………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 3. Students write down words after each clue so they can keep track of their predictions.
Teaching English Language Learners: Grades 6 & Up © Katherine Davies Samway & Dorothy Taylor, Scholastic Teaching Resources
4. After the final clue, the teacher asks students to identify the word. Students who have written surprise can then consider themselves successful “mind readers.” Alternative In each of the activities, students can take the role of the teacher.
Targeted Strategy 5: Play word games. Word games using high-frequency words, such as bingo, hangman, and word dominoes, are excellent reinforcement activities. (See pages 177–181 for guidelines for these reinforcement games.)
Targeted Strategy 6: Categorize words. Ask students to categorize words that are on the word wall, for example, by question words, size words, color words, or movement words. Students can also generate and explain their own categories.
Situation 5
I have students whose written native language looks very different from English, and they struggle to decode the words.
ELLs who come to school with limited literacy skills in their native language, as often happens with ELLs who have had interrupted schooling, often need to be taught about the English alphabet system. The same is true for students who have not been exposed to English prior to entering a North American school and whose native language isn’t alphabetic (for example, Chinese) or, although alphabetic, doesn’t use the Roman alphabet (for example, Arabic). ELLs who are literate in their L1 usually need less time to learn the English alphabet than their peers who aren’t literate in their L1. There are several components to learning the alphabet: c
The names of the letters.
c
The most common sounds associated with each letter.
c
How to form the letters (both upper- and lowercase).
c
How letters are both similar and different—for example, how the l, b, and t all have a line that goes up, above the line, whereas p and q have lines that go down, below the line. It is particularly effective to
Chapter 4: Reading Situations
215