Week: 5
Chapter: 5
Levi - Rigorous Researcher
This chapter of Latino Children Learning English focused on the students' ability to retell the stories The Three Little Pigs and/or The Three Bears. The focus of this part of the study was on the amount of English that each student was able to successfully use in their retellings. The retellings from the two or three years that each child participated in one-on-one English were compared.
This chapter did not focus on comprehension of the stories. Rather, it focused on the students' abilities to use the pictures as a framework for their retelling. It is not within the scope of the one-on-one English study to discuss comprehension, so I thought I would explore ways in which teachers could teach and assess ELLs comprehension.
The first article I found talks about using CD-ROM storybooks (although today we might use something slightly more technologically advanced) to teach ELLs how to read. Pearman (2008) suggests that using interactive storybooks can allow students to use less cognitive power on comprehension in order to concentrate on decoding the English words. This is possible because of the interactive pictures, video clips, animations, and sound effects. Once the students have begun to develop their decoding skills they will rely less and less on the pictures and other built in features. This type of program can be used to scaffold comprehension, but could allow the student to rely on the animations and other features as a crutch when reading, thus not allowing the student to be able to transfer their skills to books. I believe that if used carefully and correctly this program could provide ELLs with a fun interactive way to expand their English language understanding.
The second article I found talks about utilizing comic strips to enhance language output. Zimmerman (2008) suggests that using comic strips allows students to creatively express themselves in both pictures and words (L2). I believe that the creation of comic strips could also be used for comprehension. A student could retell a story by creating a comic strip. The use of speech bubbles would allow the student to use language to help tell the story. I believe that this tactic of drawing pictures might work with older students with little L2 output. Students could still show understanding and comprehension ability without needing to use L2 to show their understanding.
I think that both of these tactics are fairly abstract. Do you think that they would be useful in helping ELLs to feel more comfortable at the beginning of their English learning journey?
Pearman, C. J. (2008). Independent reading of cd-rom storybooks: Measuring comprehension with oral retellings. The Reading Teacher, 61(8), 594-602.
Zimmerman, B. (2008). Creating comics foster reading, writing, and creativity. The Education Digest, 74(4), 55-57.
I think both these tactics are great! I especially like the idea of using comics to tell a story. I have a similar connection to this in my own work. At my school the students are physically, intellectually, and emotionally disabled. When teaching reading strategies, different methods need to be used. Throughout the school, teachers utilize a program called “board maker.” This program allows for picture symbols to be assigned to different words to help in reading the words—it serves as a clue to the making of the “letter word.” I think methods you discussed would be great to utilize in a situation with ELL students. I also believe paring the comic strategy with a “board maker” article would help for beginning reading students of English because the language phonetically is difficult to comprehend. I believe these strategies would indeed benefit ELL student but should not be relied on solely. I can see all too easily a student being hindered because of the reliance on these strategies.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using audio books because they allow me to be able to point to the words in the book and watch the students, because I am not the person reading. Also, I know that the words will be pronounced correctly, whereas if I had a student read the book I wouldn't be able to become distracted with another student while listening to the student who is reading.
ReplyDeleteI have used comic strips before with ESOL students and they loved it, at first I made the comic book portraying a WWII battle and my ESOL student enjoyed having so many visuals (they don't a lot of them at the secondary level). With a different assignment I had my students make their own comic strip and they had fun with that, and you are right, it was a way for me to assess their knowledge.