Directing English Language Learners Towards Literacy Learning

         Literacy skills are the foundation of many components of learning for students from prekindergarten through their senior year in high school. While these skills are developed in the elementary and secondary classrooms, with the hopes of creating proficient readers and independent writers, there is a student population group who often silently struggle to become strong literacy learners. “More than ever, early learning settings are serving children who are growing up with more than one language in home and at school” (Supporting emergent bilingual children in early learning, n.d.). Young emergent bilingual learners have even more to learn about reading and writing if they are already not literate in their native language (Gibbons, 2015). How, as educators, can we best support these English language learners (ELLs) to feel confident to read and write in a second language?

Supporting the Home Language

First and foremost, teachers must value a student’s home language. It is of utmost importance that classroom teachers are aware of what language knowledge these students bring to the classroom and use that foundation to build upon for literacy development (Gibbons, 2015). Teachers must remember that English language learners are not lacking intelligence and knowledge; it was just provided to them in another language first. Ways to value a student’s home language include:

• Invite family members into the classroom for language support or bilingual
  shared reading.

• Create labels for items and spaces around the room in multiple languages.

• Learn cognates or familiar phrases to show students you understand they 

communicate in a different language, but language is language and they can
still convey ideas.

Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary!

To support students’ reading and writing development, vocabulary is a key component. English language learners are often stumped by the misunderstanding of new words. Teachers of ELLs should anticipate vocabulary misconceptions and put scaffolding in place to aid in that instance. Supporting vocabulary development can look like:

• Making connections - if reading about a farm, and students have not been to a farm, ask questions of students about their experiences on a farm. Hearing other students’ connections can help create mental pictures for all learners.

• Use words in several contexts to deepen understanding. Using a Frayer Model is a beneficial way to learn new vocabulary. It includes the word, its meaning, examples, non-examples, and can have a visual representation.

• Make vocabulary visual! Incorporate pictures of unfamiliar
  words. Use descriptive words to describe the picture and the
  vocabulary word to build a bridge between the actual picture
  and a mental image for the student. Implementing gestures,
  hand motions, or movements also help with retention of new vocabulary.

• Use songs and rhymes. Repetitive singing and chanting of songs and rhymes allows students to commit a word to memory, as well as using correct grammar, pronunciation, and language sounds.

Talk It Out

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are all interrelated language domains. Students must have opportunities to practice all four domains in order to become stronger in another. To build confidence in reading and writing, ELL students need the opportunity to practice speaking. When they become comfortable speakers, they will start to use spoken language sounds and structure to decode, comprehend, and write. Using open ended questions, sentence stems, and group work all contribute to a rich oral language environment (Ford, 2016).

Teach Comprehension Strategies

Explicit comprehension instruction is vital to ELL students. “ELs must be explicitly taught comprehension strategies to help them access the content while they are developing English proficiency” (Tutor et al., 2016, p. 10). Strategies such as: summarizing, inferring, making connections, and asking questions all need systematic instruction for students to master. Using peer discussion, collaborative activities, and before-during-after reading questions are examples of how to explicitly foster comprehension in ELL students (Tutor et al., 2016). Explicit instruction also supports scaffolding and working the child’s zone of proximal development (Gibbons, 2015).

Activities to Support Literacy Skill Development

As reading teachers know, literacy skills spiral, build on one another, and work together to create a fluent reader who makes meaning from texts. The following are an array of activities to help students in many areas of literacy development (Gibbons, 2015).

• Find out what students already know about a topic by creating a class “Mind Map” of their current background knowledge before reading a text.

• Develop a Word Wall about a topic where vocabulary can be shared and displayed.

• Use a Cloze Activity where students must fill in gaps of information about a given topic.

• Provide and model the use of graphic organizers to help students get their ideas on paper before beginning a writing prompt.

• Use visuals for predicting before reading a text. Show a photo of a situation from the text or take a picture walk for students to think about the ideas of the text.

• Use illustrations or pictures related to the story to put in sequential order during or after reading to encourage comprehension.

• Keep track of literary events and elements in a working story map.

The Impact of Best Practices

Using the aforementioned ideas and strategies are not to be seen as just another way to differentiate in the classroom. These are best practices for all students in the classroom. To some teachers, these practices might be one more step in planning a lesson or delivering instruction, but to the English language learner who is lost on his/her learning path, these techniques can be the turning point that directs their academic compass in the right direction.

References

Ford, K. (2016, February 10). 8 strategies for preschool ells' language and literacy development.
Colorín Colorado. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.colorincolorado.org/
article/8-strategies-preschool-ells-language-and-literacy-development

Gibbons, P. (2015). In Scaffolding language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English language

learners in the mainstream classroom (pp. 169-179). essay, Heinemann.

Supporting emergent bilingual children in early learning. Education Development Center. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.edc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/
Supporting-Emergent-Bilingual-Children-Checklist_English.pdf

Tutor, C. R., Aceves, T., & Reese, L. (2016, November). Evidence-based practices for English
learners - CEEDAR. Innovation Configuration. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from
https://ceedar.edcuation.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EBP-for-english-
learners.pdf

Taking Time to Talk

“Talk is how education happens” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 94). If we want our students to be lifelong learners and readers, we must let conversation flow in our classrooms. Language, specifically oral language, is the vehicle for learning. It is where learning of all content areas starts. Students need chances to talk about what they are learning.

    To support students’ language development, a classroom should be a language rich environment. It should be a place where students are encouraged to converse with each other and their teacher. Just as toddlers are constantly asking “why” questions, we need to turn the tables on our students and ask them “why” as often as possible (Wildcatter Productions, 2009).

How to Prepare a Language Rich Classroom

A rich oral environment can be designed by the way interaction occurs between the students in the classroom. A classroom should be divided into language experiences, so that students are actually communicating with peers. This can look like students arranged in table groups, pretend play centers, turn and talk opportunities, and instructional rotations (group work). Students need to be encouraged to describe events and retell stories; therefore, incorporating a daily read aloud is a recommended strategy in creating a language rich classroom. Modeling the use of new words, discussing word meanings, and asking open ended questions are all techniques to increase oral language among students (Wildcatter Productions, 2009). Oral language development can be made fun through the use of synonym games, word play, and storytelling.

Impacts of Adult-Child Interactions

Students should be treated as worthy conversational partners by their teachers (Gibbons, 2015). Students should feel comfortable taking risks with language and voicing their thoughts and opinions. A teacher can build up students’ confidences when they are speaking by affirming that what is being said is understood and to give opportunities to extend their contributions with positive evaluation and interaction. 

When working with young students or English language learners, teachers should be mindful of slowing down the dialogue. This includes increasing wait time when students are mentally preparing a response and allowing the students the chance to self correct before rewording what they say. “The pace of the conversation allows sufficient time for learners to think about what they are going to say” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 41).

These teacher-student interactions not only build up students' language development and confidence, but also serve a purpose for later word and print awareness. “Spoken language and written language are better understood as a continuum rather than as two discrete forms of language” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 79). With speaking and writing being two of the four language domains, it makes sense that when speaking and writing are working together, it will lead to stronger reading as well. If students are frequently interacting with language with their teachers, they will become more familiar with the phonemes, graphemes, and morphemes that make up our language. With a solid foundation of letter-sound correspondence and word meanings, a student is well prepared to read, write, and comprehend text. The students who do not interact in conversation with adults are the students we see struggling to write reflections of what they are learning or express themselves orally.

Overall, when a child and the teacher are interacting verbally, it opens a two way street for dialogue and meaningful communication.

Scaffolding Language in the Classroom

Scaffolding simply means to build on what a student can already do or already knows (Wildcatter Productions, 2009). Psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, introduced the idea of the zone of proximal development. This is the distance, or cognitive gap, between what a child can do on his/her own and what the child can do with assistance (Gibbons, 2015). This is exactly the idea of scaffolding, where a teacher meets a student where he/she is at and gives him/her the needed help to become individually successful at the task. Scaffolding is not just holding a student’s hand or giving help one time. It is a special kind of assistance that moves the learner from dependent to independent learning. Scaffolding “is future-oriented and aimed at increasing a learner’s autonomy” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 16). 

Best practice shows that the maximum opportunity for learning happens when students are immersed in a high-challenge, high-support classroom, meaning activities involve higher order thinking, with an increased amount of scaffolding given by the teacher. This is where students are engaged in learning in their zone of proximal development (Gibbons, 2015). If a teacher is designing her classroom around conversational experiences and open dialogue, then she is, in fact, scaffolding the oral language development of her students.

Classroom Activities for Developing Oral Language Skills

Well designed group work is one of the easiest ways to incorporate a language-rich environment. This type of experience cannot be duplicated through whole class work and instruction (Gibbons, 2015). These group activities should be set up with clear instructions and a clear outcome, be supplied with examples of useful group work language, and require - not just encourage - talk.

While many oral language activities can be modified and implemented across an array of grade levels and content areas, the expectations of oral language development starts at the beginning, in PreK classrooms. I can think of no better place for these skills to take off. After all, what four and five year old children do not like to talk and share their ideas?

Donut Circles are an easy, but coordinated way to implement peer to peer conversations. Children sit in two circles. The outer circle faces inward, and the inner circle faces outward. This design allows each student to be facing a classmate from the other circle. Students are given the chance to talk in pairs for a minute or two about a teacher chosen topic. After both students have had a turn, one of the circles moves clockwise (or counterclockwise) to face a new person, while the other circle stands still. Now, everyone is across from a new partner. The communication process is repeated as many times as the teacher feels necessary. One benefit from the Donut Circle strategy is the use of peer scaffolding. Students are able to glean oral language skills from their classmates. Since they are frequently changing with whom they are interacting, they have the opportunity to hear correct syntax, semantics, and grammar, as well as have the chance to respond to more complex and thoughtful questions (Gibbons, 2015).

Other activities that would improve young learners’ language skills include I’m Thinking Of… where students use picture cards and the sentence stem “I’m thinking of…” to describe the object on the picture card. The student who guesses correctly is the next to draw a card and describe. Describe and Draw has children working in pairs, each with a blank sheet of paper. The first student describes (using position words) what he is drawing. The second student reproduces the drawing according to the first student’s description. What Did You See is an excellent resource for practicing vocabulary. With a small group of students, the teacher can have a selection of objects or pictures of objects that are related to a topic of study. After children have examined the objects, the teacher should cover them and see how many objects the students can recall (Gibbons, 2015).

Making Time to Talk

Oral language is, in fact, the vehicle that drives all other learning. In order to become a fluent communicator, reader, writer, and thinker, oral language skills must be developed as an intentional part of the school day for young learners. As often as we ask our students to work quietly, we must also have time when we ask them to TALK!

References

Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English language
learners in the mainstream classroom (Second). Heinemann. 

Wildcatter Productions. (2009). Scaffolding Language Development. YouTube. LBCC Learning
Innovation Center. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from

https://www.youtue.com/watch?v=gLXxcspCeK8&t=3s.

A Peek into PreK: Phonemic Awareness Activities for the Littlest Learners

In the last blog post, I discussed the importance and components of phonological awareness. Among those components, we find phonemic awareness. Many times these two terms are used interchangeably, but phonemic awareness is a specific part of phonological awareness. It is one of the most important parts of establishing a solid phonological awareness foundation. Simply put, “phonemic awareness is first and foremost about listening to and being able to distinguish the distinctive sounds of a language. It is the ability to understand and manipulate the sounds of a language orally” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 170). In short, phonemic awareness is all about using the ears and not the eyes when it comes to language and reading.

                                                                                       (Photo From: https://phonicshero.com/phonemic-awareness/)

Phonemes are the smallest units of spoken words. There are 44 phonemes in the English language. Changing just one phoneme can alter the meaning of a word. Phoneme blending, segmentation, substitution, deletion, addition, and isolation are vital lessons to master at the pre-reading level in order to ensure later reading success (Houston, 2022). Prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms are full of phonemic awareness activities on a daily basis. The following are engaging activities that can be implemented in such classrooms to develop strong phonemic awareness.

Elkonin Boxes

Elkonin boxes are a popular tool in early childhood classrooms. They are used to specifically focus on phoneme segmentation. Students count the sounds in a given word, and then they move a chip or counter into each box to represent each sound (Virtual teaching resource hub: instructional activities phonemic awareness, n.d.).

Word Sorting
While sorting games help develop a variety of skills for young learners, word sorting can help boost phonemic awareness too. Students are shown pictures, they name the pictures provided, and sort them based on the number of phonemes (or can be done with syllables) within the given word. View the video of this activity in action provided by the University of Florida Literacy Institute here.

Phoneme Dominoes     This spin on the classic dominoes game will have students searching for matching phonemes. The first student will place the START domino card face up and state the word the picture on the domino card represents. He will then look for a domino with a picture that has the same initial sound as the starting word, name it, and say the initial sound. Then the student will connect the two dominoes. The next student will say the name of the picture next to the domino that was previously played and repeat the process. This link provides the materials and instructions needed for Phoneme Dominoes, designed by the Florida Center for Reading Research. A video example of the game being played can also be viewed here.

Spin a Letter

This activity involves initial phonemes of words, but it can easily be adapted to practice medial and final sounds too. A cardboard or interactive electronic spinner can be used. A favorite electronic spinner used in my classroom is Picker Wheel. Students spin the wheel, and whichever letter the spinner lands on, they must give a word that starts with that phoneme. This could be played in teams, as a whole class, in small groups, or individually.

Jump, Skip, Hop

For the little learner who needs to be active, this activity incorporates phonemic knowledge and movement. Create simple picture cards that you find online, draw, or cut out of magazines. Show the card to the child. The child should identify the picture (say the word) and stretch it out to determine the number of phonemes. For example, if the card shows a pig, the child would say, “Pig. /p/ /i/ /g/.” Since there were three phonemes in the spoken word, the child would do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops in place.

Playing and Learning with Phonemes

No matter the game or activity used, phonemic awareness is a necessary skill for emerging readers, and it is one that can be taught and practiced with interactive, engaging methods. Phonemic awareness is the most sophisticated of the phonological awareness skills and is one of the greatest predictors of future reading success (Phonological and phonemic awareness: Activities for your kindergartener, 2022). By practicing these pre-reading skills in the early childhood education classrooms, elementary and secondary classrooms will be full of robust readers.

References

Gibbons, P. (2015). In Scaffolding language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English language

learners in the mainstream classroom (pp. 169-179). essay, Heinemann.

Houston, S. (2022, April 29). What is phonemic awareness?: Phonics hero. What is Phonemic 

Awareness The Foundation for Reading and Spelling Success Comments. Retrieved

September 29, 2022, from https://phonicshero.com/phonemic-awareness/

Kindergarten and first grade student center activities. Florida Center for Reading Research.
(n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://fcrr.org/student-center-activities/
kindergarten-and-first-grade#sca3

Phonological and phonemic awareness: Activities for your kindergartener. Reading Rockets.
(2022, September 28). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.
org/reading-101-guide-parents/kindergarten/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness-
activities-your-kindergartner

Virtual teaching resource hub: instructional activities phonemic awareness. UF Literacy
Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/
resources/teaching-resources/instructional-activities/phonemic-awareness/

How to Keep English Language Learners Engaged

The diversity students bring to the classroom make our learning environments rich with uniqueness and learning opportunities. English Language Learners (ELLs) make up a large portion of our student populations, and it is important that as teachers, we reach out to these students and utilize strategies to keep them engaged in learning.

Create a Classroom of Relationships 

    It is vital that we establish relationships with all students, but making ELL students feel at home in our classrooms is of utmost importance. These relationships should include teacher-student connections, as well as peer relationships. An atmosphere of inclusion, acceptance, and celebration needs to be established. When you have a student’s heart, you will have a better chance of having his/her mind too. Each year, I incorporate a family heritage project into our social studies curriculum. This project allows students to take time to discuss family traditions and history with their parents at home before sharing those traditions with their classmates. The students love to hear about different languages spoken in their peers’ homes, holiday traditions, foods eaten, and how cultures different from their own celebrate life events. It creates a feeling of family and community in the classroom, where everyone is accepted, and the students are eager to learn about their next classmate’s family history. 

Involve the Whole Family 

    Students are more engaged in learning when their families are involved in the learning too. For example, it is common for schools to host literacy events, where the students and their families can attend. Making these literacy events cross-cultural is a way to invite English speaking and English learning families to participate. Presenting a bilingual read aloud is an activity that children of all ages and languages enjoy. My campus’ English language learners are predominantly Spanish speakers, so we choose a book that has been printed in both English and Spanish, but this activity could be done with any other language too. With two copies of the same story, just in different languages, two teachers alternate reading pages in each language. Families are captivated to hear a story being read aloud in their native language and to have their children immersed in a second language as well. Any opportunity to connect the school and home life is beneficial to these children and their learning. A literacy night with games and activities to be practiced at home in multiple languages, inviting parents to speak about their jobs in their native languages at a career day, and hosting parents as guest readers are all ways to tap into the funds of knowledge. Funds of knowledge are defined as cultural knowledge and skills that students gain from their family and household settings to strengthen the curriculum in their classroom settings (Cobb, et. al., 2011). These are skills and concepts that students can be experts in and share with peers that will enhance learning. English language learners will be more engaged when they feel their backgrounds and the knowledge they bring to the classroom are valued as a part of the educational process. 

Classroom Techniques

    Cultivating relationships and including the child’s family are the best ways to engage students in their own learning, but the following are best practice classroom strategies to aid English language and native English speaker learners alike in their learning. 

• Use visual supports. 
• Build in opportunities for group work. 
• Provide native language and English vocabulary labels. 
• Honor wait time, giving students time to gather their thoughts before speaking. 
• Pre-teach academic vocabulary and be aware of culturally unique vocabulary. 
• Use sentence stems for writing assignments. 
• Learn about the culture and background of the students. 

    An inclusive, engaged classroom is one of the most exciting places a child can visit each day. In what ways does your campus and classroom keep all learners engaged and reach the families of English language learners? 

References 

Cobb, J.B., Kallus, M.K., Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (2011). Chapter 17 Funds of Knowledge for           Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms. In Historical, theoretical, and                  sociological foundations of reading in the United States (pp. 270-283). essay, Pearson.