Fiction vs. NonFiction

Here is a comparison of Fiction and Non-Fiction. I used a T-chart as my graphic organizer. One of the class novels we read this year was Holes by Louis Sachar. Other top Fiction texts include:

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez (1997)
Al Capone does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (2004)


Top Non-Fiction texts include:

The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by R. Freedman
The Abracadabra Kid by S. Fleischman
Any supplemental Non-Fiction material on www.readinga-z.com. (Leveled books for both Fiction and Non-Fiction)

Some elements of Fiction that support ELLs are the use of a pictures, providing a visual reference for learning. It helps students, "Make connections and construct meaning." (Hill, p.102) Also the ability to use imagination in stories, thereby creating connections to the text and referencing background knowlege. Some struggles students may have with fiction could be higher order skills such as inferring character's feelings and situational outcomes, especially when the text that may not be culturally relevant.

Some elements of Non-Fiction that support ELLs is the fact-based format, which requires readers to find information directly from the text. Many non-fiction texts do come with pictures, diagrams, etc. important for ELL processing of new concepts. Non-fiction is very vocabulary heavy, therefore, students need a lot of practice navigating through text. These pieces can be "cognitively demanding and context reduced." (Hill, p.102) Students definitely need graphic organizers to help them think through pieces that are heavily academic.

A Sheltered Lesson...

I had the opportunity to watch Ms. Krauss deliver a sheltered lesson to what looked to be middle school students. The class was ranged from intermediate to advanced readers who read on a 5th to 6th grade level. This video was demonstrating how to make reading material "comprehensible" to ELL students so they were able understand the themes in a challenging text.

In watching the video and learning about what it means to construct a comprehensible lesson for ELL students, I was truly inspired and renewed. I had always been told that in order to help readers understand more difficult material, I needed to find lower level texts about the same topic so they could still understand and follow along with the rest of the class. Now that I teach middle school, I don't want to do that; students' self-esteem and self-worth is very fragile and they don't want to stand out academically from their peers too much. This video provided many concrete techniques that I am able to transfer to my classroom right away and gives me encouragement to teach ELL students in a strong way.

Classroom Environment:

Students sat in a "U" around the room. Everyone was able to see each other during discussion. The room was bright and inviting. Students had a lot of room to read and work alone or in a group if necessary.

Teacher Techniques:

Ms. Krauss was using the book Esperanza Rising to teach inferring to her students. The reading lesson was divided into 3 parts: Pre-reading, During-Reading, and Post-reading activities. Ms. Krauss began the lesson by setting a clear outline for what students were going to learn for the day. She read the objectives and expectations to students as well as had the information posted on the board for students to see. Students were focusing on inferring while reading a text. She had a list of materials and an agenda by which students would be able to follow the course of the lesson. She began by pre-viewing vocabulary, asking students about their background knowledge, and showed pictures to reinforce the words students would be encountering in the story. She even picked out the word "bouquet" and took time to discuss how it is a word that does not look the way it sounds.

During the reading, Ms. Krauss read to the students and reminded them of some reading strategies they needed as they were reading the story together. She read slowly, clearly, and loud enough for all students to hear. She stopped often and showed a page on the overhead to discuss parts of the book and reinforce the vocabulary discussed prior to the reading of the story.

After reading, Ms. Krauss gave students clear instructions about how they were to work independently. She again reminded them of their reading strategies and what she wanted students to find and record on their sticky notes as they read through the text. She set up clear expectations for students throughout the lesson.

Student Participation:

Students were engaged with Ms. Krauss during the entire lesson. They knew what was expected of them and knew what they needed to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. When asked questions, students participated and were able to relate to the characters and the themes of the story. At one point, Ms. Krauss asked students about the "birthday song" in Spanish. Students said they were familiar with the song and one attempted to sing part of the song for the class. This was a great way for students to connect personally to the text. When asked about vocabulary, students were able to create synonyms for more complex terms used in the text. When students were confused about a saying in the book, 'put the harvest to bed", students spoke up. The teacher reminded them of strategies and they work to apply them as they were reading the text. At the end of the lesson, student knew they were to write connections, visualization, and background knowledge information on their sticky note so they could engage with Esperanza Rising. Students were using complex texts, but were also given the necessary tools with which to engage in it successfully.

I loved Ms. Krauss' class and how alive her students were in her lesson. I am excited to try some of the techniques in my class today!

Running Record with ELL Students

I performed two running records. My first one was with a boy who speaks Spanish and the second was with a girl whose first language is Cantonese. She also speaks Vietnamese. English is her third language.
The students read a selection without having previously viewed the text. I set my timer for one minute and the students read the text as I took notes on another page. I selected students who were around the same academic level so I could compare what I noticed within the same text. I have this knowledge from conducting DRA tests of these students from the beginning of the year. Both students are performing right on a 6th grade reading level. (DRA 60)

For the Spanish speaking student, I noticed several things. First, I saw that some of the /i/ to /e/ sounds were confused in unknown words. This did not occur in words with which he was familiar. I also heard that when he pronounced a word like “chair”, he would have trouble saying it like a native English speaker would due to his accent. The word would sound more like “share”, though the pronunciation did not interfere with the meaning. This experience made me think about the fifth chapter of the Freeman text. There is a similar pronunciation reference in this chapter regarding students who produce the /d/ and /th/ sounds. “Spanish speakers acquiring English will come to understand this difference between the two languages….This is not a problem as long as the focus is on made meaning. “ (Freeman & Freeman,2004 ,p.93) This student also tended to leave the endings off of words as well. For instance, if the word was sits, he would say sit. The final thing I noticed about this student is that he would insert words, but again, this did not interfere with the meaning of the words. In reference to the book Miscue Analysis Made Easy (Wilde, 2000), these errors are classified as, “Semantically, syntactically acceptable despite uncorrected miscues. Since readers have a strong impetus to ensure that what we read sounds like language, they may leave miscues uncorrected as long as the result is grammatical.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 65) As far as meaning is concerned, the errors this student made did not affect the meaning of the text. “These distinctions involve judgment calls. When a sentence is coded syntactically acceptable, semantically acceptable and no meaning change, this is a sign that it’s been read effectively.” (Wilde, 2000, p.71) These errors are simple and can be corrected through continued oral practice within the English language.

I thought listening to the second student was quite surprising. She has no detectable accent, so much so that I did not know she spoke another language until I met her mother several months ago. She reads very quickly and made little errors in her reading. I did notice that as she spoke to her mother to translate during the parent/teacher conference that she spoke equally as fast. Perhaps this is a trademark of Chinese dialects. Her comprehension is very good. I see that she makes mistakes because of the speed at which she reads. However, she is very cognizant of going back and correcting her miscues. “There are two reasons for accepting a certain level of error in any activity. First, it usually doesn’t matter that much, is correctable, or both. Second, there’s a trade-off between error and speed or efficiency.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 26) I thought this quote really applied to this student because there are things we can work on to help her fix the minor errors she makes. We can practice slowing down and work more on expression. We also practice pausing at certain areas in longer texts to ask what the passage was about. What I really connected with in the readings for this week had to do with the chapter on English Orthography (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). In thinking about this student for this week’s blog, I wondered about the additional struggles she must have in learning English. “Chinese writing is a modern-day example of a largely ideographic writing system, and it can be read by both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. The disadvantage of pictographic writing is that a writer has to learn a great number of different symbols, one for each idea.” (Freeman & Freeman,2000, p. 100) She seemed to have no struggles at all. It is obvious that she is getting a lot of practice as she continues to learn English.

In closing, neither student is a perfect English speaker. The time to address the minor errors these students are making is during conferencing or small group time. Increased talk time in the classroom will also help with their speaking skills and structured time to implement the things they learn by reading and in speaking can be practiced in their writing. This approach reinforces the sociopsycholinguistic and acquired approach to reading and writing.

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

Wilde, S. (2000). Miscue analysis made easy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fredericks, A.D. (2001). Guided reading in grades 3-6. Harcourt Achieve Inc.