Advanced ELL students, while often proficient orally, have a limited vocabulary, and read and write below grade level.This presentation will describe how ELL teachers in two high schools use engaging material and effective strategies that prepare students for mainstream classes.The techniques, readings, and writing assignments can also be used in the post secondary setting.
Hadas_Walseth Reading & writing in advanced el: the final push
1. Reading and Writing in
Advanced EL: The Final Push
Debbie Hadas and Heather Walseth
debbie.hadas@gmail.com heather.walseth@gmail.com
2. District 196 - Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan
Heather teaches
at Rosemount
High School.
Debbie taught at
Apple Valley High
School.
3. ELL 4 Students: They’re not all alike.
● Making progress
○ Been in the country 3 to 5 years
○ Learned a lot, but
■ need more vocabulary
■ practice reading and writing
● Newer to Country
○ Been in the U.S. less than 3 years
○ May have good language skills on arrival OR
○ Willing to work very hard
■ Less fluent
■ Often lack a writer’s voice in English
4. ELL 4 Students (Cont.)
● Long Term ELs or Lifers
○ Been in EL forever
○ Completely fluent orally
■ reading significantly below grade level
■ lacking academic vocabulary
○ Often have a strong writer’s voice in English
○ Three profiles:
■ See that EL can help them
■ Coasting
■ Feel they are “prisoners of EL”
5. Our Guiding Assumptions
● Students learn to read by reading.
● Students learn to write by writing.
● Writing assignments should be linked to readings.
● Themes can enrich the learning.
● Compelling themes and readings keep students engaged.
GOAL: To push them to grade level! (That’s why we give readings and assignments
similar to those in mainstream classes.)
6. ELL 4: How it’s organized
● 3 Trimesters
○ Fall - Nonfiction articles
■ social justice issues
● race
● healthcare
○ Winter - Short stories
■ Families
■ Scary Stories
○ Spring- Longer narrative
■ Novel or memoir
Note: Many students take the class for two years or more.
7. FALL TERM: Social Justice
Readings and writing assignments reinforce what students learn
in social studies and social science classes that often reflect
current issues in today’s society.
9. The Narrative Arc: Race
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
The story of race Summary
Racial Disparities in income and housing Cause and Effect Essay or Compare and
Contrast
Affirmative Action Persuasive Essay
Research Project Presentation and paper
10. The Narrative Arc: Healthcare
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
Europeans bring smallpox to North America Summary
Health and Healthcare Inequities Cause and Effect Essay or Compare and
Contrast
Affordable Care Act/Coverage for the
Undocumented
Persuasive Essay
Research Project Presentation and paper
11. Students need to learn how to read dense texts.
Annotation is a learned skill.
highlight
circle
define
respond!!!!!
underline
make
arrows
make connections
Question
12. We need to explicitly teach, and model.
First we model -
Doc camera or Smart Board
Then they can practice!
Here’s Debbie’s example.
Here’s a student example.
13. Sample Reading
Misuse of Race in Medical Diagnosis
● Read & Annotate the text
● Self-identify vocabulary
● Tone
● Analysis
● Author’s purpose/main point
14. Celebrity Vocabulary Review Game
● Put all of the vocabulary words into a hat/receptacle
● Students can be in one big team or smaller teams depending on your class size
● Celebrity is like a combination of Taboo without the Taboo words and Charades
3 Rounds
*Round 1: Students can say anything they want
*Round 2: Students can only say 1 word
*Round 3: Students can only act
16. Winter Trimester: short stories
Start with a review of literary terms:
● They can match definitions.
● They can practice online
● They can “SWAT” vocabulary terms.
17. SWAT
● Create a powerpoint with 2 columns with a vocabulary word in each column
● Give students definitions or example sentences for one of the words
● Students are placed into 2 teams and take turns running to the board to “swat” the
correct answer faster than the other team.
● You can use fly swatters or just hands
20. The Narrative Arc: Family and Culture
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
“Four Directions” by Amy Tan Summary - retell from mother’s
point of view/Personal narrative
“A Beacon in the Night” by Morris
Lurie
Book Report: Description of a
character, theme and reaction.
“A Wish for my Mother” by
Rosemary Bray
Compare and Contrast with “A
Beacon in the NIght”/Own wishes
for their mother
21. The Narrative Arc: Family and Culture (Con’t)
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
“The First Seven Years” by
Bernard Malamud
Write about clues in the story:
How can the reader infer that
Feld already knows what he can’t
admit to himself?
“Marty” (1955 movie with Ernest
Borgnine)
Movie Review
Independent Reading Project Poster and paper
23. The Narrative Arc: Scary Stories
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
“The Open Window” by Saki Summary - retell from Vera’s point
of view
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W.
Jacobs
Book Report: Description of a
character, theme and reaction.
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald
Dahl
Confession Letter/Compare and
Contrast with movie
24. Out of control, I hit him with the
frozen leg of lamb. He died
immediately.
I have felt the guilty. However, I will
see your father soon. At heaven, I and your
father will love each other again.
While they were eating the leg all along I was in the living room
laughing cause they were talking about how they couldn't find it and
that it was probably under their noses.
25. The Narrative Arc: Scary Stories (Con’t)
Reading (or film) Writing assignment
“Rear Window” (1954 movie with
Jimmy Stewart)
Movie Review or The Viewer as
Voyeur
Independent Reading Project Poster and paper
27. Most Dangerous Game
Reading Strategy Goal: To infer.
The ending is perfect to demonstrate this.
“He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided.”
28. Spring Trimester - Memoir or Novel
● A longer work allows depth.
● Each chapter stands alone.
29. We both love The Horse in the Kitchen
● Ralph M. Flores’ novel based on his father’s life
○ Early years in Mexico during the Revolution
○ Immigration to Arizona
○ Defining, and redefining, the American Dream
30. Writing Assignments
● An idyllic childhood?
● Are people who they seem to be?
● Be like a coyote
● American Dream
32. Debbie likes to teach Black Boy
● Richard Wright’s memoir of growing up in the Jim Crow
South
○ Intellectual curiosity and determination
○ Rise from poverty to great 20th Century writer
○ An American classic!
33. Writing assignments
● Role of setting in Black Boy
● Role of violence in Black Boy
● Jobs in a white-dominated world
● Black Boy as a coming of age story
34. Questions?
READING and WRITING in ADVANCED ELL: The Final Push
Debbie Hadas and Heather Walseth
debbie.hadas@gmail.com heather.walseth@gmail.com
Link for today’s presentation: email us or write your name on the
list.