also learn to write full-length essays. These essays will be corrected in the same way that the essays of native speakers of English are corrected—by labeling and explaining problems.

RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

When ESL Students Read Aloud

Question: Should you correct pronunciation when ESL students are reading aloud?

Answer/Quote: “Emphasize comprehension over pronunciation.” “If students read aloud, avoid correcting pronunciation because, inevitably, excessive time will be invested in correcting rather than in reading. Take notes on mispronunciations and miscues when students read aloud in order to understand the types of difficulties students are experiencing and to review students’ progress over time. These notes can be used to identify phonemes, individual words, and intonation patterns that should be pointed out and modeled in the context of meaningful stories that are read to the students. It should be remembered, however, that reading comprehension depends on finding meaning in a text, not on being able to pronounce every word correctly.” P. 99.

Comment: That’s useful. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Teaching Learning Strategies to ESL Students

Question: What can regular classroom teachers do in working with ESL students?

Answer: Model and teach learning strategies explicitly.

Quote: “Students can use a variety of learning strategies to improve their comprehension of text and their retention of important information. These include such… strategies as scanning to obtain an overview of the text structure and major ideas, asking themselves questions about what they want to know from the text, predicting answers or information in forthcoming paragraphs, looking for specific words or concepts, inferring the meaning of unfamiliar words, taking notes and summarizing important information.” P. 97.

“Students who are not familiar with strategies for reading will profit from having them modeled by other students and by the teacher. Strategies should be taught by naming the strategy, indicating that the purpose of the strategy is to help the students comprehend and remember new information, and reminding the students to use the strategies with subsequent reading passages.” P. 98.

Comment: All of these strategies are a part of systematic use of the Directed Reading Assignment. Scanning: Read the title, sub-heading, first paragraph, first sentence of each succeeding paragraph, last paragraph. Setting purpose by raising questions the student will read to answer. Pre-teaching vocabulary. Taking notes in responding to the questions and summarizing before discussing. Naming the strategy and giving its purpose are important, as is modeling, demonstrating how to use the strategy. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Reading Aloud to ESL Students

Question: What can regular classroom teachers do in working with ESL students?

Answer: Read aloud daily to students.

Quote: “ESL students of all ages and levels of reading proficiency benefit from listening to stories, poems and information texts…. Select materials which…contain pictures or illustrations…. Ask students to predict what comes next…. Follow the reading with discussion of meaning of the text, possible alternative interpretations, and predictions of what will come next.”

Comment: All of these techniques will be useful to native speakers of English. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Teachers and ESL Students: Activate Prior Knowldege

Question: What can regular classroom teachers do in working with ESL students?

Answer: Activate students’ prior knowledge before reading.

Quote: “For any reading passage, determine what students know about the topic prior to the reading assignment. Students may need a reminder to activate this information from memory because they assume that anything learned in their native language has no bearing on information presented in English.

“By accessing information in long-term memory students can predict the structure and content of information presented in the text, infer the meaning of unfamiliar words, check the new information against what is already known, and augment or modify that prior knowledge.

“If students have little familiarity with the topic of a reading passage, efforts should be expended to develop students’ knowledge about the topic through peer discussion, pictures, diagrams, drawings, film strips [and the Internet]….”

Comment: Sounds like the Directed Reading Assignment to me. RayS.



Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Teachers and ESL Students:Cognates

Question: What can regular classroom teachers do in working with ESL students?

Answer: Find out as much as you can about the students’ education and literacy levels in the native language.

Quote: “For students who are literate in their first language, teachers will be able to draw parallels between the first language and English by teaching the students to use cognates that may exist between the two languages, while inferring the meaning of unfamiliar words….”

Comment; Many words in Spanish and French will relate clearly to words in English. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

ESL: Reading and Comprehension

Question: How should ESL students—and all others—read for comprehension?

Answer/Quote: “…strategies that help them use their prior knowledge, read selectively, monitor their comprehension, summarize the text, and evaluate their own level of comprehension.” P. 90.

Comment: About now, I’m finding myself on familiar ground. All of these approaches to reading comprehension are embodied in the Directed Reading Assignment.

First, build up background knowledge about the topic of the chapter. Use pictures, movie clips, discussion.

Second, pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary. Pronounce the words. Discuss their meanings. Use them in context. Identify roots, some of which will undoubtedly exist in the native language, especially if the language is Spanish.

Third, read and discuss the title. Read and discuss the sub-headings. Read and discuss the opening paragraph, the first sentence of each paragraph and the final paragraph.

Fourth, either the students or the teacher sets the purpose by raising questions that the students will read to answer.

Fifth, discuss the answers to the questions found in the chapter.

Sixth, apply the information gained in some way.


A perfect segué from the language experience approach to reading from textbooks. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Language Experience for ESL Students

Question: How can teachers build on ESL students’ experience and budding English language skills?

Answer: Language experience is a technique in which the students dictate information or ideas, the language of the students is recorded by the teacher on chart paper, blackboard, white board, etc., and then the ideas are re-read by the students from the chart paper, etc.

This technique is appropriate for ESL students of all ages, even adults. “However, the language experience approach is not intended to be the sole approach to reading, for students also need to learn how to read texts written by others.”

Comment: I think I could adapt the language experience approach to my regular English class. This is the first useful technique I have encountered in this article. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

ESL Communication Activities

Question: How can ESL students engage in communication activities?

Answer/Quote: “Activities include role playing, simulation games,  small-group work, and information-gap activities in which students must exchange information in order to complete a task.

“While the focus…is on the development of oral proficiency, reading and writing activities may also be incorporated into instruction. Authentic reading materials such as advertisements, menus, newspaper articles, and signs are preferred….” 86-87.

Comment: Most of these activities seem to be more appropriate for direct instruction in ESL classes than for my regular English class. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

ESL Techniques in the Past and Present

Question: How was ESL taught in the past and what changes have been made in the present?

Answer/Quote: “In the past, language-teaching approaches in the United States were developed to teach a foreign language to native speakers of English rather than to teach English as a second language to speakers of other languages.”

“While most approaches continue to focus on oral skills, instruction in reading and writing has been added in recent years to most ESL programs.” 84-85.

Comment: While the authors of this article seem to be postponing getting to productive techniques that might help the teacher without experience in ESL techniques, I do think this background information is important. Anyway, it’s interesting to me. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Academic Language Skills

Question: How define academic language skills?

Answer: It ain’t easy.

Quote: “The level and type of academic language needed for success in grade-level classrooms has not been adequately defined or researched.

“Cummins (1980) indicates that cognitive academic language is characterized as context-reduced language used for … demanding tasks…. Context-reduced language lacks accompanying cues that assist comprehension, cues as facial expression, body language, visuals, or experiential activities.

“Cognitively demanding tasks require learners to manipulate concepts, solve problems, and learn new and often challenging information. These tasks require specialized language and language structures that vary depending on the content area.

“In grade-level classrooms, cognitively demanding tasks are frequently presented to students through context-reduced language, particularly at elementary and secondary levels.

“We suggest further that complete definition of academic language proficiency should include abilities in academic language functions such as explaining, describing and classifying, along with higher order thinking skills such as analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating….”

Comment: Academic language skills are usually presented in “context-reduced” language, language without contextual aids. They often require specialized language. Students must be able to manipulate concepts, solve problems and learn new, challenging information. They must be able to explain, describe and classify. They must be able to analyze, synthesize and evaluate. Academic language skills, therefore, are difficult for native speakers of English and considerably more difficult for ESL students. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Goal of ESL Programs

Question: What is the goal of ESL programs?

Answer/Quote: “The major goal of ESL programs is to provide students with the language skills they need to be successful in grade-level classrooms and to accomplish this in as short a period as possible.” P. 83.

“The goal seems obvious, but both the goal and the means of attaining it are exceedingly complex and have changed considerably in recent years.” P. 83.

“Communicative skills, or the ability to interact socially in English used to be considered a sufficient criterion for assigning students to grade-level classrooms. Now, we recognize that to be successful in school, students need more than social-language skills. They need academic-language skills, which involve using both receptive and productive language for thinking and reasoning in all content areas.” Pp. 83-84.

Comment: OK. I understand “social language skills.” But what exactly are the “academic classroom skills”? I’m learning all this right along with my readers. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Topics for Teaching English How To, June 2011.

Topics for Teaching English, How To for June 2011. To see a post, type in the topic in the search box.

• Self-Esteem and ESL Students
• Truism
• Misconceptions about ESL
• Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL)
• Inservice
• Learning about Teaching
• Improving Reading Comprehension in College
• Listening and Lecture
• Reading Compositions Aloud
• Middle-Schoolers and Planning
• From the Editor of English Journal
• Spelling Bees
• English Teacher Stereotype
• Self-concept and Reading
• Learning Disabilities "Defined."
• The Orangutan Score
• More on Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced T...
• Norm-Referenced and criterion-Referenced Test Scor...
• Criterion-Referenced Test Interpretation
• Interpreting Norm-Referenced Test Scores

Labels That Can Hurt

Learning to Read as a Native Speaker of English vs. ESL

Question: How does learning to read English as an ESL student differ from learning to read English as a native speaker of English?

Answer/Quote: “Native-English speakers learning to read encounter words and grammatical structures that they can already understand orally. The second-language learner… encounters an inordinate amount of unfamiliar language even in beginning texts. Beginning readers who are native-English speakers expect to understand the text once they have managed to decode it; for the reader who is learning English, the text may not be comprehended even if it can be decoded.” P. 82.

Comment: Native speakers of English learn to read by attaching meanings of words they understand in speaking and hearing to the same words on the page. Decoding the words on the page means they will understand because they understand orally. For the ESL student, decoding does not necessarily mean they will understand, even if they can say the words. This issue is an important difference in the native English student’s learning to read and the ESL student’s  learning to read. The ESL students might be able to say the words, but might not understand their meanings. “It’s a piece of cake” means “That’s easy to do” to the native English speaker. ESL students are likely to think they will be served a piece of cake. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and J M O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.