Tips and Ideas
English Language Learner (ELL) Students
Preparing Spanish Speakers for Stories in English
Read Naturally's Spanish levels are Spanish-language versions of sequenced levels 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5. This means they can be used to help Spanish-speaking students become familiar with the stories themselves before they tackle the English versions. Another way to use the Spanish levels is to develop Spanish-speaking students' fluency, bringing them to grade level in Spanish before having them focus on English.
Helping ELL Students With Unknown Words
ELL students should underline words they do not understand during the cold timing, read along, and practice steps. Teachers can then define the underlined words during the pass step, or require the students to look up the underlined words in the dictionary.
Ask students to underline unknown words during the cold reading and then alert you by turning up the red side of their card. Before the students begin reading along with the recording, stop and discuss the words with the students to be sure that they understand their meanings.
– From Jenifer Garlitz [Joliet, IL]
Using the Retell and Vocabulary Activities for ELL Students
There are several reasons ELL students benefit by retelling the information from the story orally. It improves their English; it gives teachers an opportunity to define difficult words and explain misconceptions; and it allows teachers to assess whether their students have understood what they read.
Offer your ELL students a choice between writing a retell or doing a vocabulary activity. If a student chooses the vocabulary activity, he or she selects a word that that was underlined during the cold reading, looks up that word in a dictionary, and writes the definition of the word as it was used in the story. Finally, the student writes an original sentence using that word.
– From Jenifer Garlitz [Joliet, IL]
