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Translanguaging is the process when a multilingual speaker uses their full linguistic repertoire (in this case meaning English as well as other languages spoken). In the classroom, the use of all language is accepted and and honored in order to accept the speaker as a holistic being and avoiding a narrow or simplified standard of only English.

How is this important to background knowledge? Translanguaging allows MLs to access their entire background knowledge using all the linguistic tools they have. As summarized quite succinctly in this article, "The term translanguaging comes from a holistic view of bilinguals. This view recognizes that bilinguals have just one language system, not two or more, and that effective instruction involves finding ways to help students draw on all their linguistic resources, their full repertoire, to learn academic content in a new language. While students do need solid and extended instruction in English to acquire English, strategic use of their home language can accelerate both their acquisition of English and their understanding of math, science, social studies, and language arts being taught in the new language."

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Taberski says, "Reading and writing. Writing and reading. When the two of them work together, children consolidate their understanding of what it means to be a reader who writes and a writer who reads. I can't think of anything more important or more empowering for children to experience. Teachers who help children recognize the synergy between reading and writing have an easier task of teaching both sets of skills and strategies."

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Why Reading Comprehension and Multilingual Learners?

This Padlet will supply the reader with resources about teaching reading comprehension to Multilingual Learners/English Language Learners.

This is a relevant topic because in the New York City Department of Education, 16% of students, accounting for 147,287 children were Multilingual Learners (MLs)  or English Language Learners (ELLs). ELLs are "student whose primary home language is not English and has scored below a cut score on the New York State Identification Test for ELLs." Furthermore, these students are a subsection of the 42% of all NYCDOE students who have home languages other than English.

See the next section on how this Padlet is organized!

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The traditional Five Pillars of Effective Reading Instruction are (1) phonemic awareness, (2) phonics, (3) fluency, (4) vocabulary, and (5) comprehension. But Sharon Taberski's New Thinking on the Pillars of Reading re-envision the framework to reflect comprehension as the overarching goal of learning to read. Accurate reading is just part of the puzzle, with background knowledge, vocabulary, writing, and talking having a huge impact on the overall literacy goal of comprehension.

This Padlet will address teaching Multilingual Learners or English Language Learners how to read and comprehend texts. It is organized by Taberski's reimagined pillars, which include (1) accurate fluent reading, (2) background knowledge, (3) oral language and vocabulary (4) reading-writing connections and (4) repertoire of strategies.

Click through each section to learn more!

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What is automaticity? Reading Rockets defines it as "the fast, effortless word recognition that comes with a great deal of reading practice. In the early stages of learning to read, readers may be accurate but slow and inefficient at recognizing words. Continued reading practice helps word recognition become more automatic, rapid, and effortless."

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Fluency develops gradually over time and through practice. At the earliest stage of reading development, students' oral reading is slow and labored because students are just learning to "break the code" – to attach sounds to letters and to blend letter sounds into recognizable words.

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The section above explained the relationship between fluency and automaticity. This resource explains how this is also linked to phonics. I'm going to embed phonics instruction under fluency, because in order to have automaticity in reading and good prosody, a reader must be able to decode quickly and confidently. The CORE Reader also explains this link between phonics, decoding, fluency and automaticity. Phonics instruction teaches the alphabetic principle and phonemic awareness which in turn reduces time spent decoding and strengthens automaticity.

When teaching MLs and ELLs phonics, we are equipping them with the specific rules for English grapheme-to-phoneme relationships. This is essential for students who may have different sounds associated with the Latin/Roman alphabet (e.g. Spanish has different associated phonemes for certain letters). Or, some languages might simply not have the same phonemes that we have in English.

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The Spanish Alphabet - Spelling and Pronunciation

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Get to know the Spanish alphabet, learn and practice its pronunciation.

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I love this resource: Colorín Colorado. It offers resources for families and educators for bilingual education. It's research-backed and supported by the National Education Association. As you'll see, I'll reference it often in this Padlet.

One of the biggest themes that you'll see woven through this guide is the importance of strong pedagogical strategies combined with an inherent trust and celebration of the ML's home language and culture. Both are essential elements into supporting reading comprehension.This means having strong phonics instruction along with a goal to differentiate and meet each student at their particular level.

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As a classroom teacher, I was largely ignorant of, and definitely suspicious of, research. I believed that researchers could make their studies come out any way they wanted them to, and that a good teacher who reflected on her own teaching knew much more about how to be effective with her students than any researcher did. Later, as a university professor, I learned how important good research can be, and how difficult it is to do really good experimental research in a field such as education, where it is impossible to control all the variables.

For that reason, I was pleased in 1997 when Congress funded the National Reading Panel (NRP) to evaluate research about teaching children to read. The panel's charge was to review existing studies, choose those that were well designed and well implemented, and synthesize their findings. The results were published in 2000 (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), and became the basis of the Reading First grant program included in the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001. Although there was initially a good deal of controversy about the findings of the report, all U.S. elementary school teachers were soon very aware of the five "essential elements" of reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension).

Teachers of English language learners (ELLs), however, were left to wonder if and how the findings of the NRP applied to their students. How do you teach phonemic awareness and phonics in English to students who can't yet hear and distinguish the sounds? How do you teach fluency to students whose control of the structures of the English language is still limited? How do you teach them grade-level vocabulary when their vocabulary knowledge starts so far behind that of their English-speaking peers? How do you teach reading comprehension in English when they don't yet comprehend the English language?

Now there appears to be help. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education funded the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority and Youth to survey, select, and synthesize research on teaching language-minority students to read and write. Their report was published recently (August & Shanahan, 2006).

How much help will this report provide for teachers of ELLs? A preliminary review of the Executive Summary (August, 2006) and the section of the full report on "Educating Language Minority Students" reveals these four potentially important general recommendations:

Literacy in the native language is an advantage.

We already knew this (see, for example, Collier & Thomas, 1997), and it doesn't help teachers working in situations where literacy instruction in the native language is not possible.

Substantial coverage of the five essential elements of reading instruction helps.

However, this finding is based on only 14 studies that looked at instruction of the essential elements of reading with ELLs. Because of the small number of studies, this recommendation is based on the fact that there is nothing in these 14 studies that contradicts the findings of the numerous studies of native speakers that were reviewed by the National Reading Panel. Also because of the small number of studies, no specific practices could be advocated for teaching the essential elements of reading to ELLs.

Reading programs for ELLs should include intensive language development as well as instruction in literacy strategies and skills.

This recommendation is not based specifically on the research, because there were no studies that addressed the inclusion of intensive language development in reading instruction for ELLs. It is instead a hypothesis drawn from several other findings: (1) native speakers benefit more from instruction in the essential elements than do ELLs; (2) ELLs with greater language proficiency benefit more from instruction in the essential elements than do those with less proficiency; and (3) instruction in the essential elements with ELLs has a greater effect on decoding and fluency than on comprehension.

Instruction needs to be adjusted to meet the needs of ELLs.

The report, however, states that there is not enough research to be able to identify specifically how those adjustments should be made. I could find only seven specific suggestions that would be useful to teachers of reading classes that include ELLs:

Provide additional work on English phonemes that are not present in the students' native language.

If students are literate in their native language, focus on differences between that language and English, with less attention given to elements that will transfer.

Provide extra practice in reading words, sentences, and stories.

Use cognate words in the native language as synonyms when teaching vocabulary.

Identify and clarify difficult words and passages.

Consolidate knowledge of the text through the use of summaries.

Find appropriate ways to use the native language.

These seven findings do not constitute a reading program for ELLs. We obviously need much more research. However, given the fact that teachers cannot wait until research catches up with their needs in order to implement effective practices with their ELL students, I think it is important to look not only at the research that is available, but also at what experienced, reflective teachers of ELLs (and observers of those teachers) consider to be best practices. The rest of this article will discuss the implications of available research on instructional practices in the teaching of the five essential elements of reading to ELLs, based on the findings of the National Literacy Panel as much as possible, but also drawing on information from reliable sources such as The Knowledge Loom: Spotlight on Elementary Literacy (The Education Alliance at Brown University, n.d.), as well as my own experience.

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is difficult for ELLs because they may not yet have enough experience with English to be able to distinguish sounds that differ from those of their native language. There are three aspects of phonological awareness when learning to read in a second language that are important for teachers of ELLs to remember and incorporate into their instruction:

ELLs cannot develop phonological awareness in English until they are familiar with the sounds of English.

This means that before explicit instruction in phonological awareness begins, children should have extensive experiences with fun and appealing songs, poems, chants, and read-alouds that will allow them to hear and reproduce the sound patterns of English.

Once explicit instruction has begun, modifications must be made to allow for more practice with sounds that can potentially cause confusion.

These are sounds that either don't exist in the native language (most of the short vowel sounds of English don't exist in Spanish, for example), or sounds that are perceived as different in English but the same in the native language (such as /r/ and /l/ for speakers of Japanese, or /b/ and /v/ for speakers of Spanish). Because these differences vary from one language to another, teachers will have to become familiar with which sounds of English will need extra practice, depending on the language backgrounds of their students.

Once phonological awareness has developed in any language, it transfers to other languages that are learned.

Therefore, students who are literate in their native language will not need to develop this skill again in English; they will only need to become familiar with the sounds of English and to learn to discriminate sounds that are different between their native language and English.

Phonics

Phonics can be problematic because ELLs often have difficulty discriminating between similar sounds, and because the English language does not have a regular system of correspondence between letters and sounds. Here are some issues related to phonics instruction for ELLs, with discussion of their implications:

Systematic phonics instruction can be very effective in helping ELLs, even those at fairly low levels of language proficiency, learn to decode words.

However, this skill does not facilitate reading comprehension if students' oral language proficiency is not developed to the level of the texts they are expected to read. For this reason, reading instruction should be combined with intensive development of the oral language needed to understand the text.

The most effective reading programs for ELLs combine systematic phonics instruction with a print-rich environment that provides exposure to appealing reading materials in varied genres.

Skills practice that is embedded in meaningful texts helps ensure that decoding skills don't progress beyond students' ability to comprehend the text.

Many of the components of phonics instruction need to be modified to meet the particular needs of ELLs.

For example:

Before phonics instruction begins, students must have the phonemic awareness skills they need in order to perceive individual sounds in words. This is particularly important for sounds that are problematic because of the native language.

Teachers must be aware of whether a students' native language uses a non-Roman alphabet or is non-alphabetic. Even if ELLs have had no instruction in reading in the native language, environmental exposure to a different writing system can negatively affect the ease with which they learn to recognize the letters of the English alphabet.

ELLs must be able to hear and reproduce English sounds with a degree of accuracy commensurate with their pronunciation abilities, before they are taught to make associations between those sounds and particular letters.

It is helpful to explicitly point out different letter combinations that have the same sound, and provide extra practice with them. Multiple spellings of the same sound can be very confusing for ELLs, particularly if they have had some reading instruction in a language such as Spanish, which has almost completely regular sound-symbol correspondences.

Teachers must pay attention to the meanings of the words used to teach phonics skills. Teaching students to decode words they don't know only reinforces the idea that "reading" is pronouncing sounds out loud rather than creating meaning.

Automatic recognition of frequent words is very important for ELLs, whether the words follow phonics rules or not. Although ELLs may develop good decoding skills, their lack of total proficiency in the English language will always slow them down somewhat. Automatic recognition of words can help mitigate this difficulty.

Most ELLs will need additional time to master phonics. Given the need for extra practice to learn to hear and produce the sounds of English, to learn the meanings of the words used in phonics instruction, to learn the multiple combinations of letters that make the same sound, and to learn many more sight words than English speakers need, additional time for phonics instruction should be built into reading programs for ELLs.

Fluency

Fluency is difficult for ELLs because their lack of proficiency in English slows down their ability to decode words and hinders their ability to understand the meanings of the words and how the words combine to produce meaningful sentences and discourse. These suggestions will help teachers adapt fluency instruction for ELLs:

ELLs cannot achieve fluency in oral reading before they have achieved fluency in speaking.

Repeated readings of texts that contain unfamiliar vocabulary and sentence structures will not increase fluency. When working on developing fluency, be sure that students are reading texts that they are familiar with and can understand. Students' own language experience stories are a very good choice, as are read-alouds that students have heard several times and discussed.

ELLs' normal self-consciousness about accents and errors can affect their reading fluency, especially if they are asked to read aloud in front of the entire class.

This effect will be magnified if students are openly corrected or criticized. Fluency practice for ELLs can be facilitated by having them read along with the teacher, or by reading chorally with a group. If individual oral reading is necessary, provide an authentic purpose for the reading (such as a theatrical performance, or delivering information that the rest of the class needs), and let students practice first with a partner.

Decoding skills, fluency in oral reading, and reading comprehension interact in various ways.

The ability to decode words easily is obviously necessary for fluency, and it also facilitates comprehension by allowing the reader to pay more attention to meaning. Comprehension, in turn, facilitates fluency by making it easier to recognize new words. Effective instruction for ELLs integrates these three elements of reading (plus vocabulary learning) into the same lessons using the same text, as each element helps build and reinforce the others, producing a multiplier effect.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is difficult for ELLs; even for quite proficient learners, the extent of their knowledge of vocabulary is only a fraction of what it is for native speakers of English, and the failure to understand even a few words of a text can have negative effects on comprehension. There are many things teachers can do to help ELLs improve their reading vocabulary, including the following:

ELLs need more vocabulary instruction than their native-speaking peers.

If a native-speaking child enters kindergarten knowing about 5,000 English words, and an ELL with no previous exposure to English enters the same class knowing no English words, it's obvious that the same instruction for each of them will not produce the same results. Everything a teacher of ELLs does should revolve around vocabulary acquisition-explaining, demonstrating, drawing, repeating, reading, writing, and playing with words throughout every aspect of instruction.

ELLs need instruction in different vocabulary words than their native-speaking peers.

ELLs lack many of the basic words that native speakers know, so just teaching the vocabulary words that are suggested in the reading materials you are using will not be sufficient. Here are some of the many types of words that need to be explicitly taught:

words that are crucial for understanding a text;

words that are encountered in a wide variety of contexts;

frequently used words that contain word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes) that can help students analyze other unknown words;

words with multiple meanings, whether spelled differently (homophones such as to, two, and too) or spelled the same (such as a dining room table and a multiplication table);

figurative language and idiomatic expressions;

academic words that indicate relationships among other words (such as because, therefore, and since to indicate cause and effect).

ELLs need different vocabulary teaching techniques and strategies than their native-speaking peers.

Handing out a list of definitions or asking students to put the words into sentences won't help ELLs learn the meanings of the words. Here are some things to keep in mind:

ELLs who are literate in a language that has many words that are similar in meaning and form to English words should be taught to recognize these cognates and use them to create meaning.

The meanings of words are acquired through multiple opportunities to hear, say, read, and write the words in slightly different meaningful contexts. Teachers will have to create these contexts in the classroom, since incidental learning of vocabulary cannot be relied on for ELLs.

Explicit explanations of unknown words should include contextual support through real objects, pictures or drawings, gestures, examples, demonstrations, or experiments that accompany the verbal explanations.

The use of context clues to infer meaning is not always successful with ELLs because they may not understand the context well enough to infer an accurate meaning.

Having to explain what a word means to other students helps develop comprehension of the full meaning of the word.

Comprehension

Reading comprehension is more difficult for ELLs than for native speakers for various reasons. Three of the most important reasons are discussed here:

ELLs are more likely than native speakers to lack the background knowledge necessary for understanding texts.

ELLs' prior educational experiences may have been substandard or interrupted, so reading texts that assume certain prior knowledge becomes difficult. Even for students with good educational backgrounds, cultural differences and culturally based assumptions can result in a lack of background knowledge and thus loss of comprehension. Whatever the reasons for a lack of necessary background knowledge, before asking ELLs to read a particular text, teachers must identify information that is prerequisite for understanding the text, evaluate students' prior knowledge of these prerequisites, and fill any gaps that are found. The best kinds of activities for building background knowledge are those that get students involved in manipulating language and concepts, rather than just receiving information from the teacher. These include experiential activities such as science experiments, classification activities, role playing, previewing a reading and generating questions about it, and sharing predictions about the answers to those questions.

The language level of the text to be read, compared with ELLs' language proficiency, is a major factor in how much they will understand of the text.

Even advanced ELLs and those who have been redesignated as fluent in English will experience difficulty with unusual vocabulary, figurative language, very complex sentence structures, or unfamiliar styles and genres (just as many native speakers of English do). For this reason, the integration of intensive language development with reading instruction is highly recommended for ELLs at all levels of language proficiency.

Reading comprehension instruction for ELLs needs to be modified to address their needs.

Asking ELLs to read the same texts and do the same activities as everybody else will only result in frustration for teachers and failure for students. This is not a matter of "dumbing down" the curriculum or applying different standards. It is a matter of implementing the curriculum at a language level that makes it accessible to ELLs, while at the same time working to develop their oral language so they will be able to comprehend texts at higher levels. Here are some general principles for modifying reading instruction for ELLs:

Provide as much nonverbal support for reading comprehension as possible, including pictures, diagrams, real objects, gestures, acting, and graphic organizers. The support can be used both for helping students understand a reading passage and for assessment, so students can show what they have understood in ways that are not entirely dependent on verbal ability.

Explicitly teach comprehension strategies, such as reader-generated questions, summarizing, and monitoring comprehension. Remember, however, that teaching strategies is not enough; students must practice them with texts that are accessible at their level of language proficiency. If students don't experience successful application of the strategies, they won't even try to use them with other texts.

Plan interactive activities around reading and interpreting texts. Sharing ideas, comparing perspectives, and coming to agreement (or agreeing to disagree) are all ways that students use the language of the text in meaningful ways, and thus progress to higher levels of language proficiency and reading comprehension.

Conclusion

The original intention of this article was to provide specific suggestions for modifying reading programs to meet the needs of English language learners, based on the findings of the National Literacy Panel. Because of the paucity of appropriate research studies, however, the recommendations made in the NLP report are not extensive enough to help teachers build appropriate reading programs for ELLs. I therefore looked beyond the NLP findings and included theory and experience as well as research.

I hope that readers will take this synthesis of research, theory, and experience and integrate it into their ongoing examination of what they do in their classrooms, what happens as a result of what they do, and why it happens. Research can tell us which kinds of practices are effective in general, but ultimately only individual teachers can determine what is most effective for them and the particular group of students they are teaching at the moment.

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What Does Research Tell Us About Teaching Reading to English Language Learners?

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As a classroom teacher, I was largely ignorant of, and definitely suspicious of, research. I believed that researchers could make their studies come out any way they wanted them to, and that a good teacher who reflected on her own teaching knew much more about how to be effective with her students than any researcher did.

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Culturally Competent Libraries & Some of My Favorite Picks!

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Culturally Competent Libraries & Some of My Favorite Picks!

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It's so important for educators to create inclusive libraries that show diversity in identity. In this case, I am referring to having books that are either entirely written in the home languages of students or that include phrases of the home languages of students. It important to have books in other languages because it supports translanguaging practices. It also allows children to openly access all languages in their repertoire.

As we've learned throughout this course, representation matters. Classroom libraries play a big role in creating an inclusive environment for diverse learners because representative literature can be mirrors for children in which they recognize their own identities, supporting self-affirmation, positive self-worth, and access to knowledge. They can also be windows, offering new insights and perspectives that might be unfamiliar, different and new.  (Suoto-Manning and Martell, 2016). Therefore, we are not  including a so-called "diverse representation" to simply check a box, but we are fostering a mindset where children can take into account and hold different views and perspectives simultaneously.

Some of my picks include Abuela; Quinito, Day and Night; 我们去远足吧!/Let's Go on a Hike!; From North to South / Del Norte al Sur; and Nabeel's New Pants.

Of course, it can be very helpful to have copies of books written in English translated into other languages.

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It's important to talk about the process of language acquisition for Multilingual Learners because it gives a lot of insight on why they might excel in some areas and struggle in others. It provides another piece of the puzzle when contextualizing how they learn and absorb material.

BICS or Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills refers to the language we use for social interactions. English Language Learners begin with acquiring basic interpersonal communication skills which take about a year or two to obtain. This includes commonly used social phrases that are used more informally or casually. On the other hand CALP or Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency is a lot harder to obtain because it takes about five to seven years for students to acquire. This is because the content is less dependent on social cues and require more specific vocabulary. This discrepancy can explain why children can talk with their peers with ease yet struggle to understand, verbalize, or discuss academic concepts.

When working with MLs in highly academic and content specific contexts, it's important to be intentional on how you will introduce new vocabulary words. This resource breaks down strategies by tiers and includes a link to pre-teaching relevant vocabulary before they come up mid-lesson.

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As you can probably tell, I love Reading Rockets! This is such a good resource for concrete skills we can bring to the classroom. This article discusses working with ELLs and making sure to incorporate pre-reading, discuss cognates (and false-cognates), integrate multimodal learning, and incorporate oral communication (see Taberski's note on the importance of talking in building comprehension).

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Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. Using a variety of effective teaching methods will increase the student’s ability to learn new words.

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As part of a previous course, I wrote this ELA lesson plan with the intention of incorporating phonics, multiculturalism, and multiple languages for a hypothetical ICT class that included Multilingual Learners.

I thought it was relevant here because it shows the bridge between reading and writing. It is intended for children who are multilingual learners who are learning phonics and grapheme to phoneme correspondence. It also incorporates sensorial and multimodal learning as well as universal design for learning to supports all learners, including MLs/ELLs.

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Claudia von Nostitz Lesson Plan.docx (1)

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This is a work sample from a preschool student that shows the reading-writing connection. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage month, this student's mother came to school and showed us how to make papel picado, a traditional Mexican craft that features colorful paper sheets with intricate cut-out details. She read a book and then had children try their hand at the craft.

Afterwards, the student wanted to write a thank you note to her mom! Teachers worked with her to write her message, sound out the letters, and then she copied them down on her own paper.

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I thought this article aligned nicely with Taberski's reimagined pillars. The author seeks to provide tips for teachers to promote MLs to (1) read more closely, (2) develop reading independence, (3) cultivate critical thinking skills through deeper reading, and (4) follow a process to construct meaning from text. It discusses the importance of background knowledge and child-centered learning in teaching children how to bring meaning to what they read. It also talks about the importance of talk, writing, and reading towards fostering comprehension.

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Guiding Questions

How can I teach English Learners (ELs) to:

1. Read more closely?

2. Develop reading independence?

3. Cultivate critical thinking skills through deeper reading?

4. Follow a process to construct meaning from text?

The Article's Goal

Welcome to the Visible Literacy Series. It is a set of articles that cover the topics of reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary instruction specifically for ELs. Speaking is integrated throughout the entire series because reading, writing, thinking rise from a flood of talk. These are the core practices in my class.

They have been created after reading peer-reviewed articles, attending conferences, and books on adolescent literacy specifically for ELs. The goal of the series is to provide specific strategies and processes that support ELs literacy development.

The goal of this article is to share a process that develops ELs' ability to read closely and think critically about texts. If the process of reading critically is made visible, ELs are more likely to recall and independently apply the steps to future readings.

Past Practices

When working with ELs, I used to do three things - none of which were effective in teaching ELs to develop their reading skills:

Modified Text: I use to modify grade-level texts for ELs by substituting difficult academic words with easier words, cutting out paragraphs or details that I deemed "unimportant."

I wanted to make the text more appropriate for their reading skills, but by doing that, I took away the opportunity for students to practice the process of reading challenging texts.

This approach is similar to lifting weights that are too lighter. You feel some tension, but your muscles are not forced to strain to lift, which is where the potential for growth resides.

Read Aloud & Ask: This was a version of guided reading where we would read a section of the text aloud, and I would ask students questions. Most of the time, they would not understand the text, so they could not answer the question. This approach left both students and me frustrated.
Guided Reading: When the guided reading didn't work, I would have to give them hints such as summarizing most of the section for them and asking them to fill in the remaining details. In this approach, I was the one constructing the meaning of the text for students and packaging it in a nice accessible format. All students had to do was fill in the most simple details, which usually were one-word answers. I felt that I had to do this because students did not have the skills to read the text, and I needed to "cover" the material because it was taking too long. I am not suggesting that guided reading does not work, but my approach of questioning didn't because I was the one formulating the questions. It should be the students thinking about the text and asking questions of each other.
None of these approaches worked because students were not the ones who were engaging with the text and constructing meaning. They were passive and allowed me to provide them with most of the information.

Current Practices

Now I use a student-centered and student-led approach to teaching. The new method is essentially teaching ELs a process that is similar to what close-readers do to understand the text at a deep level. The process is called " Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 " (affiliate link), which is taught in Kelly Gallagher's book by the same name.

Deeper Reading "Is a book about teaching adolescent students to become good readers of challenging works of fiction and nonfiction they will encounter in junior high school, high school and beyond" (Gallagher, 2004).

I modified the process to meet ELs' needs, but the principles remain the same as Gallagher's approach. The following steps are my interpretation of Gallagher's structure but modified to fit my teaching style. Even though my process was created with ELs in mind, it can be adopted for proficient speakers as well because the literacy challenges that ELs experience are shared by native speakers too.

If you would like resources on Gallagher's original version, you can download this PDF created by Amy Goodman from Anchorage School District.

Step 1: Setting the context

The purpose of this step is to activate ELs' background knowledge and to set a context for reading without telling students the background of the text, the author, or details related to the text. It is setting a context that is connected to the theme or a concept such as growth, challenges, or relationships.

Research suggests that educators can tap into ELs' background knowledge and link it to academic content (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Moll, 1992). This empowers ELs to access content because it is more connected to something they are already familiar with.

Below is a video of my 7th grade ELs before we start reading by Patricia McCormick to explore the concept of family. I asked them "What makes family so important?" Watch as the conversation develops. This engagement shows students are thinking, which readies them to talk about the concept of family later.

I will use Langston Hughes' short story "Thank you, Ma'm" to demonstrate the process.

The story is related to many concepts such as relationships, learning, teaching, trust, and growth. I picked the concept of teaching to set the context for reading. I asked students, "How should children be disciplined?" Then I allow ELs to think about the question, write their thoughts in their notebook, then share it with a partner or in small groups.

By this point, the ELs are thinking, using their background knowledge, and talking collaboratively about a concept. They are now ready to read the text.

Step 2: The First Read

Before we read the text for the first time, I tell students that this text is connected to the concept of "learning." I invite them to read to find out what the author is trying to communicate about "learning."

Then I begin to read the text aloud to the students. There are various reasons why reading texts aloud to adolescents fosters reading skills (Serafini & Giorgis, 2003) . When asking ELs to engage with unfamiliar texts for the first time, I want to remove cognitive barriers such as decoding for students.

Often, ELs are occupied by decoding the words because of their developing English. When this occurs, students are using their mental capacity to decode instead of comprehending the text.

Then when the teacher asks them comprehension questions, ELs are not able to answer because they were decoding while other proficient students were comprehending. I read the text aloud during the first reading to give all ELs access to the text. It's a form of equality.

Step 3: Second Reading

Now that the students have some understanding of the text because of the reading aloud, ELs can now return to the text to read on their own. Before they do, I give the ELs a task during the Second Reading. For "Thank you, M'am", I have students highlight details that reveal Mrs. Jones' character traits. Students then read independently and read specifically for details related to Mrs. Jones.

My ELs often complain that there is no point in re-reading the text because they already read it the first time. They are unfamiliar with its benefits, so they often protest. Proficient readers, however, often return to the text to find specific information. By setting a task during the Second Reading, the re-reading becomes meaningful.

Step 4: Collaborative Discussions

After students have highlighted evidence of Mrs. Jones' character traits, I then have them form small groups to share evidence that they found. The Second Reading gives students a chance to talk about the text in a focused manner.

I often find that ELs miss details, and when they share their findings in collaborative groups, most of the details are discovered. Collaboration often clarifies events and details in the story related to the characters and their problems. Collaboration is a form of peer-lead checking for understanding.

Together, they clarify events and things missed. Additionally, it enables the ELs to have more critical whole-class discussions about the text's themes and concepts instead of being bogged down by the simple details that are on the "identify" level.

Most importantly, collaboratively discussing the text in small groups gives ELs an opportunity to speak. Research suggests that when ELs use their English skills, their English develops (Wong Fillmore & Snow, 2002). This form of communication enables ELs to use their English authentically and for a purpose.

ELs feel that they are contributing to the group by sharing their details. The ELs are not expected to find all the details, but identify and share the ones that they are able to. This structure allows the ELs to be active participants in their small groups and the EL's value in the class is elevated.

After discussing in small groups, we open the same discussion to a larger class to help the discussion go even further. I start by asking the students to share what evidence best reveals Mrs. Jones' character. Then after these details have been shared, I ask students what the author is trying to reveal about Mrs. Jones as a "teacher" character.

Or I ask students to share what they think the author is trying to share about the concept of "teaching and learning." Rich discussion then ensues. This only occurs because of the steps prior to discussion. These mini-steps help scaffolded comprehension and the small group conversation get started and make students think more critically.

Step 5: Metaphoric Response

By this point, students have actively engaged in the text through an oral reading, a focused Second Reading, and by collaboratively talking about the text. By step 4, they have started to think critically about the text by attending to the details. ELs also develop the habits of a thoughtful reader. They are now ready to think even more abstractly and critically about the text's themes and concepts.

Gallagher uses metaphors as a structure to help students think on this higher-order level. Kelly asks students to create a metaphor related to the central theme or concept of the text. For example, I asked my ELs to pick a color for Mrs. Jones and explain their reasoning for this metaphor.

Some said that she is the color of a pink rose because she is both gentle but not to be messed with. Another said she is a dark evergreen because she has matured in life while Roger, the protagonist who attempted to steal her purse, is still a light green because he has yet to learn these life lessons.

I can push ELs to think even more conceptually by asking them to create a metaphor for concepts such as "teaching" and "learning." A student once said that teaching is a fire because becomes it requires you to be burned to learn a lesson.

Metaphors enable students to think abstractly and conceptually.

We want our ELs to be able to develop both their communication and thinking skills regardless of their current phase of language development.

Takeaways

The main takeaways from this post are:

1. ELs can read challenging, grade-level texts.

2. We can create different processes to facilitate the development of reading skills.

3. Skills develop when students actively engage in a process of creation.

4. The process helps ELs internalize the skills close readers needed to be independent readers.

More Kelly?

I love Kelly too. He is a superhero in the adolescent literacy world (among others such as Kylene Beers, Robert Probst, and Penny Kittle). You can find him at his website. You can also find more Gallagherism on David Stuart Jr's blog, which is one of the most extensive blogs on Common Core and literacy.

Other Structures

There are two more structures that I highly recommend that also promote ELs' ability to critically talk about texts. One was created by one of the oldest and most prestigious American boarding schools, Phillips Exeter Academy, and is used in many of the top American universities.

Phillips Exeter's approach is called the Harkness Table Discussion. I use the Harkness Discussion method to give students a chance to collaboratively construct the meaning of the text and to also analyze its meaning. This process is entirely student-led. I devote one post to this method in this series.

[Update February 2, 2017: I just found this article by Business Insider entitled " Why the Classes at Phillips Exeter are Different Than Any Other Private School. The article talks about the Harkness Method].

The second structure that places students at the center of reading analysis is Shared Inquiry by the Great Books Foundation .

Shared Inquiry is essentially the same process as Gallagher's Deep Reading with a few minor changes. The Great Books Foundation produces anthologies that align well with their process. However, it can be used with any stimulating text, so ordering their anthologies is not necessary.

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Bibliography
Gallagher, K (2004). Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse.

González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Moll, L. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31 (2), 132-41.

Serafini, F., & Giorgis, C. (2003). Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the IntELectual Life with Older Readers . Retrieved June 14, 2016, from https://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00522/chapter2.pdf

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#1. Five Steps of Teaching MLs Deeper Reading - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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How can I teach English Learners (ELs) to: Read more closely? Develop reading independence? Cultivate critical thinking skills through deeper reading? Follow a process to construct meaning from text? Welcome to the Visible Literacy Series. It is a set of articles that cover the topics of reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary instruction specifically for ELs.

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The following video is from 2018 when I was working at Reading Partners, an organization that provides tutoring to struggling readers. In this video, I was working with a first grader using the "Emerging Readers" curriculum. The student was an ML whose family came from Yemen and spoke Arabic at home. As you can see, this book followed a very repetitive pattern and had children identify sight words (I, am, in, the) and use context clues to figure out the object of the sentence. You can't see it on the screen, but the child had a word ring of common sight words to reference.

I thought this clip was a good example of how one might use visual literacy strategies such as using picture reading. This lesson required the student to synthesize a few different skills she was working on: identifying sight words, learning vocabulary words, considering text structure and syntax, and accessing prior knowledge.

I wonder how I might change this lesson were I to "redo" it today. For example, I might choose to preview some of the words beforehand. I also might ask more questions to check the student's comprehension and bring a bit more meaning to the book. Although it's a simple beginner reader, we can always encourage children to make connections to foster comprehension.

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Paired reading supports fluency and comprehension through peer learning. Not only are children developing oral skills through socialization, but they can build confidence with their peers, practice modeling the skill, and enhance overall understanding. It's recommended that an ELL is paired with a peer with a higher proficiency level.

This video is an excellent example of what paired reading can look like. I love how students have a choice in their text and also have scaffolded questions to support comprehension.

I think this quote sums it up well: "Shared reading creates an inclusive literacy experience, strengthens peer relationships and supports a welcoming classroom environment. Readers on all levels contribute, bringing multiple perspectives into text analysis. The centrality of text-dependent questioning develops the habit of mind necessary for becoming a critical consumer of information and an aware member of society."

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Pal Reading: Developing Fluency and Comprehension with Paired Reading