Strategies For Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

In chapter five, by Cris Tovani, “Why Am I Reading This” explains how educators need to establish a clear reading instructional plan. In order to accomplish understanding students need to concentrate on main ideas from the readings. Tovani explains that it is vital for teachers to model how students should hold their thinking or slow down their reading. Throughout the chapters she gives examples as question strategies, highlighting text, or summarizing key points. As this will benefit students in their reading assignment. Tovani also explains throughout the chapter that teachers should model thinking aloud. This strategy will benefit students on how to negotiate difficult text.

One of the first things that this author would do is to teach students how to make connections while reading. When students make personal connections with what they are reading by using their prior knowledge, it helps them to retain information. There are three main types of connections we make while reading text; we can make connections to what we are reading and our own experiences in life, we can make connections from one book to another (like reading a Nancy Drew book and reading a Trixie Belden book), and we can make connections to what we are reading and things that are going on in the world around us. By helping Jose learn to make connections while he reads, Jose will be able to more readily remember what he has read and make sense of it (Comprehension Strategies, n.d.).

The essential literacy strategy goes along with the standards and learning objectives by using context clues to help the student figure out unknown or unfamiliar words. Students will build reading comprehension skills by using context clues for figuring out unknown or unfamiliar words while they are reading. Then the students will perform the strategies individually. The related skills address the use of prior knowledge of synonyms and antonyms during the hook and transition portion of the lesson. The reading and writing connections go along with the learning objectives, because the students will read their assigned book and picking out words they do not understand. The students will have to write the sentence with the unknown word in it, and use context clues to figure out the definition of the unknown word. The central focus for this unit of study is for the students to use context clues to better their comprehension of what they have read in their assigned books. The students will be able to use context clues within sentences to determine the meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words. These lessons deal with comprehending text by using context clues to help figure out unknown words. The lessons build off each other by adding more detail to learning about context clues. As the lessons progress the students will be more independent when using context clues. The first lesson is learning about what context clues are. The second lesson will focus on using context clues to figure

When people read they often just skim through, “Although there are virtues to skimming, the vast majority of writing tasks you will encounter in college and in the workplace require your conversancy with material you have read.” (David Rosenwasser, of Home from Nowhere:Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century, as Rosenwasser defines, become conversant 107).

In “Writing to Read”, Graham and Hebert present the results of studies, which where thoroughly analyzed, in order to support the importance of writing instruction towards the development of reading skills. The report, however, was not created with the simple purpose of making an argument. Through the use of meta analysis, it recognizes the most effective approaches in order to aid teachers in developing and applying effective strategies.

As time goes on the familiarity with reading and writing is essential for an individual to better themselves in life, for the world we live in is a place for competition between every human to succeed. The value of literacy is not only for high-end people but anybody that want to gain knowledge. As one gains knowledge through literacy, it can extend toward one achieving their goals or achievements in life. The strategies when going over a reading assignment is a significant part of what one is trying to comprehend the text.

I will be comparing the gender agreement in Spanish and English. In Spanish all nouns are either feminine or masculine (La y El ) and the adjectives have to agree with the noun that is being described. So if the noun is masculine, the adjective must be masculine and if the same noun is as well plural, the adjective will be masculine and plural. For instance, “El libro”-masculine and plural, whereas “Los libros” is all parts masculine and plural as well. Looking at the English language one can see that it

Furthermore, sometimes educators may be challenged in recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of Latino English language learner student’s due to a lack of relationship between them. As stated by Campos et al (2011) that “collaboration with parents comes easy when they know you are genuinely interested in being a part of their community” (p. 102). For example, educators need to find ways to show their students and parents that they care about them outside of the school. Campos et al suggested two organizations and programs that are designed to promote student and family learning, specifically Latino English language learner. They are as following:

Throughout the eighth grade year, my reading comprehension and analysis skills have dramatically strengthened. First, my reading comprehension abilities have strengthened over the year because of the strong vocabulary that filled the books I read. The books that used advanced terminology were Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451 and Twelfth Night. Whenever I read a word I didn’t understand in these novels, I always searched for the definition. By using this effective reading strategy, I was able to strengthen my vocabulary while receiving a complete comprehension of the novel being analyzed. Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451 and Twelfth Night were both challenging novels to read because of their sophisticated vocabulary. However, these challenging

The role of metadiscourse markers and their explicit instruction in reading comprehension have been studied many research studies (e.g., Camiciottoli, 2003; Intaraprawat & Steffensen, 1995; Vande Kopple, 1985). Moreover, there are studies in Iran as well (e.g., Dastgoshadeh, 2001; Jalilifar & Alipour, 2007; Parvaresh & Nemati, 2008; Aidinlou & Vafaee, 2012; Jalififar & Shooshtari, 2011; Karimi, Tabrizi, Sadeghoghli, 2013; Gholami, Tajjali & Shokrpour,

Research over the years has highlighted the fact that highly proficient strategic readers employ strong metacognitive strategies and have a high degree of cognizance of the reading strategies they employ. To give a quick understanding of metacognition, one can think of it as the ability to take a bird’s eye view as to the processes involved in mental activities—frequently referred to by educators as thinking about thinking (Anderson, 2002, p.23). Because metacognition has proven to be vital to reading comprehension, most quality English as a second language (ESL) programs teach and model reading strategies in order to ensure better reading comprehension. Tools to measure metacognitive awareness are the MARSI (Metacognitive-Awareness-of-Reading Strategies Inventory) or the SORS (Survey of Reading Strategies) inventory. The SORS is intended for use with students who are post-secondary, whether native or non-native. This test is divided into three areas: Global reading strategies (GLOB), Problem-solving (PROB), and Support Reading Strategies (SUP) (Sheory & Mokhtari, 2001). Since academic preparedness in college students, especially international students, can be molded by socio-cultural factors, research as to the impact of culture on metacognition, particularly in reading strategy choice, is of interest. The improvement of reading comprehension for international students through the

Students having hard times in comprehending the thought of the text and what the author implies. It seems to be reading by words but not reading between the lines. It is important to know how comprehension plays an integral part in a manner of thinking and conceptualizing facts and ideas from the

Ms. Smith clearly is trying to format her class to better help teach Elsa English, but one fix that I would do that may help Elsa drastically would be to clarify directions in Spanish for her. Goldenberg explains “Probably the most obvious instructional modification is to use the primary language for clarification and explanation.” (Goldenberg, 2008, pg 12) Elsa often seems confused about questions asked of her, and this may often be because she isn’t quite sure of what is being asked of her. When we see Elsa shrug when asked a question, she may not not know the answer, she may just not understand the question. On an individual level, I would as a teacher explain as much as I could to her the directions in Spanish so that she wouldn’t be lost on the assignment’s directions.

“Skimming=Reading quickly for gist of a passage. A typical skimming task would be a general question from the teacher...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2005, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

In this information–driven age, preparing students to read a variety of texts with complete understanding should likely be one of our educational system’s highest priorities. Understanding is more than just the ability to produce information on demand (knowledge) or the ability to perform learned routines (skills). “Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows.” (Active Learning Practice for Schools, n. d.) A review of the literature in the area of reading comprehension of elementary-age students shows two principle areas of focus. There is a body of literature that examines the development of proficient vs. struggling comprehenders and another body of literature that compares methodologies for teaching