I just want to thank Suzie for such a thoughtful, clear, and excellent response! You really taught me something about the complexity of teaching an ELL student to read. ----- Original Message ----- From: "suzie herb" <sz_h...@yahoo.com.au> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 4:22:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] How to teach comprehension to fluent reader
I wonder what you are using to test her reading comprehension. If you are using the DRA you will find her just right reading level. It will be at a low level yes, but the starting point for building comprehension. The test will also enable you to see very clearly just what it is this child needs in terms of what her strengths are and what the focus for her should be. You might find for example that she does have a good 'literal' understanding but is unable to use context clues to build on 'inference'. It's really a matter of pin pointing just what aspect of comprehension is the difficulty or working on what the priority will be and going from there in your support of her. It might be as simple as her not being able to make connections at all. How much of what you are really saying to her in class is understood I wonder? There is a huge amount of literature on what EAL learners need to develop reading comprehension skills and the difference in approach that is needed. The comprehension of EAL learners is not based on their inability to understand what they have read but an understanding of language. If you think about your own language learning experiences, or if you have not learnt a language, try reading something in Indonesian for example. Even with no understanding it is easy to read and there are enough words for you to get a really good idea of what the text might be about. But, how much you understand is not based on your ability to read, that is the easy part. The issue is that so many of our EAL kids blitz the 'reading' part and parents jump up and down with joy saying, 'they can read English'..But they are not reading as such. Our school has actually developed a reading/writing continuum for EAL students which helps guide the teacher in knowing what skills need to be built upon whilst identifying what is being used by the student on s regular basis. It has long been established through research by Cummins (1996) and others that an ESL student starting primary school with little or no English can take from 5–7 years to reach the same level of English as his or her age-equivalent peers. Adolescent students are generally able to make more rapid progress in language development in the initial stages than young children....all factors that need to be considered when teaching reading. --- On Thu, 28/5/09, demiller...@aol.com <demiller...@aol.com> wrote: From: demiller...@aol.com <demiller...@aol.com> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] How to teach comprehension to fluent reader To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Received: Thursday, 28 May, 2009, 12:57 AM Has anyone tested her reading comprehension in her native language? Cathy Title I Reading -----Original Message----- From: Emily Welch <ewe...@jones.k12.ar.us> To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Wed, 27 May 2009 10:07 am Subject: [MOSAIC] How to teach comprehension to fluent reader I am a third grade teacher with a class made up largely of English language learners . I have one student who has continuously challenged me this year. She is a fluent reader (latest assessment on a grade level text was 97% accuracy and 106 wcpm), but her comprehension is terrible. Even when I allow her to use a book to retell/answer questions/etc, she still struggles with even the most basic of comprehension skills. I have tried a variety of things throughout the year that my other students seem to benefit from, but I just haven't found what works for this particular student. Please let me know of any strategies you have found that work to help an already fluent reader comprehend what she is reading. Thank you!!! Emily Welch Third Grade Russell Jones Elementary _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. Need a Holiday? Win a $10,000 Holiday of your choice. Enter now.http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTJxN2x2ZmNpBF9zAzIwMjM2MTY2MTMEdG1fZG1lY2gDVGV4dCBMaW5rBHRtX2xuawNVMTEwMzk3NwR0bV9uZXQDWWFob28hBHRtX3BvcwN0YWdsaW5lBHRtX3BwdHkDYXVueg--/SIG=14600t3ni/**http%3A//au.rd.yahoo.com/mail/tagline/creativeholidays/*http%3A//au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/%3Fp1=other%26p2=au%26p3=mailtagline _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
