Hello to all my fellow teachers. My name is Jose Unamuno and today I'm going to talk to you about some close reading strategies for English language learners. Please leave me any feedback in the comments section. I really, really appreciate hearing from your guys. First of all, it's important to start with what we know about the ELL population in the United States. As of 2014, there were almost 5 million K to 12 ELL students in the United States. Some of the states were the largest number of ELL students are California, Texas, Florida, and New York, but many, many states are getting many ELL students every single day. Yellow students is among the highest growing student demographic in the United States and they come from everywhere in the world. There's a lot of language and cultural diversity. That's why it is so important to understand this population so we can know how to teach them and how to really satisfy their needs as students. So here we go. Let's talk about some strategies to help ELA students decode and understand complex text. First of all, we need to understand the concept of text complexity, then we're going to talk about academic vocabulary then we're going to talk about annotation strategies and lastly, we're going to make some recommendations for literacy development. So now we're going to talk about text complexity. Text complexity really deals with three different parts. The first part are the qualitative measures of the text. They include workout and scenting sentence length. The qualitative measures deal with levels of meaning, language features, structure of the text, and the knowledge demand. And the reader and task deals with the student with the actual reader doing the performing the task and what their ability is, what their literacy level is in English and in their native language as well. So the first strategy that we can use to teach our ELL students complex how to read complex text is by having them understand the academic vocabulary. That is going to be on the text before we actually have them read the text. This can be done through collaborative learning, I really, really enjoy doing an activity called Foursquare, which is a piece of paper, divided into four quadrants with a circle in the middle, the word goes in the middle, and then each one of the corners will be used as follow. The first corner is going to be used for a definition. The second corner is going to be for synonym for a synonym of that word, the corner is going to be using the warning context and the Latin the fourth corner is going to be used to have a graphic representation. My kids love doing this type of activities. They get a lot out of it. And if they collaborate with each other, they can help each other figure out what the work really means and what it means in different contexts. And after that, it is important that the student doesn't just put that sheet away or gives it to us for a grade, and then we just throw it out. What I like to do is I create a word wall where all of those words are going to go up, and they're going to be in displaying the room, so that students can be until happy about the work that they did. They feel proud about the work they did, but they can also go back and make refer to that work as time goes in case of they are not sure if they really understood the definition or if they completely forgot they can go back and look at it. So after we have had to work with the academic vocabulary for the particular lesson, I want to show you a good and efficient way of using annotation strategies. It is important to note that this can be used with paper and some highlighters or if you have your school has access to computers, you can use the word processing, software, or Google Docs, or Google read and write, whatever extension you decide to use. But this is the key that I really use for my students. I have them highlight the major points in the reading in yellow. Highlight unknown words and green. Highlight any questions that they have while the reading in pink and finally highlight saying so surprise you. In blue. So here we have an example of an extra from an article from new cella, the title of the article is cloned, baby monkeys in China have been introduced to the new world. What I'm going to show you right now is how to show your students or how to model for your students, how you think as a reader, when you're reading the text. So I'm going to go ahead and read it for you, and I'm going to stop at different times, and use the highlighting tool. Actually, I'm going to use the underlining tool in this program because it doesn't allow me to highlight for some reason. But I'm going to show you how I would underline with the different colors and how we show my kids how to go through this excerpt. So the excerpt stars New York, New York, for the first time, scientists have used cloning to create two healthy monkeys. Right at the bat, I think that it is important to really underline all of that first sentence, because this is something that it's the first time that it happened. So our kids would definitely shoot understand that this and one of the major points of what the reading is going to be. Then the second paragraph says a clone is a man-made copy of a leaving thing. So right here we have a definition, okay? So maybe you have a question about that definition because you'd really don't understand what is it about that man-made copy. So you would underline that in pink, which in this case is not really paying because I don't have pink, I have purple. But on the highlighters, if you use some regular highlighters, pancake sits. So we continue. When one animal is a clone of another, it is not the same animal, but it has exactly the same genes. So some students may not know what genes are. So that is an unknown word. So we get the color green, and we would underline the word genes. It is similar to the way identical twins, twins share the same genes. Even though they are two different individuals. Genes are made of DNA, which contains the instructions that determine how a living being gross and develops. Again, another word that some students may not know is DNA. So that's one that we would underline. And then the last part, the last paragraph says the two female baby macaque monkeys are now about 8 or 9 and 9 weeks old. They are named Zhong Zhong and hua hua. So another word that we don't know, actually, we may not know what the word means, but a macaque monkeys. You may have a question about that. So we go back to the pink and the cinema have a question about that. And then we will go back and say, well, what's surprised me about this reading? Well, the idea that for the first time scientists use cloning to create two healthy monkeys, that would be really surprising for many of our kids, right? So we could use two different colors to underline that. So here's just an example, and you can use this really in any type of class. You can use it even in your math class. You can use it in your science class. It is just important that you reinforce reading in your class for ELL students because they tend to struggle with it. And especially while they're learning English and they're more the more that they can read in English, hopefully the more we get to develop those literacy skills in English as well. So this is what a good way to have them do it. Again, you can do it in any subject area. And you can use, you can do it in the computer, or you can do it in pen and paper, the old school way. So after we've done the activity and our kids have worked really, really hard on reading and decoding and highlighting the activity, it is not enough just for them to turn it in for a grade. And that's it. And we do nothing with it. Actually, there's where the real important part of the whole thing comes the whole strategy comes through because we need to really work and make sure that our students on really understood that all the different parts of the reading. So you could model for them on how you think and the way that I did for you and the example. You can actually do a think pair share, whether students will collaboratively, and they have to talk to each other, which is another way of developing their speaking and listening skills. And they usually work really, really well in my classroom and then have a small group and even a whole class discussion about the text where you and the teacher will conduct the discussion and then let them kind of have a debate or a socratic seminar or however you want to conduct it in your classroom. But it is important that this just doesn't become the work that they did on the sheet of paper, just doesn't become basically work for them to complete something. It's important that we talk about it and that we reinforce the different concepts that we may be teaching them and cover it and asking them stand their base questions that we may be covering. So that's the important part after they have highlighted the things that we wanted them to highlight on the text. So for the last part of this video, what I wanted to share were a few literacy development recommendations. The first one is to try to read daily. It doesn't really matter what subject area you teach. Reading is extremely important for all of our kids. One thing that I like to model for my kids is metacognition, which is thinking about thinking, how do I think about this text? What is my thinking process while I read? And I find that kids tend to imitate the things that I say and do and when I give them sample sentences, they tend to use them. So kids want to copy what I do. Another thing to do is give your students reading choices based on their interests. And again, these can go across all the different subject areas. It does not reading should not be part of their reading class or their history class or their English language art class. Students should be reading in all the different subject areas about all different topics. So that they can connect those different ideas from all the content areas. Another important thing is know your students literacy level in the native language. And there are so there is so much research that shows that the more literacy ability that they have in their native language, that transfer of skills will transfer into English as well. So if we have a student who is fluent in Spanish and has native language, there's nothing wrong with that student reading Spanish text as well. Text our own Spanish. So that those literacy skills actually do transfer when they are developing their English language skills. Then listen to them. Listen to what their preferences are and look at what their interests are, listen to maybe their concerns and I'd argue, be an advocate for them. I know of many of my ELL students that really have nobody to talk to, not only because of every language barrier, but because they don't feel comfortable yet, especially if they're new to the school. And finally, my fellow teachers, make sure that you celebrate their successes, you know? And I know that sometimes it feels like we're going two steps back, but who are yesterday, but tomorrow will go and step 6 steps forward and you have to celebrate with them. You have to, they love a celebration, a high 5, a piece of candy. And show them your love for reading, show you and your love for literacy, and I am sure that your kids would love you so much in return and they are going to get all the knowledge that I know that you're offering to them on a daily basis. Thank you so much. And again, comment below and what you like and the strategy that were used and how you use them in your classroom because I'm eager to learn from you as well. Thank you.
Close Reading Strategies for ELL Students
Hello Tommy Macolan Teachers, my name is Jose Umanuno, and today I am going to talk to you about some Close Reading Strategies for English Language Learners. <br>
Please leave me any feedback in the comment section. I really really appreciate hearing from you guys. <br>
First of all, it is important to talk about what we know about the ELL Population in the United States. <br>
As of 2014, there were almost 5 million K-12 ELL Population in the United States.<br>
Some of the states with the largest number of ELLs are California, Texas, Florida and New York. <br>
With many many states are getting more ELL students every single day. <br>
ELL students are among the high demographic students in the United States.<br>
And they come from everywhere in the world. A lot of language and cultural diversity.<br>
That is why it is so important to understand this population so that we can know how to teach them, and how to really satisfy their needs as students.<br>
So here we go. Let?s talk about some strategies to help ELL students decode and understand complex texts.<br>
First of all, we need to understand the concept of text complexity. <br>
Then, we are going to talk about Academic Vocabulary.<br>
Then, we are going to talk about Annotation Strategies. <br>
And lastly, we are going to make some recommendations for Literacy Development.<br>
For now, we are going to talk about Text Complexity.<br>
Text Complexity really deals with 3 different parts.<br>
First part, are the quantitative measures of the text. They include word count and sentence length.<br>
And qualitative measures deal with levels of meaning, language features, structure, and the knowledge demand.<br>
And the reader and tasks deals with the student of the actual reader performing the tasks and what their ability is, what their literacy level is in English and in their native language, as well.<br>
So the first strategy we use for our ELL students on how to read complex text is to have them understand the academic vocabulary that is going on the text before we have them actually read the text.<br>
This can be done through collaborative learning. <br>
I really really enjoy doing an activity called Four Square which is a piece of paper divided into four quadrants with a circle in the middle that will work those in the middle and then each one of the corners will be used as follows.<br>
The first corner is going to be used for Definition.<br>
The second corner is going to be for Synonym.<br>
The third corner is going to be introducing the word in Context.<br>
And the fourth corner is going to be used to have a graphic reference. <br>
My kids love doing this kinds of activities. They get a lot out of it.<br>
And if they collaborate with each other, they can help each other figure out what the word really means and what it means in different context.<br>
And after that, it is important that the students doesn?t just put that sheet away or gets it to us when it?s right and then just throw it out. What I like to do is that I create a word wall were all of those words are going to go up and they are going to be displayed in the room so that students can be happy about the work they just did and become proud of the work they did. But they can also go back and refer to that work as time goes incase if they are not sure if they really understood the definition or if they completely forgot, they can go back and look at it. <br>
So after we have had the work for the Academic Vocabulary or the particular lesson, I?m going to show you an official way of using Annotation Strategies. It is important to note that this can be used with a paper, and so highlighters or if your school has access to computers, you can use the word processing software or google docs or google reader write or whatever extension you decide to use.<br>
But this is the key that I really use for my students, I have them highlight the reading points in their reading in Yellow. Highlight unknown words in Green. Highlight any questions that they have while reading in Pink. And finally, Highlight things that surprise them in Blue. <br>
So here we have an example of an excerpt from an article from Newsela. The title of the article is ?Cloned baby monkeys in China have been introduced to the world.?<br>
What I?m going to show you right now is how to show your students. Or how to model for your students how you think as a reader when you are reading the text. <br>
So I?m going to go ahead and read it for you and I?m going to stop at different times, and use the highlighting tool. Actually, I?m going to use the underlining tool just because it doesn't allow me to highlight, for some reason. But I?m going to show you how I would underline with the different colors. How to go through this excerpt. <br>
So the excerpt starts: <br>
NEW YORK, New York - For the first time, scientists have used cloning to create two healthy monkeys. <br>
Right out the bat, it is important to really underline all of that first sentence. Because it?s something that it?s the first time that it happened. So our kids should understand that this is one of the major points of what the reading is going to be. <br>
Then, the second paragraph says?<br>
A clone is a man-made copy of a living thing. <br>
So right here we have a definition. Maybe you have a question about that definition, because you might not understand what it is about that ?man-made copy.? You would underline that in pink, which in this case is not really pink. I don?t have pin, I have purple. But if you use some regular highlighter, pink exists. <br>
So you would: <br>
When one animal is a clone of another, it is not the same animal but it has exactly the same gene. <br>
So some students may not know what genes are. So that is an unknown word. So we get the color Green and we would underline the word Genes.<br>
It is similar to the way identical twins share the same genes, even though they are two different individuals. Genes are made of DNA, which contains the instructions that determine how a living being grows and develops. <br>
Again, another word that some students may not know is DNA. So that is one that we would underline. <br>
And then the last paragraph says:<br>
The two female baby macaque monkeys are now about 8 to 9 weeks old. They are named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua. <br>
Actually, you may not know what the word macaque means but macaque monkeys, you may have a question about that. So we go back to pink and soon we may have a question about that.<br>
And then we may go back and say what surprise me about this reading.<br>
Well the idea that for the first time scientist have used cloning to create two healthy monkeys. That would be really surprising for many of our kids, right? So we could use two different colors to underline that. <br>
Here?s just an example. You can use this really in any type of class. You can use it even in your math class. You can use it in your science class. It is just important that you reinforce reading in your class for ELL students because they tend to struggle with it. Especially while they are learning English. And the more that they can read in English, hopefully, the more we get to develop those literacy skills in English, as well. <br>
This is a good way to have them do it. Again, you can do it at any subject area. And you can do it in the computer or you can do it in pen and paper the old school way. <br>
So after we have done the activity, and our kids have done really well with reading and decoding and highlighting the activity, it is not enough for them to just turn it in for a grade and we do nothing with it. There?s were the whole strategy comes through because we need to really work and make sure that our students really understood all the different parts of the reading. So, you can model for them on how you think in the way that I did for you in the example. You can actually do a think-pair-share and work with students collaboratively. And they have to talk to each other, which is another way of developing their speaking and listening skills. And they usually works really well in my classroom . And then have a small group and even a whole class discussion about the text, where you, the teacher, will conduct the discussion, and then let them have a debate or examine of however you want to conduct it in your classroom. But what is important that the work they do doesn?t become a base in work for them to complete something. It is important that we talk about it and that we reinforce the different concepts that we may be teaching them and ask them standard based questions that we may be covering. So that?s the important part after they have highlighted the things that we wanted them to highlight on the text. <br>
So, for the last part of this video, what I wanted to share were a few literacy development recommendations.<br>
The first one is to try to ready daily. It doesn?t really matter what subject area you teach. Reading is extremely important for all of our kids. <br>
One thing I really like to model for my kids is metacognition which is thinking about thinking. How I think about this text. What is my thinking process while I read. And I find that kids tend to imitate the kind of things that I say and do. When I give them sample sentences, they tend to use them. So kids want copy what I do. <br>
Another thing to do is give your kids reading choices based on their interests. And again, this can go across all the different subject areas. Reading should not just be part of their reading class or their history class or their English Literature class. Students should be reading in all the different subject areas. In all different topics so that they can connect those different ideas from all the content areas.<br>
Another important thing is to know your student?s literacy level in their Native Language. <br>
There is so much research that shows that the more literacy ability that they have in their native language, that transfer of skills will transfer into English, as well. So, if we have a student who is fluent in say Spanish, in his native language, there is nothing wrong with students reading Spanish texts, as well. Those literacy skills actually do transfer when they are developing their English language skill. <br>
Then, listen to them. <br>
Listen to what their preferences are and look at what their interests are.Listen to maybe, their concerns. And I argue, be an advocate for them. I know many of my ELL students that really have nobody to talk to. Not only because of their language barrier but because they don?t feel comfortable. Especially if they are new to the school. <br>
And finally, my fellow teachers, make sure you celebrate your successes.<br>
I know that sometimes it feels that we?re going to steps back from where we were yesterday, but tomorrow we?ll going take six steps forward. And you have to celebrate it then. They love a celebration. A high five. A piece of candy.Show them your love for reading. Show them your love for literacy. And I am sure that your kids will love you so much in return. And they are going to get all the knowledge that I know you are offering to them on a daily basis. <br>
Thank you so much and again, comment below in what you like and the strategies that were used and how you use them in your classroom because I?m eager to learn from you, as well.
