Reading Strategies to Help ELL Students- Intermediate Students

Comprehension is the goal of reading, but it can be the most difficult skill to master, especially for English language learners (ELLs). ELLs often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts, for example, because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects.~ Lydia Breiseth

When teaching ELL intermediate students, there are many of the same strategies that you use as when you are teaching primary students. When teaching ELL intermediate students, you can start pulling away some of the interventions, however there are still many things to focus on that they still need a lot of assistance with.

- Building Background

Continue building background before reading with your ELL intermediate students. Intermediate students still need support in building vocabulary and will need the additional support to understand the text better. Just as you do with the primary students, make sure you preview books before reading them and note any experiences or events in the story that an ELL students might not have prior experience with. Before reading, make sure you explicitly teach the vocabulary needed to understand the book before allowing a student to read.

- Graphic Organizers

Using graphic organizers for ELL intermediate students continues to help enhance comprehension for those students. Graphic organizers help ELL students organize the story they are reading and keep things in order when they are also working to decode unknown words. When students are working hard on decoding, they lose the ability to be able to comprehend what they are reading. For ELL students, they are generally having to decode more, and use more brain power to understand vocabulary. Using a graphic organizer will help the students organize the story so that they are able to comprehend what is being read as well.

- Academic Vocabulary

Intermediate ELL students will need to continue having explicit instruction in academic vocabulary. For ELL students, academic vocabulary is one of the harder concepts for students. The academic vocabulary is vocabulary they will need to be able to do well in a school setting as well as in the high stakes testing. However, it is vocabulary that they are not using as commonly as they are using their every day English vocabulary. This vocabulary also needs a lot of constant, repetition and explicit instruction. Be sure to constantly use academic vocabulary in the classroom but to also make sure you are explicitly teaching what the expectations are of the academic vocabulary. 

Breiseth, L. (2014) Reading Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners. www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/511-breiseth.aspx

Reading Strategies to Help ELL Students- Primary Students

Teaching reading IS rocket science.

~Louisa Moats

This quote from Louisa Moats is perfect for those teachers who are teaching reading, especially the beginning stages of reading! However, not only is it difficult for teachers to teach HOW to read, it's also difficult for students, which is why many children do not become strong readers. Imagine now, you are trying to learn a whole new language, and READ in that language. Reading is very difficult for many students, but for those who are learning a new language and may not be fluent in their native language, it is even harder. In this blog post, I will provide some Reading Strategies to help your Primary ELL Students.

- Setting Background/ Visualizing
For ELL students, the teacher needs to support these beginning readers in many ways. One way is by preparing the students for what they are reading. For ELL students, the teacher needs to preview the book and think about their student. Will this student know what a movie theater is? Will this student know what winter looks like? Think about the culture that your student is coming from and help your student visualize what will be going on in the story. It is very important to build background knowledge for your ELL students so that they are prepared for what they are about to read. 

- Reading A-loud
Reading A- loud to ELL students will help those students build vocabulary. Read A-louds are a common routine for many younger primary classrooms. Read A-louds, books that are read by the teacher at a higher reading level than the students are able to read on their own, provide students with wonderful, rich vocabulary as well as modeling how to read fluently. Be sure to go over vocabulary words with your ELL students that they may not know before and after reading from the read a-louds.

- Visuals
Using visuals with your ELL students will help enhance their vocabulary understanding. Being able to see the object or term that you are talking about helps build a multi-sensory approach for the student. The student is able to use their sense of sight to help understand the term. If you are able to allow the child to act out, listen to, touch, our use any other type of sensory experience with the vocabulary word, that will also help the student understand the vocabulary. 

- Graphic Organizers
Using simple graphic organizers with primary students will also help enhance their understanding. When reading stories with specific reading structures such as compare and contrast or cause and effect, using a graphic organizer will help the ELL student understand the story structure and help aid in comprehension. 

Robertson, K. (2009) Reading 101 for English Language Learners. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/33830/