Reading ESOL Strategies
- Grace Hajj
- Oct 5, 2015
- 5 min read
Strategy 1: Vocabulary Role Play
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.4 Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
When reading with your students, it is always helpful to stop along the way and ask them questions about what they or you are reading. Are there any difficult or new vocabulary words that you need to clarify to them? If so, write the words on the board or somewhere the students can see. Talk about the words with the students, and encourage them to ask you any questions they may have. Relate the words to anything the students are familiar with in their prior experiences, and then take it a step further. Divide the students into groups and have them act out a few of the words they have just learned. Besides the kinesthetic approach to learning this provides for the students, it also gives the teacher opportunities to point out to the students the differences in which the words were used in the different groups. This helps to show the various contexts for vocabulary words.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
More Info:
http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/iosceola/tsl/NabelVocabRoleplay.htm
Strategy 2: Read - Aloud Plus
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
This strategy involves the teacher reading to the students. Before reading to the class, look for different visual aides or digital sources you can use to help instill concepts and ideas into the students' minds. For example, providing a simple PowerPoint with pictures that correlate to the flow of the story will help present the story in more than one way that the students can understand. Then, read the text to the students, explaining that they will be participating in follow-up activities after. After reading through the story and using appropriate visuals, have the students provide feedback by using technology to find correlating pictures or drawing pictures based on scenes from the story.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
Strategy 3: Picture-Walk
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
When reading with your ELLs, ensure that all students have access to or can see the book that is being read. Before and during reading, point to pictures or illustrations and talk about what is happening in the scene. Ask the students how they think these visuals correlate to the story and what the meaning may be behind them. This helps to teach students how pictures aid in telling a story and that we can synthesize meaning by looking at the pictures.
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/511-breiseth.aspx
Strategy 4: Total Physical Response and Total Physical Response Storytelling
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
LAFS.K12.R.1.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
This strategy helps to bring reading to life in a way that can students can actively perform to help instill what they are learning through action. First, pick vocabulary words for the students to know throughout the lesson, and then introduce it in a gradual process. Have them act out what they know until it is clear they understand, then give additional commands and have them respond in more ways. If using this strategy with storytelling, have students act out what they gained from a story and tell their own stories through pantomime. This helps put reading in a fun and understandable light.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
Strategy 5: Shared Reading
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
LAFS.K.RI.1.2
With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
To implement this strategy, start out by introducing the book to the students before reading, and when reading the book, use a pointer as you read words so the students can follow where you are and understand the concepts of print. Discuss and predict what is happening and what will happen with the students, and encourage them to talk among themselves about what they are learning through the text. At the end, reread to instill concepts further, and have students read it themselves and answer questions about the main idea of the story.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
Strategy 6: Close Reading
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
LAFS.2.RI.2.6
Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
Using this strategy enables the teacher to show students how to correctly determine the main idea of what they are reading. The teacher should demonstrate by reading aloud, stopping to talk about new words, interesting word combinations, and different characteristics of the plot. Then, the students should be given short reading texts that fit their individual levels as they are asked questions and documented on their different strengths and weaknesses to help know how to better instruction. Students should be told that it is necessary to pose good questions as they read, and if necessary be ready to reread the text to find even more meaning. Through this strategy, students will know how to better discover new meaning in the texts they are given in class.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
Strategy 7: Repeated Reading
ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
LAFS.2.RI.1.2
Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
Through effective reading skills, students will be able to comprehend the general idea of what they reading and be able to retain the concepts they read. The teacher can enable this by picking a book that appeals to everyone in the classroom and caters to their different development levels. After reading the book aloud, the teacher can demonstrate to the student hthe different ways that dialogue can be written out in texts. Then, show the students how to create their own dialogue that goes along with the story they just read. Once the scripts are completed, the students will practice reading the script and then act out the script, as the teacher observes to see how much the students retained and demonstrated in their skit.
Herrell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners (5th ed.). N.p.: Pearson.
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