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Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School Professional Development Facilitator’s Guide

Recommendation 2: Integrate Oral and Written Instruction into Content-Area Teaching

1. Materials Checklist ………………………………………………………………………………2

2. SDE Introduction/ Background …………………………………………………………… 3

3. Presenter’s Facilitation Agenda…………………………………………………………4-23

4. Handout List ……………………………………………………………………………………... 24

5. Background Resources for Facilitator………………………………………………25-35

6. References ………………………………………………………………………………………… 36

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Materials Checklist and Notes:

Item Consumable Y or N

Quantity Notes:

Computer

Projector

Clicker

Power Point Presentation on USB or Computer

Handouts

Chart paper

Sticky notes

Agenda

Sign In forms

Evaluation form

Articles to be read

Etc.

About the guide This guide was developed as a model for intermediate schools teaching students in grades 4-8. It is offered as a complete training resource for evidence-based practices that support literacy and English Language Learners in 4th through 8th grade. Designed to support instructional leaders to deliver effective training to teachers this guide provides nine evidence-based strategies with practical application ideas and examples as well as resources for immediate implementation with students and in classrooms.

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The components in this guide are derived from the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES): Improving Adolescent Literacy and Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners Practice Guides which include a collection of “best available evidence” related to specific topics. More information can be found on the IES website: ies.ed.gov. Both the guide and presentation materials were compiled by the Northwest Comprehensive Center at Education Northwest for the Idaho State Department of Education. How to use the guide This guide is designed to accompany the training provided to an instructional leader (coach, teacher, administrator) who works with and supports teachers to utilize evidence-based strategies to improve outcomes for intermediate students (grades 4-8). The instructional leader will be trained to facilitate and lead learning in a school and/or district setting. The facilitators guide includes a pre-formatted PowerPoint presentation with an associated script. Materials for use by the trained facilitator also include handouts and additional web-based resources to share with teachers. The design of the guide provides flexibility to facilitators to respond to school or district needs in a targeted manner. Each evidence-based practice can be provided as training sessions over the course of a school year as data indicates, grouped into common threads and presented, or provided as a full or half-day professional development session. The practices introduced and subsequent activities are not content specific and support improving literacy across content areas in grades 4-8. What participants need to bring The participants attending this professional learning session should bring their core teacher manuals. Throughout the session, they will be asked to reference and make connections to the instructional tools (core programs) they are currently using. Presenter’s Facilitation Agenda: Outcomes

• Describe four evidence-based research practices for teaching academic content and literacy to English Learners • Identify and apply practice recommendation 2 to current core materials by identifying the World-class Instructional

Design and Assessment suggested scaffolds such as Sensory, Interactive and Graphic • Practice the integration of academic language use and writing through interactive strategies such as Jigsaw, use of

conversation stems, graphic organizers and Stronger and Clearer claims.

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Slides Time Suggested Script

Slide 1

Welcome Welcome (Introduce yourself, colleagues, and participants) Today’s presentation on teaching academic content and literacy to English Learners, was developed in partnership with the Idaho State Dept. of Ed. and the Northwest Comprehensive Center at Education Northwest (a nonprofit organization). Our shared goal is to provide support for Idaho educators as together we are challenged with equipping 4th-8th English Learners with language and literacy learning so that they can competently meet the college- and career-ready expectations they will be facing in just a few more years.

Slide 2

Quote Take a minute to read and reflect on this quote (give think time). What does this make you think about as a teacher who may have ELs in your classrooms? What implications does this have for you and for your students? (Allow participant a few minutes to share their thoughts with a partner or in groups of four. Then ask participants to share out.) Every day and in every classroom in Idaho, teachers and students are using language to provide instruction, to exchange ideas and discuss the learning. Language is at the center of the learning process. Learners use words to describe what they are seeing, understanding and communicating about their learning. Having said this it would stand to reason that we are all teachers of language. Regardless of our subjects and content, teachers are the most important factor in student learning. We are teachers of language. The language of our content.

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Slide 3

Recognizing the value of consistent, real-world learning goals to ensure all students are graduating high school prepared for college, career, and life, our state adopted new Idaho Content Standards (2011). These standards inform the curriculum that a district adopts. Standards and curriculum work together to guide teachers in understanding what students should know and be able to do. Our goal today is to provide some specific tools for improving language and literacy instruction in grades 4-8. Today’s information fits into Idaho’s English Language Arts (ELA)/Literacy Standards (Reading: Literature, Reading: Informational text, and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects.) The Idaho State Department of Education (SDE) website provides a link to the Standards by grade level, and that link is listed in the references. You were asked to bring some core curricula resources (such as a teacher’s manual/guide or lesson plan) so that you can apply these new tools for improving the language and literacy of ELs during today’s session.

Slide 4

The Idaho (Common Core) Standards incorporates three key shifts in ELA:

1. Regular practice with complex texts and their academic language

Rather than focusing solely on the skills of reading and writing, the ELA/literacy standards highlight the growing complexity of the texts students must read to be ready for the demands of college, career, and life. The standards call for a staircase of increasing complexity so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school. The standards also outline a progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from what they read.

Closely related to text complexity and inextricably connected to reading comprehension is a focus on academic vocabulary: words that appear in a variety of content areas (such as ignite and commit). The standards call for

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students to grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversation, direct instruction, and reading.

2. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts, both literary and informational

The Common Core emphasizes using evidence from texts to present careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Rather than asking students questions they can answer solely from their prior knowledge and experience, the standards call for students to answer questions that depend on their having read the texts with care.

The reading standards focus on students’ ability to read carefully and grasp information, arguments, ideas, and details based on evidence in the text. Students should be able to answer a range of text-dependent questions, whose answers require inferences based on careful attention to the text.

3. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

Students must be immersed in information about the world around them if they are to develop the strong general knowledge and vocabulary, they need to become successful readers and be prepared for college, career, and life. Informational texts play an important part in building students’ content knowledge. Further, it is vital for students to have extensive opportunities to build knowledge through texts so they can learn independently.

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Slides 5 & 6

min

Idaho Content Standards for Literature Here are some Reading standards for grades 4-8. The SDE website provides a link to the Standard by grade level. Idaho Content Standards. This is also listed in the resources slide at the end of this presentation. You will notice that the ELA standards are organized into three categories: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas. Our goal today is to provide some specific tools and references for improving literacy instruction for Els in grades 4-8. You were asked to bring your tools so that we can make connections to the current tools you are using in your classroom. Students in Idaho need to be able to……… [Read a couple of the standards on each slide. Especially read standard RI 6.4, RI. 7.4, & RL 6.4] NOTE: These can be found at SDE Content Standards Page. This is also listed in the resources slide at the end of this presentation.

Slide 7

WIDA ELD Standards There is also another set of standards for English language development. Idaho follows the World-class Instructional Design and Assessment set of English Language development standards. The five WIDA standards represent the social, instructional, and academic language that students need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools

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Slides 8 & 9

What is Academic Language?

[Allow time for participants to turn and talk to a neighbor. Ask volunteers to share their responses using the following sentence frame. Academic Language is…) Then say and show the slide.

According to Zweirs it is the set of words, grammar, and organizational strategies used to describe complex ideas, higher order thinking processes, and abstract concepts.

Slide 10

Features of Academic Language in WIDA Standards

How does WIDA define academic language? WIDA defines academic language by organizing it into three levels: discourse level, sentence level and word/phrase level. These three levels represent WIDA’s view of the academic language. The language we use in academia or academic settings. For our focus today – we will consider the word level. At this level we consider vocabulary that is general, specific, and technical. We consider not only knowing a word’s meaning in context but whether that word has multiple meanings. We consider word phrases such as idioms. We consider precision of the word’s meaning and shades of meaning and finally we consider it collocations. Collocation means the typical arrangement of the words. In other words, a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase, Examples are “make tea, do homework, do the laundry, make the bed, or save time.”

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Slide 11

Today’s Focus

Our focus today is on integrating oral and written English instruction into Content-Area Teaching.

Slide 12

Skilled Readers

One of our goals as teachers is to develop skilled readers so that students are fully prepared for the rigor of college or careers.

What are some essential components of being a successful/skilled reader? Think about someone you would consider a skilled reader and describe how they think and what they can do. (Turn and talk with a partner. Have participants share out as you generate a mind map to display background schema.)

Slide 13

Scarborough’s Rope

Before we get into our focus, we need to consider two essential components of the Simple View of Reading as represented in this illustration by Hollis Scarborough. (2002). In her illustration, the twisting ropes represent the underlying skills and elements that come together to form two necessary braids that represent the two essential components of reading comprehension. Although the model itself is called “simple” because it points out that reading comprehension is comprised of reading words and understanding the language of the words, in truth the two components are quite complex. Examination of Scarborough’s rope model reveals how multifaceted each is. For either of the two essential components to develop successfully, students need to be taught the elements necessary for automatic word recognition (i.e., phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition of

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frequent/familiar words), and strategic language comprehension (i.e., background knowledge, vocabulary, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge).

NOTE: A more elaborate explanation of the rope can be found under the resources section of this guide. This resource is only for the facilitator to provide more detailed information Scarborough’s Rope.

Slide 14

The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986)

Using the concepts of Scarborough’s Rope which draws on the research-supported representation of how reading comprehension develops, this Simple View chart characterizes skillful reading comprehension as a combination of two separate but equally important components—word recognition skills and language comprehension ability. In other words, to unlock comprehension of text, two keys are required—being able to read the words on the page and understanding what the words and language mean within the texts children are reading (Davis, 2006).

So, we know that we need to account for language comprehension and word recognition. How does that help us get more targeted with our instruction and intervention? Using the Simple View of Reading, we can think about four basic profiles of readers:

[Box 1] Look at Box 1. Readers may have adequate word recognition and language comprehension. We hope that all of our readers are at least adequate in the two components – and wouldn’t it be great if they were really good in both components? Els and ALLs usually do not fall into this category

[Box 2] Look at Box 2 - Readers may have poor word recognition and adequate language comprehension, which results in poor reading comprehension. In other words, when the text is read chorally or read to them these learners can engage in

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making adequate inferences and answering the kinds of questions that demonstrate an understanding of the text.

[Box 3] Look at Box 3- Readers may have adequate word recognition and poor language comprehension, which results in poor reading comprehension. Some Els fall into this category especially if their first language shares an alphabetic sound system such as Spanish. Native speakers of English who fall into the category are sometimes referred to as “word callers”. They can read every word but cannot understand the text. Another more technical term is hyperlexic.

Box 4- Readers may have poor word recognition and poor language comprehension, which results in poor reading comprehension. We need to be cautious here when considering an EL student. We would not want to identify an EL as having this double deficit as it may not be a deficit at all. It may be a matter of needing more language development.

Our task is to find out why a reader is having difficulties. We want to find each reader’s strengths and capitalize on those strengths and find each reader’s weaknesses and intervene on those weaknesses.

Again, Box 1 is the goal because we know that students who have success with reading comprehension are those who are skilled in both word recognition and language comprehension.

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IES Practice Guide The components in this presentation are derived from the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES): Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School which is a collection of “best available evidence” related to specific topics.

Slide16

The guide provides four recommendations on teaching academic content and literacy to English Learners. Please take a minute to read these four recommendations. (wait time) Why do you think the IES panelists identified these things? (wait and allow for sharing). NOTE: More information can be located from the IES website: ies.ed.gov This resource will be referenced in the resources slide for participants. The PDF link will be included as reference for the facilitator. It is not an expectation that this be printed as a handout. It is not considered a handout.

Slide 17

What connections can you make to skilled reading and the four recommendations? (provide time for partner talk) When we look back at Scarborough’s rope, we see that in the areas of Language Comprehension, skilled readers need language to talk about the text. The students need to be talking and collaborating with their classmates. By doing this the teachers can hear how the student is understanding the text and content of the classroom. Teachers also need to be cognizant of the words students are using because having that word in their oral vocabulary aides in word recognition.

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Slide 18

This presentation is focused on taking a closer look at Recommendation 2: Integrate Oral and Written English language instruction into Content-Area Teaching. With the adoption comes increased expectations for students’ oral and written communications. Students are expected to read, comprehend and articulate the meaning of written text. ELs face the double demands of building knowledge of a second language while learning grade level content but, as educators we can employ effective ways to integrate oral and written instruction to make challenging content comprehensible for Els.

Slide 19

To carry out these recommendations, teachers should (read slide)

Slide 20

Features of Academic language in the WIDA Standards As we think about the features of academic language as described in the WIDA standards where might we take into consideration the four previous bulleted points we just read? [Note: Allow participants time to make meaning of this slide in relation to the previous slide. Take note of their connections. They may call out the ideas around vocabulary. They might make the connection to the ideas of match of language forms to purpose/perspective. They might connect to organization and cohesion of ideas]

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Slide 21

Social Process of Apprenticeship [Have participants read the article, Social Process of Apprenticeship and complete a response on the back or white space of the handout. Make connections to WIDA’S language features and Scarborough’s rope

Note: this could be a time to pause think about the learners in our classrooms. Could it be that we not only have Els but, we also have ALLs? (pause)

ALLs are Academic Language Learners. Could it be that we have some learners in our classrooms that are native speakers of English but lack the academic discourse needed in our classrooms?

(Allow time for participants to respond to this.)

We do have in our classrooms learners who are native speakers of English but, lack the academic language that is needed as part of the content learning taking place in our classrooms. Linguists use the term register. Students need the formal register, or the models of communication associated with the content. There are specific terms, sentence structures and ways of academically communicating in content classrooms and school settings.

Our classrooms are the only place where Els and ALLs get the opportunity to develop their formal register and their academic language. At home, our students use what can be called “home language” which is as Lisa Delpit, author of Other People’s Children, refers to “the language in which they are loved.” We need to view this register as a valid way of communication. It is not an inferior language or a “lower” language. It is simply the student’s home language which is different

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from the language required in schools. Different from the academic language that is needed in required oral and written classroom tasks.

Another idea or concept that is critical to today’s focus is that given what we have discussed so far around academic language, formal registers, models of communication in each content area, and including the conversation we had with our beginning quote, We need to embrace that we are all teachers of Language. Core Curriculum/Program Connection: Ask participants to discuss the kinds of language structures that exist in their content areas. Are there any particular structures or ways of communications? Ex. The cause and effect language often used in science or ELA when using argumentation or the specific terms or structures of how you might say something when apprenticing as scientists. We don’t say we “check it out” instead “we made an observation”. Etc.

Slide 22

Iceberg Theory https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of%20Bilash/iceberg.html#1 Another idea or concept that speaks to language and apprenticing in the language of our content is the Iceberg Theory. In simple terms, the diagram shows two icebergs that represent the linguistic or language interdependence of Els. What is above the water, like on an iceberg is language the student use frequently and fluently whether it be their native language or English (the target language). Below the iceberg is language that involved the deep academic structures of our language that exists in academia and school settings. This is why it is so important that we embrace that we are language teachers because there is an interdependence of using and understanding language. Implications for mainstream teachers We should not assume that non-native speakers who have attained a high degree of fluency and accuracy in everyday spoken English have the corresponding academic language proficiency. This may help us to avoid labelling children who exhibit this

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disparity as having special educational needs when all they need is more time. The non-native speakers in your classes, who have exited from the ESL program, are still, in most cases, in the process of catching up with their native speaking peers. Briefly stated, Cummins believes that in the course of learning one language a child acquires a set of skills and implicit metalinguistic knowledge that can be drawn upon when working in another language. This common underlying proficiency (CUP), as he calls these skills and knowledge, is illustrated in the diagram below. It can be seen that the CUP provides the base for the development of both the first language (L1) and the second language (L2). It follows that any expansion of CUP that takes place in one language will have a beneficial effect on the other language(s). This theory also serves to explain why it becomes easier and easier to learn additional languages It is very important that students be encouraged to continue their native language development. When parents ask about the best ways they can help their child at home, you can reply that the child should have the opportunity to read extensively in her own language. You could suggest that parents make some time every evening to discuss with their child, in their native language, what she has done in school that day: ask her to talk about the science experiment she did, question her about her understanding of primary and secondary sources of historical information, have her explain how she has solved a math problem etc. As Cummins (2000) states: "Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible." If a child already understands the concepts of "justice" or "honesty" in her own language, all she has to do is acquire the label for these terms in English. She has a far more difficult task, however, if she has to acquire both the label and the concept in her second language. Cummins draws the distinction between additive bilingualism in which the first language continues to be developed and the first culture to be valued while the second language is added; and subtractive bilingualism in which the second language is added at the expense of the first language and culture, which diminish as a consequence. Cummins (1994) quotes research which suggests students working in an additive bilingual environment succeed to a greater extent than those

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whose first language and culture are devalued by their schools and by the wider society. Implications for mainstream teachers The dangers of subtractive bilingualism for the non-native speakers in our school are obviously not so strong as, say, for the children of immigrants to the USA. Nevertheless, we should do all we can to demonstrate to non-native English students that their cultures and languages are equally as valid and valued as the Anglo/American culture and English language that inevitably dominates FIS school life. Teachers and departments should explore every possibility to incorporate the different cultural backgrounds of our students into their daily teaching and curricula.

Slide 23

Instructional Support (Sensory, Graphic and Interactive) WIDA thinks about instructional support as support that can be sensory, graphic and interactive. These align well with the four bullet points of integrating oral and written instruction into content-area teaching.

Slide 24

Sensory supports

Ask participants to share what they think of when they hear this kind of instructional support.

After they share some answers. Have participants read the list and ask for other ideas that could be added.

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Slide 25

Ask participants to share what they think of when they hear this kind of instructional support.

After they share some answers. Have participants read the list and ask for other ideas that could be added.

Slide 26

Interactive supports

Ask participants to share what they think of when they hear this kind of instructional support.

After they share some answers. Have participants read the list and ask for other ideas that could be added. Core Curriculum/Program Connection: Ask Participants to explore their curricula materials and make a three-column list noting the types of scaffolds that is present in their core materials. Use the WIDA Support Scaffolds handout for participants to reference

Slide 27

Language as Action Let’s use a video observation guide (Language as Action Video Guide/Note taker) as a model to one of the kinds of graphic organizers one can use to help students make sense of content. [Use the Language as Action video observation handout as participants watch the video. Stop the video at various spots to model checking for understanding and allow participants to talk to and share notes with their colleagues. They should record the notes from their colleagues as well. This models interactive supports]

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Slide 28

To unpack the bullet points we will jigsaw the academic language article titled, Fundamentals of academic vocabulary Into the three sections. Provide Comprehension Graphic Organizers and Academic Conversation Placemat Note: Participants will be encouraged to use Zweirs academic conversation mat. And we will have our participant note some sentence stems that are included to show how language can be scaffold as students interact in the classroom.

Slide 29

Once you are in your numbered group. Collectively decide on a graphic organizer or sensory support such as an illustration or diagram in which you will use to make sense of what you read. Use this slide to show how this WIDA chart shows the purpose of the graphic organizer. Participants can decide to use an illustration or notes as well.

Slide 30

Read the slide

Explain this Academic Conversation Mat and encourage participants to use these

prompts when they need to elaborate and clarity, build on or challenge another

person’s idea, paraphrase, or support ideas with examples.

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Slide 31

Slide 32

Use the handout Stronger Clear to have participants state and write a claim about

their learning from today’s session.

Explain to them that they have some resources to further use on argumentative

statements and writing. But to begin, the final activity asks them to make a claim

about their learning. They need to draw on evidence (an idea, concepts, strategy they

understood from the session). They need to write their claim under “my claim” and

cite their evidence. When they share with a partner, they are state their claim and

determine if more language is needed to form a claim using proposition and support

language. The handout- Argumentative Connectors will provide the support they

may need to make clearer claims in terms of language. (The other handouts such as

Developing Oral Language resources, Extended two paragraph argumentation

writing, Two-paragraph Writing, They Say, I Say & Three Ways to Respond are

further resources for argumentative topics and developing oral language sentence

frames)

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Slide 33

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Handout List in Order 1. Social Process of Apprenticeship 2. WIDA Scaffold Supports 3. Language as Action Video Notes 4. Fundamentals of Academic Vocabulary article 5. Academic Conversation placemat with Prompts 6. Comprehension Graphic Organizers 7. Stronger Clearer Claims 8. Interactive Grouping ideas 9. Argumentative Connectors 10. Developing Oral Language 11. Extended two-paragraph argumentation 12. Two-paragraph argumentation writing

Slide 34 & 35

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13. They Say I say Sentence Frames 14. Three Ways to Respond

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Background Resources for Facilitators

The Simple View of Reading and the Strands of Early Literacy Development

Teachers of reading share the goal of helping students develop skillful reading comprehension. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) is a research-supported representation of how reading comprehension develops. It characterizes skillful reading comprehension as a combination of two separate but equally important components—word recognition skills and language comprehension ability. In other words, to unlock comprehension of text, two keys are required—being able to read the words on the page and understanding what the words and language mean within the texts children are reading (Davis, 2006). If a student cannot recognize words on the page accurately and automatically, fluency will be affected, and in turn, reading comprehension will suffer. Likewise, if a student has poor understanding of the meaning of the words, reading comprehension will suffer. Students who have success with reading comprehension are those who are skilled in both word recognition and language comprehension.

These two essential components of the Simple View of Reading are represented by an illustration by Scarborough (2002). In her illustration, seen in Figure 1, twisting ropes represent the underlying skills and elements that come together to form two necessary braids that represent the two essential components of reading comprehension. Although the model itself is called “simple” because it points out that reading comprehension is comprised of reading words and understanding the language of the words, in truth the two components are quite complex. Examination of Scarborough’s rope model reveals how multifaceted each is. For either of the two essential components to develop successfully, students need to be taught the elements necessary for automatic word recognition (i.e., phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition of frequent/familiar words), and strategic language comprehension (i.e., background knowledge, vocabulary, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge).

Word Recognition

Word recognition is the act of seeing a word and recognizing its pronunciation immediately and without any conscious effort. If reading words requires conscious, effortful decoding, little attention is left for comprehension of a text to occur. Since reading comprehension is the ultimate goal in teaching children to read, a critical early objective is to ensure that they are able to read words with instant, automatic recognition (Garnett, 2011).Despite this word recognition that results from a mere glance at print, it is critical to understand that readers have not simply recognized what the words look like as wholes, or

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familiar shapes. Even though readers read so many words automatically and instantaneously, the brain still processes every letter in the words subconsciously.

To teach students word recognition so that they can achieve this automaticity, students require instruction in: phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition of high frequency word

Phonological Awareness

One of the critical requirements for decoding, and ultimately word recognition, is phonological awareness (Snow et al., 1998). Phonological awareness is a broad term encompassing an awareness of various-sized units of sounds in spoken words such as rhymes (whole words), syllables (large parts of words), and phonemes (individual sounds). Hearing “cat” and “mat,” and being aware that they rhyme, is a form of phonological awareness, and rhyming is usually the easiest and earliest form that children acquire. Likewise, being able to break the spoken word “teacher” into two syllables is a form of phonological awareness that is more sophisticated. Phoneme awareness, as mentioned previously, is an awareness of the smallest individual units of sound in a spoken word—its phonemes; phoneme awareness is the most advanced level of phonological awareness.

Because the terms sound similar, phonological awareness is often confused with phoneme awareness. Teachers should know the difference because awareness of larger units of sound—such as rhymes and syllables—develops before awareness of individual phonemes. Teachers should also understand and remember that neither phonological awareness nor its most advanced form—phoneme awareness—has anything whatsoever to do with print or letters. The activities that are used to teach them are entirely auditory.

Why phonological awareness is important

An abundance of research emerged in the 1970s documenting the importance of phoneme awareness (the most sophisticated form of phonological awareness) for learning to read and write (International Reading Association, 1998). Failing to develop this awareness of the sounds in spoken words leads to difficulties learning the relationship between speech and print that is necessary for learning to read (Snow et al., 1998). This difficulty can sometimes be linked to specific underlying causes, such as a lack of instructional experiences to help children develop phoneme awareness, or neurobiological differences that make developing an awareness of phonemes more difficult for some children (Rayner et al., 2001). Phoneme awareness facilitates the essential connection that is “reading”: the sequences of individual sounds in spoken words match up to sequences of printed letters on a page. To illustrate the connection between phoneme awareness and reading, picture the steps that

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children must perform as they are beginning to read and spell words. First, they must accurately sound out the letters, one at a time, holding them in memory, and then blend them together correctly to form a word. Conversely, when beginning to spell words, they must segment a spoken word (even if it is not audible, they are still “hearing the word” in their minds) into its phonemes and then represent each phoneme with its corresponding letter(s). Therefore, both reading and spelling are dependent on the ability to segment and blend phonemes, as well as match the sounds to letters, and as stated previously, some students have great difficulty developing these skills. The good news is that these important skills can be effectively taught.

Decoding

Another critical component for word recognition is the ability to decode words. When teaching children to accurately decode words, they must understand the alphabetic principle and know letter-sound correspondences. When students make the connection that letters signify the sounds that we say, they are said to understand the purpose of the alphabetic code, or the “alphabetic principle.” Letter-sound correspondences are known when students can provide the correct sound for letters and letter combinations. Students can then be taught to decode, which means to blend the letter sounds together to read words. Decoding is a deliberate act in which readers must “consciously and deliberately apply their knowledge of the mapping system to produce a plausible pronunciation of a word they do not instantly recognize” (Beck & Juel, 1995, p. 9). Once a word is accurately decoded a few times, it is likely to become recognized without conscious deliberation, leading to efficient word recognition.

Why decoding is important

Similar to phonological awareness, neither understanding the alphabetic principle nor knowledge of letter-sound correspondences come naturally. Some children are able to gain insights about the connections between speech and print on their own just from exposure and rich literacy experiences, while many others require instruction. Such instruction results in dramatic improvement in word recognition (Boyer & Ehri, 2011).

Decoding instruction

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Teaching children letter-sound correspondences and how to decode may seem remarkably simple and straightforward. Yet teaching them well enough and early enough so that children can begin to read and comprehend books independently is influenced by the kind of instruction that is provided. There are many programs and methods available for teaching students to decode, but extensive evidence exists that instruction that is both systematic and explicit is more effective than instruction that is not (Brady, 2011; NRP, 2000).

Sight Word Recognition

The third critical component for successful word recognition is sight word recognition. A small percentage of words cannot be identified by deliberately sounding them out, yet they appear frequently in print. They are “exceptions” because some of their letters do not follow common letter-sound correspondences. Examples of such words are “once,” and “does.”. As a result of the irregularities, exception words must be memorized; sounding them out will not work.

Since these exception words must often be memorized as a visual unit (i.e., by sight), they are frequently called “sight words,” and this leads to confusion among teachers. This is because words that occur frequently in print, even those that are decodable (e.g., “in,” “will,” and “can”), are also often called “sight words.” Of course it is important for these decodable, highly frequent words to be learned early (preferably by attending to their sounds rather than just by memorization), right along with the others that are not decodable because they appear so frequently in the texts that will be read.

Why sight word recognition is important

One third of beginning readers’ texts are mostly comprised of familiar, high frequency words such as “the” and “of,” and almost half of the words in print are comprised of the 100 most common words (Fry, Kress, & Fountoukidis, 2000). It is no wonder that these words need to be learned to the point of automaticity so that smooth, fluent word recognition and reading can take place.

Word Recognition Summary

For students to achieve automatic and effortless word recognition, three important underlying elements—phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondences for decoding, and sight recognition of irregularly spelled familiar words—must be

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taught to the point that they too are automatic. Word recognition, the act of seeing a word and recognizing its pronunciation without conscious effort, is one of the two critical components in the Simple View of Reading that must be achieved to enable successful reading comprehension.

Language Comprehension and Its Connections to Knowledge

Davis (2006) wrote that “even the best phonics-based skills program will not transform a child into a strong reader if the child has limited knowledge of the language, impoverished vocabulary, and little knowledge of key subjects” (p. 15). Language comprehension consists of three elements that must be taught so that students apply them strategically (as opposed to automatically) during reading. As students interpret the meaning of texts, they must strategically apply their background knowledge, their knowledge of the vocabulary, and their understanding of the language structures that exist between words and within sentences.

Reading comprehension includes “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” (Snow, 2002, xiii), as well as the “capacities, abilities, knowledge, and experiences” one brings to the reading situation (p. 11). In line with the first part of this definition, it is expected that once children have been taught sounds and letters, how to blend them together to decode so that they read text fluently, along with lessons in vocabulary, they will be on the way to successful reading comprehension. Reading instruction in schools focuses so heavily on developing reading comprehension because this ability is the ultimate goal of reading.

Reading comprehension ability is complex and multifaceted; it is comprised of understanding a text’s vocabulary, knowledge of the particular topic, and comprehension of its language structures (see Cain & Oakhill, 2007). Language comprehension includes the interaction among someone’s background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures like grammar, verbal reasoning abilities, and literary knowledge (e.g., genres). Language comprehension is a more general term than listening comprehension, which is the ability to understand and make sense of spoken language.

Once students become more competent at word recognition, the dominant factor driving reading comprehension transforms to become language comprehension (Foorman, Francis, Shaywitz, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1997). The reason for this boils down to one word—knowledge. Once students can read the words, they extract meaning from texts using their overall knowledge and experiences (background knowledge), their knowledge of words (vocabulary), and their knowledge of how words go together to create meaning (language comprehension). This accumulation of knowledge can last a lifetime and neverb be considered “finished.” In fact, knowledge is so important to consider, that a brief commentary on its contribution to reading

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comprehension is next, before going on to discuss the three elements in Scarborough’s (2002) braid that lead to language comprehension, and ultimately reading comprehension.

Subtle differences exist between the terms “knowledge” and “background knowledge.” In this chapter, “knowledge” is broadly defined as the total accumulation of facts and information a person has gained from previous experiences (it is also called general knowledge). Knowledge is composed of concepts, ideas and factual information, which eventually come together to contribute to understanding in various situations. One does need facts and concepts and ideas to perform a procedure (e.g., putting historical events on a timeline, editing a paper for mechanical errors, reading a map), but they are even more vital when partaking in situations or conditions that require synthesizing a lot of information (e.g., write a comprehensive essay on a topic, comprehend an author’s message while reading a book) (Marzano & Kendall, 2007). “Background knowledge,” on the other hand, is a term used in education for a specific subset of knowledge needed to comprehend a particular situation, lesson, or text (it is also called “prior knowledge”). When reading a text about dog training, readers are going to use their background (prior) knowledge of dog behavior, vocabulary related to dogs, aspects of training, and so on, to comprehend text. They will not need to apply any of their knowledge of outer space, photosynthesis, or baking (any of their general, overall knowledge) in this particular instance. It is not possible for educators to teach the required background knowledge for every text that students will encounter as they progress through their school years. They can, however, provide the next best thing—a wide base of general knowledge that can be drawn upon and applied as background knowledge to problem solve and create meaning.

General knowledge comes from years of exposure to books, newspapers, knowledge-rich school curricula, television programs, experiences, and conversations. Its value cannot be understated. Willingham (2006) summarizes the findings in cognitive science regarding the significance of knowledge in education this way:

Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it easier to learn more—the rich get richer. In addition, factual knowledge enhances cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning. The richer the knowledge base, the more smoothly and effectively these cognitive processes—the very ones that teachers target—operate. So, the more knowledge students accumulate, the smarter they become. (p. 30)

Background Knowledge

One of the three elements necessary for language comprehension is background knowledge. As mentioned above, background knowledge is a particular subset of knowledge (e.g., facts about the world, events, people, sayings and phrases) that is needed

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to comprehend and learn from a particular situation, lesson, or text. Young readers learn to strategically apply their background knowledge in order to interpret a text’s meaning.

Why background knowledge is important

Background knowledge allows readers to strategically infer the author’s meaning with a lot less effort. Drawing inferences from a text is so much easier when a reader is already familiar with what the author is talking about.

Willingham (2006) summarized some of the findings in cognitive science regarding how background knowledge helps students comprehend what they read and remember what they have learned. Background knowledge of a text makes it so that fewer instances are necessary of having to stop or reread for clarification. The author’s point is comprehended right away. Less obvious, background knowledge allows readers to arrange sequences of events in texts into connected, meaningful units or sequences that can be more easily analyzed, understood, and remembered. Without background knowledge, words and sentences in a text easily become disjointed, unrelated, random sequences. Without the ability to automatically chunk together and activate various words and ideas, reading comprehension will suffer.

The beauty and value of background knowledge is that it provides the familiarity that is crucial for connections that both create new learning and allow for the new learning to be remembered.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is a prominent predictor of reading comprehension and is depicted as a central thread in the language comprehension component of the Simple View of Reading because of its connections to background knowledge and language structures (Scarborough, 2002).

Why vocabulary is important

As stated previously, the level of a child’s vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension (Duncan et al., 2007). This seems obvious since not knowing the meaning of words in a text makes it quite difficult to comprehend it. Adams noted that “What makes vocabulary valuable and important is not the words themselves so much as the understandings they afford. The reason we need to know the meanings of words is that they point to the knowledge from which we are to construct, interpret, and reflect on the meaning of text”.

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Language Structures

The final element contributing to language comprehension is language structure—the relationships between the words and sentences in a text. There are many facets to language structures, including knowledge of grammar, being able to make inferences, and having knowledge of literacy concepts, such as what reading strategies to use for different types of texts (e.g., poems versus informational texts). To simplify and streamline these ideas, they will be categorized as having to do with the major components of language that are interconnected: form, content, and use (see Bloom & Lahey, 1978).

Why language form is important

Language form comprises the rules for how words are structured (see ‘morphology’ described below) as well as the rules for the arrangement of words within sentences and phrases (see ‘syntax’ described below). The act of constructing meaning while reading is complex, so it is not surprising that morphology and syntax also contribute to reading comprehension.

Morphology is the study of morphemes in a language. Not to be confused with phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound in spoken words, morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in words (to remember this, consider that “morphemes” and “meaning” both begin with the letter “m”). Words contain one or more morphemes, or units of meaning.

Another aspect of language form, syntax, is commonly referred to as grammar. It is the combining and ordering of words in sentences and phrases that enables comprehension of a text. For example, in English, when the article “a” or “an” appears in a sentence, it is expected that a noun will follow. Syntax includes sentence construction elements like statements, commands, and combined sentences as well as particular sentence components such as nouns, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. These are important for future teachers to know, because effective use of these will allow students to comprehend text more successfully, and they will also allow students to demonstrate command of the conventions of the language in their writing pieces.

Why language content is important

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Language content that is comprised of the meaning of the relationships that exist between words, phrases, and sentences is known as semantics. Semantics is different from vocabulary because it extends beyond the individual meaning of words. Note that once again, there is an “m” in this “semantics,” but it is in the middle of the word, which may help you to remember it has to do with the meaning that ties words (and sentences) together. Understanding the semantics of language enables comprehension because it clarifies the content—the network of events and relationships that exists in texts. Semantics requires knowledge of vocabulary (a word’s meaning, and perhaps its synonyms and antonyms), as well as syntax. Just as important is background knowledge in order to form correct judgments about the context being read.

Language use is termed pragmatics. Pragmatics are the rules of language that lead to appropriate use in assorted settings and contexts. Each setting (e.g., school, home, restaurant, job interview, playground) or context (e.g., greeting, inquiry, negotiation, explanation) has a particular purpose. To communicate appropriately, students must learn patterns of conversation and dialogue that occur in assorted settings. Understanding the nuances of pragmatics contributes to language comprehension, which in turn enables a reader to recognize its uses in written text, leading to more successful reading comprehension. The pragmatics of language use in school requires students to comprehend academic language.

Summary

To help students develop language comprehension, the underlying meaning-based elements of reading—background knowledge, vocabulary, and language structures—must be taught and monitored. Unlike teaching students to recognize words accurately and automatically so that they become fluent readers, teaching the elements of language comprehension must be done so that students become increasingly strategic about extracting the meaning from texts they read. This is an incremental, ongoing, developmental process that lasts a lifetime. With each new bit of background knowledge, each new vocabulary word, and each new understanding of language use, students can integrate this knowledge strategically to comprehend text.

The two essential components of the Simple View of Reading, automatic word recognition and strategic language comprehension, contribute to the ultimate goal of teaching reading: skilled reading comprehension. Once students become proficient decoders and can automatically identify words, the role of language comprehension becomes increasingly important as students shift from paying attention to the words to paying attention to meaning. Source: Lumen Learning The Simple View of Reading

IES Practice Guide for Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Language Learners in Elementary and Middle School Teaching Academic Content

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WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards and Resource Guide English Language Proficiency Standards and Resource Guide Stronger clearer steps and instructions on video for facilitator only to understand how it should look in the classroom Stronger and Clearer Video

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History/Social Studies, Science, Technical Subjects, and Handwriting. Retrieved from SDE Content Standards Institute of Education Science (IES). (2014). Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and

Middle School. Retrieved from Teaching Academic Content Scarborough, H. S. (2002). The Simple View of Reading and the Strands of Early Literacy Development. In S. B. Newman & D. K.

Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research (p. 98). Found on Lumen Learning: The Simple View of Reading University of Wisconsin., & Wisconsin Center for Education Research. (2012). 2012 Amplification of the English language

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