Hi, Bonnie (and all) 

 

I had developed the 7 habits originally for students like yours. youth
who struggled with reading and for whom "just reading" hadn't worked.
Showing them what proficient readers do while immediately engaging them
in short texts (rather than talking at them), worked well with that
group.  It was great to see kids who had not read before get to the
"aha" moment where they see that there is actually something they can do
when they are stuck and while not all strategies work all the time for
every text and student, it gave them a starting point and something to
hold on to.  The project was funded by The Literacy Secretariat of
Canada and is ongoing.  And yes, we also had a Sustained Silent Reading
Component although it was hell for the first few weeks since these kids
definitely didn't have a (sub)culture of reading for fun (books were
anything but)

 

On the instructional side, we used a lot of "Think Alouds" as part of an
approach related to "cognitive apprenticeship" that is being able to see
how others (a teacher or more expert peer) think as they approach a
reading task (or any other abstract task that cannot be observed).  

 

We also used "think/pair/share" a lot to keep everyone engaged and a set
of strategies known as "reciprocal teaching" that involves pairs of
students working with the same text and taking turns asking and
answering questions (I'll take paragraph # 1 and ask some questions and
then you take paragraph # 2 and I answer your questions). The technique
has everyone engaging the text (informational texts work well). The
students end up helping  each other. Part of the task is to answer the
question  (how do you know that this is the answer? Or how did you find
the answer?) Students are encouraged to ask both literacy questions and
inferential questions. It takes, of course, lots of modeling and
demonstrating to help students "get" how the task works - but they did
enjoy taking turns playing the "teacher" who asks questions.  

 

We've now adapted these techniques for working with intermediate ESL
learners (since question generating is such a bear in English) but mind
mapping and Think/Pair/Share work for lower levels as well (let me know
if you need more detailed description of these and I can post them. 

 

For anyone interested in reading more about the instructional and
program practices used in what's now called "the New School Canada" ,
you can go to the site and then click on the left hand margin to read
about what worked (instruction starts with # 11)

 

http://www.youthliteracy.ca/pages/promising.html

 

 

We keep hearing that much of ABE is now made up of (former) ESL students
who still have difficulties reading and writing. Do any of the rest of
you have ABE or GED students who struggle with reading?  And what do you
see as major differences in the instructional needs for each group 

 

Best 

 

Heide

 

 

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Bonnie Odiorne
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:27 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2507] Re: Technology and Resources

 

Heidi, 
Many thanks for the "7 Habits". I asked because I coordinate a "bridge"
program in August for students targeted as being "at risk" for whatever
reason, not necessarily always academic. As for the query about whether
to teach the strategies or incorporate them into the reading: I do both;
the students seem to be grateful for them, and somewhat reassured. But
they also need to practice, and I try to get them to reflect on their
reading process. Of course mine are more for the intermediate/high ABE
level; not so much (but sometimes) for the (fairly advanced) ESL. But I
get into the trap of getting too explicit about them and then it's
booooring. Still, they consistently report my classes as being good, so
I'm not doing anything horrible. I do have to redesign the course  for
this year since I'm now the "academic" coordinator of the entire program
as opposed just to one of the teachers, so it's incumbent on me to
figure out what their academic problems are likely to be...
Thanks again,
Bonnie

----- Original Message ----
From: "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:07:39 AM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2491] Re: Technology and Resources

Hi, Bonnie and all 

 

Attached are the 7 Habits - I wrote them for struggling readers at the
intermediate level and later adapted them for ESL. We now use them as a
framework for teaching comprehension and reading strategies.  Some
teachers put them up on the classroom walls to remind students when they
get stuck to try out one or two of the strategies ; some, like Andrea,
use them to reinforce a point they may make about reading as they teach
different kinds of lessons that focus on making sense of print. 

 

How about others,  do you teach the skills and strategies associated
with reading comprehension directly or do you mostly engage students in
print allowing students to pick up these skills through immersion or by
transferring reading skills from L1 ?  (I, of course, have an opinion on
that but more on that later J

 

Heide

 

 

 

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Bonnie Odiorne
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 6:56 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2484] Re: Technology and Resources

 

OO000H! and where does one get the "7 habits?"
Bonnie Odiorne, Writing Center, Post University

----- Original Message ----
From: ANDREA GREER <cgreer5 at verizon.net>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:27:16 AM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2482] Re: Technology and Resources

Good morning,

 

I am Andrea Greer and I teach ESL to a multi-level class of adults at
College of the Mainland.

 

I have used the Seven Habits of Successful Readers received from Heide
at the Reading Institute to help my students focus on their reading
skills.

 

We produced a class video on "Getting the Job"  where the students used
the skills learned about job searching using the newspaper, completing
the job application, cold calling at the job site to inquire about a job
opening, and how to determine and express their job skills and work
experience to prepare for their role in the video.

 

We read about various workplace situations.  Used the Oxford Picture
Dictionary, Longman's Study Dictionary to prepare their script for the
video.  In many instances, the intermediate and advanced learners used
their prior knowledge to adlib in the interview process.  These learners
were often the interviewer while the lower level students were the
interviewees.  

 

This technology allowed the students to see themselves interact in
conversation with their classmates.  While some were shy initially,
their engagement in the activity proved to be fun and a rewarding
learning experience.  They also wrote about the experience and shared
with the class.

 

Andrea Greer

	----- Original Message ----- 

	From:Denise Sumlin <mailto:denise_sumlin at yahoo.com>  

	To:englishlanguage at nifl.gov 

	Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 7:59 AM

	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2444] Re: Technology and Resources

	 

	I have found the following resources to be very helpful for my
beginning ESL students as well as my intermediate students.  I used them
in class as well as have the students check them out for their local
library to review and write the dialogs.  

	 

	One of the ways we use the written dialog is by have them do
rehearsal time with other students.  This has been rewarding to the
students because it gives immediate feed back and they can correct their
pronunciation based upon the video tape.

	 

	1.	Learning English as a Second Language, pronouns,
adjectives and the present tense 
	2.	ESL easy English, volumes 1-4: cover the following
topics 

		*	Meeting and Greeting 
		*	Understanding Basic Conversation 
		*	Using Numbers and Money 
		*	Asking and Giving Directions, address and phone
numbers

	I also used several YouTube clippings for my more intermediate
students and they loved it.  It is a challenge to me to continue to
bring various technology based activities into the classroom.  With my
session come to an end soon, my plans are to incorporate more in my next
sessions.

	 

	Denise Johnson

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