Taking the Mystery out of English for English Language Learners

English is seen as being complex, full of exceptions, and without consistent rules. But what if there were strategies we could teach that reveal consistent patterns to help "make sense" of the English language for our ESL students/English Language Learners? Teachers may not teach some of the consistent patterns that do exist in English because they simply don't know what those strategies are themselves.

I thought it would be helpful to repost my ESL teaching tips blog post to reinforce some consistent, systematic strategies I've learned that teach basic pronunciation, spelling, decoding, and grammar. I've been fortunate to work with these (and other) strategies over the last several years in the form of classroom teaching, teacher training, and curriculum development. The strategies taught and applied in each of these contexts have proven to be both effective and empowering for students and teachers alike. A list of several teaching tips can be accessed below or by visiting my previous post here.

Should Handwriting Be Taught?

Is handwriting an important component to literacy instruction? Is it really necessary to teach handwriting, especially when keyboarding skills are so requisite with the rise of technology in education and the use of technology in everyday life?

The Common Core State Standards prescribe that legible writing should be taught in kindergarten and first grade only. Then in subsequent grades, the emphasis shifts to keyboarding proficiency. 

According to recent research, handwriting versus keyboarding may affect the brain and benefit specifically those who struggle with reading. Children who learn to write by hand at a young age learn to read more quickly, as well as retain information and generate ideas. 

Free Education Webinars

When I first started working for Reading Horizons six-and-a-half years ago, one of my first assignments was to conduct a webinar. A "webinar?" I asked. I hadn't heard the term "webinar" before. When I discussed this assignment with colleagues at the time, the term "webinar" was unfamiliar to them, as well. I felt like I was breaking new ground.

Since that time, webinars have become a popular and effective way to provide free online professional development. Reading Horizons provides free webinars that can be accessed here. Webinar topics range from Teaching All Students to Read by Dr. Joseph Torgesen, to Developing Fluent Readers by Neil Anderson, to Using Learning Centers to Meet Needs in Multilevel ESL Classrooms by Dr. Robin Lovrien Schwarz. These webinars are just one of the many types of free online resources now available for professional development.

Teaching English to Emergent Adult Readers

Teaching emergent adult readers presents unique challenges, including knowing which fundamental skills to teach and how to appropriately deliver these skills in ways that are accessible, practical, and motivating. Adults who lack print literacy also lack essential pre-literacy skills, including phonemic awareness and phonics skills (Gombert, 1994; Kurvers & van de Craats, 2007; Vinogradov, 2010; Young-Scholten & Strom, 2006). These adults may be able to name the letters in a word, but they are often unable to assign correct sounds to the letters, combine them to decode the word, or attach meaning to the word (Vinogradov, 2012). This research suggests the critical need for teachers to provide explicit phonemic awareness and decoding instruction in their classrooms (Evans, 2008; Trupke-Bastidas & Poulos, 2007).

However, since reading is more than simply knowing the alphabet, how do teachers know which fundamental phonemic awareness and decoding skills should be taught and how to implement these fundamental skills with limited instructional time? Teachers need to be equipped with a toolbox of teaching strategies that can be employed to effectively address the varying needs of their students, as well as be provided with a framework to know how much instructional time should be spent to develop these skills.

Visit my teaching tips page for specific strategies that can be taught to students in adult education contexts (or students learning to read for the first time). Visit also www.phonicstraining.com for free access to an online teacher training workshop.

ESL Teaching Tips

In an effort to make my blog more user-friendly and accessible, I've decided to dedicate a post to a "Table of Contents" of sorts displaying some of my most popular posts, specifically my ESL Teaching Tips posts. Subsequent posts sharing ESL Teaching Tips will be added to this post, so come back and visit often!

ESL Pronunciation Tips

The Three Sounds of the Suffix -ED

Pronouncing Plurals

Recognizing and Pronouncing Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Rising and Falling Intonation in WH- and Yes/No Questions

Syllable Stress and the Schwa

Word Stress Predictability

Minimal Pairs (Part 1)

Minimal Pairs (Part 2)

Minimal Pairs (Part 3)

Free Online Pronunciation Tool

Teaching Students How to Self-Monitor to Improve Pronunciation

Potential Pronunciation Problems (Part 1)

Potential Pronunciation Problems (Part 2)

ESL Spelling Tips

Adding Suffixes

One-Syllable Words that End in S, F, and Z

Tricky Words: Usage and Spelling Help

English Sounds and Corresponding Spellings

Ten Consistent Spelling Patterns in English

ESL Grammar Tips

Common Suffixes

Common Prefixes

Proper Use of Commas

Nouns

Direct and Indirect Quotations

Parts of Speech

ESL Reading and Decoding Tips

Soft Sounds of C and G 

Is the Vowel Long or Short?

Syllable Division in Multi-Syllable Words

Ideas for Teaching Sight Words

Free Literacy Games and Manipulatives

Free Phonemic Awareness Activities

What Are Graphic Organizers?

Sight Words Vocabulary List
Engaging Activities to Teach Sight Words

What Makes a Good Reader?

Dictionary Skills

ESL Listening Tips

Listening Strategies

Listening and Speaking Activities
Listening Strategy Training Activity

ESL Teaching Strategies

23 Teaching Strategies for ESOL Students

ESL Teaching Tip: Soft Sounds of C and G

My ESL teaching tips have proven to be popular posts, so I thought I would provide some additional teaching tips to add to those that have already been published. I am currently working on revising a manual lesson for other sounds for c and g. (I blogged about an experience I had teaching this skill at a community college in Southern California here.) A synopsis of this skill is as follows:


• When c is followed by the vowels e (ce) or i (ci), the sound of c changes from /k/ to /s/ (e.g., cent; cite). C will have the /s/ sound nearly 100 percent of the time in this construction. (Exception: soccer)

• When g is followed by the vowels e (ge) or i (gi), the sound of g changes from /g/ to /j/ (e.g., gem; gin). This new sound occurs about 85 percent of the time in this construction. (Exceptions: girl, get, gift, etc.)

• When a consonant plus c or g comes between the first vowel and the silent e, the two consonants will cause the first vowel to be short (e.g., dance, prince, plunge).

• English words never end in the letter j. When the sound /j/ is heard at the end of a word, it will always be spelled ge. Words with a long vowel sound will end with just the ge spelling (e.g., cage). Words with a short vowel sound will end with a dge spelling (e.g., judge; bridge).


Teaching tip adapted from the Reading Horizons method found in the Decoding Strategies for Literacy Development manual published by Reading Horizons. Used with permission.


For other ESL Teaching Tips, visit the following blog posts:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about voiced and voiceless sounds.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common suffixes. 
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about syllable division in multi-syllabic words.

Success Stories in Adult Literacy

I have blogged before about my experience tutoring a gentleman in his 60's who is learning to read for the first time. (See my blog posts here, here, and here.) As many of my colleagues and associates are aware, I have developed a passion for literacy--especially adult literacy. I love hearing success stories of individuals who have overcome the monumental obstacles of illiteracy and who are now confident and productive members of society. I recently heard a Canadian radio interview with such an individual who is a recipient of a literacy award. He is a father and a cancer survivor. He mentioned using the Reading Horizons program to help him learn how to read, which is the software program I helped to author. It is stories like these that remind me of why I do what I do. 

Listen to the interview here. 

See videos of other inspiring success stories here.

Motivating Readers: Introducing Evertaster, a Novel by Adam Glendon Sidwell -- Part 2

My last blog post discussed motivating readers through engaging text, and I introduced a new novel called Evertaster written by my friend Adam Glendon Sidwell. (A colleague of mine also blogged about the book here.) I wanted to announce that today, June 14th, is the book's official release date! You can buy the book online on Amazon here for a discounted price today only. I plan to visit Amazon today between 12:00 and 2:00 PST for Amazon's four-for-three promotion (buy four for the price of three). Happy reading!

Motivating Readers: Introducing Evertaster, a Novel by Adam Glendon Sidwell

Working for a reading company over the past six years has provided me with an elevated perspective on "the value of literacy". (I've blogged about it before here.) In addition, working for a reading company that possesses a vision to teach new and struggling readers how to read, I have gained increased appreciation for literacy -- appreciation not only for the need to teach reading using effective strategies and guided practice, but for providing text that is engaging to ensure students' motivation to read is not only maintained, but also constantly escalating...escalating so that reading skills can improve and "reading to learn" can take place. As a curriculum writer, I am also mindful of what it takes to write...to produce text that is motivating, engaging, and level-appropriate. 

I have a friend, Adam Glendon Sidwell, who is getting ready to release his first book, Evertaster, a novel written for youth ages eight to 12, which will be released June 14, 2012. Adam is a good friend of mine from a few years back. I recall days when Adam would quarantine himself in his unfinished basement, disciplining himself to write for hours at a time. At the end of a successful day, he would enthusiastically report the number of pages he was able to crank out that day. I read a draft of a book he was working on during that time. Suffice it to say that Adam was born to be a writer. 


Evertaster is one of those books that stimulates students with the motivation to read...and to keep reading. That's "the value of literacy". 


Here is a synopsis of Evertaster:


When eleven year-old Guster Johnsonville rejects his mother's casserole for the umpteenth time, she takes him to the city of New Orleans to find him something to eat. There, in a dark, abandoned corner of the city, they meet a dying pastry maker who tells them of a legendary recipe called the Gastronomy of Peace -- a recipe created hundreds of years ago, shrouded in secrecy, and sought after by connoisseurs everywhere.

So begins a perilous adventure that will take Guster, his clever sister Mariah, and the rest of the Johnsonvilles on an adventure to ancient ruins, faraway jungles and forgotten caves, where they discover that their search is more than just a quest to satisfy Guster's cravings -- it is a quest that could change humanity forever.


You can read more about Evertaster at http://www.evertaster.com/. I've included a snippet from the website here:


"Evertaster is the first novel in a children’s adventure series by author Adam Glendon Sidwell. When a couple of kids start a worldwide search for a legendary taste, they find out they’ve bitten off more danger than they can chew."

Opening Doors to Literacy in New York City Public Libraries

Last fall I conducted a literacy training for literacy and English as a Second Language teachers and tutors in the Bronx. (See my post about it here.) I recently returned to New York City where I helped conduct a follow-up literacy training, this time for five of the previous attendees who supervise the literacy teachers and tutors throughout the city at New York City Public Libraries. The purpose of this training was to train the supervisors on how to become certified Reading Horizons trainers. The training was held at the Bronx Library Center (down the street from one of Edgar Allen Poe's homes). This three-day training consisted of method review, explicit strategy instruction in decoding and spelling skills, as well as instruction on conducting consistent, teacher-directed practice. The attendees also had an opportunity to participate in peer coaching as they each took a turn teaching a skill and receiving feedback from the group. I am impressed with these individuals' competence, as well as their passion and drive to help teach literacy and English to speakers of other languages.

Aside from the training itself, I witnessed something magical going on within the walls of this library. Each day as I walked out of the training, I saw kids from the Bronx gathered around computers after school. I saw parents and children checking out books together. I saw middle school and high school kids meeting at the library to collaborate. I saw adults standing next to book shelves, books open and eyes scanning the pages, taking in the words like they were a refreshing drink of water. Libraries are magical places. I am grateful to be able to participate (in a very small way) in the amazing literacy programs offered throughout New York City. I am aware that there are several other libraries throughout the country doing similar things, whose efforts I applaud, as well. Libraries are magical places. They open the doors to education like no other.

Free Online Professional Development for Adult ESOL Educators

I was just introduced to a fantastic free online resource for ESOL professionals. ELL-U is a National Adult English Language Learning Professional Development Network that serves as a free professional development portal for Adult ESOL Educators. Below is an announcement that was distributed through a Listserv that I thought I would include since it provides a clear introduction to current courses, as well as instructions for joining. I just signed up for two study circles myself.

Free Webinar on the Essential Need for Orton Gillingham-Based Reading Instruction

Kathy Chapelle-Muncy, MS Ed. Reading and Literacy and teacher trainer, presented a great webinar on March 22, 2012, hosted by Reading Horizons on the essential need for  explicit and intensive phonics instruction for struggling readers, as well as the importance of delivering this type of instruction through an Orton Gillingham-based methodology. The Orton Gillingham approach refers to instruction that is multisensory, stepwise, cumulative, and language-based. A recording of this webinar is available here.

During the Q and A session at the end of the webinar, Kathy mentioned the Reading Horizons online pronunciation tool. A link to preview this tool is available here. For more questions and answers from the webinar, see the Reading Horizons blog post here.

The next webinar will be held April 19, 2012, by author Sarah Collinge. Her webinar is entitled, "Movitating Readers: Collaboration, Challenge, Competence, and Choice." You can register for the webinar here.

For other free webinars hosted by Reading Horizons, go here.

Free Resource from ASCD for Teaching English Language Learners

I was just made aware of a free resource provided by ASCD that features literature and other helpful resources that support the teaching of English Language Learners. Articles, books, research reports, and professional development resources are available. Visit the link here.


Speaking of ASCD, the 2012 conference is fast approaching. It will be held March 24-26 in Philadelphia, PA. My presentation proposal entitled "Examining Effective Reading Instruction Using Reading Horizons v5 Technology" was accepted. If you're going to be at ASCD, stop by and say hello!

Child Literacy: The Need to Read to Children Daily

I recently read an article about the great need to read to young children. Though the article is specific to my neck of the woods (Utah County), it is clear that the issues raised in the article are applicable to other contexts, and the plea to act can be generalized to most, if not all, locations within the U.S. and the world. 

The article is entitled, "Child Literacy: A Looming Crisis in Utah County." I recommend reading the article in full, but here is a brief excerpt:


"READING TO YOUR CHILD has never been more critical than it is now. It plays a key role, especially before third grade, in keeping that child in school, out of jail, and off welfare.

"It is so important, in fact, that if your next-door neighbor is a single mother who works two jobs and doesn't have time to read with her children, you should go over and read to them for her. It will pay huge dividends in the future--not just for those children but for society as a whole.

"That is the finding of a growing body of research that can no longer be ignored. Statistically, at least, you can make accurate predictions of a person's whole life by third grade based on reading ability."

Read more here.

I encourage us all to think about ways we can get involved in literacy efforts in our own communities, and then to act on these ideas, even if it's as simple an act as reading to children in your neighborhoods...or better yet, reading to your own children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews.


For other ways to get involved in literacy efforts, see these blog posts:
Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2011: Teaching Struggling Readers
Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010

TESOL 2012 Presentation: Engaging Activities to Teach Sight Words for Improved Reading Fluency

I just found out my proposal "Engaging Activities to Teach Sight Words for Improved Reading Fluency" was accepted at the TESOL 2012 conference in Philadelphia next March. The acceptance rate this year was 24%, so I'm honored to have this opportunity. I submitted this presentation as a poster session format this year to provide some variety in my presentation repertoire. I will be sharing ideas for teaching sight words, specifically how to build on phonic clues, promote rapid recognition, and help students commit these sight words to long-term memory. I have addressed this topic before in a blog post entitled "Ideas for Teaching Sight Words for ELLs/ESL Students." (See a photo of my poster here.)

Here is a summary of my presentation:

ESL Teaching Tip: Syllable Division in Multi-Syllable Words

In a previous blog post, I shared the five phonetic skills--strategies for determining if a vowel is long or short in a single-syllable word. What about multi-syllabic words? Where do you split the syllable in multi-syllabic words? Here are two simple decoding skills that you can use to teach students where to break syllables. Then apply the five phonetic skills to determine if the vowel is long or short in each syllable. Using the two decoding skills and five phonetic skills in combination can help students with proper pronunciation of multi-syllabic words.

Decoding Skill 1: Look for how many consonants immediately follow a vowel. If there is one consonant following the vowel, that consonant will go on to the next syllable. (Note that blends, digraphs, etc. will stay together and move together within syllables.)

     mo-tel     pro-duce

Decoding Skill 2: If there are two consonants immediately following the vowel, divide between the two consonants. The first consonant will stay in the first syllable, and the second consonant will move on to the next syllable.

     cam-pus     sub-ject

Then apply the five phonetic skills to determine if a vowel is long or short on the syllable level: 

Free Online Readability Tool to Acquire Lexile® Scores

I have been approached lately about the topic of Lexile® scores. I wrote a previous blog post about readability tools available on the web, including StoryToolz (a tool that averages several different Grade Level Equivalency [GLE] measures and provides an average GLE), and VocabProfiler (a tool that generates the percentage of high frequency vocabulary used in a text). I wanted to add one more web-based resource available to determine a Lexile® score. A Lexile® score takes into account the frequency of the vocabulary used within the text, as well as sentence length. This is an alternative to a Grade Level Equivalency measure. 

The Lexile® Analyzer is a tool developed by MetaMetrics that you can use to determine a Lexile® score for text that you write or select to ensure that the text is at an appropriate reading level for your students. After submitting your text on the Lexile® Analyzer, the tool will generate a Lexile® measure. To do this, you first have to register on the Lexile® website with your email address and password. Then you prepare your text by saving your text as a plain text file (using a ".txt" extension). Then you upload the file, and the analyzer tool will generate the Lexile® score.

ESL Teaching Tip: Common Suffixes

The previous blog post discussed spelling with the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est. There are other common suffixes that would be helpful for students to learn. Learning common suffixes helps students determine the meanings of unknown words. Students can use their knowledge of word parts with Latin and Greek roots, specifically prefixes and suffixes, to pull an unknown word apart and determine its meaning. Following is a list of commonly used suffixes.

Suffix   Example Words

-able    capable, notable, desirable

-al        central, coastal, general, hospital

-ant      pleasant, important, distant, constant

-ance   continuance, allowance, abundance, balance

-ee       employee, trustee

-en       harden, sweeten, golden, driven

-ence   excellence, evidence, difference, reference

-ent      innocent, confident, ardent, eloquent

-ful       cheerful, careful, wonderful, shameful

-hood   manhood, statehood, womanhood

-ible     possible

-ice      justice, service, notice, practice

-id        timid, solid, valid, frigid

-ish      finish, vanish, punish, abolish, perish

-ine      engine, famine, genuine

-it         limit, deposit

-ite       definite, infinite, opposite

-ive      relative, possessive, active, effective

-ize      realize, fertilize, specialize, apologize

-less     shameless, careless, restless, blameless

-ment   assignment, department, apartment, agreement

-ness    happiness, sickness, brightness, darkness

-ward   awkward, downward, upward

-cian    Grecian, politician, musician

-ciate   appreciate, emaciate

-cient   proficient, efficient, sufficient

-cial     racial, social, facial, crucial

-tial      partial, initial, essential

-sial     controversial

-cious   gracious, delicious, vicious

-tious   facetious, pretentious, ostentatious

-xious   anxious, obnoxious, noxious

For additional ESL teaching tips:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about voiced and voiceless sounds.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about decoding multi-syllabic words. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about other sounds for c and g.

Teaching Literacy Strategies to Homeless Children and Individuals in Secure Care Facilities

This has been the year of travel! My job has taken me to various places around the nation and the world to present, train, and observe literacy instruction. This year, I have traveled to New York City twice, India, the Middle East, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. Last week, I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona. The purpose of my trip to Arizona was two-fold: 1) to present literacy strategies at the Arizona Correctional Educators Conference in Tempe; and 2) to make site visits to locations where literacy training is being implemented. 
 

I had the privilege of visiting the Children First Academy in Phoenix, the largest school for homeless kids in the nation, which is part of the Sequoia School District. Sequoia Schools are non-profit, K-12 public charter schools. I had heard about Children First Academy in January, and I was very intrigued by it. I had visited their website and read the speech that one of the students gave at a fundraiser. (It's amazing, by the way, as it provides a glimpse into the realities of life as a kid who comes from a homeless background. You can read Janet's speech here.) When I arrived at the school, I was greeted by Dina Gerdon, Community Development Director, and warmly welcomed by the principal and superintendent. This school has been using Reading Horizons since the beginning of January, and they have grown to love the program. There is a new principal at the school, and he said the first thing the teachers said to him when he arrived at the school was, "Don't take our Reading Horizons away!" The superintendent and I then had an engaging conversation about the importance of reading and literacy, and we discussed implementing a program for parents to learn to read English along with their children at Children First Academy. I'm very impressed with the support the principal and superintendent offer the school, including professional development, technology, and other resources.

A Hands-on Approach for Struggling Readers

Today I presented at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in National Harbor, Maryland (right outside of Washington, D.C.). The presentation went well, even though it was the last presentation of the day.  In fact, it was so well-attended that I ran out of handouts!

Receiving the Practitioner Presentation Award at the Business Meeting

The presentation was entitled, "A Hands-on Approach for Struggling Readers." It won the Practitioner Presentation Award for the Division of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD).

The objectives of the presentation were as follows:                    
--Establish rationale for using decoding and encoding strategies to improve literacy.
--Share a framework of specific decoding and encoding strategies for application.
--Present classroom activities that can be used to reinforce these learned strategies.
--Provide take-home application to be used in your classrooms.

Attendees demonstrating "Act a Word"

The presentation required audience participation. I was pleased by how willing and eager the attendees were to participate. They did great! :) 

After the presentation, I was pleased to have met a new colleague from Staff Development for Educators (SDE). Perhaps there will be opportunities to share this presentation, or similar ones, at professional development conferences in the future. Stay tuned!


The handout can be accessed here.