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
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