# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mystery Bag: Developing Oral Language Skills in Pre-Kindergarten

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Students with learning disabilities (LD) often have difficulty with language. This difficulty takes many forms. They might have trouble understanding what you say. This could be the result of auditory problems (difficulty processing sounds) or receptive language difficulties (trouble understanding the words and turning them into action or pictures). Students with LD may also have difficulty speaking due to trouble forming their thoughts, attaching words to concepts, putting words in the right order, and many other reasons.

These language-based difficulties are compounded when students with learning disabilities are English language learners. This article will make some suggestions for making your classroom more inviting for all students who have difficulties with language.

Here are the suggestions:

Speak slowly, clearly, and naturally. If your pace tends to be fast, focus on ensuring that each syllable is clear, rather than trying to speak slowly. Try using shorter sentences. Ask your students to signal you if you are speaking too quickly.

Face your students and avoid putting your hand in front of your face. People sometimes want to see the face and lips of person they are struggling to understand.

Where practical, turn off machines that create background noise. For example, if one of your neon lights is making a loud buzz, ask maintenance to fix it. Ask administrators to avoid placing classrooms with students with learning disabilities next to noisy classrooms such as the gym.

Be careful when you use idioms such as "caught with your pants down" or "back seat driver." Students with LD, especially those who are English language learners, may not understand these expressions or may take them literally. ELL students may also have reactions to these phrases that are specific to their culture.

Tone of voice, facial expression and gestures may be misunderstood by students with learning disabilities (LD). Students with LD often have difficulty processing these signals. Those who are English language learners also come from different cultures, so a gesture might have a different meaning for them. While it is important to speak naturally, recognize that if you are sarcastic, some students in your class may not understand your intended meaning. Use words to reinforce your body language when you need the class to know how you feel.

When you ask a person with a learning disability a question, they will often hesitate before they answer the question because they need to make sure they heard the words in order, and they need to translate the words into concepts. In addition, they may need time to form their thoughts and turn them into words. Allow a silent period between your question and their answer. Do not give hints or answer the question for them until they show or say that they need help.

Supplement language in your classes with pictures, manipulative objects, kinesthetic activities, and other ways of teaching that use all of the senses.

Tell your students when something is particularly important. You might want to say something like "A key point is..." Use the same (or at least similar) phrase, tone of voice and gesture every time.

Allow and encourage students to tape-record your classes. Many students with language difficulties listen to the words several times and review the tape for main points.

If possible, provide a written outline of your talk. This will help any student with language problems prepare for class and know where to place their listening focus.

Some teachers are afraid that following these suggestions will make them sound dull. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, by taking the time to incorporate these strategies into your teaching, you will help many more students become engaged, active participants. This includes not only students with LD, but other students as well. For example, all English language learners, even those without learning disabilities, will benefit from strategies that focus on making language clearer and more comprehensible.

Although incorporating these suggestions may take some extra effort, you will find that practice will make it easier. You may have to plan ahead more, but using these strategies will enable students to learn from you who once were not able to understand you. Some students who were excluded from your class will be included. And that is what good teaching is all about.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Communication Strategies for All Classrooms: Focusing on English Language Learners and Students with Learning Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students with learning disabilities (LD) often have difficulty with language. This difficulty takes many forms. They might have trouble understanding what you say. This could be the result of auditory problems (difficulty processing sounds) or receptive language difficulties (trouble understanding the words and turning them into action or pictures).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Considerations for ELLs

Oral language provides the foundation for literacy development. English language learners (ELLs) need daily opportunities to learn and practice oral English in order for their literacy skills to flourish. ELLs learn English primarily by listening to language in use around them, while using context to figure out what the spoken words mean. This language serves as the input or data that learners internalize and use to express their own meanings in their interactions with others.

It is important to consider that many ELLs go through a "silent period," during which they listen and observe more than they speak. ELLs may speak at first in single words or short phrases. They may speak fluently when using greetings and other basic phrases in routine interpersonal situations, but speak haltingly when constructing English sentences to express more complex ideas. Effective teachers are aware that ELLs who are quiet in class may be hard at work listening and comprehending. Teachers also know that ELLs may take longer to answer a question or volunteer a comment, because they need more time to process meaning and formulate an appropriate response.

ELLs' speech may be ungrammatical, reflecting their lack of experience with English word order, grammatical patterns, or word endings. Their speech may be "accented," reflecting lack of experience with English sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns. As a result, ELLs may feel self-conscious about speaking, especially in large groups. Criticism, ridicule, and public correction exacerbate these anxieties. ELLs are likely to be more comfortable speaking in small groups.

ELLs may over-use high frequency words like nice or go until they acquire a larger repertoire of more differentiated words, such as beautiful, happy, entertaining, kind, generous or leave, depart, travel, journey, race, hike, skip. While young ELLs naturally acquire the language of play and daily life from social interaction with other students and adults, ELLs require explicit instruction and modeling of the more formal language used in academic settings to talk about reading and writing. In addition, as they listen to literature that is read aloud, Ells become familiar with its language (e.g., "Once upon a time . . . " and ". . . happily ever after") and its structure (introduction of characters, setting, problem, and solution), which are important prerequisites for reading.

With time and lots of opportunities to listen, observe, participate, and interact, ELLs progress in understanding and are able to produce language that is increasingly complete, complex, and grammatical. This is similar to the natural way that most young children learn the languages spoken by their families at home - in the context of activities and relationships.

In some cultures, discussion and story telling are filled with personal anecdotes that are implicitly rather than explicitly connected to the topic. Teachers may sometimes perceive such narratives as rambling or confused. Effective teachers strive to understand such cultural differences and respect them, while at the same time helping children add more sequential and topic centered styles to their repertoire.

Conferences about writing and other opportunities for one-on-one conversations with a teacher provide great support for the development of topic-centered narrative styles for use in academic contexts. In addition, use of their native language can provide ELLs with much-needed clarification, explanation, and self-expression as they go through the difficult process of learning to speak, read, and write in English.

Strategies

1. Teachers include listening as an integral part of reading and writing instruction.

2. Teachers employ a variety of effective strategies that involve students as active and engaged listeners.

3. Teachers guide students to identify literary elements as they read aloud, listen to, and discuss books together.

4. Teachers help students understand and make connections to their reading through social interactions in which students listen to and build upon each other's responses to the text.

5. Teachers provide opportunities for students to discuss insights from their reading with each other.

6. Teachers model and explain text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections for their students.

7. Teachers include daily sharing as an important activity in their classrooms.

8. Teachers provide ample opportunities for students to talk about familiar topics and then demonstrate to students how talking better enables them to write.

9. Teachers have regular conversations with individual students about their writing, thereby enabling students to improve the quality of their work.

10. Teachers model how to verbalize understandings and questions about readings and then provide opportunities for students to practice these comprehension strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Oral language provides the foundation for literacy development. English language learners (ELLs) need daily opportunities to learn and practice oral English in order for their literacy skills to flourish. ELLs learn English primarily by listening to language in use around them, while using context to figure out what the spoken words mean.

# data[].attributes.headline
Oral Language Assessment Resource for Teachers

# data[].attributes.subject
Oral Language Assessment Resource for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The video provides a brief overview of how to capture student talk. Available for download at the bottom of this page are blank versions of the three tools mentioned in this video.

Capturing and analyzing brief snippets of students oral language is a crucial component to supporting their language development. The goal is to help teachers listen, record and analyze student interactions in a variety of settings: whole group, small group, one on one, between peers, or with a teacher. This provides the needed information about what language structures the student holds and help determine what our next steps will be to support student growth.

With practice, capturing and codifying oral language becomes easier and more valuable as a formative assessment process. The Oral Language Record (OLR) tool provides a frame for capturing student talk and documents growth over time. Additional tools include a scoring rubric based on observable behaviors and language production and an analysis tool to help determine a student's strengths and next steps.

There are a variety of ways to capture student talk. In addition to paper and pencil, teachers have been recording student talk with their phones, video cameras, iPad, iPod, digital recorders, and so on. The method used to capture talk is up to you.

We suggest as a starting point to choose a case study student. Focus on capturing the student's interactions in a variety of settings whether you are working one on one with the student, listening into a peer conversation during collaborative learning times, recess, lunch, small group instruction or whole group share out.

Use the OLR to transcribe small samples of the child's output. The analysis and rubric tools will help you to score and analyze language patterns and behaviors. Using this protocol each month will provide documentation of growth for your case study student and inform your next steps.

To use the rubric, you would highlight what behaviors and structures the student has in place. This allows you to determine what the child holds and where they need to go to show growth. The analysis tool helps you to determine next steps in your instruction based on what you have observed, to provide the scaffold(s) the child need to grow.

Click the images below to download the tools and an overview of this page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The video provides a brief overview of how to capture student talk. Available for download at the bottom of this page are blank versions of the three tools mentioned in this video. Capturing and analyzing brief snippets of students oral language is a crucial component to supporting their language development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Transferring ownership of the class word wall to the students can increase their engagement and learning.

Courtesy of Justine Marie Bruyère

It was raining again. My second-grade students were indoors for recess and enjoying free time when a student approached me and asked, "How do I spell because?" I responded, "That's a tricky one-have you checked the word wall?"

The student answered with a familiar tune, "Oh yeah! I forget about the wall sometimes, it's so high up." She waltzed over to the word wall and craned her neck to find the word because written at the top of the wall, in my handwriting.

A few moments later, "Mrs. Bruyère?" I looked up to see another student. He paused, then said, "T, e, n, i, s, e, e-how do I spell Tennessee again?"

For 13 years I fiddled with word wall systems, hoping to uncover one that worked for the learners in my class. When the word wall works, the classroom begins to move more fluidly, so it has always seemed worth the effort to improve it.

Taking Action

On a Monday morning soon after that rainy day, I called a class meeting to ask my students for their ideas on how to improve the word wall. A funny and bright student spoke first, "I sort of forget the wall is there most of the time." No one disagreed. Another student chimed in, "The wall doesn't have the words I need on it. I know how to spell all-OK, most-of those words already, but the words I need aren't there."

Another problem was placement. It was too high-in fact it was hard for some students to see the entire top row of words clearly.

My students shared many ideas during our class meeting that day. Eventually, they selected a section of wall for our words-a section that was accessible to them-and we affixed laminated sheets of white paper to the wall, one for each letter of the alphabet.

A 5-Step Process for Improving the Word Wall

1. Finding the right location: I started by asking my students to find the most accessible place in the room for a student-created word wall.

2. Establishing rules together: I asked my students how the wall should function. For example, would they like to draw pictures or tape pictures next to the words? My students decided not to use pictures, but many classes would make the opposite call.

How do students want to manage the wall? And who will write words on the wall-the teacher or the students? My students decided that they would be the ones to add words to the wall. First a student writes a "striving to spell" word on a recipe card, and a friend checks it. I complete an additional check to guide and nurture in-the-moment phonics and feature learning. This nurturing takes on different forms with each child. In one case, it might be stretching the child to notice digraphs or diphthongs, and in another instance it may look like asking a students to explain what they know about the sounds in the words son, done, and tone.

Once those steps are complete, the student who came up with the word records it on the word wall.

Do students want to use certain colors for certain types of words? Color-coding can be a very helpful clue, and my students decided that on their wall, Dolch or grade-level words would be written in blue, nouns in pink, action verbs in green, and adjectives in orange.
Courtesy of Justine Marie Bruyère

"Do you think that would be a good word to add to our word wall?"

"I wonder if we can make a list of words that would fit into this word family?"

"This week, I noticed that 'irr' makes the 'er' sound in squirrel. What new word surprised you this week?"

"If you need help with the word different, that's Kyle's word. He has offered to share his method!"

"What other words have a sneaky first letter?"

3. Igniting real conversations and connections to words: Try asking questions or offering tips. A few suggestions:

4. Conferring with students to heighten learning: Occasionally, students will spell a word on the word wall incorrectly. For these cases, I use one-to-one teacher time to do a quick activity, make reference to a text, or play a comparison game to draw the student's attention to common misspellings and the correct spelling of the word.

5. Celebrating the words: During share time, I encourage students to view the wall and share a reflection about a word that they added, used, or better understand now because it's on the wall. During this time, I also promote and support new additions to the wall.

After a few weeks of using our revamped word wall, a student asked how to spell Tennessee. The boy who had asked me originally jumped up and said, "That's my word!" He hopped over to his word and ran his finger along the letters, while explaining his method for remembering to add two S's.

What was the most important aspect of changing the wall? You might think it was spelling-related, but it wasn't. The most important aspect of the new word wall was that it was not created by me for them. This wall was created with their hands and held their words, and it provided evidence of their learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Transferring ownership of the class word wall to the students can increase their engagement and learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Picture Writing: Using Student Art to Motivate Early Writing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
(This video has captions. You can turn them on by clicking the CC icon at the bottom of the video.)

Download a printable transcript.

Voiceover (with music): How can reading aloud to children help support their oral language development? Which books seem to inspire the most language in your classroom? And why do you think these books inspire so much discussion?

Utilizing Interactive Read-Alouds to Support Oral Language Development (0:22)

Host: You probably already read stories to your children every day. A great deal of fun and enjoyment can come out of sharing a good book. Children often want to respond to the story by sharing their own experiences or by pointing out something in the pictures.

Child: Look at his teeth! It's hanging out. Miss Claudia.
Teacher: What's hanging out?
Child: His tooth.
Child: The tooth is hanging out of his mouth.

Host: Because of children's innate desire to respond to stories, story time is one time of the day when children are likely to fully engage with language.

Voiceover: Teacher Patty Gardner uses interactive read-alouds to encourage the children in her class to share their thoughts and ideas. Before re-reading a story that she's read before, she engages children in a conversation that is related to the book.

Patricia Gardner, Preschool Teacher: Grouchy Ladybug's one of my favorites, because it's repetitive, an interactive story, and it helps the children be a part of it. The repetitive nature is important for them; they anticipate the text.

Patricia Gardner: We're trying to find different ways for them to participate, and reading a story that we've read at least once before. I think read-alouds need to be more interactive because it allows the children on a variety of developmental levels to participate in the story.

Patty: "Oh, you're not big enough," said the grouchy ladybug.
Child: Look how tiny it is to the lobster!
Patty: And it flew off. Nice job, Lily, I like how you noticed. Lily noticed how much smaller the ladybug is to the lobster.

Voiceover: By taking the time to acknowledge and respond to children's comments about the story, Patty turns her read-aloud time into an opportunity for children to engage in rich oral language.

Host: Effective reading to children enhances language development in a number of ways. First, when you read a book, children listen to you carefully, because they're eager to hear what will happen next. During this process, they develop solid listening skills and listening comprehension. Second, as they listen to your story, children make connections between the story and their own lives, and they want to share their experiences. This stimulates their oral language practice.

Patty: This is called a praying mantis. It's a very thin bug that stands on its back legs.
Child: I know what a praying mantis is, because I have one in one of my tag books.
Patty: In one of your tag books?
Child: And I saw one in my garden.
Patty: You did?
Child: I saw one in...

Host: Third, book readings provide opportunities to introduce new vocabulary to children.

Host: Children gain the most from read-alouds when they have the opportunity to engage in discussion before, during, and after reading the book.

Niloufar (teacher): Let's talk about what you think this book is going to be about. Kara? What do you think? And I'll write your words, okay?

Niloufar Rezai, Preschool Teacher: I selected "Rosie's Walk" today because there's pages that do not have text which allows children to engage in a lot of oral language using the pictures to be able to predict what will happen next.

Niloufar Rezai: It's always interesting to hear what they think the story is about, and not only hear what they think it's about, but WHY they think it's about what they think it's about.

Niloufar: Dominic, what do you think?
Child: I think it's about a farm.
Niloufar: You think it's about a farm? Why do you think it's about a farm?
Child: I think it's about a little red hen in a farm.
Niloufar: Oh, does that remind you of Little Red Hen?

Niloufar Rezai: The important part of shared reading is the word shared. It allows children the opportunity to engage in conversation.

Child: He bumped into the rake.
Niloufar: Oh, he bumped into the rake from the other page.
Child: And his neck gets twisted.
Niloufar: And his neck got twisted. Does everyone see that? Thank you. Anyone else notice anything?

Niloufar Rezai: So that anytime there's an opportunity to speak and engage in oral language, you're expanding your vocabulary. And that particular book has a lot of the [positional] words that we want children to learn-over, under, around.

Niloufar: So what's happening here? Alex, what's happening here?
Child: He went into, he went in the water.
Niloufar: He did. The hen went AROUND and the fox went in the water.

Host: Certain stories give teachers the opportunity to focus in a meaningful way on a specific aspect of language. For example, stories with rhymes, poems, and songs are great at enhancing phonology.

Host: Concept books that focus on size, numbers, and colors are great at developing vocabulary and concept development. EVERY book provides numerous opportunities for you explore language with children in meaningful ways!

Dr. Theresa Bouley, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Eastern Connecticut State University: When teachers do interactive read-alouds, they're modeling all the really good aspects of reading. They're asking children questions; they're asking them to make predictions. When they start to read they'll be able to rely on those skills that are there and that knowledge about what reading really is-it's thinking about the story, and really being active and participating in the story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reading aloud to children is a critical component of supporting their oral language development. When teachers regularly engage children in interactive read-alouds, including holding conversations before and after book-reading, children have opportunities to practice their oral language skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Striking the balance of instruction and assessment

Get precise, reliable insights to support early readers while maximizing valuable instructional time. With speech-recognition technology, group administration, and automatic scoring, MAP Reading Fluency-part of the Early Literacy Solution from NWEA- provides a clear view of early literacy skills and learning needs for an entire class in about 20 minutes.

Go beyond fluency for a more complete picture of early literacy

Aligned to the science of reading, MAP Reading Fluency measures and monitors oral reading fluency, literal comprehension, and foundational reading skills from season to season and year to year. Quickly screen students at risk of reading difficulty, including characteristics of dyslexia. Benchmark assessments are available in both English and Spanish.

See MAP Reading Fluency in action

MAP Reading Fluency is an adaptive universal screening and progress monitoring assessment for grades pre-K to 5-and it's available for remote and on-site administration. This powerful tool efficiently assesses in English and Spanish.

Insights you can implement today

MAP Reading Fluency provides educators with comprehensive reports and actionable data to improve instructional decisions.

Student audio recordings available for teacher playback

Easy-to-use reports to support differentiation and planning

A direct link to instructional resources for foundational skills

Identify challenges earlier with the new dyslexia screener

Get precise, reliable insights to support early readers while maximizing valuable instructional time. With speech-recognition technology, group administration, and automatic scoring, MAP Reading Fluency provides a clear view of early literacy skills and learning needs for an entire class in about 20 minutes.

MAP Reading Fluency: The center of the Early Literacy Solution

The Early Literacy Solution pairs high-quality assessment from MAP Reading Fluency with guided implementation and professional learning experiences that engage and galvanize your team while honing assessment literacy and instructional planning. Wrap-around support and expert-led guidance round out this solution, providing your teachers and coaches with the resources and tools they need to help young readers succeed.

Ready to learn more?
An industry leader

Explore grades, languages and the time-saving features of MAP Reading Fluency.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Better reading insights in less time - MAP Reading Fluency

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MAP® Reading Fluency™ is an online, adaptive assessment that efficiently measures oral reading fluency, comprehension, and foundational skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Everybody Sing!: Building Oral Vocabulary through Song

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oral Language Development Through Integrated & Designated ELD