TESOL – March 2010

Amber Warren & Natalia WardESL Teachers, Knox County Schools

Background

Reading Research

Implementing the Program

In class (Thematic Units)

After school (Book Club)

Extensive Reading

Large quantityVariety of topics

and genres

Familiarity with various kinds of

texts and purposes

Is Extensive Reading Enough?

Narrow reading, or reading in one

genre, content area, or author, provides

developing readers with “familiar

background knowledge that helps make

texts more comprehensible.”

-- Cho, Ahn, & Krashen, 2005, p. 58

Improving Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Spacing

Multiple

Exposures

Vocabulary

Recycling

A Comparison…

Extensive Reading

Grecian Religion

Grecian Society

Grecian

Geography

Narrow Reading

Ancient Greece

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Mesopotamia

Grecian Government

Intensive Reading

Extensive Reading

Narrow Reading

How Can Narrow Reading

be Implemented?

Narrow Reading Implementation

In-Class

Thematic Units

After School

ESL Book Club

Four Easy Steps

1. Select Theme

Thematic Units

Westward Expansion

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Ancient Greece

Ancient Egypt

Energy Resources

Westward Expansion

American Experience

Searching for Gold

Oregon Trail

Mexican Experience

They Came Around the

Horn

Native American

Experience

Trail of Tears

Cherokee

Four Easy Steps

1. Select Theme

2. Select Books

Four Easy Steps

1. Select Theme

2. Select Books

3. Select Reading and Vocabulary Activities

Student Favorites

Word wall

Mind-Reader

Hot Seat

Student glossary

Journaling

Glossary

Journaling

Four Easy Steps

1. Select Theme

2. Select Books

3. Select Reading and Vocabulary Activities

4. Execution

In-Class After School

Students’ Preconceptions

“Social studies is too hard. It’s kind of

boring.”

“Where is the Greece?”

“Dinosaurs eat persons.”

“All the dinosaurs was big.”

Student Reactions

“I like the word wall. The games are fun

with the wall.”

“It is fun to make the pictures for my

words.”

“I like Ancient Greece. There was lots of

soldiers and fights.”

Student Reactions Cont.

“Learning about Egypt was awesome. I like

stuff about mummies.”

“Talking about the life in the Wild West was

cool. They had no school and you could play

all day.”

“Mummies are really scary because the

brains come out of the nose.”

Q&A