BIG Changes for the 2008-2009 School Year

Hello fellow SEI Teachers,

I would like to encourage all of you to use this blog as a vehicle to support, collaborate, and encourage each other as we go into next year with all its changes!  Due to our small number of ELLs at Donaldson, we will be able to use the Individual Language Learner Plan (ILLP) model to provide the four hours of instruction for our students.  I am currently working at getting those plans in place and meeting with all my families, before we start the year next Fall.  I would like to offer the plan here to you so that you can use it as needed.  Also, if any of you are writing ILLPs, I would love to have us all post examples, (without the student name of course), to help each other in this process.  Drop me a comment if you are interested.

Non-fiction articles online

We have just started an investigation about volcanoes with my ELLs from 4th and 5th grade.  We read some very easy nonfiction text.  It was a good way to start because the text was understandable for everybody, including my non-English speaker.  I will now move on to somewhat more difficult text, since they now have some solid background information and vocabulary.  I am having kids read online articles at volcano.und.edu.  I want them to respond to the articles on our blog.  I would love to get your comments as well!!!!

Similes and Metaphors — Kid examples

I tried the lesson on similes and metaphors using the book Peepers by Eve Bunting.  Was I happily surprised with the children’s connections to this book!!  My ELLs know what it feels like to go to a new place and be amazed by all the differences!  They also loved the illustrations.  I will post some of their similes — very creative.  I also found a great Eve Bunting website that has a video interview of her speaking about what it was like to come to this country from Ireland!  It is really neat for kids to hear a grown up speak about the difficulties in coming to a new place.  Here’s the website:

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/bunting

Here are some examples of some second grade similes:

• A flag is as colorful and striped like a t-shirt.
• A monkey is like a furry bear!
• My dog is like a furry beat that runs me over.
• My roboraptor is like a vicious dragon!!

Here are some examples of some fourth and fifth grade similes:

• The dog looks like wolf because 2 animals have milk.
• People are just like monkeys jumping branch to branch.
• E.C. swims like a happy fish.
• E.C. is like a fish because his tail wiggles a lot.

(E.C. is our classroom tadpole!)

I would love to see examples from your kids too!  Let’s share them!

Reading and Writing Instruction are Reciprocal!

Hi everybody,

I attended a the Tucson Area Reading Council (TARC) Reading Interventions Conference on Saturday with Dr. Maryanne Manning and 2 educators from Alabama!  They were filled with great ideas (and were also like a comedy team–lots of laughs)!  I have been doing a lot of writing with my ELLs this year during writing workshop so it was really awesome when Dr. Manning said in her introduction to reading interventions that reading and writing are reciprocal!

Similes and Metaphors

In the book, Scientific Reading Assessment, (Manning, Chumley, and Underbakke), there is a great lesson on comprehending similes and metaphors.  Sometimes ELLs do not understand the comparisons using the words like or as, unless they are specifically taught to look for these literary devices.  I have already taught a mini-lesson on similes during writing workshop, but I want to try the lesson they suggest in the book.  The authors suggest using the picture book, Peepers by Eve Bunting.  In addition to just identifying the metaphors (which are plentiful in this book!), it is useful to have a meaningful discussion on the comparisons being made.  I think this will encourage my students to use more similes in their own writing, and will build their vocabularies at the same time.  Metaphors  require more abstract thinking, but it is still useful for students to identify them even if they do not use them in their own writing.

I will conduct this lesson with my 4th and 5th grade ELLs and post our results next week.  I will also post their responses in writing to this book.  Let’s see if they increase their use of similes in their writing!

Nonfiction Writing

As I said on my first post, reading and writing are reciprocal.  The more kids write, the more they will be able to transfer those skills to reading!  I had kids make nonfiction bulleted lists of facts they learned about red-eyed tree frogs.  My next endeavor is to combine fiction and nonfiction writing.  What are you doing in your writing instruction?

Targeting Reading for Information

On Saturday, January 19, 2008, I attended the Tucson Area Reading Council (TARC) conference on targeted reading interventions with Dr. Maryanne Manning and 2 educators from Alabama.  They were like a comedy team–lots of laughs and lots of great lesson ideas that I’d like to share with you. 

 One reading lesson that caught my eye was the one on text features.  Since ELLs typically struggle with informational text, I thought it would be a good place for us to start.  You can use any Weekly Reader, Bear Essentials, or any informational text that you have multiple copies of.  Have your kids scan the text for features like bold print, italics, speech bubbles, bullets, etc.  It’s like a treasure hunt.  Have them make a mini-poster of the feature to show the other kids.  Of course, you will  need to go through an example together with an organizer for them to identify and name these features orally.  In the book that all conference attendees received, there is a great 2-column table with the text feature on the left and a box for an example on the right.  It would be easy to create something like that for the kids to record on, and you can make a class-size poster to go along with it.

I will implement this lesson next week on 1-29-08 and let you know how it went.  I would love to have you try something similar and post your results.

Targeted Interventions for Reading Instruction

Hello everyone!  I am excited about attending the above conference on January 19, 2008!  I would like to share some of the interventions and get your feedback on them so we can tailor them to our own English Language Learners.

At Donaldson, our School Improvement Plan is to increase comprehension of informational text.  I will be sure to share interventions specifically on informational text from this conference.

 I can’t wait to get your feedback!