Homework

Homework should be assigned to extend or elaborate the content that is learned or about to be learned in class. All homework assignments should serve a specific purpose and should be developmentally appropriate for all students. The most important homework that my students do is actively engage with a book for at least 20 minutes daily and respond on a reading log using correct grammar and handwriting that has been taught in school. In addition to this, the only other homework given is used to reinforce the math concept that was taught that day. As with all learning that occurs, specific feedback is necessary for students to maximize development and will be provided daily on math assignments and weekly on reading logs. When this is done correctly, homework increases student achievement and develops vital study skills such as independence, time management, and organization. 

Analyzing Running Records with ELLs

Running records are an important part of planning for instruction. A running record is a way to assess a child's reading level by looking at accuracy and the kinds of errors made. This document is useful for the teacher in two ways. First, it shows the teacher whether material currently being read is too easy or too difficult for the student. Second, it indicates the areas where a child's reading can improve. For example, if a child frequently makes letter omissions at the end of a word, the teacher will know to focus on getting the child to look beyond the first letter of a word to read the entire word. Running records may be administered to assess a student's progress in reading.


When I assessed two of the English Language Learners in my class using a running record, I discovered some valuable information to guide further instruction. With one of my students, she read 134 words per minute with no errors. This showed me that she needs to be reading more difficult text during guided reading groups. Another one of my students read 102 words in one minute, but made 5 mistakes. When I looked at the mistakes, I found some new teaching points for this student. For example, she said /id/ instead of /t/ for the suffix on the word looked. This shows me that she needs to practice these ending sounds for -ed to see which one sounds right for each word. Another mistake that she made was that she pronounced "said" with a long a sound. While she did apply the phonics rule for "ai", she also needs to develop skills to recognize those oddball words that don't follow the rules. Her three other miscues were vocabulary words that she did not recognize and did not stop to pronounce. I know that her vocabulary needs to be built more so that her miscues do not interfere with the meaning and understanding of her reading.

Language Acquisition

According to the learning/word recognition view, students will practice language through drills and written exercises. Another way students practice language is by reciting dialogue in pairs or groups (Freeman, 2004). Here are some examples of activities students would participate in to learn language:

• look up words in the dictionary to write definitions
• practice sounding out words
• correct peers when they make a mistake during reading
• identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound
• ask the teacher how to spell any word they don't know
• divide words into syllables
• on a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound
• read in a round-robin fashion
• work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences

According to the acquisition view, students will listen and read stories to build up new language and vocabulary. After learning language through stories, they use it to accomplish different tasks (Freeman, 2004). Here are some examples of activities students would use to acquire language:

• make a Venn diagram to compare two stories
• group cards with classmates' names by a criterion on such as first or last letter
• write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound
• read a language experience story they have created with the teacher
• make alphabet books on different topics

According to the learning/word recognition view, the teacher will provide students with drills and worksheets to practice language. Also, the teacher will provide decodable texts in which they preteach the vocabulary for students learning the language. Teachers also ensure that the class uses correct language (Freeman, 2004). Here are some ways a teacher will help a student learn a language:

• makes sure that students read only books that fit their level
• uses decodable texts
• teaches Latin and Greek roots
• conducts phonics drills
• uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills
• preteaches vocabulary
• has students segment words into phonemes
• does a picture walk of a new book

According to the acquisition view, the teacher will read books to students and allow students to engage in reading as well. The teacher also helps a student say what he or she would like to say to his or her listeners. Teaches will also show students how to talk around a word that they have not yet acquired (Freeman, 2004). Here are some ways a teacher will help a student acquire a language:

• does a shared reading with a big book
• sets aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day
• has students meet in literature circles
• asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter
• teaches students different comprehension strategies
• chooses predictable texts
• writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words

References

Freeman, D. E., & Freeman, Y. S. (2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, and grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Differences Between Fiction and Nonfiction

Knowing the differences between reading genres can help students understand the text better. Teachers should explicitly teach different text features for fiction text and non-fiction text so that students can use these tools to aid in comprehension. Here is a graphic organizer that shows differences in each genre:

Fiction versus Nonfiction Graphic Organizer

These text features can aid in comprehension. One text feature in particular that helps students, especially English Language Learners, is pictures. Pictures in fiction books illustrate the main events while pictures in non-fiction books provide a non-linguistic representation for a topic. In non-fiction texts, maps can show a location, labeled diagrams can give a better understanding of vocabulary, and photographs capture a moment that may have never been seen before. The pictures in books aid in comprehension, and so do headings or chapter titles. Both headings and titles provide the main idea of the next section before reading it, and this can help students activate prior knowledge and understand each section better. These are some text features that can help a student better understand the concept or story.

While many text features help comprehension, there are a few that may be confusing for English Language Learners. One feature of both fiction and non-fiction texts that is hard to grasp when learning a new language is the choice of vocabulary words. Some non-fiction texts do provide the reader with a glossary, but even these definitions can be hard to understand without teacher support. In fiction texts, there is not a glossary, so if a student does not know a word, they can use context clues to figure out the meaning. However, children who are learning a second language may not have the vocabulary to fully understand the rest of the sentence and come up with a synonym or definition for the unknown word on their own. This text feature may be hard to understand for English Language Learners.

Sheltered Instruction

There are many ways in which to shelter instruction so that comprehension is more easily attainable for all students. Here are some of the strategies I used:

Pre-reading strategies:

• Explicitly state the focus of the lesson - Make sure the students know what they are doing and the rationale for each lesson. Keeping this goal in mind ties the pieces of the lesson together, making them more understandable.
• Pre-teach vocabulary - Even though my lesson was primarily focused on teaching social studies standards, pre-teaching vocabulary such as canal and pioneers was essential to understanding the lesson. I used pictures of the vocabulary that was introduced and offered synonyms of each word. Then, the students worked together to construct a sentence using the new terms. 
• Activate prior knowledge - I began my lesson by asking an open-ended question: "What do you know about transportation on water?" This question has students retrieve information in their brain that was not at the forefront. By asking this question, I am preparing students to make connections to knowledge they already have, which deepens comprehension.

During reading strategies:

• Give specific directions and repeat directions if necessary - Students need to be following along in order to gain from the lesson.
• Model reading strategies as reading - This part makes me think that...
• Make sure the lesson is not about me. The more involved students get, the more they learn. So any chance I could, I turned the talking, the actions, the teaching over to them. 
• Use non-linguistic representations - By acting out the Erie Canal simulation cards, the students got a deeper understanding of events that occurred in the past.
• Give specific feedback - "Your expression while reading your part was excellent. I heard your voice go up and down. Very exciting to hear!"

After reading strategies:

• Give students opportunity to try skills on own - I had students reflect on their learning in their Regions notebook.
• Discussion - We talked about what happened in the past involving the Erie Canal, why the Erie Canal was important, and how this helps people today. I had the students involved through partner talk rather than me talking the whole time.

These are some strategies that really hone in on instruction that deepen comprehension for all learners, including English Language Learners.

Cultural Aspects Can Affect Comprehension

There are many books that teachers assume students will understand because there are common elements that most students see everyday; however, English Language Learners' prior experiences may have been substandard or interrupted, so reading texts that assume certain prior knowledge becomes difficult. The cultural differences for some English Language Learners (ELLs) can result in a lack of background knowledge and thus loss of comprehension. 


For example, the book Julius: The Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes has many examples of cultural differences that may inhibit comprehension for English Language Learners. One part in the story that may be hard to understand is the "uncooperative chair" that Lilly has to sit in when she is being mean to her baby brother. Many children may not know this term, or they may not know what taking a "time-out" is because of cultural differences. This can be taught to English Language Learners by acting this concept out. Another section of the book that may confuse ELLs is when Lilly says, "If [my baby brother] was a food, he'd be a raisin." This food may not be well-known in different cultures or it may not be known as disgusting as it is in most American cultures, so this comparison could cause confusion. In order to build background knowledge of raisins, have the students try them and vote as a class on their popularity. Another cultural difference that may be hard to understand is that the family in the book is having a celebration for the baby after he is born. Not all cultures have parties for events like these. This concept can be clarified through a brief discussion. Last, the book mentions lullabies. This vocabulary term may be unfamiliar to some students, especially because lullabies are not sung in all parts of the world. Once again, the class could quickly act out what this term means so there is not a culture difference affecting comprehension.


There is another book that has a few examples of cultural differences: The Little White Owl by Tracey Corderoy and Jane Chapman. There are many words and phrases in the English language that have multiple meanings. In the book, the little owl "didn't mind" that he was all alone. Mind can mean a brain or can mean bothered by something. The book also says that they could "pass the time", which some students could take literally as handing a clock to the person next to them. Pre-teaching these multiple meaning words can better comprehension. The other elements in this book seemed easily comprehensible because of the pictures, so I chose another book to analyze.


Another book with some cultural differences that may be hard to comprehend without further instruction is Gingerbread Boy by Jan Brett. One element in this story that may be better understood with further instruction is understanding what gingerbread and gingerbread houses are. What better way to explain this than to taste it? As the students are creating their ginger masterpieces, explain that this is a tradition that many people take part in in the United States. Another concept that is hard to understand when learning a new language is the vocabulary in this book such as "licking his chops".  Because chops has multiple meanings (cuts, cut of meat, lips), this part would be hard to understand. The  best way to help English Language Learners would be to pre-teach the vocabulary with a non-linguistic representation and review the words during the story. 


Overall, teachers should be aware that there are some cultural differences in literature that may be hard for English Language Learners to understand. It is our job to find a way (or many ways) to explain these foreign concepts. While teaching and explaining these ideas to English Language Learners, all other learners will also be deepening their understanding.

Reading Unfamiliar Languages

When reading a text in an unfamiliar language, there are a few strategies that I used. The first strategy that I used was to find words that looked similar to the English language. For example, I assumed that the German word "einmal" meant animal. After struggling to find any more familiar words in the first paragraph, I began to use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words. Apparently, "einmal" doesn't even mean animal. It means man. Slowly but surely, I made meaning of the first sentence, but I gave up on the rest of the paragraph and the rest of the story because it was frustrating.

What does this mean when teaching students who are learning English? First of all, I need to know more Spanish so that I can talk about words that look similar to each other. Also, I need to be able to define more English words in Spanish so that my students can better understand each lesson. I also feel that non-linguistic representations such as pictures or gestures are necessary for students to comprehend, which means that I need to provide more of these non-linguistic representations in my classroom. I also need to understand that students who are learning English can become easily frustrated when encountering many unfamiliar words. Overall, as a teacher of English Language Learners, I need to apply more strategies in the classroom to not only help the English Language Learners in my classroom, but all learners.