Scaffolding Close Reading for English Language Learners

NutsandBoltsSymposium

2016

Presented by: Beth Skelton

www.bethskelton.com ellbeth@bethskelton.com

Twitter: @easkelton FaceBook: Beth Skelton Consulting

AboutBeth:Beth has taught German and English as a Second Language at many grade and ability levels. She received her Master’s degree with distinction in Curriculum and Instruction in Multicultural Teacher Education with an emphasis on Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of New Mexico. From 2010-2013, she was the ESL program coordinator at the Bavarian International School in Munich, Germany. She currently consults with schools nationally and internationally on matters concerning ELLs.

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TextDependentQuestionsforFalling

FallinginLovewithCloseReadingByChristopherLehmanandKateRobertsConnections Questions

Word(capturedattention)

Phrase(meaningful)

Sentence(deeper

understanding)

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TextDependentQuestionsforFallinginLovewithCloseReading

1. WhydotheauthorscitedefinitionsofclosereadinginFigure1.1?Whatisthepurposeandeffectofwritingthedefinitionsinafigure?

2. WhydotheauthorsincludethequotationfromFisherandFreyinparagraph2?Whataretheyimplyingaboutclosereadinginstruction?

3. Whatistheauthor’smessageaboutclosereadinginthisintroductorypassage?

AskingTextDependentQuestionsDuringCloseReading

SuggestionsfromTimothyShanahaninthearticleLettingtheTextTakeCenterStage

1. Askquestionsthatfocusonthekeyideasanddetailsfromthetext.Avoidaskingtrivialor‘quiz-show’questions.

2. Askquestionsthatfocusonthecraftandstructureofthetextincludingfeaturesofacademiclanguage:vocabulary,syntax,transitionsandcohesion.

3. Askquestionsthatfocusontheintegrationofknowledgeandideas,which

requirestudentstothinkabouttheme,author’spointofview,andcomparisonbetweentexts.

TextComplexityandELLDifficulties

FromIcebergsandGlaciersbySeymourSimon

Thethickertheglacierthefasteritmoves.That’sbecausethegreaterweightoftheglaciercausesthecrystalsoficetocreepmorerapidly.Alsoasteepglacierwillflowmuchmorequicklythanoneonlevelland.WhatIthinkwillbedifficultforELLs

Whatreadersfounddifficult

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CloseReadingSupportStrategies

1. Beforefirstreading,ensurethatstudentshavenecessarybackgroundknowledgetocomprehendmainideasofthetext.Ideally,thisbackgroundwillhavebeenbuiltpreviouslyduringtheunit.Teachersmayneedtoprovidesomeinformationthatisnotexplicitlystatedinthetext,butshouldnotpreviewtheentiretextbeforea‘closeread’.

2. Chooseashort,well-writtentextthatgivesreaderstheopportunitytomakeconnections,drawconclusions,askquestions,andextendtheirunderstandingofthetopic.

3. Teachthe‘CloseReading’routineandprocesswithfamiliartextsorpictures

atthebeginning.

4. Encouragestudentstoidentifyunknownvocabularywordsanddifficultsectionsinthepassageindependentlyratherthanpre-teachingmanyvocabularywords.

5. FindsectionsofthetextthatwillpresentthegreatestdifficultyforELLs

becauseofsyntax,metaphors,trickytransitions,ordenseinformation.Teachtextanalysisthroughmodeling,highlighting,drawingconnectionsbetweenpronounsandantecedents,andthinkalouds.

6. Provideagraphicorganizertohelpstudentstakenotesonthetext.Model

howtocompletetheorganizer.

7. Havestudentstalktopartnersaboutthereadingaftereachreadthroughfocusingondifferentaspectsofthetextincluding:mainideasanddetails,textstructure,andthemeorauthor’spointofview.

8. Providestructuresforstudentdiscussionsaboutthetextsuchascooperative

learningprotocolslikereciprocalteachingthatincludesentenceframesandquestionsstems.

9. Afterinitialreading,teachafewhighutilityacademicwordsthatare:

a. Essentialtounderstandingthemainideasofthetextb. Encounteredfrequentlyinawidevarietyofothertextsandcontextsc. Unlikelytobelearnedindependentlythroughcontextcluesd. Haveaffixesandcommonroots(structureèconstruct,deconstruct,

instruct,etc.)e. Havemultiplemeaning(polysemous)words(model,branch,point,

etc.)f. Teachawordlearningskillsuchasusingcontextclues

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References:Achieve the Core, Professional Development: Understanding Text-Dependent Questions. 2014 Cummins, Sunday. "What Students Can Do When the Reading Gets Rough." Educational Leadership Nov. 2013: 69-72. Ehrenworth, Mary. “Unlocking the Secrets of Complex Text” Educational Leadership Nov. 2013: 16-21. Fisher, Doug and Nancy Frey, Text Dependent Questions Corwin Literacy 2015 Fisher, Douglas and Nancy Frey. “Close Reading” Corwin Learning Nov 2014: webinar Garegnani, Danielle. “Accessing the Common Core: Supporting ELs Through Language Analysis” TESOL March 2014. Recorded conference presentation Kauffman, Dorothy, What’s Different About Teaching Reading to Students Learning English? (Video clip and reading example from Center for Applied Linguistics materials, 2007) Lehman, Christopher and Kate Roberts, Falling in Love with Close Reading Heinemann, 2014. Lapp, Diane, Barbara Moss, Maria Grant, and Kelly Johnson. Close Reading: Teaching the Comprehension Skills of Text Analysis and Evaluation Webinar. ASCD. 2014 Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, Karin Morrison, Making Thinking Visible Jossey-Bass 2011. "Scaffolded Language Analysis." Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts for English Language Learners. Ed. Pamela Spycher. Alexandria, VA: TESOL, 2014. 69-82. Shanahan, Timothy . "Letting the Text Take Center Stage." American Educator Sep. 2013: www.aft.org. Silva, Janice; Paul Dellaman, and Andria Phesia. “Preparing English Language Learners for Complex Reading” Educational Leadership Nov. 2013: 52-56. Staehr Fenner, Diane . "Common Core and ELLs." Common Core and ELLs. http://blog.colorincolorado.org. Willingham, Daniel. "Common Core and 'Close Reading': Effectiveness Questionable without Outside Knowledge." RealClearEducation Sep. 2014 http://www.realcleareducation.com. Wright, Dr. Laura and Annie Dugay. “Cultivating Academic Language and Literacy” Center for Applied Linguistics. 2014. Webinar Zwiers, Jeff and Marie Crawford. Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understanding. Stenhouse, 2011. Zwiers, Jeff, and Susan Hara. Common Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms: Essential Practices for Developing Academic Language and Disciplinary Literacy. Stenhouse, 2014.