2. Encourage your child to read

                Help your child find books on a subject that interests them. Their increased interest in the book will help encourage them to continue reading even if it is challenging.

 

3. Take turns reading

                Read one page of a book and then allow your child to read one page. If they are struggling, you can echo read. You read the page first and then they echo you by reading the same page again.

 

4. Make connections to the book

                Talk with your child about the book. Ask them how the book relates to their life. Whenever possible, relate it to your life as well. Share something this book made you think of and ask your child to do the same.

 

5. Try different types of books

                Encourage your child to read different types of books. Have them try magazines, articles, fiction, nonfiction, newspapers, and poems. Different children will take particular interest in certain types of texts, but variety helps them to learn as well.

 

These strategies are good to use with any beginning readers, but will work with English Language Learners as well. The strategies listed here are proven to help with comprehension and fluency skills. This information was provided by Colorín Colorado. Colorin Colorado is a free web-based, bilingual service that provides information, activities, and advice for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners (ELLs, also known as students of English as a second language).  (Colorin Colorado, 2011)

 

Colorín Colorado is produced by Reading Rockets — an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital.    Click here to learn more about great ways to read with your child. Fun and Effective Ways to Read with Children

 

To find more information about how you can support your English Language Learner please visit this link What You Can Do at Home. Also, below is a PDF file about ways that a family can encourage and work with readers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use PEER when reading with new/young readers. According to Reading Rockets, PEER stands for Prompt, Evaluate, Expand, and Repeat/Revisit. When reading with your child it is important to keep it interactive.

 

Prompt: Before reading prompt your child with a question. During reading ask them what you think will happen next. Point to something on the page and ask, “What is that?”

Evaluate: Evaluate your child’s response. You may say something like, “That’s right. That is a balloon.”

Expand: Add to what your child says. For example: “That’s a big, red balloon! We saw one of those at the fair last week.”

Repeat/Revisit: Encourage your child to repeat what you have added. “Can you say big, red balloon? 

 

Research shows that this type of dialogic reading works. Students whose parents read in a dialogic way, such as this, will develop better oral language skills and are often exposed to new words. This strategy need not be used on each page of a book, but whenever it fits with the story in an engaging way. (Reading Rockets, 2009)

 

Article: Use a PEER When You Read Aloud by Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/article/33854

Note this article is also available in Spanish at this link: http://www.colorincolorado.org/articulo/33855/

 

 

For a video with more strategies for working with early childhood English language learners follow this link:  https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/vocabulary-english-language-learners

 

 

 

Strategies for Middle Childhood Education English language learners:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explanation: Students who are English language learners need to be using language as much as possible in authentic situations in order to continue to build on their language skills.

 

Strategy:  When working with your middle childhood ELL student the activities should allow for the maximum language usage opportunities. For example:

• Have conversations with your student about their school day. Ask them what they learned today.

• Sustained dialogue is critical to challenging students’ abilities to communicate ideas orally.

• Formulate questions for the student to answer about reading passages.

• Use language for higher order thinking.

• Questions should reach for new knowledge and thoughtful efforts from students.

• If students are being short with their responses, encourage more information with prompting.

• Encourage your child to write in a journal.

• Encourage your child to use oral and written skills when communicating in the home.

 

Explanation: When working with students, specifically English language learners, build links between home and school. Reach out to the teacher and find ways to be involved in the community as well.

 

Strategy: Create links between home, the classroom, and the community. With your student, get involved in the community. Identify support systems within the school and the community that you and your student can use when English language learning is challenging. The local library, school, and tutoring programs could all offer a lending hand. By creating this support system, the students will realize that we all want to support them. This will in turn help to raise their self-esteem.

 

Research Rationale: The importance for teachers, students, and parents to get to know one another is stressed in the article “Working with English Language Learners: Strategies for Elementary and Middle School Teachers” by Annette Zehler. Also discussed is the need for daily discussion in the life of an English Language Learner and the use of cooperative grouping. Research and advice from a variety of referenced research helped Zehler to write this piece for National Clearing house for Bilingual Education. (Zehler, 1994)

 

Explanation: Reading comprehension strategies need to be explicitly taught to English language learners. These skills will help ELL students apply these strategies to all subject matter including content area reading.

 

Strategy: Parents can review/reteach students how to use these tools for informational or expository reading:

• Titles

• Headings

• Bold print

• Captions

• Side bars

• Maps

• Graphs

• Pictures

• Bullets

 

Ask students to use the following strategies to summarize (orally or in writing):

• Retell what you read, but keep it short. If you read a chapter, retell it in a few sentences. If you just read a page, try to sum it up in one sentence.

• Include only important information.

• Leave out less important details.

• Use key words from the text.

 

Ask your student questions about the text they have read. When asking questions be sure to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

 

These questions can be at the:

• Literal level (Why do the leaves turn red and yellow in the fall?)

• Interpretive level (Why do you think it needs water?)

• Applied level (How much water are you going to give it? Why?)

 

Why reading comprehension skills are particularly important for ELLs:

English language learners (ELLs) often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy, will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension skills along with other skills. (Colorin Colorado, 2007)

 

Reading Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners

 

 

 

Strategies for Parents of Adolescent English Language Learners:

 

Explanation: Strategies for working with you English language learner and creating a home school connection are listed below. Creating this connection can help your student to feel successful and supported in their English learning experiences.

 

Create a bond with the school such as discussed in this article “Building Trust with Schools and Diverse Families” by Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback. According to Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback, increased family involvement is linked to improved school performance.

 

Strategies: The article tells how involvement in different ways can be beneficial to ELL students. These ways include:

1) communicating with the teachers and school administrators

2) participating in parent group

3) taking part in school-community functions

4) volunteering at the school

5) supporting learning at home

6) simply being a parent to your ELL child & supporting them in all they do

 

To learn more about this follow this link: Building Trust with Schools and Diverse Families

 

 

Vocabulary & Language Development Strategies:

 

Explanation: Vocabulary skills are extremely important to ELL students. This tells of some ways in which vocabulary and language development can be encouraged and supported at home.

 

Strategies: Parents too can help their English Language Learner develop vocabulary and language through activities in the home. Parents and family members can use many of the same strategies that teachers do to support their ELL student. As the parent, it may be a good idea to talk to the teacher or meet with them to find out what strategies they use for vocabulary and language development and also use those strategies at home. A family member can review the vocabulary which is critical to the book being read or create vocabulary cards. Some examples of activities are given below:

• Word analysis – dissecting the word into parts (prefix, root word, suffix)

• Vocabulary Journals – the student can write down new vocabulary they have learned and a definition. Then parents can encourage them to use the word in a sentence or short story in order to show the meaning of the new vocabulary word.

• Word web – Student can place the word in the middle & then create a web with the part of speech, definition, synonyms to the word, antonyms to the word. This will help to reinforce the word & its meaning.

 

**Note: If the parent who wants to work with their ELL adolescent does not know English well or at all, another family member who does could work with the student. If there isn’t another family member who does, the parent could maybe meet with the teacher for reinforcement of vocabulary support strategies or a tutor could be found to assist the adolescent with vocabulary practice.

 

Research Rationale:  According to Brooke Kandel Cisco and Yolanda Padron,  “Research has suggested that limited vocabulary contributes to the comprehension problems experienced by struggling readers (NICHD, 2000)” The article “Investigating Vocabulary and Reading Strategies with Middle Grades English Language Learners: A Research Synthesis" by Cisco and Padron tells how vocabulary knowledge is key to ELL understanding and comprehension of English texts. (Measured in two facets by reading achievement tests and interactions with authentic texts) (Cisco, Padron, 2012)

 

 

Use of Graphic Organizers & Visual Stratgies:

 

Explanation: While teachers use the strategy of graphic organizers for increased comprehension and organization of ideas within the classroom, parents can also use this strategy to encourage comprehension at home while students are completing reading assignments.

 

Strategy: Graphic organizers could be used to:

• map out a vocabulary word with all its meanings/synonyms/antonyms as discussed above

• to support the organization of writing a paragraph or story

• to support comprehension of a reading passage

 

Students may be asked to tell what happened in the beginning, middle and end. They may be asked to jot down characters, setting, and plot. Venn diagrams can be used to compare two or three things such as characters or stories. Double-entry journal can be used to track the student’s thoughts or questions during reading.

 

Research Rationale: These strategies are based on multiple research studies from the past decade that identify effective methods for developing English-language learners’ content knowledge, use of the academic language associated with math, literature, history, and science, and basic interpersonal communication skills in English. (Bongolan & Moir, 2005)

 

 

Other reading strategies to use:

 

Summarization – Have the student tell a family member or write down what they read about. What were the main parts of the chapter they read.

 

Predictions – Have the student tell a family member or write down what they think will happen next & explain why.

 

In both of these strategies I would recommend having the student discuss it with a family member because this encourages dialogue which can also help to improve comprehension and language skills.

 

Research Rationale: According to Cisco and Padron in the article “Investigating Vocabulary and Reading Strategies with Middle Grades English Language Learners”, much research has been done to show that use of various reading strategies positively influences general reading success and more specifically enhances reading comprehension in English for English language learners (Cisco & Padron, 2012).

 

 

 

Suggestions for parents of all English Language Learners:

 

If your child has a problem, with homework or not understanding something that happens in class?

• Find an interpreter if you need one.

• Contact the teacher as soon as you suspect that your child has a problem with his or her schoolwork.

• Request a meeting with the teacher to discuss problems.

• Communication is key.

• Don’t give up.

 

What should you do if you don’t understand or agree with a teacher’s assignments or school rule?

• Set up a meeting to talk to the teacher about the issue.

• If this doesn’t resolve the issue, arrange to talk with the principal or school leaders.

 

If these steps do not work:

• Seek out other school leaders who may be able to help you.

• Talk with other parents from the school. Maybe they are having a similar issue or will be able to help.

• Take written notes to keep record of meetings – this way you can refer back to them later.

 

How to Let the School Know About Your Concerns Click here to read the full article.

 

Adapted from Helping Your Child Succeed in School. U.S. Department of Education. First published in June 1993. Revised 2002 and 2005.

 

Links for parents:

 

http://www.colorincolorado.org/families  This website has a lot of information on how to help your child in school as well as how to do well in your community.

 

http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hubsh  This website contains children's songs from around the world.  Use it to learn rhymes in your language and English.

 

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/  This website contains children’s books from around the world.  These books have been scanned into the computer and can be read in a variety of languages.

 

http://wonderopolis.org/  This website asks a question, a "wonder", each day and then provides information as well as an activity to explore this question.  What a great way to connect with your child and what they are learning in school!

 

http://www.myefa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=welcome  This website might be more advanced than your child but if you need assistance with learning English it is a wonderful site with listening activities to help learn grammar.

 

 

3 assistive technology recommendations: 

 

Kurzweil 3000 Firefly software

Cost:

• A single standalone license would be $1,395.00.

• Twenty standalone licenses would be $495 per license for a total of $9,900.00.

• Kurzweil 3000 with Firefly for 20 users would be $200 per user per year for a total of $4,000 per year.

Purpose: This integrated literacy software provides powerful reading, writing, study skill and test-taking support to English language learners aged Elementary through adult. A multisensory approach uses multiple ways, visual and auditory to learn the material. Material is highly customizable and useful for individual learning or in a classroom of students.

Targeted Skills:

• language learning (through audiable and pictoral dictionaries)

• writing skills (through a talking word processor, auditory spell check, bilingual dictionary)

• speaking skills (students can practice fluency & record themselves speaking)

• listening skills (students can follow along with highlighted text as it is read aloud)

• test-taking skills

• study skills

http://www.kurzweiledu.com/english-language-learning.html

http://www.kurzweiledu.com/sheltered-instruction-and-kurzweil.html

Research to support the use of Kurzweil 3000 firefly with ELL students http://www.kurzweiledu.com/files/K3000%20ELL%20Research.pdf

 

Read: OutLoud 6

Cost: $259 per computer for single computer license/$760 Yearly for building subscripton & license for all computers in school

Purpose: Read:OutLoud6 is a text reader which can be used to increase reading comprehension in students. It is a text-to-speech program which highlights and reads aloud the text for students. It also allows them to use study tools and take notes along-side the text in order to help with comprehension.

Targeted skills:

• Comprehension

• Organization of information

• Fluency

http://donjohnston.com/readoutloud/

 

Let’s Go Learn/DORA Spanish

Cost: $20 per assessment

Purpose: DORA Spanish is a diagnostic online reading assessment for students with Spanish reading abilities. This program effectively compares students’ first language Spanish abilities with their developing second language English reading skills. This allows parents and teachers to best utliziae those Spanish reading skills to further develop English reading skills. This program adapts k-12 content to each learner’s ability in real-time in order to let teachers know what skills to focus on with this student. The program then provides instant diagnostic and prescriptive student reports.

Targeted Skills:

• Subskills of reading fundamentals

• Reading comprehension

http://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/DORA_Spanish/educators/

 

Thank you for visiting our website. If you have any questions please email me.

 

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Last updated July 10, 2014