Read Alouds Benefit English Language Learners by

In this blog post written for Colorín Colorado, Rhode Isle administrator and WIDA trainer Julie Motta walks through a read-aloud activity for first grade and highlights how she engaged the students with the story, brought in content-expanse connections, and included informal assessment to cheque comprehension. She also outlines the standards related to the activity. To see more from Julie, take a look at her previous blog postal service focused on making curriculum units aligned to the Common Core accessible for ELLs!

Getting Back to the Classroom

Although I have been out of the classroom for a while as I have taken on more responsibilities equally a central office administrator in Rhode Island, the best parts of my task remain spending time with students inside their busy classrooms and working with their teachers to continually advance their craft, especially in the multifaceted chore of implementing the Common Core Land Standards (CCSS) with ELLs.

This past bound, I was in a classroom reading to eager first graders sitting attentively on their alphabet rug during Reading Week. The theme of the week was "Read around the World." The class had been hearing stories based on different cultures, so to continue with the theme, I chose a multicultural story entitled Let's Consume by Ana Zamarano. With merely this unproblematic read aloud, I was able to piece of work on the WIDA English Language Evolution ELA, Math, and Science Standards while I addressed the CCSS in Reading, Speaking & Listening, and Math. The action reminded me that many of the things that I do naturally as an ESL teacher are effective for all students, and that they also are great strategies to use in implementation of the Common Cadre. A table of the standards I worked with is listed below.

Reading the Story Together

Before Reading

Venn 6 Before I read the story, I congenital groundwork with students by request them about the brand-upwards of their families and the ways they gathered for meals. This got them interested in the family whom we would read about. I charged them with making comparisons and contradictions to their ain family practices as their purpose of listening intently.

During Reading

As I read the story, the children listened carefully. They made predictions and answered my questions. Some questions that I asked were:

Can you tell me why y'all think the mom was happy when everyone was at the dinner table?
What information from the story makes you say that?
Who might exist missing from the dinner table on Tuesday?
Why do you lot think it will be that family member?
Was in that location a clue in the story that helped yous to make that prediction?

After Reading

Once we finished the story, I used prompts for pupil give-and-take, such every bit:

Plow and talk to you elbow partner nigh why you call up having dinner together is so important in this family. Be sure to use some words from the story to testify your idea is a good one.

I probed them using phrases similar:

Tell me more most that.
What makes you lot say that?
Is there a picture in the story that is making you lot think that fashion?

I required them to provide me with evidence from the story to support their thinking. I insisted that they give responses in complete sentences, using sentence frames with those who needed a bit of scaffolding.

Content Connections

Math

In addition to our discussion of the text, the children studied the watercolor illustrations, and we used these illustrations to do some grade level math, adding and subtracting members of the family unit who disappeared and and so reappeared on each page of the story. Later they would write number stories using the characters names during their math instructional block.

Art

One pupil too explained how the form had been given a gamble to use watercolor paints in art course. If I had been in the school for a longer menstruation of time, I would take followed up with the art teacher to ask her to use the book to talk over the illustrator's purpose for using watercolors so that the children could do some deeper assay, thus promoting shared responsibility for assisting students with coming together rigorous content standards. Additionally, if I'd had the chance, I also would have picked some additional books virtually families and had the children report the illustrations to compare their artistic components in exhibiting families.

Health

Every bit each nutrient that was mentioned in the story was described, I used Google images of the actual foods to match the descriptions. This led u.s. to an in-depth discussion of salubrious foods, and the students were able to make connections to what they had been learning about in health class where they had been listening to advisory texts around healthy foods, some other take a chance to promote the shared responsibility mentioned higher up. This was another opportunity for comparison the foods in the story to those that the children ate with their families on a regular basis and to analyze how salubrious they were in comparison to the foods in the story.

The children actively participated as the story continued, repeating a phrase from the book that was stated in both English (What a compassion!) and Castilian (¡Ay qué pena!), expressions that Mamá used when a family unit member was non at the dinner tabular array. We talked about why the author would have chosen to use these phrases repeatedly throughout the text.

Informal Assessment

I had students cocky-assess using a listening and speaking rubric based on the WIDA performance definitions. They rated themselves on a scale of one-5 using the sentences here to assess their own listening:

I can understand the words in the story.
I can empathise the brusk sentences in the story.
I can understand the long sentences in the story.
I tin can understand people'southward ideas in the story.
I tin understand the whole story that I listened to.

For speaking, they used these sentences:

I tin can talk using a few words virtually the story.
I can utilize brusk sentences to talk about the story.
I can use long sentences to talk about the story.
I can put my ideas together when I talk well-nigh the story.
I can retell the story to a friend in my own words.

I suggested post-obit up with a writing prompt that the students could observe success with. An instance I gave as a proposition was: Write (a specific number of words, phrases or sentences – based on varying proficiency levels of individual students) that explains why dinner time was so important to the mom in this story. Be sure to detect (insert a number) reasons in the story that show that your idea is correct. A word depository financial institution would exist provided with the prompt as well as incomplete sentences with some words missing that students with the least proficiency could fill in.

Collaboration

Finally, I was able to use this opportunity for the benefit of the teacher who had invited me as a invitee to her classroom. I worked hard to model by:

asking rigorous, probing questions that required evidence to back up answers
allowing for wait fourth dimension
using rich, bookish vocabulary including cognates
encouraging peer discussions with turn and talk
making links to advisory texts that would lend themselves to extend the lesson.

The Luckiest Teacher in the World

During this lesson, I realized that implementing the Common Core with ELLs does not have to be as hard as I had originally thought – and that a lot of what I learned how to do as an ESL teacher supports the Mutual Core beautifully. At the conclusion of the story, I explained to the students in this classroom that I had taught children who had just moved to the US from all over the earth. I told them that I taught those children to speak English, and I named the many countries they had come up from. 1 darling little boy squealed, "Mrs. Motta, you lot were the luckiest instructor in the globe!" And indeed, he was admittedly correct – I was! And whether in my classroom with my ELLs or sitting on this rug in a mainstream grade-one classroom, I was providing my students with rigorous content knowledge as they acquired rich academic vocabulary in the English language. The students may accept had differing needs, but the high-quality pedagogy was the same in both instances.

Standards Used for Read-Aloud

Common Core Land Standard		WIDA Standards
Math one.0A Operations & Algebraic Thinking- Represent and solve issues involving addition and subtraction	1.0A Use addition and subtraction inside 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart and comparing.	Standard one English linguistic communication learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 3 English linguistic communication learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in Mathematics (listening and speaking)
RL i-iii Key Ideas and Details	RL1.i Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. RL1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate agreement of their central message or lesson RL1.3 Describe characters, settings and major events in a story; using key details	Standard 1 English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes inside the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for bookish success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)
RL 4 Arts and crafts and Structure	RL1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories that advise feelings or appeal to the senses	Standard i English linguistic communication learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the schoolhouse setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language language learners communicate data, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)
RL 7 & 9 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas	RL1.7 Use illustrations and details in the story to describe its character, setting or events RL1.9 Compare and dissimilarity the adventures and experiences of characters in the story	Standard 1 English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)
SL 1-2 Comprehension and Collaboration	SL1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with various partners about form i topics and texts with peers and adults in larger groups b. Build on others talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges c. Enquire questions to clear up confusion most the topics and texts under discussion SL1.2 Ask and respond questions about key details in a text read aloud	Standard 1 English language language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes inside the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language learners communicate data, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)
SL 4 & 6 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas	SL1.4 Describe people places, matter and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings conspicuously SL1.half dozen Produce complete sentences when appropriate to the task and situation	Standard one English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for bookish success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)
L1 Conventions of Standard English language	50.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. j. Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.	Standard 1 English linguistic communication learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the schoolhouse setting (listening, speaking) Standard 2 English language learners communicate data, ideas, and concepts necessary for bookish success in ELA (listening, speaking)
L 5& 6 Vocabulary Conquering and Utilise	L.5 With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate an understanding of give-and-take relationships and nuances in word meanings. c. Identify existent-life connections between words and their use Fifty.vi Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts	Standard ane English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the school setting (listening, speaking, reading) Standard 2 English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading) Standard iv English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for bookish success in Science (listening, speaking)

Related Resources

Paragraph 1 To see more great strategies in action, take a look at Colorín Colorado's Common Core classroom videos and lesson plans for beginning grade featuring instructor Ali Nava in Albuquerque, NM presenting lessons based on the children's book Burro'southward Tortillas, a southwestern adaptation of "The Little Red Hen." Strategies and activities include:

Introducing Burro's Tortillas
Interactive reading of a story
Making text-to-text connections
Writing a cooperative paragraph
Using "realia" to build background

Virtually the Author

Julie Motta is the Assistant Superintendent of the Eastward Providence Schoolhouse District in Rhode Isle. Formerly the ESL Director of Pawtucket Schools, she is also a WIDA trainer and an adjunct higher professor at Rhode Island Higher and Providence College, where she has taught courses in Second Language Acquisition, Curriculum and Methods, Social Issues, and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.

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Source: https://www.colorincolorado.org/blog/common-core-ideas-using-read-alouds-english-language-learners