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This section contains recommendations and reviews for books. Some focus on members of multicultural populations while others have a broader range.

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This section contains materials for instructors who are helping students with disabilities as they work on their literacy skills. The following resources are a mix of strategies, guidelines, and activities to supplement classroom instruction.

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This section contains links to resources to support ELL students with their literacy skills. There are games and strategies included to increase student success over time in the classroom.

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This section contains resources to help students develop literacy skills. There are strategies,tips, and exercises that are for instructors who want to build those skills in their students.

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This section contains ebooks and audiobooks that are for students with disabilities. Though there is a process involved with getting students access to these materials, they are of no cost to the student to use.

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This section contains links to ebooks that are written in different languages. The resources are for student use and are available 24/7.

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This section contains links to websites for ebooks and audiobooks. The resources provide students with materials that they can use at school and home.

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Disability in Kidlit is a website that focuses on portrayals of disability in literature. The site offers recommendations, reviews, and interviews with authors. Posts can be filtered by specific disabilities.

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Disability in Kidlit - Reviews, articles, and more about the portrayal of disabilities in children's fiction

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Despite some reservations, our reviewer would recommend this contemporary novel about young Bat - and the reviewer's ten-year-old goddaughter agrees.

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Lee & Low is a website that provides information for users seeking multicultural books. There are teacher guides, lesson plans, books available for purchase, and other resources.

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About Us

Lee & Low Books is the largest multicultural children's book publisher in the country. We are also one of the few minority-owned publishing companies in the United States.

Founded in 1991, we have always been family-owned and independent, which means we publish what we want and aren't afraid to take risks. Our books have won major awards including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the NAACP Image Award, and many more.

Lee & Low Books is committed to publishing diverse books that are about everyone, for everyone. We are dedicated to cultural authenticity, and we make a special effort to work with new authors and illustrators of color.

We publish multicultural children's books for every age, including leveled books for beginning readers, picture books, early chapter books, middle grade, and young adult books. We also publish a wide selection of bilingual and Spanish language books.

Visit our testimonials page to see some of the people and organizations who support our work!

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Lee & Low Books is the largest multicultural children's book publisher in the United States. We are your diversity source.

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Kirkus Reviews is a free website where users can find book reviews for children's books. Reviews can be filtered by subgenre and/or age of reader.

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Book reviews, recommendations, and the latest literary news from the most trusted voice in book discovery, Kirkus Reviews

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Literacy for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss

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Literacy for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss

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Literacy for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss is a free website for educators who work with students who are visually and/or hearing impaired. The site was developed by NCDB (National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness) staff and educators. The site offers various research and strategies for developing literacy skills for this population of students.

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As reading and writing skills develop, students spend more time reading on their own for education and pleasure. Reading provides a way to gather information and to learn about the thoughts, opinions, and feelings of others. Writing allows students to show what they know and feel, and to be creative…

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Teaching LD is a resource that was developed for the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) which is a special interest group of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). The website contains tutorials, practice guides, videos and other resources that educators can use to help students with learning disabilities enrich their literacy skills. Some resources are free and others available through membership to the DLD and CEC.

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Information & Resources for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities

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Kids Can't Wait: Strategies to Support Struggling Readers

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Kids Can't Wait: Strategies to Support Struggling Readers

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Kids Can't Wait is an article from a website that primarily focuses on students with dyslexia. This resource is a series of strategies for helping students who haven't been officially diagnosed with a learning disability but currently are experiencing difficulties with reading.

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Strategies to Support Struggling Readers Which Don't Require a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology

I have a confession to make. It involves a basic failure on my behalf. What's worse, my failure impacted students whom I care deeply about: students with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges. It involved waiting for test results before putting accommodations in place for students who were struggling in my class. Of course I didn't fail them intentionally, and by about the third time I got an evaluation back that pretty much said what I imagined it would, I started putting help in place for the student right away. The discovery of my own blind spot led me to wonder if other teachers were accidentally failing their students in similar ways.

For many years, this is what I did: I would identify a student who was having problems, make some basic observations about what was particularly difficult for him, and then request further information about the student in the form of screening, special tests, and/or a learning evaluation. I would then wait for a report before taking further action. I am often haunted by memories of a particular former eighth-grade history student whose contributions to our discussions put him at the top of the class, but his written answers on tests and essays were always weak and minimalist and put him only in the high C range. At the time, I thought it was sufficient to label this descrepancy and recommend that he get a formal evaluation. I suspected a test would reveal that he was dyslexic. His English teacher concurred. Unfortunately, his father would have nothing to do with outside testing, so my brilliant student received low Bs in my class and never got the help he needed to express what he knew.

But really, what was I waiting for? If asked, I would have responded that I needed more specific information about the student before I could know best how to support him. To many readers, I am sure that response sounds legitimate and reasonable. However, my confession is aimed at fellow teachers who will understand why my delay was unnecessary. I know that I am not alone when I admit that I can usually make general assumptions about what a learning evaluation is going to say before the results are in. Most often the report confirms what I had intuitively guessed about the student. As personally validating and satisfying as that confirmation often is, it should not be a prerequisite to providing timely critical accommodations to my students.

Immediately employing accommodations makes sense for many reasons. First, evaluations take time to schedule and complete. Why waste time waiting to have suspicions confirmed before helping a student? Secondly, there are those untidy problems of cost and access. Testing and evaluations are expensive and for many an unobtainable luxury. For a variety of reasons, public schools can be stingy with these resources, and many independent schools wrongly assume that parents can afford this expense on top of the cost of the school's tuition. Consequently, many students who need the help that an evaluation can provide are denied it.

I need to be clear about something-I remain an enthusiastic proponent of testing and evaluations. Teachers are greatly assisted by the critical information that they yield. Outside testing provided by learning specialists offers a unique opportunity to isolate many classroom variables and specifically reveal and identify students' academic strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, testing helps assess how extreme students' gaps are, and what level of response is necessary. That information is a real gift to teachers, parents, and most importantly, students, and it is a gift that keeps on giving because tests allow future teachers to understand the student's profile. Lastly, evaluations are required for students to qualify for accommodations on high-stakes tests such as SATs, ACTs and state exams. All indentified students should be provided access to them.

Meanwhile, without test results in hand, here is what teachers can do to support their struggling students (in addition to trusting their instincts)...

For A Student Struggling with Understanding the Classroom Reading Assignments

Suggest listening to audiobooks or identify a willing adult to read the assigned book to the student. Recommend that students read along with the audiobook version or to follow the words alongside the reader. The more often a struggling reader is exposed to the way they words look, the better. Exposure to the page helps students learn the architecture of sentences. This also helps with spelling and conventions.

Suggest use of assistive technologies currently available that read material aloud to the student. The Kindle, the iPad, or Google's Nexus tablet, would be examples of this kind of technology, but there are many similar devices being introduced into the market all the time. Click here to read a comparison of these tablets.

If the book/content has been made into a film or covered in a film, suggest that the student watch it to help give a context to the story or content.

Offer extra time to finish reading assignments. Dyslexic and struggling readers need more time to read assigned material.

Provide class syllabuses in advance. Allow the student to read assignments ahead over the school breaks and the summer. This can help the student get a head start so that when the school year takes on its full momentum she is prepared and has had an opportunity to work ahead to absorb the increased volume of work.

Recommend reading books with larger fonts. Hardback versions from the library are visually easier and E-readers offers the ability to adjust the font size as well.

Recommend books that may be shorter or less dense but equally rich in ideas and story for independent reading time. (Click here for a kid-tested reading list.) It is important to recommend the book with enthusiasm, the same enthusiasm typically reserved for more sophisticated titles. Read well-written, easier books yourself, out loud to the class, and recommend them to all students so the struggling students can read them without shame. The objective is to get struggling readers to read AND to like it. (For more on creating a classroom culture for struggling readers, click here.)

Recommend graphic novels. (Click here for a listing of kid-approved ones.) Graphic novels provide struggling readers with a way of strengthening their vocabularies, build their reading confidence, and foster their appreciation of story. Graphic novels can also help support a reader's understanding of everything from Greek Mythology to Shakespheare.Dictating ideas to an adult can help a student get started with their writing by generating an idea bank that they can draw from. (They also won't get caught up worrying about how to spell those words).

For a Student Struggling with Written Expression

Suggest that the student dictate an outline or brainstorm ideas to another adult (teacher or parent) who can record them. Depending on the circumstances, this can help students get started with their writing and help launch their ideas by generating an idea bank that they can draw from (they also won't get caught up worrying about how to spell those words).

Offer an opportunity to do work on a keyboard.If students are so labored in their handwriting and/or symbolic memory that everything they write is minimalist and/or incomplete, keyboarding can free up expression. Instead of worrying about what shape each letter is, the computer determines that for them. Word processing also helps record ideas in a standard readable font and allows a student to recognize more readily what they have just written. Note: if students are better served on the computer, have them immediately get to work on their keyboarding skills. This is not only a very important mechanical skill for all students, but also crucial for students who have handwriting issues.

Suggest and/or provide the use of assistive technologies and software for help with spelling. Something as basic as Microsoft Word can help with regularly misspelled words. It is a huge relief for students not to have to worry about the correct spelling of every word. It corrects basic words automatically. Franklin Spellers or similar handheld devices that assist in the spelling of words are also helpful, particularly when students are not using a computer to write.

If the classroom has access to iPads or other tablets with speech-to-text capabilities, encourage struggling writers to use speech-to-text apps to help them get their words down on the page. They can brainstorm or do the actual composing without being hung up about spelling and the mechanical struggle of writing. (Learn about how using speech-to-text on the iPad transformed a student's fifth-grade year...click here.)

Encourage the student to find a personal spelling strategy that doesn't depend on memorization of word lists. Some students are never going to be spellers, regardless of their heroic outcomes on Friday tests. Take the time to reassure those students that spelling is a mechanical, not an intellectual, skill. Because misspelled words do negatively impact clarity, students need to understand that it is important to find ways to identify misspellings and correct them. Editing may involve using the spell check on a computer, a handheld speller, or a helpful peer or adult in their lives. Every poor speller needs to find his/her most efficient and effective proofreading strategies. The world is full of people who will judge students negatively if they turn in work with misspellings. Consequently, they must figure out how to get the help they need, aside from carrying the correct spellings around in their heads.

Students who Struggle with Written Assessments and Tests

Experiment with offering ways to provide EXTRA TIME... . Students who struggle often need extra time. In fact, sometimes, extra time is all they need. Is there a way to offer your student who lacks a formal diagnosis extra time in a way that doesn't create equity issues or logistical ones? Aside from timed tests that are designed to check automaticity of a special skill, there are few instances that justify making speed more important than giving a student a full opportunity to express understanding. However, this can be challenging. Sometimes offering a chance for all students to return to finish an assessment up at recess, or during a study hall, is a way to make that work. Most often, students who do not need extra time will not take it. This is obviously an individual call because in certain situations extending the test time may raise the potential for cheating or equity complaints.

Make it transparent to the student what is being assessed. Is it automaticity? Is it a spelling test? Is it understanding of the material? Is it a measure of writing skills? The student should be clear about what is being evaluated and so should the teacher. For example, if the student can orally explain what he or she knows, but cannot make that clear in writing, consider having the student demonstrate his knowledge orally, in addition to the written version. If testing for geographical knowledge and the student mispells many of the countries, yet it is obvious that he knows the correct answer, that should count. Conversely, if the student turns in a final draft of a paper with misspellings, penalties should stand. Students need to find effective editing strategies. Giving struggling students a pass in that situation is misleading and doesn't ultimately help them.

Provide typed class notes for students who can't listen and write at the same time. This is not cheating. Some students need to focus all their attention on listening and attending to the information being explained. Writing impedes their ability to take the information in. If teachers are interested in facilitating an understanding of the content, then we need to be willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure that happens. Sharing notes can liberate struggling students to concentrate in class, while note-taking helps others consolidate the information through another modality. Students who use the teacher's notes should also read them aloud into a recorder and play them back, discuss them, or rewrite them on their own time in order to reinforce their learning through another form of processing.

Another modified option is to provide the whole class with a structured outline of the main ideas with room for students to fill in the rest (it also helps to model a note-taking format).Each student is different, but everyone benefits from processing information in multiple forms (listening, discussing, writing, drawing, reshaping, rhyming, applying, sorting, etc.). The teacher's job is to help students identify how they process information most efficiently and effectively.

Employing these strategies has allowed me to proactively help students reach the goals that I have set for the class. In many cases, these changes have been humbling as well as validating. For instance, when I allowed a child extra time on a test and discovered she did in fact know more then she had been demonstrating in the timed situation, or when a student brilliantly explained orally what he had failed to convey in writing, I felt thrilled for the student, but shamed by the missed opportunities to make earlier adaptations.

Most importantly, these strategies help me address the access gap between the haves and the have-nots with learning issues in my class. Since no one can claim that every student who deserves accommodations is receiving them, I want to know that I offer my students who don't have formal evaluations whatever tools they need to succeed, particularly when I intuitively know they need something different. I will continue to recommend formal evaluations whenever I can, but I don't predicate certain accommodations on them anymore, and neither the gods of teaching nor my division head has struck me down for not waiting to help a student.

See more study tips- from dyslexic students for dyslexic students.
updated 4/29/14

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Kids Can't Wait: Strategies to Support Struggling Readers - Yale Dyslexia

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The discovery of my own blind spot led me to wonder if other teachers were accidentally failing their students in similar ways.

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ESL Games and Activities is a resource from a website that focuses on providing strategies and tips for instructors who teach English to students across the globe in TEFL/TESOL courses. The games could be used with ELL students in the classroom.

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BridgeUniverse - TEFL Blog, News, Tips & Resources

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ESL Games and Activities for Kids & Teens

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Incorporating ESL games into your lesson plans when teaching English to kids and teens is a great way to help young students review their knowledge in an interactive, fun, and memorable way.

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The GO TO Strategies is a free resource for teachers that contains techniques that can be used with ELL students in order to aid in their successful acquisition of literacy skills. The document was developed in a partnership between the University of Missouri-Kansas City and North Kansas City schools as part of project EXCELL (EXceptional Collaboration for English Language Learning).

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Colorín Colorado is a free resource from WETA who worked with researchers and experts in order to develop the project. The website provides research, strategies, tips, and activities for educators and the families of ELL students.  This item is a list of strategies for instructors to use with ELL students.

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction.

This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). This report is a study of research-based best practices in reading instruction and it focuses on the following five instructional areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension. In addition, the article includes information related to two additional important areas of instruction for ELLs, oral language and the role of the home language.

Each of these topics is explored below, and each section includes:

a definition

an explanation of why the component is important when learning to read

challenges that ELLs may face

strategies for ELL instruction

You will find references to more in-depth information about ELLs and effective reading instruction from recommended resources below.

Note: Since this article includes in-depth information on a number of topics, we encourage you to use it in professional learning communities, jigsaw activities, and other collaborative settings!

What does the research say?

Before jumping in, it's important to note that, in general, what we know about effective literacy instruction for English speakers holds true for ELLs, but modifications and adjustments may be needed (Goldenberg, 2008). Since the original National Reading Panel did not include ELLs' literacy development as part of its research review, a subsequent panel reviewed the research related to language learners and released a report authored by principal investigator Dr. Diane August and panel chair Dr. Timothy Shanahan titled Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth.

Within the executive summary of that report, the authors note that, "Instruction that provides substantial coverage in the key components of reading - identified by the National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension - has clear benefits for language-minority students." They continue, "However, while approaches that are similar to those used with native-language populations are effective, the research suggests that adjustments to these approaches are needed to have maximum benefit with language-minority students." (p. 3)

For example, many practices may need modifications or scaffolds which may not be reflected in different reading programs or materials (August, 2018; Goldenberg, 2008), and in some cases, certain strategies may not be appropriate even with adjustments. In addition, the authors note the important role of two areas that were not addressed in the original National Reading Panel: students' home language and oral language.

Many examples of specific modifications are outlined in the strategies below, along with discussion of home language and oral language. You can find additional research resources at the end of the article, including a recent working paper published by Pivot Learning, Narrowing Down to Find Common Ground: Shared Agreements for Effective Literacy Instruction in California.

An in-depth video book study highlighting Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is also publicly available on YouTube.

When working with ELLs, students' home languages are a powerful tool that educators can use - even if they don't speak those languages or are working in a classroom with students who speak many languages. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Oral proficiency and literacy in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English" (2006, p. 5). And in hisColorín Colorado article about the value of students' home language, Dr. Fred Genesee writes:

Extensive research, again from around the world, has found that children who are learning to read in a second language are able to transfer many skills and knowledge from their first language to facilitate their acquisition of reading skills in the second language. The best evidence of this comes from studies showing that students with strong reading skills in the home language also have strong reading skills in their second language. Much of this work has been done on ELLs in the U.S. (August & Shanahan, 2006; Riches & Genesee, 2006).

Tapping into students' home languages (also referred to as a first or native language) as a resource can take different forms:

Helping students make connections between their language and English in order to identify similarities and differences, such as English/Spanish cognates

Providing opportunities to use the home language in the classroom for reading, writing, and discussion

Encouraging students to draw on all of their language skills across languages, which is called translanguaging

Promoting biliteracy through bilingual or dual-language instruction, which can support students' future opportunities and family ties (not to mention brain health!), with initiatives such as the Seal of Biliteracy, which has been adopted in many states

It is important to keep in mind that the extent to which a student's literacy skills from their first language transfer depends on many factors, such as how similar the alphabetic systems between the two languages are and whether they share any connection in their origins, such as two languages that both derive from Latin (Nieser & Cárdenas-Hagan, 2020, p. 65). The students' levels of literacy in their home language will also have an impact on their literacy development in their new language. Learning more about the languages students speak can help educators target instruction, notice patterns among speakers of the same language, and help students understand the relationship between their language and English

You can also provide students and families with access to bilingual books and texts and encourage families to continue using and developing the home language through activities such as rhymes, storytelling, and conversation at home. You will also find specific strategies related to home language throughout the key components below.

Recommended resources

In addition, as you will see below, oral language has a role to play across all reading skills, yet it often does not receive much attention as a critical part of ELLs' language and literacy development. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Instruction in the key components of reading is necessary - but not sufficient - for teaching language-minority students to read and write proficiently in English. Oral proficiency in English is critical as well - but student performance suggests that it is often overlooked in instruction." (2006, p. 5)

Oral language supports students' literacy skills in different ways. For example, students need to be familiar not only with the sounds and letters they are learning but also the words in which they appear in order to support their word recognition and comprehension. Other more global oral language skills, such as facility with English syntax and grammar, and the ability to navigate specific language functions like describing, predicting, and comparing, also contribute to both reading and writing development for ELLs.

In addition, strengthening oral language supports students' ability to participate in peer groups and their proficiency in speaking and writing using academic language. Students need opportunities to practice applying their emerging oral language skills through partner talk and peer work (scaffolded with supports such as sentence frames), activities such as partner reading, and responding to comprehension questions using academic language.

Dr. Carrie Simkin, the director of our sister site AdLit.org, offers the following suggestions related to oral language:

Make it a learning target for lesson planning (e.g. be intentional about planning for it).

Consider how much of the learning time in your classroom is text based vs. discussion. Do students have opportunities to discuss ideas or do they mostly respond in written formats? We want to engage students in lively discussions!

Consider if students have opportunities to work in pairs as well as small groups and not just respond to teacher-generated questions.

Have you modeled how to orally respond to questions using the question as a sentence starter? Do you have sentence starters visible for share-outs?

Our strategies related to oral language are also woven throughout the components below.

Recommended resources

Note: You can read more about the role of oral language in the foreword of Comprehension and English Language Learners.

Phonemic Awareness and ELLs

Keeping the areas of home language and oral language in mind, let's dive into the five key skill areas, starting with phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is an important indicator of how well children will learn to read. Sometimes it is difficult, however, for speakers of a second language to "hear" and say sounds in the language they are learning. If you have had a student who could not master a particular sound in English, the sound may not have been a part of the student's native language.

In her chapter of Literacy Foundations for English Learners, Dr. Virginia Lovelace-Gonzalez notes that, "Phonological awareness skills can transfer across languages when students have opportunities to build these skills in their native language and English" (2020, p. 53).

For example, there are multiple sounds in English and Spanish that will directly transfer between languages, even if the sounds are associated with different letters (p. 50). Dr. Lovelace-Gonzalez writes, "For ELs, phonemic activities in English can be complicated by having to recognize sounds in English that do not exist in their native language...Instructionally, it is important for teachers to determine some of the similarities and differences between English and the student's native language to ensure the opportunity to learn" (p. 53).

Phonemic Awareness: Considerations and Strategies

What: The ability to hear and manipulate the different sounds in our language.

Why it matters: Phonemic awareness is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.

Considerations for ELLs

Learn more about the students' home languages.

Start by visiting a resource such as MyLanguages.org or Omniglot.com, which shares an overview of many different global languages.

Ask bilingual colleagues about how their languages are similar or different from English and common areas that need attention when learning English. For example, a group of Ukrainian teachers shared some of the questions that Ukrainian speakers have when learning English in this Colorín Colorado article.

Identify whether there are any sounds that your students' languages share with English. Use these as a starting point in your instruction. In addition, find out which sounds might be new to your students and be sure to include explicit practice of those sounds.

Help students think about the connection between their language and English.

Ask students how their language is the same or different than English in terms of how the language is written, the sounds that letters or symbols make, and words that might be related.

Help students become familiar with sounds, letters, and symbols that are shared between languages, as well as those that are not shared between the languages. (Some examples across different languages are included in Literacy Foundations for English Learners.)

Ask students if they have words that begin with a particular sound, or if there are any words related to a particular word in English. This can work with students who have limited literacy skills in their first language too.

Help beginning readers learn to identify sounds in short words.

Have students practice identifying the sounds in the beginning, middle, and end of these words. You may wish to use words that begin with a consonant, have a short vowel, and end in a consonant (CVC words) such as mat, top, and bus.

One very effective method is having students match pictures of words that have the same beginning, middle, or ending sound.

Use words that students already know in English.

Videos

Learn how to pronounce the 44 phonemes in English.

Phonics and ELLs

Phonics instruction aims to help new readers understand that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Students benefit from learning and practicing sounds and symbols, including blended combinations. ELLs often show many strengths in mastering early phonics skills but it's important to remember that decoding while reading and correctly spelling words does not ensure good comprehension.

That's why it's important to ensure that ELLs are familiar with the words they are learning to decode in order to support their comprehension. The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "English learners need structured opportunities to learn many new words to add to their repertoires so that these words can become the material of their literacy learning" (2011, p. 79).

Phonics: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Use a word study approach.

Word study is a powerful approach that connects letters, sound, meaning, word parts, and usage so that students are learning explicit foundational skills within a meaningful context. For example, ELLs need lots of opportunities to connect the sounds, letters, and words they are learning.

The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "What is key to literacy development for English learners in the emergent stage is that they use language with teachers and peers and see oral language they understand captured in print" (Helman et al, 2011).

Look for opportunities to reinforce phonics in context.

Using literature and content material, you can introduce and reinforce:

letter recognition

beginning and ending sounds

blends

rhyming words

silent letters

homonyms

Vocabulary and ELLs

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read, as well as in understanding what is read.

As students learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary. For ELLs, vocabulary development is especially important as students' develop academic language - in all subjects and activities! There are numerous ways to support explicit vocabulary instruction, which is essential for developing students' vocabulary knowledge. Dr. Coleen D. Carlson writes,

For EL students, drawing attention to unknown words during the initial presentation of the text, providing appropriate levels of definitions (e.g., providing English labels for words for which concepts and labels in one's native language are understood, quick definitions or demonstrations for simple words) and tying to background knowledge is critical. No amount of simply reading and rereading words will produce knowledge of unknown vocabulary. (2020, p. 97)

Vocabulary: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Draw upon students' home languages.

You can draw upon students' home languages to build vocabulary by:

It is important to give students as much exposure and experience with new vocabulary words as possible before asking students to use them in a lesson or activity.

Select words that will support the reader's understanding of the story or text, as well as for other phrases and connectors that affect comprehension (even though, except, etc.). You can pre-teach vocabulary by using English as a second language (ESL) methods such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the equivalent in students' languages and then asking students to say the word in English

Providing a student-friendly definition

Using graphic organizers

Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the same original word or root. About 40% of all English words have cognates in Spanish (such as the English/Spanish cognate "family/familia"). This is an obvious bridge to the English language for Spanish speakers if the student is made aware of how to use this resource.

Teach students to recognize and use cognates, or words that are related across languages, and encourage students to be on the lookout for cognates from other languages as well.

Give students an opportunity to practice using new words.

As the teacher, you can explicitly teach word meanings to improve comprehension. However, to know a word means knowing it in all of the following dimensions:

The ability to define a word

The ability to recognize when to use that word

Knowledge of its multiple meanings

The ability to decode and spell that word

The ability to use different definitions word accurately in different contexts

Ensure students understand a new word by asking them to produce it themselves either orally or in writing.

I taught a summer school unit on habitats and healthy environments, and every student had to learn the phrase, "Reduce, reuse, recycle." Over the course of four weeks I gave students many opportunities to use those words to describe what we were doing: "We are reusing the grocery bag," or "We reused the scratch paper."

Build students' academic vocabulary.

You can increase students' academic vocabulary by teaching common structures and terms used in a specific content area. For example, sentence frames are a great way to get students familiar with these structures and can be used in writing and speaking:

You can learn more strategies in this related article.

The _____ is ______ than the _____.

I can conclude ______ because _______.

Videos

ESOL Specialist Sheila Majdi: Using sentence frames with ELLs

ESOL specialist Sheila Majdi from Arlington, VA explains what a sentence frame is and how she might use this strategy with ELLs.

Interactive reading of a story

In this classroom clip, first-grade teacher Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava leads her students through an interactive reading of Burro's Tortillas, a Southwestern adaptation of "The Little Red Hen."

Focusing on language in literacy instruction

In this classroom clip, fifth-grade teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza helps her students expand their understanding of the way language is used in a picture book version of Cinderella.

Instruction of key academic vocabulary with high school ELLs

In this lesson, students read a letter that Captain John Smith of the English Army wrote to Queen Anne in 1616. You can see lesson materials and reflection interviews from ELL teacher Anne Formato in our related classroom module.

Fluency and ELLs

Fluency is a tricky area when it comes to ELL reading instruction. For native English speakers, fluency and reading comprehension often share a strong correlation because fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. This is not always the case for ELLs.

Many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate in their reading because they are good readers in their primary language and have strong decoding skills. Yet they may demonstrate little understanding of the text, and hearing the text out loud may not necessarily provide a step towards comprehension as it is likely to do for native speakers. One important factor in the connection between fluency and comprehension is ELLs' oral language skills, which Dr. Carlson describes as "an important foundation that supports the role of fluency as a bridge to comprehension" (p. 93).

Fluency: Considerations and Strategies

Inaccurate indicator of ELLs' comprehension

It is not unusual for an ELL student to read a passage beautifully and then not be able answer more than a couple of comprehension questions correctly. Decoding skills (sounding out words) and comprehending the text are two different skills.

Limited benefit from hearing texts read aloud

Native speakers who are not strong decoders can often comprehend text that is read to them better than text that they read themselves. That's because when someone else is doing the reading, they can focus on meaning without having to struggle to get the words off the page.

With ELLs, however, comprehension problems tend to be associated with limited vocabulary and limited background knowledge. Thus, listening to text read by someone else won't enhance comprehension.

Comprehension and ELLs

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 1) decode what they read; 2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 3) think deeply about what they have read. Comprehension can be the most difficult skill to master, however, and can elude students who have mastered word-level skills. According to the executive summary of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth,

An important finding that emerges from the research is that word-level skills in literacy - such as decoding, word recognition and spelling - are often taught well enough to allow language-minority students to attain levels of performance equal to those of native English speakers. However, this is not the case for text-level skills - reading comprehension and writing. (p. 4)

ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy development, will benefit from explicit instruction in comprehension skills along with other skills because improved comprehension will not only help them in language arts and ESL classes - it will help them in content-area classes and in daily activities. It will also improve the chances of their interest in reading for pleasure.

Learn more from the following articles:

Comprehension: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

ELLs who struggle with comprehension may read more slowly, have a hard time following a text or story, have a hard time picking out important events, and feel frustrated. They may also have problems mastering new concepts in their content-area classes or completing assignments and assessments because they cannot comprehend the texts and tests for these subjects.

Check comprehension frequently.

As students read, ask them open-ended questions about what they are reading, and informally test students' ability to sequence material from sentences or a story by printing sentences from a section of the story on paper strips, mixing the strips or word order, and having students put them in order.

Use questions after reading.

After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading, you can test their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

These questions can be at the:

Videos

This video showcases a 5 th-grade team planning a science lesson about the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants. ESOL specialist Katy Padilla plays a key role in advocating for ELLs throughout the lesson planning process and sharing her strategies for engaging and supporting students.

Making Dual-Language Immersion Work

This video provides an introduction to Claremont Immersion School's dual language model and shows how teachers collaborating to develop a language arts language in English and Spanish.

Assessment for ELLs

Learn how third-grade teacher Samantha Kirch uses informal assessment in her classroom to better evaluate ELLs and their progress.

Story setup: Pre-reading strategies for comprehension

Learn about pre-reading strategies that will lay the groundwork before high school newcomer ELLs tackle a new text.

Teaching ELLs in upper elementary, middle school, and high school

Older ELLs bring a lot of valuable experience and interests to the classroom. At the same time, they face the double challenge of needing to learn content and a new language at the same time, which is further complicated if their literacy skills are limited. While they may still need foundational skills work, it can be hard to find materials that are age-appropriate. You can learn more about specific tips for supporting this diverse population from the following resources:

For great classroom videos at the secondary level, see our classroom video library!

Concluding Thoughts

This is a lot of information, but we hope that these resources and recommendations can inform your work with students as well as the conversations about literacy in your setting. The more familiar your team is with best practices for ELLs, the more effectively you can determine which practices and resources will best support your students in their ongoing literacy development - and future successes!

Recommend Resources

This new working paper released by Pivot Learning reflects collective consensus among literacy experts on key topics concerning (1) literacy and multilingual and English learner students; (2) early screening and assessment; and (3) foundational skills.

To learn more about the paper and how it was developed, see Can common ground be found on teaching reading in California? (EdSource)

Research articles and chapters

Books

Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan (You can see the related book study on YouTube.)

Words Their Way with English Learners: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling (2nd Ed.) by Dr. Lori Helman, Dr. Donald R. Bear, Dr. Shane Templeton, Dr. Marcia Invernizzi, and Dr. Francine Johnston

Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners by Dr. Nancy Cloud, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Else Hamayan

Dual Language Instruction from A to Z: Practical Guidance for Teachers and Administrators by Dr. Else Hamayan, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Nancy Cloud

Webcasts

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction. This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000).

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Reading Rockets is a free resource that is an educational initiative of WETA, a public television and radio station. WETA works with researchers and experts in literacy and early education in order to create strategies and activities that students can use in order to improve their literacy skills. AdLit is the resource for middle and high school students.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Khan Academy is a free online resource for students that contains courses in reading and language arts. Students are able to work on grammar and various aspects of reading at different grade levels. There are reading selections and practice assignments for students to complete. For those who are in Pre-K up to 2nd grade, there is the Khan Academy Kids app where students can access activities, videos, lessons, and books.

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A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

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Into the Book is a free resource for students that was developed by PBS Wisconsin Education, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and educators. There are activities that students can participate in that will aid in strengthening their reading comprehension skills.

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The Into the Book website will be retired on December 31st, 2023. Content will not be available after this date.

Student activities now available in English and Spanish!

Into the Book is a reading comprehension resource for elementary students and teachers. We focus on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. Try the online interactive activities, or click below to find out how to get our engaging 15-minute video programs.

Please choose a language.

(Bilingual offers both English and Spanish texts, which you can switch between during each activity.)

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Into the Book is a multimedia package designed to improve elementary students' reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. For Grades 2-5.

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National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

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National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

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National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) is a free service for those who are unable to read print materials. Users have to be certified by a competent authority in order to use the service. BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) can be used to download ebooks in braille and audio format which can be accessed on computers or iOS/Android devices.

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National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress

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Background

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), Library of Congress, offers a free program for individuals of all ages who have a disability that prevents them from reading regular print. We use human voice actors to record popular books found in public libraries or bookstores. We also offer a wide selection of recorded magazines as well as a large collection of music instruction and appreciation materials.

These recordings, called talking books, may either be downloaded through BARD and the BARD Mobile app (see below). Talking books can also be mailed to the reader for free on a cartridge that can be played on a player-which NLS also provides free of charge-designed for people with disabilities.

NLS does not offer classroom materials such as textbooks. A few sources of that type of material are listed in the "Other Academic Resources" section below.

Eligibility of Persons with Reading Disabilities

Persons with reading disabilities are eligible for the NLS talking-book program. Applicants must be certified by a competent authority (described below) as unable to read regular printed material.

Competent authorities that may certify applicants include: doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, ophthalmologist, optometrist, psychologist, registered nurse, therapist, and professional staff of hospitals, institutions, and public or welfare agencies (such as an educator, social worker, case worker, counselor, rehabilitation teacher, certified reading specialist, school psychologist, superintendent, or librarian).

Read detailed information about the legal requirements of our program.

Application Procedure

A standard application form and additional information about this free library service may be obtained from any NLS cooperating library. The completed application must be submitted to the cooperating library serving the applicant's locality. You may also call NLS at 888-NLS-READ (888-657-7323) to locate the cooperating library serving your locality.

Downloading Books

BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) is a service that provides access to more than a hundred thousand audio books, magazines, and music scores available from NLS. Patrons can access the service via their desktop computers or iOS or Android devices. The iOS and Android mobile apps, known as BARD Mobile, include built-in playback capability, so you can enjoy talking books anytime, anywhere.

Books downloaded to desktop computers will need to be transferred to flash memory cartridges that can be played on NLS-authorized talking-book players. NLS will provide this playback equipment if required.

Please provide your email address when applying for NLS service so that you can request to be registered for BARD.

Other Academic Resources

In addition to NLS, there are other services that provide material to people with print disabilities. Below is information on several of them:

AccessText Network
512 Means St. NW, Ste. 250
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
866-271-4968 toll-free
404-894-7565 fax
[email protected]

The AccessText Network is a partnership between publishers of educational materials and educational institutions. Publishers offer materials in accessible formats through the network for students with disabilities. The materials are shared through the student's college or university. A student with a qualifying disability can request a book in accessible format from the disability services coordinator in their educational institution. That coordinator has login credentials to the AccessText Network and is able to download the item in a format that the student can read.

Bookshare provides digital books free to all US students with qualifying disabilities. Books are available for download in audio and braille formats.

HathiTrust
University of Michigan Library
1001 North Buhr Building
200 Hill St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-764-8016
[email protected]
www.hathitrust.org External

The HathiTrust is a partnership of more than a dozen member research libraries that scan their collections to make them available over the Internet. Full texts of materials in the public domain are available. The HathiTrust recently partnered with the National Federation of the Blind to make their collection accessible to people with print disabilities.

Learning Ally is a private, nonprofit organization that lends recorded textbooks and other educational materials to people who cannot read regular print because of visual, perceptual, or other physical disabilities. A registration fee and an annual membership fee are required.

For more information

If you have any questions about the eligibility of those with reading or learning disabilities, would like an application, or would like more information, you may contact NLS using the information below:

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
202-707-5100
888-NLS-READ (888-657-7323)
[email protected]
202-707-0712 fax

Updated May 2021

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Talking Books and Reading Disabilities - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress

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NLS, offers a free program for individuals of all ages who have a disability that prevents them from reading regular print. We use human voice actors to record popular books found in public libraries or bookstores.

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Bookshare is a free service that offers ebooks and audiobooks for student access to textbooks and leisure reading. Ebooks can be read on smartphones, tablets, computers, Chromebooks, assistive technology devices, and others.  Users have to be certified by a competent authority in order to use the service.

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Bookshare | An Accessible Online Library for people with print disabilities

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Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

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State Library of North Carolina is a free service that is specific to North Carolina. NLS (National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled) books and magazines can be downloaded in audio and braille format. NC Local books and magazines in audio and braille format can be downloaded as well. There are books from around the world that are available for loan due to the Marrakesh Treaty. Items can be mailed to users. Users have to be deemed as qualified by a competent authority.

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Apply for access to thousands of accessible audio and braille books. Find helpful information on how to download books, use your audio devices and much more. learn about our accessible programs and services.

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International Children's Digital Library is a website that provides students with access to ebooks. The items can be read with the ICDL Reader on a web browser. The ebooks are either in the public domain or the site has rights to redistribute the work.

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Library News and Notes

June 2, 2021

Dear Readers,

Great news! I was able to rebuild a simple version of the in-browser book reader which has enabled me to add back all of the ICDL books. The interface is not what it used to be, and we no longer have translations of books (only the original language the book was published in) - but we have all ~4,000 books back. The site is fast and reliable and should be able to stay around for some time to come. Happy reading!

May 5, 2021

Dear Readers,

Good news! Thanks to the UMD Computer Science Department, which has agreed to host a static version of ICDL, we have been able to resuscitate the library a bit, and have brought back 1/4 of the books in PDF form (that we have "download" rights for). We had to create a vastly simpler site without many, many of the features - no search, no translations, etc. But about 1,000 of the books are back, and we will work on bringing back more books and at least some aspects of the original site. Please note that we do not have the right to allow you to redistribute these books further, and they are provided to you only for personal use.

Thank you for so many of your heart-warming and gracious emails which encouraged us to find a way to keep the ICDL alive.

April 19, 2021

Dear Readers,

It has been over 20 years since we launched the International Children's Digital Library. In that time, we have served about 15 million people reading over 1,000,000 hours of children's books. We launched at a time when the concept of reading books online was a bit odd, and almost unheard of for children's books. After all these years, as far we know, we are still the largest collection of freely available complete children's books from around the world. And we did that without ever exposing children to commercial activities or risking their privacy.

But for many years, we have served this mission without any funds. And now all of the founders have moved on to other things in their lives. The servers are very old and dusty and there is no one to maintain them. Our licenses for the books are for use only by the ICDL so while we have considered a number of alternatives, none of them really made sense.

And so now it is time to say goodbye and read with the innumerable other resources in the world. The ICDL has been our labor of love, and we will always remember these books, the volunteers, libraries, publishers, and readers around the world with great fondness.

Keep reading!

- Founders Ben Bederson, Allison Druin, Ann Weeks, Anne Rose and Tim Browne (in memoriam)
Email directors

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ICDL - International Children's Digital Library

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Open Library is a free online source that provides users with access to ebooks and audiobooks. An account is needed to borrow materials. Ebooks can be read on a web browser or downloaded depending on the available format. Audiobooks are available for disabled users who meet qualifications for the services.  The ebooks available will not be recent releases.

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Overdrive is a website and is also linked to two applications that students can use to read ebooks and audiobooks in school and outside of school hours. School collections can be accessed through Overdrive's website or through the Sora app. Students can use the Libby app to access ebooks from local public libraries. Ebooks in the collection are newer releases and popular items.

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Epic is an website and an application. Educators can sign up students for accounts that would allow them to access ebooks or audiobooks for free during school hours. After school, parents can create accounts for students where they can read one ebook a day for free or a paid account where they can have access to unlimited ebooks. Items in the collection are popular and newer titles. There are also educational videos available.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Global Storybooks has taken books from the African Storybook and translated them into languages from across the globe. Books can be read on a web browser or downloaded as a PDF. The ebooks can also be listened to in audio format. The only ebooks on this source are books from the African Storybook.

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The Global Storybooks Portal is designed specifically for teachers, parents, and community members around the world. It makes 40 selected stories from the African Storybook available in major national, immigrant and refugee languages of individual countries, regions, and groups.