English Learner

Understanding text is particularly difficult for children who must translate each word as they read. The following suggestions can help increase the efficacy of content instruction for English Learners.

• Preteach the selection vocabulary to English Learners. The English-Language Development Guide in Open Court Reading ©2005 and the English Learner Support Guide in SRA Imagine It! provide strategies for preteaching vocabulary skills.
• Read the selection with English Learners before the whole class reads it together. Model the comprehension strategies, encourage children to react freely to the text, and clarify problems and misunderstandings as they arise. Encourage children to read aloud or to identify words and ideas they want to talk about. Once unfamiliar words and concepts have been addressed, English Learners will be able to contribute more to whole-group discussions, focusing on meaning without translation or decoding obstacles.
• Keep the following tips in mind when working with English Learners on applying reading comprehension strategies:
  • - Repeat key words and phrases.
  • - Pronounce words clearly.
  • - Explain vocabulary, idioms, and complex sentences.
  • - Use body language, props, objects, and visual aids to convey meaning.
  • - Emphasize key words and phrases by varying your tone.
  • - Give concrete examples and explanations of key ideas and vocabulary.
• Summarizing and asking questions serve as valuable comprehension tools for children with limited English proficiency. The following activities could serve as a useful tutorial activity during Workshop:
  • - Have a child preread or reread parts of the selection, stopping after each sentence or paragraph to tell in his or her own words what the selection says.
  • - Read a short passage aloud to a child and then have that child pose a question about the most important point in the passage. Prompting with question-words such as Who? What? When? Where? How? and Why? may help children formulate questions.
• Pair English Learners with native or fluent English speakers to discuss reading strategies.

During strategy instruction, children should be comfortable stopping to ask questions, clarifying, discussing, and so on. This creates a natural environment in which to hold discussions and develop the language of learning and vocabulary. Every child can participate in the discussion at his or her own level. Children can draw their favorite part in their Writer's Notebooks and then label them with a sentence. They may want to elaborate or extend the sentence to tell more, an oral language technique used during blending.