Reading

I have several very low level readers in 5th grade that need books at their reading level. I have difficulty locating books for these students. The ones we are using seem to be too childish. Where can I find resources to use with these older students?

One resource that might be very helpful for you is a book called Leveled Books for Readers Grades 3-6, by Fountas and Pinnell. It lists over 6,000 books and gives the author, reading level, publisher, and genre of each. The genres that are included are: "traditional literature," "realistic fiction," "historical fiction," "science fiction," "fantasy," "biography," and "information book." The nonfiction listings in particular might be a good fit for your students. You may find that many of the books listed are available in your school's library or in your local public library.

Also, check out the publishers of what are called "high interest/low readability" texts. These are books that are written on a first to third grade reading level but treat themes and topics that are of interest to students of middle school or high school age. An internet search will yield a variety of publishers that specialize in this type of text.

What are some fun ways to teach sight words to K-2 ELLs?

Word banks are a great way to teach sight words, especially for ELLs who are also working on building English vocabulary, and there are lots of ways to use word banks that are really fun for kids.

A word bank is a child's individual collection of known words, written on small cards and kept together in a bag or envelope so that the child can read them and play with them regularly. To collect word bank words, choose 6-10 words from each book a child reads and print them neatly on small cards. The words can represent the specific phonics features the child is studying, or they can be high frequency words, such as "what" or "then." The word cards for each book can be kept in a pocket that has been glued to the inside cover of the book so that the same cards can be used again and again with different children.

After a child has read the book at least two or three times, take out the word cards and see which ones the child can read automatically, that is, without having to spend time decoding. For each word that is read automatically, make a new word card, and add it to the child's personal word bank. As new books are read, repeat the process, adding new words to the word bank.

The word bank then becomes a source for familiar words that can be used in a variety of ways:

• Play Concentration — make a duplicate set of cards. Take turns turning cards up two at a time to find matches.
• Play Bingo — make cards with selected words from the word bank in the boxes. Call out words, and as each is read, have the child cover it with a token. Then switch places, and have the child call out the words as you cover them.
• Play Pick-Up — lay out 6-10 words from the word bank. Have the child pick up the words you name or describe. For example, "Pick up the words that rhyme with 'bat.'" or "Pick up the words that start like 'top.'"
• Do Word Sorts — find words in the child's word bank that have something in common, either related to meaning or to word features. Take out two or three groups of such words, and have the child sort them. For example, have the child sort words that refer to animals as compared to words that refer to plants, or words that start like "which" as compared to words that start like "that."

Where can I find resources to teach high school ELLs in both English and Spanish literacy? My students are native Spanish speakers who read below a 4th grade level in Spanish.

For many years, a variety of American publishing companies have offered what are called "high interest/low readability" texts in English. These are books that are written on a first to third grade reading level, but treat themes and topics that are of interest to students of middle school or high school age.

Currently, some publishers are offering this type of text in Spanish, as well. As a result of the increased emphasis throughout the U.S. on standardized content area testing, many of these texts are on nonfiction topics that would be of interest even to adult audiences. These include books on such topics as the sciences, health issues, and U.S. history and government.

• Rourke Publishing offers various texts on U.S. history written on a fourth grade level in Spanish.
• AGS Publishing has also recently introduced a U.S. government textbook in Spanish written on a fourth grade level.
• Continental Book Company has a wide variety of books in Spanish, as well as bilingual English/Spanish books, including a large selection of dual language biographies written on a third grade level.

You should also take a look at the Lectorum website, which is Scholastic's Spanish site. Although many of the books are clearly for young children, you can also find "high/low" titles that would appeal to your students.

Publishers of materials for high school level Spanish as a second language classes might also be a good source. Glencoe, for example, has a "Journeys to Adventure" series and a "Señor Pepino" series that might work well with your students.

Also, be sure to check out the Educators Page on the Colorín Colorado website. You will find lots of outstanding resources there. Also, be sure to check out the Web Resources, where you will find links to many other excellent sites.

How can you explain to ELLs who are just starting to read why the capital "I" looks the same as a lower case "L"? Even on a keyboard they sometimes type the "I" as a lower case "L".

This can be confusing for any beginning reader, and English language learners may have particular difficulty since the sounds that these letters make in English may also be very unfamiliar to them. Nevertheless, I think that this situation provides an excellent opportunity for your students to work on both letter recognition and sound-letter correspondence. For example, you might create an area on the classroom wall for collecting words that begin with "i" and words that begin with "l."

For each letter, make a card that has the letter written in upper and lower case, along with a picture of a familiar object whose name begins with that letter. Use these cards as headers for two columns on the wall. Students can then become detectives, keeping an eye out for "i" and "l" words as they read.

As each word is encountered, write it clearly on a large card and then have one or more students add an illustration. The card should then be placed on the wall under the appropriate header.

As new words are added, have students read through both lists orally. The illustrations will provide a scaffold for those who have difficulty with the words. The class can also discuss how the word is written in the source text, giving an opinion on whether they think the "i" or "l" is written correctly, using the cards on the word wall as a reference. I think your students will enjoy becoming "letter experts!"

Where can I find a list of suggested titles in Spanish for independent or shared reading?

Fortunately, you can now find lots of great children's books in Spanish that are perfect for shared or independent reading. The Colorín Colorado website provides a wonderful list of Recommended Books for Children. There is a brief description of each, as well as a recommended age level. You will also find links to several other sites that have either Spanish language books or books about Hispanic culture or heritage. One of these sites, for example is Críticas, an online magazine designed primarily to provide librarians with information on the latest good books in Spanish. Each month, there are several reviews of Spanish-language books for children, and you can also access an archive that has all the reviews from the past year.

Please see the list below of several publishers who also offer classroom sets of leveled "little books" in Spanish:

• Hampton Brown
• Dominie Press
• Scholastic

Many of the ELLs in my class are able to decode English text, but continue to struggle with reading comprehension. How can I help them develop comprehension skills?

It is important to remember that comprehension instruction does not just occur after reading is completed. Assigning "comprehension questions" for students to answer after they have read a passage may test comprehension, but this is not a strategy that teaches comprehension. In order to be effective, comprehension instruction must include activities that occur before, during, and after reading.

The goals of "before reading" activities are to activate prior knowledge and to provide a purpose for reading. Research suggests that the brain stores information in a series of schemata, or mental frameworks. The more we know about a particular subject, the more complex our schema for that subject becomes. For example, an adult would probably have a very well-developed schema for the topic "income taxes" while a third grader would probably have a very limited schema for that topic. Effective "before reading" activities help access and expand students' schemata for the topic being studied. Anticipation Guides, ABC Brainstorming, and Carousel Brainstorming are three excellent strategies for before reading (See links below).

"During reading" activities teach students to monitor their comprehension as they read and help them to focus their attention on important ideas, themes, and vocabulary. English language learners who are having difficulty with English comprehension, like most struggling readers, often do not self-monitor. Instead, they continue to make their way through the words of a passage, even when they don't understand what they are reading. Activities that cause students to stop and make sure they understand what the passage is saying can be extremely helpful to these students. Some excellent examples are the Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) and journaling.

"After reading" activities encourage students to synthesize and reflect upon what they have read and to organize the information they have gathered in a logical and meaningful way. There are a number of graphic organizers that can be used effectively as after reading activities. Class discussion and writing activities are especially effective after reading strategies.

Here are some useful links on comprehension strategies:

• Guided Comprehension: Previewing Using an Anticipation Guide
• Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Carousel Brainstorm
• Strategies for Reading Comprehension: ABC Brainstorm
• Write Design Online: Graphic Organizers
• Writing Teaching Strategies
• Directed Reading/Thinking Activity (DRTA) * This link will open a PDF document.

Does it help if my ELLs know how to read in Spanish?

It helps immensely if your students know how to read in Spanish and have content area knowledge in Spanish. Several skills can easily transfer from one language to the other. Research tells us that when your students are fully literate in Spanish, they will learn how to read in English more quickly and will transfer some of their literacy skills from Spanish to English.

ELLs do this particularly at the beginning stages of English proficiency; they lean on their Spanish knowledge to analyze patterns in English. It is very important to allow ELLs to transfer these skills and express themselves in the language they know best. They will rely less on this transfer as they become proficient and comfortable in English.

ELLs who are not literate in Spanish take longer to learn English. There are a number of factors that can help speed up their process of learning to read in English. These factors include how much time you spend on daily reading, the reading strategies you use to teach ELLs, how much reading is done at home, and how much help you receive from the ELLs' parents or guardians.

I have a first grade student who speaks both English and Spanish perfectly, but has trouble with written work in English. His parents are worried that being bilingual is holding him back. Should they start speaking English to him at home?

Many students who are English language learners have difficulty with reading and writing in English, even after they seem to be speaking the language fluently. This is in part because of limited vocabulary. Although they may have a large vocabulary when you consider all the words they know in their two languages combined, their English vocabulary may be less extensive than that of a native speaker. In addition, students who are quite fluent in conversational English, or the type of informal English used in everyday social situations, may still experience difficulty with the more formal "academic English" of the classroom.

Although your student seems to have developed a relatively high level of conversational fluency in English, it is not unusual for him to need extra help with written assignments, especially those that have a high language load. The Educators section of the Colorín Colorado Web site has lots of information on how to provide scaffolding for English language learners as they work to develop their language skills. Also check out the For Families section for articles in Spanish that you can share with your student's parents to help them understand how to help their son.

Regarding the question of which language to use at home, research suggests that all children benefit from having a rich language environment at home, and for bilingual children, that often means an environment in which a language other than English is spoken. Encourage your student's parents to spend time talking with their son and reading to him in whichever language they feel most comfortable. The skills he develops in his home language will provide a foundation for developing language and literacy skills in English.

How do I help ELL first graders who have difficulty remembering sight words? How is it different to learn sight words in a new language than in your native language?

In first grade, the beginning reader is faced with the task of learning to match sound to print. This can be particularly difficult for English language learners, who are often trying to make sense of sound-letter correspondences when they are not familiar with the sounds themselves. ELLs often have particular difficulty with sounds that are not part of their first language's phonology. Spanish speakers may have problems reading and spelling English words that have short vowel sounds because most of the English short vowel sounds are not found in Spanish. For example, the /a/ sound in the English word "hat" and the /u/ sound in "cut" are both sounds that do not occur in Spanish words. Because of differences such as these, ELLs may acquire skills in a manner that seems out of order when compared to native English speakers. While English speakers characteristically master short vowel sounds before long vowel sounds in both reading and spelling, Spanish-dominant ELLs may master the more familiar-sounding long vowels first. English language learners may also be accustomed to hearing English spoken by non-native speakers, making it even more difficult for them to sort out the sound-letter correspondences.

Although it is certainly a challenge when you have multiple languages in your classroom, the more you can learn about your students' first languages, the better you will be able to understand the mistakes they make in English. If individual students fail to respond, try working with them first on sounds that are the same in English as in their first language (Gutiérrez-Clellen, 1999; Helman, 2004). If problems persist, you may need to administer a literacy assessment in order to rule out the possibility of a specific reading disability. The best approach is to assess the child's phonological awareness and literacy skills in his/her primary language, as well as in English. If assessment in the primary language reveals appropriate literacy development, then the child's problems with reading in English probably result from a lack of English proficiency. On the other hand, if literacy development is not on schedule in the primary language or in English, this would suggest a reading deficit rather than simply a lack of English language development (Durgunoglu, 2002).

Where can I find resources to teach high school ELLs in both English and Spanish literacy? My students are native Spanish speakers who read below a 4th grade level in Spanish.

For many years, a variety of American publishing companies have offered what are called "high interest/low readability" texts in English. These are books that are written on a first to third grade reading level but treat themes and topics that are of interest to students of middle school or high school age.

Currently, some publishers are offering this type of text in Spanish as well. As a result of the increased emphasis throughout the U.S. on standardized content area testing, many of these texts are on nonfiction topics that would be of interest even to adult audiences. These include books on such topics as the sciences, health issues, and U.S. history and government.

• Rourke Publishing offers various texts on U.S. history written on a fourth grade level in Spanish.
• AGS Publishing has also recently introduced a U.S. government textbook in Spanish written on a fourth grade level.
• Continental Book Company has a wide variety of books in Spanish, as well as bilingual English/Spanish books, including a large selection of dual language biographies written on a third grade level.

You should also take a look at the Lectorum website, which is Scholastic's Spanish site. Although many of the books are clearly for young children, you can also find "high/low" titles that would appeal to your students.

Publishers of materials for high school level Spanish as a second language classes might also be a good source. Glencoe, for example, has a "Journeys to Adventure" series and a "Señor Pepino" series that might work well with your students.

Also, be sure to check out the Educator's Page on the Colorín Colorado website. You will find lots of outstanding resources there, and if you click on Web Resources, you will find links to many other excellent sites.