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Kindergarten rhyming worksheets help children recognize that words can have the same ending sound. Children will practice pronouncing rhyming words with activities such as rhyming flip books and connecting words that rhyme.

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Phonics Rhyming Words | Learn Phonics For Kids | Alphabet Sounds

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Visual Supports

Visual supports are all around us in our daily lives. A shopping list, a calendar to write down appointments or plans, signs to tell us where to go, a recipe, or a to-do list. Verbal or auditory information is said and then is gone. It is temporary. Using visual systems, such as those listed above, allow for information to be present as long as we need it. If we use visual supports as adults, why can't students?

Classroom Uses

To assist those who struggle with understanding or expressing language, visual supports can be used. You can use objects, photographs, drawings, or written words. Because of this variety, visual supports are easy to modify to meet the individual needs of learners.

Visual supports can help students learn new skills, know what to do, and to help them feel included. Visual supports using pictures or drawings to label the classroom can promote independence in children. They know where to find things and where to put items away. They can also be used to support behavior needs. When students know what is expected or know what to do, behavior issues may reduce.

Researchers have determined that visual supports help create independence and are beneficial to children with special needs, specifically autism. These authors indicated that visual supports help by:

Allowing students to focus

Making abstract concepts more visually concrete

Allowing students to express their thoughts

Bringing routine, structure, and sequence

Reducing anxiety

Serving as a tool to assist with transitions

Types of Visual Aids

Schedule: A visual schedule lets the student know what is coming next. It can show the whole day or chunks of time. Again, the format may vary from objects to words. Another type of schedule is a first-then board. This is used to typically show a non-preferred activity is completed first, then a preferred activity can be done. It also lays the foundation to follow multi-step directions.

Communication: To increase communication skills, a non-tech or low-tech way to do this is to use a communication board. Students can be taught vocabulary and phrases in order to express their wants and needs. However, students must be taught how to use the picture board. Boardmaker is a well-known program used in making communication boards. While it is quite extensive and versatile, it is also costly.

Resources:

There are many websites that have ready-made guides and printable boards for visual aids to use in the classroom or home. Here are a few:

As educators, we tend to think of visual supports for students with disabilities. However, all students can benefit using visual supports in the classroom.

Author: Tina Gonzalez

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Visual Supports For The Special Education Classroom - Special Education Careers

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Visual supports are all around us in our daily lives. A shopping list, a calendar to write down appointments or plans, signs to tell us where to go, a recipe, or a to-do list. Verbal or auditory information is said and then is gone. It is temporary.

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

Nowhere is this truer than in the ESL classroom.

Suppose a student wants to know the difference between "He danced at the party" and "He was dancing at the party."

Instead of launching into a long explanation, you could draw a picture of two timelines, one representing each sentence, and have the students describe them.

Visual aids make English so much more approachable for students, so I'll show you seven important types of visual aids that you should be adding to your class.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Easy ESL Visual Aids You Can Use Immediately

Visual aids include pictures, charts, posters, videos, flashcards and Powerpoint presentations. These are invaluable tools for ESL lessons because they catch students' attention and help them understand new information better.

There are tons of games and activities that you can do with visuals, but you're not going to find in-depth activities here. Rather, I want to show how you can use visuals to introduce new words or clarify concepts-without giving lengthy explanations.

These are simple, effective teaching aids. So here we go:

1. Pictures

Pictures are great for presenting many nouns, adjectives and simple sentence patterns. If you are using a textbook in class, make use of the pictures in it. With younger students, I ask "What do you see?" then call on many students and meet all of their suggestions with positive feedback. With older students, I have them predict what a chapter will be about based on the pictures from the opening page.

If a textbook doesn't have good pictures, I also use realia, such as pictures from newspapers or magazines. (We'll touch a little more on realia later in the post.) If your school has them, flashcards or picture dictionaries work well.

Here are a few ideas of how to incorporate pictures into your teaching:

Use personal pictures: Whenever possible, use pictures of yourself or photos around town/school (that students would recognize) in PowerPoints or games. This will make it much more interesting and memorable for the students.

Include celebrities for interest: Whenever I use pictures of a well-known celebrity, students perk up and I've definitely have captured their attention more than before.

Draw stick figures: For a quick solution, use the simple drawing or stick figure. Stick figures take only a second to draw and are guaranteed to get a chuckle (or at least mine are).

The site ESL Flow has many more ideas about using pictures to teach English.

2. Timelines

One thing that pictures aren't very helpful for is introducing grammatical structures, particularly anything beyond the present simple or present continuous.

For this, we have timelines.

Timelines are a great way to illustrate tenses and time expressions.

When I was trying to teach the difference between "by" and "until," I drew simple timelines to illustrate the following sentences:
Sun-Hee has to finish her thesis by March 12. Sun-Hee will work on her thesis until 10:00 tonight.
Maximize your Student Talking Time by presenting timelines interactively and leading your students to the answer.

For instance, if you're using timelines for the above sentences, ask questions like:

What is Sun-Hee working on now?

When is the deadline?

When will she stop working on it tonight?

3. Charts and Graphs

These work beautifully for introducing and practicing a variety of structures. I've used pie charts or bar graphs to illustrate comparatives and superlatives, such as:
ABC has a larger market share than XYZ. LMN has the largest market share in the industry.
Because line graphs indicate change, they also work like a charm for verbs of change, like "increase," "decrease," "dip" and so on.

When you are working on vocabulary building in class, use a chart. I personally like to use charts to teach word families. I have columns for "noun," "verb," "adjective" and "adverb."

So let's say the word "tired" comes up in class. I'll expand on it by eliciting "tiredness," "tire" and "tiredly." Get the words in the chart, and refer back to it through the lesson.

5. Opposites

Showing a word's antonym or opposite is a sure-fire way to teach its meaning without a word of explanation. Suppose your student doesn't know the word "least." Just jot down something like this on the whiteboard:

Alternatively, you could use hand gestures: Spread out your arms for "most" and bring them in for "least." Hand gestures are also good for opposites like fast/slow, cheap/expensive and big/small.

And, speaking of opposites, what's the opposite of an answer? That's right, a question! Introduce question structures by showing the question's answer. For example:
A: I work for a securities firm.
6. Gap Fills

Like opposites, gap fills help you introduce or reinforce grammar by accessing the knowledge your students already have. They're perfect for things like pronouns, prepositions and articles. Let's say your lesson today is about "in," "on" and "at."

Having three sentences on the board like the following is all you'll need to make their meaning clear:
Mary always goes to the beach ___ the summer. Richard has a meeting with his boss ___ October 7. They're meeting ___ 2:30 p.m.
If you wish, you could expand on this by creating a chart (like in #3) with "in," "on" and "at" at the top. Then you can have your students come up with time expressions that go under each category.

7. Realia

Realia is an incredibly effective visual aid in the ESL classroom. Realia means real-life, authentic items. For example, when I was teaching a lesson about booking a hotel room, students became much more engaged when I gave them at an actual hotel brochure to look at. I used the brochure to introduce new language items, and even as the basis for a role play.

I highly recommend taking some time to build a realia collection for your ESL classes. Take a walk around town or go online to gather some essential realia.

Here are some must-have realia for you to start off your collection with.

Celebrity photos

Menus (eat-in and take-out)

Weather reports

Hotel pamphlets

Maps (world, country, street, train, subway)

Train/subway/bus timetables

Movie/concert schedules

Want ads

Property ads

Family trees for family-themed ESL activities

Car rental brochures

Benefits of Using Visual Aids for ESL

Visual aids, like those two timelines, are so perfect for the ESL classroom. Here's why:

Helps with understanding concepts

When you present a concept using a visual aid, you are giving your students something they can associate with that concept. Later, when they try to recall it, all they have to do is bring up the image you used.

Visual aids also help you present clearly and smoothly, without complications or tangents.

Reduces teacher talking time

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual aids allow you to explain the meaning behind various vocabulary and structures without explanation. In addition, you can ask prompting questions about your visual aids to boost Student Talking Time and lead them to the answer.

When my visual aid was a timeline illustrating someone's work experience, I asked my students, "How long did Bob work for ABC Inc.?"

Provides a touchpoint for reference

Visual aids not only help put the new language out there, they also help remind students of the language they've learned as the class goes on.

For example, when my students make an error with the target grammar, or use a different word when they could have used a new word from the lesson, I direct them back to the visual aid as if to say, "Try and say it like we practiced earlier."

More dynamic and fun

Visual add some pizazz to your lessons and help take the focus off of you or the textbook.

You can even use visual aids that are related to pop culture or your students' interests. For example, FluentU has hundreds of authentic English videos taken from movies, TV series, vlogs and more. You can show these to your students since they're made learner-friendly through tools like interactive subtitles and transcripts.

And there you have it! With these visual aids, you can teach a diverse range of structures, words and concepts with pizzazz and, best of all, very little talk time.

Practice trying out different types of visual aids in different situations. Over time, you will develop your "go-to" visual aids-ones that you'll use every time you teach a particular lesson or topic, because you know they work. Good luck!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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7 Must-Use Types of Visual Aids in Teaching English | FluentU English Educator Blog

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Using visual aids in teaching English improves students' understanding and makes lessons more engaging. Visual aids include pictures, posters, charts, real-life objects and even videos. Click here for 7 types of visual aids that work especially well for ESL classes (and how to use them to enhance learning)!

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Learning Disabilities Association of America

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While the majority of a student's program should be as closely aligned with the general education curriculum as possible, some accommodations and modifications may be necessary. Listed below are some suggested ways to aid students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) learn more effectively at home or at school. Selection from these and other possibilities must be based on the individual needs of each child.
Information and ideas from a multidisciplinary team, including the parents and student, are important for developing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that meets the unique needs of each student with learning disabilities. A carefully developed multidisciplinary approach will make classroom instruction meaningful for students.

1. For some students who read slowly or with difficulty, a "read-along" technique may be used with taped texts and materials to allow learning of printed materials.

2. For students with memory problems or difficulty taking notes, a fellow student might share notes; the student might tape the lesson; or the teacher might provide a copy of the lesson outline.

3. For students who read below expected levels, educational videos and films or talking books can provide the general information that cannot be acquired from the printed page.

4. For students with short term memory problems (e.g., understand math processes, but have short term memory problems that interfere with remembering math facts), a table of facts or a calculator could be provided.

5. For students whose handwriting is slow, illegible or includes many reversed letters, a cassette recorder or a computer with word processing software could be used for written work or tests.

6. For students who have difficulty with spelling, a "misspeller's dictionary" or computerized spell checker can help make written materials readable.

7. For students who have difficulty reading cursive, small, or crowded print, typed handouts, large print, or double spaced materials can help.

8. To develop memory and listening skills, poetry, rhymes, songs, audio-taped materials and mnemonics may improve performance.

9. To teach spelling, the teacher might use a multi-sensory approach that combines saying, spelling aloud, and writing words.

10. Ways to improve vocabulary and comprehension can include a student-developed file of vocabulary words and the use of word webs and visual organizers to relate words and ideas heard or read on paper. A dictionary or thesaurus, suited to the child's learning level, is also an excellent tool for building vocabulary, spelling and reading comprehension.

11. For students who have difficulty organizing time, materials and information, a variety of approaches can be used, including:

a quiet, uncluttered homework space

alarm watch

purchased texts that can be marked with a highlighter

a homework assignment diary coordinated between home and school

study skills instruction

a personally-developed date-book or scheduler

12. For students who copy inaccurately, but need written practice to solidify learning, changes that may help include: leaving a space directly under each word, phrase or sentence, or having handouts on the desk for those who can't copy from the blackboard or take dictation accurately. For left-handed students, place the list of words at the right margin. For students whose writing is large, provide enlarged spaces for "fill in the blank" activities.

13. For students who seem to process auditory information slowly (e.g., not fully understanding questions asked, recalling needed information, or forming an appropriate answer), be patient. Allow sufficient "wait-time for the answer or provide the questions in written form.

14. Oral and written language should be taught together as much as possible. Illustrations in a book being read should be used to generate conversation, vocabulary and concepts that will relate to what is to be read. Material that is read can be translated into a verbal summary, a word web, a visual organizer, or a computer presentation.

15. Students who find reading slow and difficult may benefit from supplementing the subject matter being read with video tapes, DVDs, captioned TV programs, or computer software.

More on Reading

Since reading is central to learning, children who do not learn to read by the second grade are likely to struggle with learning throughout their lives. Reading assessment should include skill levels in decoding, fluency and comprehension.

As children learn to read, they learn how spoken and written language relate to each other. Thus, the components of a reading program must also relate to one another, engage all children and meet their individual needs. Reading activities may include:

Listening to good stories and books, appropriate to the child's age, read aloud daily

Language games that encourage identification of rhyming words and creation of rhymes

Instruction and practice in phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, alphabetic principles, decoding strategies, vocabulary acquisition, fluency and comprehension

Additional reading instruction in a small group or tutoring setting

Before/after school and summer school classes

Teaching Mathematics

Theories on mathematics disabilities view spatial visualization and verbal skills as critical. These two skill areas are important for anyone learning mathematics, but are especially important for students with learning disabilities. These areas should be heavily emphasized in the teaching and remediation of mathematical concepts and skills.

An individualized education program in mathematics would concentrate on developing concepts and skills within such strands as: numeration, geometry, measurement, collection and interpretation of data, estimation/mental computations, patterns and relations and word problems/applications. Concepts are best introduced with "hands-on" concrete materials. Knowing one-digit facts is important, but work with paper and pencil algorithms should not be emphasized, since calculations can be done with calculators if memory or sequencing is a problem.

Estimation strategies are often taught as mental computations skills are developed. Students should be encouraged to draw illustrations and representations whenever possible. They should consistently discuss, read and write as they solve more complex computational and word problems. For students with learning disabilities, confidence in the practical applications of mathematics to everyday life is also very important.

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Accommodations, Techniques and Aids For Learning

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While the majority of a student's program should be as closely aligned with the general education curriculum as possible, some accommodations and modifications may be necessary. Listed below are some suggested ways to aid students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) learn more effectively at home or at school.

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Let's teach how to rhyme with these rhyming activities for kindergarten. Here are 8 free rhyming activities you can use with your kindergarten students in guided reading groups so they can learn how to hear and identify rhyming words.

Teaching Kindergartners To Hear Rhyming Words

I once thought that rhyming was just something that kinders knew or didn't know. I just thought that they had to "get it." Oh, little did I know.

Then I figured out how to teach rhyming words orally with some nifty hand motions. This made it much easier to teach how to listen for word parts that sounded the same to my non-readers.

For some students, they didn't need a lot of rhyming practice after learning to hear rhyming words orally, until they were ready to focus on why words rhyme based on their word chunks and word bits. That usually came around being readers at a level 5-6 or level D.

For others, they really struggled with hearing rhyming word pairs and identifying when words rhymed and generating rhymes for words. These kinders usually needed more phonemic awareness practice and I sought time to work with them during our guided reading groups.

Free Rhyming Activities

This list of rhyming activities for kindergarten are the resources I found and printed off to use in my groups. I didn't use every single activity with each group. Rather, I picked what they needed most and tried to use the materials to create an activity or mini-lesson that would help us practice that skill.

We did this type of work in small groups so they could get the attention they needed, they could watch my mouth over-enunciate close up and could get more turns trying since there were fewer numbers of kiddos working on the skill at a time.

I used these free printable rhyming resources in my small group instruction in order to help make rhyming more visual.

Because let's be honest - it is a skill that begs for this type of scaffolding support.

1. Rhyming Bingo is such a classic activity. Grab whatever counter-style manipulatives you keep with your guided reading materials to use to cover up spaces. There are 4 different mats you can print.

This one will be tricky for some students - if you call out "house" some students will just want to find the house on their card versus finding the rhyming match - mouse.

So, instead of using the answer key provided in this resource, I say write down a new rhyming word next to the rhyming words provided on the answer key. I might even write down or call out a nonsense word and say I'm speaking like an alien robot. They have to "decode" my alien robot language by hearing the correct English "human" word.

So for toy/boy, I'd call out, "Froy!" or for shell/bell, I'd call out "Pell!"

That would spice it up a little and help students avoid just wanting to identify the picture called out.

2. There are a few different resources you can print in this Rhyme Time packet. Personally I liked the rhyming picture cards and also the sorting mats.

The mats were designed to be cut and paste pages, but I felt they worked better as sorting mats for my small groups. I would pass out all cards to my students in the reading group.

Then I'd lay down the mats and we'd use hand motions to isolate the rime part of each word and they'd look for matching cards to add to the mat. We'd go over the results of each page, checking our work.

If we repeated this activity, each time they would get less and less specific direction on how to isolate the rime in each word card they had.

You could also flip the activity and give each kindergartner a mat. Then call out each card (and show it like a flash card) and isolate the rime in the word together. Students check the word on their mat to see if it's a rhyming match. If so - they get to keep the card and add it to their mat like points!

3. If you're looking for a quick set of Rhyming Picture Cards, then these are a good fit for kindergarten.

You can cut the cards apart to play memory or even a simplified version of go fish.

If students are really struggling with vocabulary or rhyming, show just one card and limit the number of cards to pick from. Show just 2-3 cards to pick a match from in this case.

To work on coming up with rhyming words, you could show a picture card and ask students to generate nonsense or silly words that rhyme. They could earn counters in a ten frame for each correct response and try to beat their best score from last time.

Sometimes having an alphabet chart handy is helpful. That way you can guide students to pick out a consonant letter to replace the onset in the word card you showed.

4. You could do any of those same activities with these Winter Rhyming Picture Match cards.

I stored all of these resources from this list in little ziploc bags inside expandable file folders. That way it kept my guided reading table uncluttered and I could easily pull out and put away what I needed for each group.

5. Another set of rhyming picture cards I used came from this Whack a Rhyme printable activity. Designed to be played as a game, students whack the mallet when a new card is flipped over rhymes with the card of another player.

This game requires students to quickly go through multiple cards (sitting in front of other players) to check if the new card rhymes.

So I adapted this but kept the mallet since it makes it fun.

I placed one rhyming card down next to the mallet. This became the card we were looking to match. Then I held, read aloud and flashed the rest of the cards one by one as students listened for a rhyming match.

Students who smacked the mallet with their palm first (and got the match correct) got to keep the pair of cards as "points."

6. As a review or a check-in style assessment piece I might've used this Silly Sally Rhyming Worksheet. I would have explained the directions and drawn a smiley face and a sad face on the color code box to help students recall which color to use.

Then I'd point to each character and read the word pairs aloud. I'd have students color the character red if they rhyme and yellow if they don't. There is potential that I'd use this as a way to show parents how their child is progressing on this specific skill of identifying if words rhyme (but I wouldn't use it to show if they can generate rhyming words - that's a different skill).

7. When students are ready to make the transition to understanding why words rhyme using letters and word bits, I use Rhyming Mini-Books to teach students how to generate and read short rhyming words quickly.

Teaching this skill really helps kinders on the verge of reading cvc words independently to start looking for "bits they know" in larger words as a next reading strategy.

8. The Rhyme Time packet above has an emergent reader you may like, but here is another Rhyming Emergent Reader students could read. I might just fill in the missing beginning sounds/blends in this book and focus on hearing the rhyming words orally instead.

And I might also hide/cover the extra text under each picture on the copy machine so it says just "Yes!" for my earliest readers.

In fact, I'd take out the page where students write in their own rhymes and write my own page. I'd have students pick and draw two pictures from the book and put them together because they don't rhyme. This would make an ending to the book that fits the style of other leveled readers - where the last page changes from the pattern of the rest of the book.

There - you have access to the same resources that I used with my kinders to teach how to rhyme in small groups! I hope these rhyming activities for kindergarten are helpful to have all in one place with my take on how to use them.

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

More Reading Skills in Kindergarten

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8 Free Rhyming Activities for Kindergarten

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Let's teach how to rhyme with these rhyming activities for kindergarten. Here are 8 free rhyming activities you can use with your kindergarten students in guided reading groups so they can learn how to hear and identify rhyming words. I once thought that rhyming was just something that kinders knew or didn't know.

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding. They also need basic knowledge about the written alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, and concepts of print because these are the basis for decoding and reading comprehension skills.

How reading relates to ELLs

For English language learners (ELLs), learning to read in their primary language is easier because it builds on the words and sound structures of the language they know best. However, children at the kindergarten level are little sponges who learn what they are taught. If they are taught to read in two languages simultaneously, they will learn. If they are taught to read in English only, they will learn. The key to learning to read (and preventing reading difficulties in one or two languages) is excellent instruction.

It is also important to remember that the basic skills that serve as the base for reading, such as phonetic recognition, transfer from one language to another. If a student who is learning English has already acquired these skills in their first language, it is not necessary to learn them again in English. It is always a good idea to find out if the child knows these skills in their first language before beginning to teach them in English.

Excellent instruction for pre-reading skills consists of:

vocabulary development

phonemic awareness

knowledge of the alphabet

letter-sound correlation

concepts of print

listening comprehension

decoding

comprehension skills

Classroom strategies: Pre-reading and reading

Oral language activities

Before doing an activity or reading a story in class, teach pre-selected vocabulary words. This is always helpful, especially for ELLs. This will give them the chance to identify the word, place it in context, and remember it. You can pre-teach vocabulary by playing with words and 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 Spanish equivalent and then asking students to say the word in English

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to understand that spoken words are composed of smaller units of sound. Phonemic awareness helps children begin to understand how the English and/or Spanish alphabets work. You can teach phonemic awareness through activities such as:

Finding objects in the classroom whose names begin or end with the same sound, such as desk, door, and dog.

Doing clapping activities to identify the syllables in words

Learning poetry and songs that have the same beginning sounds or end in rhyme

Analyzing each other's names to make discoveries about letters and sounds such as Whose name starts with B? Whose name has an "a"? Whose name has an "r"? Show me where you found it.

Making charts about letter/sound discoveries (For example: "Here are three new letters. Let's write some words under each letter.")

Alphabet knowledge

Once students have learned the sounds, they can begin to learn the names of the letters. For ELLs, it is easier to hear the sounds first and then label each letter. You can teach the alphabet through songs accompanied with movements that outline each letter (For example: "A is for alligator. Make your arms open and shut like the mouth of an alligator. B is for bat...") There are books and tapes in most bookstores with alphabet songs and motions.

Concepts of print

"Big books" are ideal for showing children how books work. After reading a big book, you can point out concepts of print such as:

The book's front and back covers, title, and author

The left-to-right direction of print

What a word looks like – and what the space between words looks like

The fact that you are reading the words

How inflection and intonation are used to connect content and structure of the text

The differences between question marks, exclamation marks, and periods

Listening comprehension

Reading out loud to your students is a way to teach vocabulary while modeling reading. As you read aloud:

Introduce the characteristics/elements of the story (characters, setting, problem, solution, plot)

Explain words, topics, or concepts that ELLs may not be familiar with

Model how a reader self-corrects when making a mistake

Think aloud about what you are reading

Provide opportunities for children to retell the story they heard through dramatic retellings; or use picture cards to put the story's events in sequence

Decoding and comprehension

During the second half of the year, ELLs in kindergarten benefit when they are introduced to reading through sequenced decodable books. Simple decodable books allow ELLs to read engaging and interesting stories even though they may only know a few letter sounds. These books may include some sight words they can memorize such as the words "was" or "happy" as the stories build on previously learned letters, sounds, and words.

First, conduct guided reading so that students follow along in their books while you model fluency. You can help student comprehension by clarifying concepts, teaching unknown words, asking questions about the story, and letting children connect these stories to their own experiences.

After the guided reading, have students reread their decodable books with a partner. They can take turns reading by alternating sentences. This helps them focus on what they are reading. Reading with a partner also creates a safety zone where they can feel comfortable reading aloud.

Other ideas

Here are some other things you can do:

Use chants, short poems, or songs as transition markers from one activity to another, or when children line up for recess or lunch.

Use thematic units, such as "plants." This helps children learn vocabulary faster because they hear the same words (all about plants) in the stories the teacher reads, in what they read, and in their learning centers and other activities.

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding. They also need basic knowledge about the written alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, and concepts of print because these are the basis for decoding and reading comprehension skills.

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Featuring Diane August, Margarita Calderón, and Fred Genesee discussing best practices for teaching English language learners.

For this webcast:

For general information about our webcasts or to be part of our studio audience in Washington D.C., please click here.

This webcast is made possible by AFT Teachers, a division of the American Federation of Teachers, as part of a Colorín Colorado partnership between AFT and Reading Rockets.

Program description

In classrooms around the country, teachers need to teach reading to children who don't speak English, and they haven't been trained. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education convened a panel of scholars to determine the best research-based practices for teaching English language learners. The panel hopes to release its report in 2004. For this teleconference, we brought you three members of the panel who shared their expertise as independent researchers in the area of second language acquisition.

This teleconference was produced by Reading Rockets in partnership with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the National Education Association (NEA), the International Reading Association (IRA), and the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE). Funding for this teleconference was provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education.

Teaching English Language Learners to Read is available for purchase at our online store, LearningStore.

Presenters

Diane August is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics.

Margarita Calderón is a Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR).

Fred Genesee is a Professor in the Psychology Department at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Moderator

Delia Pompa is the moderator of this webcast. She is the Vice President of the Center for Community Educational Excellence, at the National Council of La Raza.

Recommended resources

Downloadable resources

If you currently teach English language learners (ELLs) you may find the following downloads useful:

Discussion questions

1. How does your school district assess language proficiency of incoming ELL students? Is social proficiency assessed differently from academic proficiency?

2. In your own words, describe the difference between word-level skill and text-level skill attainment for ELL students. Then, describe specific things teachers can do to increase ELL students' text-level skills.

3. Consider a read aloud you recently used. What vocabulary or concepts were presented in the book that could cause confusion for ELL learners? What could you do to scaffold the read aloud experience that would benefit ELL learners?

4. Compare and contrast the teaching of comprehension strategies to ELL students and to native English speakers.

5. Create a list of teaching behaviors that could promote comprehension skill development for ELL students.

Transcript

Studio

Delia Pompa: Hello. Welcome to this year's final show in the Reading Rockets teleconference series, Achieving Success in Reading. Today, we're going to be talking about teaching English language learners to read. In classrooms across the country, teachers need to teach reading to children who don't speak English, but most of our teachers have not been trained to do this.

Today, we have three independent researchers. Dr. Diane August is a senior research scientist for the Center for Applied Linguistics. Dr. Margarita Calderón is a senior research scientist at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Fred Genesee is a professor in the Psychology Department at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. And we have teachers, administrators, special education professionals, and parents. Later in the program, we will take questions from the audience and open the phone lines to viewers in this country and Canada. Thank you all for joining us.

Diane, why is teaching English language learners so hot these days?

Dr. August: Well, I think it's a hot topic for several reasons. First, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of English language learners in the United States, especially in the last ten years or so. So, I think lots of parts of the country that didn't have large numbers of English language learners before now are experiencing these children in their classrooms. So, that's one issue.

But the other is the No Child Left Behind Act. It is an act that has some very strong accountability provisions that require all children within the next, well, 12 years to reach standards in reading. And for the first time, the assessment data has to be disaggregated by English language proficiency status. So, schools are very aware now of the strengths and academic weaknesses of their English language learners, and schools will be held accountable for making sure these children meet standards.

Delia Pompa: Well, given that as a base, what do we know about the characteristics of these learners that might affect our work with them?

Dr. August: Well, I think one very important thing to keep in mind is it's a very diverse population. But the label "English language learner" encompasses lots of different kinds of children. For example, although most of the children are at the elementary school level, there are substantial numbers of children both at the middle and secondary school level. Though about 70 percent of them come from Spanish-speaking homes, there are also children from other first language backgrounds.

In addition, children come to school with very different literacy and language skills in their first language, which impacts their ability in the second language. For example, some children come to school literate in their first language, and these skills can really transfer to literacy acquisition in their second language. Some kids come to school with very well-developed oral language proficiency in their first language. This also positively impacting their ability to become literate in English. Children come to school with different levels of English oral language proficiency.

Some children who are a language minority and English learners actually have been born and raised in the United States, so they have experienced a context wherein English is spoken all around them. Other children come to the U.S. and start school as soon as they arrive here, so they have not been in an English-speaking context before. So, there are many different factors that differentiate these children, and I think it's a real mistake to think of English language learners as one population of children.

Delia Pompa: I know you have been doing a lot of work on vocabulary development in the second language. What role does that play in teaching the children to read as they acquire a second language?

Dr. August: Vocabulary is critical and, unfortunately, it's been neglected. For example, in research, I'm a member of, and principal investigator for, the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth. Since 1980, there have been three quasi-experimental studies focusing on helping English language learners develop vocabulary in English. This is quite amazing, because vocabulary plays such a critical role in reading comprehension. Children can manage without knowing a few words in a task, but as soon as they don't know more than a few words, they really have issues with comprehending that text. So, vocabulary plays a critical role in reading comprehension, and it's something we need more research on - and something we need to explicitly teach.

Delia Pompa: Is that research helping you find out what instructional practices work best with these children, and what would those be?

Dr. August: This is again a very long answer. It's a very broad question. As part of the National Literacy Panel, we have reviewed all the research on practices that work for English language learners. The first thing I should tell you is that there are 18 studies in all that look at the development of component skills of literacy. When you compare this with the 400 studies that are cited in the National Reading Panel report, you can see what a need we have for more research in this area. But I can tell you these 18 studies tell us that working on component skills of literacy is very important. And by the component skills of literacy, I mean phonological awareness, word reading, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension - things like this. It's very important to target these skills.

We also found that you can really build on first-language reading research, but you really have to make modifications in that research to make sure that the techniques work with English language learners. With many of the studies that we have located, the practices build on effective practices for English language learners, but there are modifications in these practices to make sure they are effective with English language learners. And I could give you a couple of examples.

Delia Pompa: If you could give us one, and then we will move on. But give us one example right now.

Dr. August: Well, one example. If we are talking about vocabulary in the way of comprehension, you can't just sit an English language learner down with a chapter in a book, or three or four pages, and expect them to read through these and understand. You need to pre-teach some of the vocabulary. You need to scaffold the reading of the text with the children, asking frequent questions to make sure that they understand what the text is about. Those are some examples.

Delia Pompa: Diane, it seems like we know a lot about what it takes. What do we need to do to implement these pieces of research that we've found and all the components of reading?

Dr. August: Yes. This is also a very complicated question, given the amount of research we have in this area. I think it's very important to use research-based practices, so, again, we need a lot more good research in this area. Given that, I think professional development is extremely important. Teachers need to understand the theory that drives whatever intervention they're implementing.

I think having materials in the classroom is very, very important; because, quite frankly, I don't think professional development alone does it. I think teachers need something to work with. I think it's very important for teachers to pay attention to how whatever programs and practices they're using in the classroom work for these children.

Assessment is critical. You can't assume that because something is "research based" it's going to work for the children in your particular classroom. So, teachers need to attend to, "Is this working?" And if it's not working, they need to really think about why it's not working and what they can do to make improvements in whatever strategies they are using.

So, professional development and careful monitoring of student practice.--

Delia Pompa: Fred, Diane has given us a lot of ideas about what teachers need to be doing - ideas - and different approaches and the whole panoply of solutions teachers need to look at. Are there advantages or risks to different approaches that teachers should know about?

Dr. Genesee: I would have to say yes. It's hard to answer without a specific approach in mind; but, in effect, good teachers need a repertoire of instructional strategies to use when working with English language learners. This is true for native English speakers. It's particularly true for teachers working with English language learners, because, as Diane said, the children come to school with very different cultural backgrounds and first-language skills, and very different levels of literacy in the first or second language; and teachers need to be able to tailor their instruction to respond to those individual needs.

There's another feature of working with these children which classroom teachers working with English-speaking children don't have to deal with. They can come in at any grade level - grade five, six, secondary school - and some of them present a particular challenge, calling for specific kinds of instructional strategies.

Delia Pompa: Is there reliable research that tells us about how children learn to read in a second language? And, what may be some of that research that teachers would need to know about how children learn to read in a second language?

Dr. Genesee: The National Literacy Panel, which Diane referred to, is really the first serious attempt to look at the research in a very comprehensive way. And one of the driving questions is the question as to whether reading in a second language is the same as reading in the first language and, if there are differences, how do we respond to those differences? So it would probably be premature for me to say on behalf of the panel what the findings are. But it's my sense it would be interesting to see what Diane says as a researcher, that there's a lot of converging evidence that learning to read in a second language is very similar to the first language insofar as the underlying cognitive and skills are involved. The same component skills important in the first language like: phonological awareness, ability to name letters, vocabulary knowledge, how you use context to figure out the meaning of words- these are all foundation skills that children need, whether reading in a first or second language.

But you always have to filter what might be regarded as a kind of almost universal processes of language acquisition, reading acquisition, through the filters the kids bring, which are the cultural and linguistic differences.

Delia Pompa: Margarita, what role does the native language play in the students' learning to read in the second language?

Dr. Calderón: Again, going back to the preliminary findings of the Panel, it plays a major role. Learning to read in the primary language definitely helps students learn to read in the second language. But, again, it depends on how well a program is structured and the development of a program, as well as a very solid research-based transition into English reading that is critical. I think that is one of the biggest hurdles we need to deal with in schools - how do we develop reading in the primary language so that it is very effective, very comprehensive? And it's very much what they have mentioned already. It's all the different components.

Even reading in Spanish, for example, has to have a lot of phonemic and phonological awareness, word knowledge - everything Diane mentioned about vocabulary learning. If it does not take place in the primary language, it will be very difficult for the children to transfer a lot of concepts and word knowledge into English reading.

Delia Pompa: Do we know what aspects of learning to read in a first language carry over to the second language? Diane, you look like you have an answer.

Dr. August: We are doing a lot of research funded through the National Institutes for Child Health and Development and Institute for Educational Sciences, Office of English Language Acquisition, we have done a longitudinal study from the end of second grade through the end of fifth grade, looking at children who were instructed first in their native language, which happened to be Spanish, and then into English-only instruction to see what components transferred from the first to the second language. And we found that, regardless of whether they were instructed in English or Spanish, phonological awareness skills transferred from the first to second language. But for skills like word reading and experience to transfer, children need to be instructed in Spanish first. So, language of instruction plays a major role in transfer. Even though all these children were from Spanish-speaking homes, children had to be instructed first in Spanish for the skills to transfer.

But I also wanted to say something in response to one of your previous questions about issues related to implementing effective programs and practices for English language learners. And I think we can't forget how important resources are in making sure we have sound programs for these programs. And I say that because children entering kindergarten who are very limited English-proficient and from poor families, for example, really need a lot of support to master English literacy. They need extra time in school. They need to be with a teacher who really is well trained, so that they know how to scaffold instruction. They need to be in a small enough group so that the teacher can respond to the needs of these children. And this we will not have unless we have sufficient resources. It's not just a matter of research.

Delia Pompa: You know, this segment has had lots of interest. Not to put you all on the spot or anything, but teachers were waiting for this particular segment, and one question we had was how often should a teacher correct a second-language mistake that students make, and how does that fit into instruction and reading?

Dr. Genesee: Well, this is a question that comes up frequently in all forms of second-language education, whether it's a bilingual or emerging program, or certainly when you're teaching literacy. We are coming from a period where a lot of people felt we shouldn't provide correction; but now thinking is changing a little to the point where people believe at certain times correction is appropriate, because there are technical aspects of the language. Spelling is a good example, also vocabulary - how you organize text for a science report or a narrative.

This is all knowledge that is in many cases acquired more easily if you are told explicitly how to do it and if you are corrected when you don't do it correctly. So, I think if correction has a goal in mind and is also done in the broader context of literacy, it can be very effective.

But, obviously, one has to use it judiciously; because if you over-correct, you will turn students off.

Delia Pompa: Another topic is children with learning disabilities who are learning a second language. Are there special considerations for these English language learners, who also have a disability?

Dr. Genesee: I can say I think you have to be really careful before you label a child "learning disabled." The child needs to be provided with really sound, effective instruction and be monitored carefully, because a lot of children labeled learning disabled have not been instructed properly. So, it's very important to discriminate between the children who have not received proper instruction and those who really have a learning disability.

Dr. Genesee: Yes. And if I could add, the terms "learning disabled" and "learning disability" are, I think, really overused. You don't just see it in the schools, but in the research literature. Often, researchers distinguish between "normal," or typical children and then those with learning disabilities. This is probably a very heterogeneous group, and I can think of at least three groups within the larger group that you should distinguish among: children who are having trouble learning because of trouble with language impairment, or with a reading disability, or those having difficulty learning because they actually have a cognitive or intellectual problem. And before you can actually work with these children effectively, you have to actually make a correct sort of assessment.

Delia Pompa: Acknowledging the difficulty in diagnosing these children, what special considerations would you have to consider, would you have to take into account, once you start actually knowing what issues the children face are? And, what would you do in the classroom?

Dr. Genesee: Well, if it's a child with - I'll start the ball rolling and see if there's something specific. If you have a child who seems to have a language impairment - has trouble learning language - first of all, it would show with difficulty both in the first and second language.

First of all, it's important to realize these children are capable of learning a second language within the limits they have. In other words, being language-impaired does not mean you can't learn a second language to a high level of proficiency, but there will be limits. So, you want to give these kinds of children particular attention, individualize their instruction to give them more enrichment and more opportunities to practice the language more, and so on. Otherwise, within that, children with language impairment should be getting the same kind of programming as other children and shouldn't be given less - because they really need more. And by giving them less, we are making their impairment a reality.

Dr. August: And another issue, when people see a child as an English language learner, they tend not to diagnose them as learning-disabled. So, proper diagnosis is important, but so are services for this population of students.

Dr. Calderón And I think it's particularly important for older English language learners, children coming into the upper elementary or middle school, or even high school. They're labeled learning disabled too early without looking into their background and seeing what is lacking in either vocabulary or some of the basic reading skills. So, it's important to have a very thorough process for diagnosing those three areas that Fred mentioned.

Otherwise, they may be either placed too quickly into a category, or not placed at all.

Delia Pompa: So many things to think about, but right now, let's meet K.B. Lee, a kindergarten teacher in California, who has the task of teaching children speaking several different languages. Let's watch as he introduces them to new letters and sounds.

Video

Narrator: The Mark Hopkins school is at the center of Sacramento's large Hmong community. K.B. Lee has been teaching here since 1996.

Mr. Lee: One of the reasons I chose Mark Hopkins to come and work is because of the diversity in the community. We have English speaking students, Hmong speaking students, Spanish, Hindi, Tongan. It's like a bowl of salad with everything mixed together.

Narrator: With so many of his kindergartners speaking foreign languages at home, Mr. Lee works extra hard to teach reading in English.

Mr. Lee: We need Leo to help us, he's coming to look at who is ready. Now, Leo has a problem. He wants to say a word but he keeps forgetting a sound - a sound at the end. Leo wants to get some ice cream.??

Narrator: Experts say kindergarten teachers should help their students achieve phonemic awareness, the realization that within a word are individual sounds, or phonemes.

Mr. Lee: "I want to sing about ice crea-" What sound did he forget? Very good. So the next one, another word. The stars so bright. The stars so bright.

[Children answering]

Narrator: Being able to hear the sounds inside a word is just one step down the path towards reading.

Mr. Lee: "A big glass of mil-" - what's the sound?

Narrator: A child must also learn which letters go with which sounds - phonics, in other words.

Mr. Lee: We are going to do letters, pictures and sounds. Ready? Letter, picture, sound.

[Students respond ]

Narrator: Even in kindergarten, an important ingredient is assessment.

Dr. Edward Kame'enui: We don't want to start in September and wait until June to get a sense of whether or not we are successful. We want to see how we are doing in the middle of September, end of September, beginning of November- every month we want to see if the interventions are effective for kids, and we can't do that without progress-monitoring systems.

Mr. Lee: Samuel, show me the front of the book.

Narrator: Mr. Lee regularly measures each student's progress. Today, it's Samuel's turn.

Mr. Lee: Show me the title of the book. Good. I will show you letters. You tell me the name of the letter. Okay?

This one.

Samuel: "T".

Mr. Lee: "T" - good.

Samuel: "G".

Mr. Lee: Good.

How about this one?

Mr. Lee: Right now, he is low in terms of reading, letter recognition.

Mr. Lee [to student]: Listen: door, floor. Sound the same? Good.

Mr. Lee: But he should come up.

Mr. Lee [to student]: How about mix, shoes?

Narrator: Hearing a rhyme requires phonemic awareness, and these quick tests tell Mr. Lee which skills need to be boosted. Help is offered to the bottom fifth of students.

Mr. Lee [to student]: Can you write your first name and last name for Mr. Lee?

Mr. Lee: Most - or, in fact, almost all - of my students at the beginning of the year do not know anything. And at the end of the year, I have the feeling I have done something good with them. They just blossom.

Mr. Lee [to student]: Good. Keep going.

Mr. Lee: Even those who don't speak English, so I feel real good about that.

Mr. Lee [to student]: Very good, Samuel.

Narrator: K.B. Lee is leading his students on one of the most important journeys of their lives. His last stop today is bringing together phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence. Almost all of Mr. Lee's kids are on track for becoming readers.

Mr. Lee [to student]: What sound? Well, help me.

Narrator: Did you know we have a Web site especially for Spanish-speaking parents and educators? It's ColorinColorado.org, teaching English language learners to read. We'd like to remind you that we will be taking your calls shortly. Our toll-free number is 1-888-493-9382.

Studio

Delia Pompa: Welcome back, and thank you for joining us for this Reading Rockets teleconference. With us in the WETA studio in Washington, D.C., are panelists: Dr. Diane August, Dr. Margarita Calderón and Dr. Fred Genesee. We also we have an audience of teachers, administrators, special education professionals and parents.

Dr. Margarita Calderón is a senior research scientist at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk at Johns Hopkins University. Margarita, I'm sure you have seen many classrooms as we just saw.

What teacher preparation and knowledge are required to ensure success in these kinds of classrooms?

Dr. Calderón: Extensive teacher preparation, a lot of staff development days; but also follow-up in the classroom. Teachers who are learning to combine not just effective reading practices, but also second language teaching and learning practices, need a lot of extensive practice themselves. They need to see some demonstrations in the classrooms. They need support afterwards to make sure that they're doing this accordingly.

What we noticed in this videotape is that this teacher was also doing some very meticulous assessments. So, it's not just a matter of learning strategies- teaching strategies- but also learning the implications of the assessments, learning how to improve their practice continuously and to adapt it to the children, the population that they have. This was a wonderful example of a kindergarten classroom, but if we think about middle school children, immigrant children, newcomers, who are also in need of phonemic awareness, you would not do a train, or you would not have a puppet; but, rather, a teacher would need to be very sensitive about how to teach phonemic awareness, which will be critical to the coding, word knowledge, fluency, comprehension and everything that goes along with the rest of the reading train.

And so for that, middle school teachers and high school teachers are, perhaps, the ones most in need of extensive staff development practices, very comprehensive programs where they are learning something that they may never have had in a teacher preparation program.

Delia Pompa: How do we train all these teachers across all the levels? What are the vehicles we can use to train them?

Dr. Calderón: Differentiated staff development, definitely, for elementary teachers; programs that demonstrate and use approaches for elementary middle and high school; and differentiated staff development. But staff development is not just the little bag of tricks for Monday morning; but, rather, what does the research base say? What is the theory behind these practices? The teachers need to internalize the rationale, the purpose for doing one thing versus another.

Like Fred said, there've been some myths and, perhaps, some things that we have done in the past; but as we grow more knowledgeable about the field, we need to bring these practices into the classroom. But teachers cannot teach what they have not been taught, so it's a matter of doing massive staff development in all the schools at all levels. Every teacher is new to what we are talking about here - every, single teacher. ESL teachers need to learn more about reading. Reading teachers need to know about second language practices. Bilingual teachers need to learn how to incorporate everything that we've learned into teaching Spanish, or whatever the primary language is. And so it's massive training all around.

Delia Pompa: Let's say we had a magic wand and all the teachers were trained already. Once that is taken care of, how do schools find the best strategies that teachers can implement in working with English language learners?

Dr. Calderón: I can think of one example, which I think is a wonderful example, of a school district where the superintendent organized a learning community. The superintendent's staff is doing a lot of research themselves, and they had to look for the appropriate approaches to meet the needs of their schools, and the principals were involved.

So, they have set up smaller learning communities throughout the district and in the school for continuous study, discovering what works and what might not work. And so this terrific school district in Kauai, of all places, has really approached learning about second language learners through their own particular study; and in that inquiry and discovery process, that's where everything begins to fall into place. But everyone has to be involved, including the principals. We cannot leave this for teachers alone. It's no longer just something that a teacher can do; but, rather, what is the whole district doing? What are the administrators learning?

Delia Pompa: So, it's a mission of self-discovery, it sounds like. What advice do you have for rural schools that may just be starting to serve English language learners. What are some teaching strategies to use?

Dr. Calderón: There should be a comprehensive reading program, but also we've learned a lot about second language learning, and sheltered language instruction, which I think Fred can talk about this a little more. There are very specific strategies mainstream teachers can use in their classrooms when they have a few students, and it helps all the students. It's not just those two or three; but, rather, through these instructional approaches with a lot of hands-on examples, all children learn.

Delia Pompa: Let's turn to the Spanish-speaking population, which, as you know, makes up almost 80 percent of the English language learners in this country.

Diane, for those children whose first language is Spanish, are there particular approaches that might be useful?

Dr. August: Well, I think that for children whose first language is Spanish and who are literate in Spanish, a very important thing is to make children aware that they have a lot of word knowledge in their first language that they can transfer to their second language. That is, there are many words, called cognates, where the meaning of the word is the same and the way the word looks is the same from, say, Spanish to English. Helping kids take advantage of all this knowledge they have in their first language and apply it to their second language would be an important thing to do.

And I don't think people realize how many cognates there are between Spanish and English. One-third of all English words are cognates with Spanish - from 10,000 to 15,000 words. What's even more interesting is many of these words are low-frequency words in English, so they are words people would consider SAT-type words. But they are high-frequency words in Spanish that people use every day.

An intervention right now we are working on is funded through the National Institute of Child Health and Development. Its intent is to help literate children in Spanish transfer their knowledge from their first to their second language and make them aware that they have this rich base that they can build on. So, again, this is research funded by NICHD and the Institute for Educational Sciences, intended to help kids build on this cognate knowledge.

Dr. Calderón And along the lines of teacher development, what we are finding in the NICHD and other studies is that teachers need to be very deliberate in pointing out what a cognate is. Sometimes, even the youngest children have difficulty figuring out that president and presidente are cognates.

So, when the teacher can explicitly point out simple things like that, or that there are differences in the way we pronounce the "r" in English and in Spanish - those are the tiny subtleties that are also important for teachers to know, so that they can help ease the transition and help children capitalize on their primary language.

Dr. Genesee: And the research shows that English language learners who are good readers in both Spanish and in English use the same strategies and have a conscious awareness of these transfer effects of these cross-linguistic relationships. Whereas, students who are poor language learners and poor readers in Spanish, don't see the connections between the languages - not in the oral or written form. When you actually provide interventions which help these students see this connection, they actually start to benefit from this.

Dr. August: And I can add that to understand what one's reading, one really needs an understanding of the concepts that are embedded in the print. So, it's not just a matter of being able to decode the words in English or of having the English labels. One has to really understand what one is reading. And this kind of conceptual knowledge, this background knowledge, this content knowledge is knowledge that can easily be developed in children's first languages. I mean, therein lies a lot of value in providing children content knowledge in their native language as they are acquiring proficiency in English - because without this background knowledge, this content knowledge, even with being able to decode the words or understand what the words mean in sort of pieces, you cannot put the picture together.

Dr. Genesee: Building on what Diane is saying, when we work with native English speakers, teaching them to read, we assume we need to start with what they know as a jumping-off point; so we embed literacy instruction in the experiences these children bring to school with them. We need to be consciously aware of doing that with English language learners, too. They won't have the same kinds of experiences as native English speakers, though one has to be careful because some English language learners have similar experiences. The teachers need to connect with the students on the level of their experiences. The teacher on the video should be introducing words they are likely to know already and helping them to break the words down.

Delia Pompa: That's an interesting point some of the viewers may have asked. Are there environmental factors that might affect some native Spanish speakers' ability to read or write in English, that affect Spanish speakers as a group, perhaps?

Dr. August: Environmental influences?

Delia Pompa: Factors like poverty, or level of education of parents, or those kinds of factors.

Dr. Genesee: Well, the research is quite clear in showing that, first of all, if children come to school and they are already literate in their first language, most teachers will tell you, it's much easier to teach them to read and write in English. If they emigrate from Mexico, for example, from a solid school, and they are nine or ten years of age, and come to the school in the United States, if they can read in Spanish. Then, teaching them to read in English is quite straightforward.

But students who live in the United States and grow up in a Spanish-speaking at home, they may have literacy experiences. But many children grew up in families where the parents are not literate, or they are so busy earning a living, they are not sharing those literacy experiences with the children. These children don't bring such literacy benefits to school with them, so it's useful to know what is going on with the family.

And as far as the disability issue, the child may seem to have a disability, but there may have been a literacy impoverishment for that child.

Dr. August: And while children are gaining literacy in English, providing them access to content in their native language is a way to help them develop the content knowledge they need to make sense of the English they are reading.

I'm quite concerned, actually, about some aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act; because I think if one focuses just on discrete skills in reading, for example, and reading narrative text and math, and the kids don't have an opportunity to learn content in other subjects, it's going to really impact their ability to comprehend what they're reading. So, again, there's the importance of providing children access to rich content in a language in which they understand the content.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's very important to provide these children with the skills they need to become literate in English, and I don't propose we wait a long time to do this. One needs to provide systematic instruction in English reading from a fairly early age and really build these kids' abilities to access English content. It's critically important.

Delia Pompa: Margarita?

Dr. Calderón: I was going to add that it's also very important if the children are starting out to read in the primary language - say, in Spanish - that they are in this program long enough to build those reading comprehension skills and other skills that, if they're going to transfer them, they have to be developed. I think what happens too often is they get only a small dose of decoding and the rest, and most important reading skills are left out of the primary language instruction program. Therefore, when the children are transferred into English reading, they are expected to have all of these other skills, and maybe they don't because they were not there long enough to develop them.

But I agree with Diane. Unless the English is being developed also, systematically from an early stage, we may wind up with children whom many schools think are unable to transition into the fourth or fifth grade. And that is a little late. When the children get to middle school, it's very difficult for them to pick up all those dense texts and be able to read and tackle the content, because their reading in English is not developed as far as it should be.

Delia Pompa: The connections with what happens in the home and then in school are very important, beginning in early childhood. Let's meet a scientist who has been studying infants' amazing ability to distinguish subtle differences in speech sounds.

Video

[Speaking various languages]

Narrator: The human voice can produce at least 150 different speech sounds, or phonemes, and English uses only about 40 of these sounds.

[Speaking various languages]

Dr. Werker: Thank you again for coming in. We really appreciate it.

Narrator: Psychologist Dr. Janet Werker wants to know how babies learn to distinguish speech sounds of their native language.

Dr. Werker: Babies, like adults, are interested in new information. So when they hear something that's different from what they've been hearing, their interest perks up. You can measure that in a number of ways - sucking pattern or looking time, or even through something like a head turn.

Narrator: Werker trains babies to turn their heads whenever they hear a change in sound by rewarding them with a view of a musical bunny. Babies are turning their heads the moment they hear a change, anticipating the bunny. Headphones prevent the adults from hearing the speech sounds and accidentally cuing the baby. Werker can now find out if this 6-month-old can hear the difference between two English sounds. Keeping the baby engaged, phonemes are played over a speaker.

Voice: Da, da, da. Ba.

Narrator: This baby can hear the difference between "B" and "D". In fact, even newborns can tell them apart.

Dr. Werker: Look!

Narrator: Next, Werker tests if the baby can distinguish another pair of sounds.

The phoneme will change from one kind of "D" to another. The two sound distinct to speakers of Hindi, but adults who speak only English can't hear the difference.

Voice: Da, da, da, DAO.

Narrator: The baby hears the difference between the two sounds, one of which she has never heard before. By the age of 10 to 12 months, infants not regularly exposed to Hindi lose the ability to distinguish these sounds.

Voice: Da, da, da, DAO.

Narrator: 12-month-old babies have already become specialists in their native language. We now know that even in very young children, the ability to hear language is highly developed. For parents of future readers, Workers' research has an important message.

Dr. Werker: As a parent, when you are talking to your infant, you are not just having a wonderful time and setting up a great emotional relationship. You may be providing them with essential information for them to become accomplished readers several years later.

Narrator: Nobody wants to give up on a struggling reader. Now, nobody has to. Whether you are an educator, parent or someone who just cares about kids, check out readingrockets.org, the definitive resource for teaching kids to read, another great production of WETA, Washington, D.C.

We remind you, we will be taking your calls shortly.

Studio

Delia Pompa: Welcome back, and thank you once again for joining the Reading Rockets teleconference. We'll be taking your calls shortly.

Dr. Fred Genesee is Professor of Psychology at McGill University. He has done extensive work in total immersion, and simultaneous acquisition of two languages. Fred, let's take a few steps back. Can these students really learn to read English if they can't speak the language?

Dr. Genesee: There's a lot of progress you can make with English language learners before they are proficient in the oral language. So, you can lay the foundations for later literacy. We focus a lot up until now on phonological and phonemic awareness, early vocabulary development, teaching children the name of letters and so on, and the correspondence between how a letter looks and how it sounds, corresponds to that letter. Those are skills that actually can be taught before children have very high levels of oral proficiency.

I think it's important though, and most good teachers know this, because most of them start with those kinds of skills early on. But at the same time, they need to be laying the foundations for more advanced levels of kinds of reading. So, as the children get older, these kinds of foundational skills will not be enough, and they will need to be able to understand words in context. They have to understand complex grammatical structures. Those kinds of reading skills, the more advanced ones, do require more advanced levels of language proficiency. But in the beginning, you can build a bit of progress in teaching reading and, in fact, reading can be the basis for oral language development.

Delia Pompa: What can teachers take away from that for reading instruction for their practices?

Dr. Genesee: My opinion would be two things. One, they need to start small. Start on the small pieces from the very beginning. And then the other one is at the same time, there should always be this background of a more contextualized reading and writing. As you focus on the small pieces, embed that in reading and writing activities which are probably beyond the students at that point, but they will become important later on.

It's really what I was saying before. The task of teaching reading is complex, because teachers need to do several things at the same time.

But what they're focusing on at any point depends on what stage the learner is at.

Delia Pompa: You have focused much of the work of the last several years on language acquisition. Can you tell the audience the different ways in which a child may acquire a second language?

Dr. Genesee: There's lots of ways. And especially young language learners, like the children in this videotape, preschool children, but even early school-aged children can't help but learn language. It's almost impossible to prevent a child from learning language.

It's sort of interesting to reflect on how much difficulty we have teaching a language. Children learn a lot of language from one another. And at some point, it's very, very important that English language learners have contact with other native speakers - but native speakers of English who are the same age. That will help them acquire the kinds of social language skills for interaction and social survival.

At the same time, exposure to native language speakers is not enough. They need to be exposed to more mature language learners, like teachers and older students, who can provide models of a literate language. By that, I don't mean just the ability to read and write, but the ability to use oral language in ways that are like literacy. Because it's really that kind of oral language proficiency that ultimately is very important in academic settings. We have to take English language learners and native speakers from where they start, which is with proficiency in social uses of language, to proficiency in uses of the language for academic purposes.

Delia Pompa: Does the way a child learns a second language impact his success as a reader or academic achievement?

Dr. Genesee: No doubt that children learning a second language such as English to a high degree before they come to school - they definitely have an advantage in learning to read and write in English. But that's not enough. They need to be taken beyond these social uses of language to the use of language for reading, for writing, for talking about complex material. So, children who have learned English as a second language not just intensively, but in the context of talking about complex ideas or making an argument for or against something - these children have an additional advantage, because they are already beginning to learn some really critical components of literacy.

Delia Pompa: The question you must get 25 times a week: how long does it take for an immigrant child to learn English?

Dr. Genesee: It depends on what kind of English language proficiency you are talking about. One of the things I think we have learned about language is it's not a single thing. So say someone is proficient, you have to qualify it by saying in what way. Virtually all children can become proficient in the oral uses of English, and they can do it relatively quickly - but not as quickly as we think. One of the myths is that children soak up English as a sponge, and it sort of happens overnight, but it is not true.

In a study in Alberta, Canada, young English language learners surrounded by other English speakers, she's looking at oral development. And even after two years of exposure, they have not mastered basic grammatical rules and are making mistakes with tense, pronoun use and so on. They are highly communicative, but it's not because their language is advanced, but because they have developed strategies for communicating which don't rely on oral language.

The situation becomes more complex when you ask, how long does it take for them to acquire the language skills they need to use in school?

There's a lot of evidence suggesting between five and seven years. If you monitor the language proficiency of English language learners on things like reading tests, you will find they do not start to score at the levels of native speakers often until grades five, six or seven. And one of the reasons is that the language in schooling is not entirely natural. It's something you have to learn and be taught, and it takes longer than learning through social communication.

Delia Pompa: Margarita, it seems we know a lot about how we learn language, how kids learn to read. But there seem to be a lot of misconceptions still floating around. What misconceptions do people continue to have?

Dr. Calderón: I think one of them is that it's just some really basic phonics and not - not a comprehensive program. That's one thing. But the other misconception that we hear is that children cannot learn to read in two languages simultaneously. And we have looked at some studies through the panel, and also through some of our CRESPAR studies where children are learning to read in what we call 50-50 programs, or paired programs, where they learn both languages.

Now, these programs are very carefully orchestrated, so that the teachers are addressing all the different issues of the two language structures. The longitudinal results have shown that the children in the 50-50 program, in comparison to transitional and to the average district achievement in reading, have done extensively better. But when you stop and analyze the programs and the staff development process that went on, all of these factors contribute to saying, yes, children can be very successful learning to read in two languages.

And I think many of us did the same thing. I think there's a lot of us walking around out there in the world and that experienced this. But unless it's carefully orchestrated, it will take a little bit longer.

Delia Pompa: You're the resident Canadian expert. We have heard so much about the Canadian immersion model, and people have tried to export it. Can you tell us how the model worked and what happened in the United States when we tried to implement it? What was different?

And, Diane, I would love for you to jump in, too, because I know you have experience with this.

Dr. Genesee: This is an interesting phenomenon, because the word "immersion" is being used in very different ways in Canada and the United States, and I'm going to give a definition. "Immersion" in Canada is used to teach French as a second language to native English-speaking children, and these programs were initiated almost 40 years ago as part of Canada's official policy on bilingualism, designed to help young English-speaking children learn Canada's other official language. These are children who already speak the dominant language of the community, and we know this is one of the dominant languages in the world. And these were children who had the advantages of growing up in families who were literate and used that literacy a lot.

The programs were highly successful. They were introduced in the U.S. shortly after, in the same way they were created in Canada. That is, they were made available to English-speaking American children. Spanish immersion programs in Southern California were the first, for English-speaking children. And, again, they were very successful with results similar to Canada's.

But then what started to happen was the term "immersion" started to be used for teaching English to Spanish-speaking children, for example.

So the notion of immersion was transformed in a way not true to its origins in Canada. So, now immersion in the U.S. refers to English immersion for Spanish-speaking children. And as a result of that form of immersion, you really can't use the Canadian results on immersion in any way to inform you about immersion for Spanish-speaking children. They are two entirely different populations of children. In Canada, they are children who speak the majority language. In the U.S., they speak a minority language.

Delia Pompa: Diane, would you like to add something?

Dr. August: I was going to add to the issue of the acquisition of English proficiency and issues around that acquisition. As we talked about it before, it's important to take individual difference factors into account when we discuss this. One of the things that the research studies find is that you need a certain amount of English proficiency to sort of bootstrap yourself to the point where you can take advantage of the instruction provided you. So, children who enter schools as English language learners, who are below that threshold of English proficiency, will have a much harder time taking advantage of the English context around them, to acquire additional proficiencies. And this again has implications for the kinds of scaffolding and additional instruction given to these children who enter U.S. schools with fairly limited English proficiency.

Dr. Genesee: At the same time, the other thing I think we have learned about second language learning is that language learning actually occurs most effectively when the students are not focusing on language learning. In the immersion program, for example in Canada, we have learned children can learn a lot of academic knowledge or cognitive skills through the medium of a language they haven't mastered yet. And, in fact, by focusing the students' attention on learning other kinds of skills or knowledge, you can actually facilitate second language acquisition.

In the case of English language learners, even though we know it takes time to learn oral or academic language skills, we shouldn't be misled to think we have to wait until they have mastered those skills to teach them content or new academic skills. They need basic language skills, but you can move fairly quickly to teaching them new knowledge and new skills through the medium of the language. You have to provide scaffolding to do that, but we can't wait five or six years to teach science. And we don't have to, because doing that, we will also facilitate their English language development - if, as Margarita says, we do it in a very careful way.

Delia Pompa: There's a lot of room for error in our schools and instructional systems for, perhaps, not using the correct strategies for students. What are the strategies we may use now that some of these things have happened to motivate English language learners to learn to read in the second language?

Dr. August: High-interest activities in the content areas. Science is a great way to engage students where they do not need too much oral language and can be exposed to a lot of rich content and more vocabulary. There are a lot of cognates, and teachers can capitalize on cognates as a bridge to develop more English proficiency. Even social studies teachers are learning ways to introduce different concepts to students who are very limited. I think if the focus is too much on language, on learning the technicalities of language, especially for the older students, that may not be as helpful and successful in motivating them as it would when they're learning something, that they're learning content, that they're able to read. Additionally, in the primary grades, if the children also are seeing that their parents are very much engaged in the reading process, and if the schools are providing workshops for parents to help them in this, that's very motivating. A family literacy program connected with the school's literacy program, I think, is an absolute must to continue to motivate the students - at home and at school.

Delia Pompa: Sure, Diane. Really quickly.

Dr. August: What is very important is making sure that teachers scaffold whatever they are, say, reading to children, so that, on an ongoing basis, children are questioned to be sure that they understand what is being read. A very effective strategy is storybook reading, or reading expository text, but asking lots of questions on an ongoing basis to clarify misunderstanding. This is a good way to build up proficiency. We were talking about errors before. The teacher can repeat what a child says, repeat it correctly and elaborate on students' responses. This give-and-take around the teacher reading to children is a very important way to build both content knowledge and oral language proficiency, but it requires very careful and thoughtful scaffolding.

Delia Pompa: You're offering lots of tips and new knowledge that will help us all.

And now a little treat, a preview of the latest show in the Reading Rockets "Launching Young Readers" series, airing on PBS stations around the country this spring and fall. It's a show just for kids with trouble reading. Maricely is a fifth grader. Her school offered her the appropriate support, and with proper intervention and a little TLC, she learned to read and speak in English.

Video

Maricely: Today we are going to see the secret lives of teenagers getting ready for a talent show.

Narrator: This is fifth grader Maricely.

Narrator: Man, I love this music!

Narrator: She lives in Hartford, Connecticut, but was born in Puerto Rico. See the flag?

Narrator: This girl loves the spotlight, but that has not always been the case.

Maricely: I was reading and then I came across a word I didn't know. And when I started saying it, everybody starred laughing.

Narrator: Maricely, she had trouble learning to read. She was learning in a second language. Could you imagine learning to read Chinese or Greek? She moved from Puerto Rico when she was just two. Her family speaks a little English, but everyone in the neighborhood and at home generally speaks Spanish, and it's hard to practice her English.

Maricely: It's hard to learn English, especially when your family speaks Spanish only. I didn't know how to read or write English, and most of my friends would pass me a note and write it in English. So when I went to read it, I didn't know.

Narrator: One thing that confused Maricely was the same sounds being spelled in different ways. What' that all about?

Maricely: Christopher, it sounds like "f-e-r," but it's "p-h-e-r." And I would be like, it's too hard.

Narrator: Things got so tough for Maricely, they decided she needed to repeat the fifth grade.

Maricely: I was mad, and it was hard for me. I wanted to quit, but then I decided not to.

Narrator: You go, Maricely! A lot of kids would give up, but not Maricely. She buckled down and worked extra hard with her teachers.

Maricely: The teachers always gave me a book, and I started reading that one. When I finished it, I read it again. Then they give me one book harder and one harder, and they will make me understand the English more.

Narrator: Maricely also worked at home with her big sister Bette Marie.

Bette Marie: It's hard, and at some points in time you feel like giving up, because maybe you think it's not worth it. But it's worth everything. All the struggles and everything - it's going to be worth it.

Narrator: Maricely thinks so, too.

Maricely: I want to show them as I learn a second language. And here I am, talking in English, and so can you.

Narrator: And guess what? Next year, she will be heading to sixth grade, speaking and reading both English and Spanish.

Narrator: Did you know we have a Web site designed especially for Spanish speaking parents and educators? Visit Colorincolorado.org to find the best information for teaching English language learners to read.

Call in now. The toll-free number is 1-888-493-9382.

Do you have a personal question you would like to ask an expert about reading? Go to readingrockets.org and click on "Ask Reading Rockets." Send us your question, and we will respond within a few days with a personal, confidential answer.

Studio

Delia Pompa: Welcome back. We are opening up the phone lines to take your calls; but, first, members of our studio audience. Let's go to the first question.

Audience Member: How can educators motivate parents from other cultures who have had negative experiences themselves with the schools, so that they can become involved in the educational process at home and at school?

Delia Pompa: Oh, a big question. Margarita?

Dr. Calderón: I will start. Some of the things I've seen in several schools and districts is that they have a variety of activities for parents. Some parents can come in only for breakfast meetings. Others can come in right after school to pick up the children and stay for a few minutes, where the teachers or someone can be prepared to help them out, give them materials, do a little demonstration on how to listen to reading. Others can come on evenings and Saturday mornings. So, where family literacy programs have worked is where they have a variety of things - not just one - and where the parents are proposing what can be done and how they, themselves, can collaborate with the schools.

Dr. August: I think it's very important to provide professional development to school staff, because I think there are lots of parents who are eager and enthusiastic about getting involved in their children's education, and they feel shut out. So, I think schools need practice in welcoming parents.

Dr. Genesee: I saw a brilliant project within a school in California, in fact, where the issue was precisely the one you raised: how to get the parents involved. They recognized the competencies the parents had, and this happened to be a fairly large group of Hmong speakers from Southeast Asia, who were farmers in their countries of origin. And they created a community garden, and the teachers and students were involved. They integrated the gardens into their science and social studies lessons. It was a way of recognizing the competencies the parents had and how they could contribute to the education of their children. It was brilliant and worked very, very well.

Delia Pompa: Well, this is an international issue. We have a question from Montreal, Canada.

Caller: Thank you. My question is related to the former one, but more extensive.

Regarding awareness and training and teaching English language learners, Dr. Calderón described learning communities in school districts where principals are also involved. My question is: to what extent is this being done and, indeed, required elsewhere, to involve not just the teachers and families, but administrators and school board members? How widespread is this?

Dr. Calderón: I know that NCLB has set aside funding for staff development. I think the focus has been too much on retooling, retraining teachers, rather than focusing on a whole school, a whole district. And that is something that I think even the Reading First initiative and all the initiatives should look at - setting aside staff development components for staff, [as well as] professional development components for administrators and counselors, particularly at the secondary schools. Everyone impacts the life and education of an English language learner, so those kinds of components for comprehensive staff development, I think, should be included.

Delia Pompa: I'll jump in here. I know that in this country, we also have a lot of the professional organizations becoming engaged in instruction by having their membership learn more about what happens in the schools, including the PTA and the National Association of School Boards. So, it is a trend that I think we see beginning. It's certainly not near as well set up as we would like, but it's something that is going to take on more interest as we move along and implement good reading programs.

We have another question from the studio audience.

Audience Member: I would appreciate your thoughts on how I can get native English-speaking students to accept students who are English language learners (ELL's).

Dr. August: One thing I tried - actually, this was my dissertation, and it did work - was to have pairs of children working together, English only children and Spanish speakers. And I taught the Spanish-speaking students - some kind of creative activity. These children were first to third graders. And then they had the responsibility of teaching the English-only students. So, this was a way for the children to work together, and it raised the status, in a sense, of the Spanish-speaking children.

Dr. Genesee: The other initiative under way to address this kind of issue, are called two-way immersion programs. You may be familiar with them. They're programs where you have half the students in the class are native English speakers, and the other half are native speakers of another language, often Spanish. Both of these groups of students are learning the other group's language at the same time that they are learning to read, write and do all the things we do in school. These programs are very effective at breaking down some of the cultural barriers that exist in many schools.

Dr. August: Right. It provides equal status to both languages and cultures.

Dr. Genesee: I have seen variations on this that are less extensive, where you have high school students interested in learning Spanish, and they help Spanish-speaking students learn English and vice versa. It's a way of validating the competencies of both groups of students and breaking down barriers.

Delia Pompa: Let's go to New Jersey now, we have a question from there.

Caller: Good afternoon, and thank you. I have two questions. The first is, what do you suggest for non English-speaking students who arrive in middle school or high school and don't really have the opportunity to learn English from square one?

Delia Pompa: Hit it, gang.

Dr. August: Well, there have been newcomer programs established for these children, and some have been very successful. These are either programs within a school or separate from the school, generally a year or two in duration, that work to quickly develop students' English language and literacy proficiency. Where possible, the programs continue content instruction in the children's native language. They help children understand issues around cultural differences with regard to differences between their native culture and English. These programs have been very successful.

Caller: Thank you. And my second question is, what about students who don't have the opportunity to participate in a bilingual program to develop their native-language reading skills?

Dr. Calderón: Then I would say an intensive, immediate intervention in English reading would help, but that intensive intervention probably has to be part of a secondary program where the teachers who will be receiving the students right after this intervention are also well-trained in order to facilitate that transition into the mainstream classroom. So, again, it takes quite a few teachers beyond a newcomer program or other programmatic intervention to facilitate the academic achievement of a recently arrived ELL.

Dr. Genesee: There are also instructional approaches designed to help students integrate into classrooms, if they don't already know English at a high level. And one of the ones that I think is particularly good is called "sheltered instruction." It's an approach that helps teachers present academic content through the medium of English to students who are not proficient in English yet. And at the same time, they can present the content in a way that helps them apply their English. It's what Diane referred to as "scaffolding," but there's an actual approach called "sheltered instruction."

Delia Pompa: And Fred, your fan club is here. We have a question from Quebec.

Caller: Yes, as you are well aware, our context in Quebec is radically different from the one you have been describing. The majority language in Quebec is French. So, I wondered if you had any thoughts on teaching ESL in a context where English is not the language of the majority.

Dr. Genesee: Well, this is an interesting question because for native French-speaking children in Quebec, they all are required to learn English as a second language; but it's not exactly the same situation - as you point out - in the U.S., because these children can live and survive very comfortably in the context of French in Quebec. Quebecers have the advantage of teaching English as a second language to Francophone students. These students are already affirmed in who they are and their language, so they're what we would call an additive bilingual situation, in other words they can add English without any threat to their native French language skills.

On the other hand, if we are talking about immigrant children in Quebec going to French school and, ultimately, also having to learn English as a second language, you are really almost facing a situation that's almost a cross between a foreign language and second language.

You have many of the issues you have in the United States. These children are in a potentially subtractive bilingual situation. How do we teach them the second languages without loss of their native language? What we talked about today is more relevant to those children, and not so much to French children learning English in Quebec.

Delia Pompa: Texas, we would like to hear from you now. Texas, are you on the line?

Caller: Yes, for Dr. Calderón. I wanted to know how she has seen teachers teach first-grade students learning to read for the first time in both English and Spanish, simultaneously.

Dr. Calderón: I have seen it in classrooms- team-teachers- where one teacher focuses on teaching English and the other one in Spanish, and [instruction in] both languages is completely separated. It actually starts in kindergarten and goes up the grade levels, but it remains a 50-50 program all the way through the fifth grade. The languages are separated for teaching reading, but eventually both languages come together. And, in fact, around the third, fourth and fifth grades, instruction [alternates] one week in Spanish, one week in English, so that equal time is allocated to both languages.

Dr. Genesee: It seems to me that in the Canadian context and other bilingual contexts people tend to keep the literacy separate. They teach reading in one language before introducing the other. Nevertheless, it seems to me that if you were going to teach them simultaneously, you would want to keep them separate in other ways. It's probably important to have different teachers for English and Spanish; and, if you are using content, to have different content associated with a single language, so the children are not mixing up sounds and letters and so on.

Delia Pompa: Diane, did you want to add anything from your studies?

Dr. August: No.

Delia Pompa: We have a question from our studio audience.

Audience Member: We have students with little or no schooling who are 11 and 12 years old. How do you teach them the basics, like phonemic awareness?

Delia Pompa: Go ahead.

Dr. Genesee: There's very - I want to start by saying we're primarily researchers - or I am - so, I always address these issues from a research point of view. One of the huge gaps in the research area is these kinds of learners, who come to English-language schools in middle school or high school with no, or very little, prior literacy instruction or experience.

The little bit that we do know suggests that the same kinds of component skills and big-picture skills are probably important for older learners, but you need to fast-forward it. It seems that phonemic instruction, building vocabulary and all those things are important, even for older learners; but you would not spend as much time on those skills as with young learners. Young learners can be quite engaged in these types of activities for a long period of time. You have to have strategies for making these kinds of instruction interesting to children, and even listening to phonemes can be interesting for an infant - but not to a 12-year-old or young adult.

With respect to phonemic awareness, there are all sorts of things you can do related to rap music or popular music that are highly relevant to structure and sounds of language. With a little imagination, I think teachers could draw on the culture of adolescence.

Delia Pompa: Use rap!

Dr. August: I think you need to make sure the children don't already have phonemic awareness when they are that age. I would advocate assessing phonemic awareness in their native language first, because it's likely that's not an issue for them.

Delia Pompa: We have had so much to discuss today. Can each of you give me a final comment to leave the audience with, briefly? Fred?

Dr. Genesee: Well, one of the things that strikes me is that language is important in education, but there's more to education than language. Our job as educators is to educate these children completely. One of the tasks is literacy, but it's not all there is. We shouldn't be so focused on literacy that we sacrifice other components.

Dr. Calderón: Extensive, comprehensive professional development programs.

Dr. August: I would like to say that I think we undervalue the strengths and enthusiasm that children bring to the process of learning to read. I think it's very important we nurture this in children and validate all that they bring to classrooms and support them. All children can learn with the right support and care.

Delia Pompa: Thank you, everyone. It's been wonderful. And thank you for participating in our 2003-04 teleconference series, "Achieving Success in Reading."

The Reading Rockets Professional Development Webcast Series is a production of WETA. The Reading Rockets project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. This program was produced by WETA/Reading Rockets, which is solely responsible for its content. The views expressed in the program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of WETA/Reading Rockets, our funders, or our partners.

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Teaching English Language Learners to Read

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Featuring Diane August, Margarita Calderón, and Fred Genesee discussing best practices for teaching English language learners. For this webcast: For general information about our webcasts or to be part of our studio audience in Washington D.C., please click here.

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Learning to rhyme is a very important phonological skill that will lead students to future reading success. You can read about its importance here.

Phonological awareness skills are especially import when teaching second language learners. To teach these children skills such as rhyming, it takes strategic teaching and knowledge of the fact that some phonemes are not present in a student's native language (for example Spanish speakers use half the amount of phonemes as English speakers). Because of this, the vocabulary, context of the word, and pronunciation (including mouth positioning) must be strongly considered to make the rhyming practice meaningful and productive.

The first step in teaching ELL's to rhyme is to start with traditional "lap time" activities. "Lap time" activities are known as such because they are the activities that a mother would typically engage in when playing with language with a young child on her lap, i.e. nursery rhymes, finger plays, and songs. We have to start with these primary activities with second language learners, because, for them, this is their primary language experience.

Start with activities that are easily memorized. Call attention to rhymes in songs, fingerplays, and rhymes as you sing them with your students. Use full or cross-body actions that will increase brain-power. Don't be afraid to start small, intact starting small is a must! The students do not need to learn how to rhyme in one week or even in one semester. Start with words that rhyme with cat. I love these little rhyming tubs. Children love the little objects and the auditory/visual connection assists ELL learners. To begin, I simply dump out the -at tub of objects in a pile, pick them up one-by-one, and identify them. We take the time to discuss each object's label and definition. Don't take anything for granted. Not all children know what a baseball bat is. Always throughly define the item.

After all objects are named, I then pick them up again one-by-one saying only their name and ask, "Does anyone see anything these words have in common?" If there is no answer, I again pick up each object and exaggerate each word, opening my mouth wide, holding my chin, and pointing to my mouth (giving the children visual cues for clarity). I again ask the question, and usually a child will quickly mention my mouth. I will then say the word cat and ask students repeat the word as they place their hands on their cheeks. All of these objects are rhyming words and so my mouth is the same for each word. At this point I pull out my hand mirrors and ask students to say the name of each object as they watch their mouth. After we have watched our mouth "speak" each rhyming word. I ask the students to say a word that uses complete opposite mouth positioning such as chip. I then have the students hold their cheeks as they say the words in the object pile: cat, rat, bat, sat, mat, followed quickly by chip. "Did you feel your mouth move differently?" Well that word can't rhyme with cat then, because your mouth must stay the same at the end of each rhyming word.

I continue this process for the first several sessions with these students, reviewing a learned rhyming family at the end of each lesson, always having students hold their cheeks (or jaw if the words contain jaw-dropping vowels) as we list the rhyming words. I do this review in a my-turn, your-turn fashion. For example. I hold my cheeks and say pig and then point both hands at the students while they say pig.

After I have taught the vocabulary that I want rhymed, the mouth positioning, and practiced rhyming families, it is time to slowly ask students to produce and then generate rhyming words using meaningful games and activities. This process to teach rhyme may seem labor intensive. It is, but it also doesn't take as much time as you might expect, and, spelling out the workings of language in such an explicit way is essential for students who come from a different language background.

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Teaching English Language Learners Phonological Awareness Skills: Learning To Rhyme

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Learning to rhyme is a very important phonological skill that will lead students to future reading success. You can read about its importance here. Phonological awareness skills are especially import when teaching second language learners.

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📚Nothing Rhymes with Orange //A READ ALOUD

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Free Preschool & Kindergarten Rhyming Worksheets - Printable | K5 Learning

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Rhyming worksheets for preschool and kindergarten. These free worksheets help kids learn about and have fun with rhyming while at the same time improving skills in vocabulary and phonics. Printable pdf worksheets courtesy of K5 Learning. No login required.

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Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. (1985). Rhyme and reason in reading and spelling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Bryant, P., MacLean, M., & Bradley, L. (1990). Rhyme, language, and children's reading. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11, 237-252.

Moats, L. & Tolman, C. (2008). The Development of Phonological Skills.

Snow, C., Burns, M., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

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Rhyme is found in poetry, songs, and many children's books and games. Most children also love to sing and recite nursery rhymes. Words that can be grouped together by a common sound, for example the "-at" family - cat, hat, and sat - can be used to teach children about similar spellings.

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I Love to Rhyme | English Song for Kids | Rhyming for Children | Jack Hartmann

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Learn about rhyming and play games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters like Super Why, Elmo, and WordGirl!

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End of Year Assessment Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming Words | Worksheet | Education.com

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It's almost the end of kindergarten! Check your students' ability to recognize rhyming words using this handy assessment.

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Spring Assessment Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming Words | Worksheet | Education.com

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How well are your kindergarten students able to recognize rhyming words? Assess their phonemic awareness skills!