BilingualESOL 7th Annual Summer Institute

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Bilingual/ESOL 7th Annual Summer Institute

• Dr. Tomasita Ortiz, Director Multilingual Student
  Education Services
• June 14, 2004

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Institute Presentation

• Regain the Joy of Teaching!

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Reading Essentials Research Practices That Work
For LEP

• Presentation Overview
• Fundamentals for reading
• The five reading components
• Issues of reading development
• Language difference vs. language learning
  disability
• Reading Essentials Overview
• The Joy of Teaching

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Literacy Development Challenges LEP who are
non-readers in their native language

• Reading is a complex process when the student
  does not understand the language
• It is not feasible to teach all students to read
  in their native language
• LEP must master two different processes learning
  to read and write in a second language and
  learning to speak and understand the second
  language

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What type of instruction do LEP need?

• Systematic, high quality literacy instruction
• Interactive classroom
• Classroom Environment that nurtures Dr. Krashens
  Research
• Input Hypothesis
• Affective Filter Research
• Explicit instruction in the aspects of the
  English language that differ from their L1
• Phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and
  pragmatics

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Literacy Development Challenges LEP who are
non-readers in their native language

• Determining the reading proficiency level
• Students who arrive in USA with well developed
  reading skills in the native language have
  mastered the reading essentials of reading.
• These students do not need to be taught the
  reading process. Teachers must assist them to
  transfer reading skills in L1 to L2. They do
  need to learn the English language.

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Challenges Teachers Face When LEP Do Not Read in
L1

• High number of referrals to exceptional education
• Inappropriate reading assessment instruments
• Inappropriate selection of textbooks
• Unable to determine whether a students academic
  difficulties are based on a reading problem or
  English language proficiency since the tests used
  are not reliable and valid for LEP.

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Language Difference or Language Learning
Disability

• How is a teacher to Know?

Challenges!
Challenges!
Challenges!
I have lost the joy of teaching!
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Simplify Your Teaching Life

• Focus on the essentials
• Be as knowledgeable as possible
• Use an eclectic approach
• Question research practices that are not for the
  student population
• Stop complicating your life
• Teach the child not the label
• View teaching as an art

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Bond With Your Students
" Unless we reach our student's hearts, we will
not have access into their minds."
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How Does Bonding Work?

• Regie Routman, the author of the book Reading
  Essentials believes that bonding with our
  students can be achieved by implementing the
  Optimal Learning Model Across the Curriculum.
• (Inside front cover and pages 43-49 of the book
  Reading Essentials)

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How Does Bonding Work

• Ensure early success for every student
• Model respect
• Encourage shared decision making
• Take a look at your classroom
• Tell the stories of your life
• Value children stories
• Read stories aloud
• Get to know your students as readers
• Enjoy your students

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CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE
Remind yourself of how important it is to
celebrate our learning lives, not just to show up
for school and get bogged down by the standards,
laws, compliance mandates, testing, FCAT and
added curriculum. If we want our students to be
excited about learning, they need to have
teachers who relish learning, who are passionate
about reading and other interests, and who find
the classroom an inspiring and thrilling place to
be.
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Plan for Success!

• Teach with a sense of urgency
• Rely on the Optimal Learning Model
• Organize an outstanding classroom library
• Plan for and monitor independent reading
• View assessment as your working partner
• Examine and clearly understand guided reading
  practices
• Know the research and build on best practices for
  the students you teach

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Plan for Success!

• Our students will not become better readers
  because we create fabulous projects and centers,
  give them lots of paperwork, and grade lots of
  papers. They will become better readers if they
  receive excellent instruction and have lots of
  time to read and talk about books.
• (page 202, Reading Essentials)

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Plan for Success!

• Realize that you only have so much time
• Think and reflect
• Trust your own experiences
• Keep work meaningful
• Keep work simple
• Make every minute count
• Use time spent with your students to teach and
  assess
• Evaluate every literacy activity
• Keep a lively pace

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Plan for Success!

• Create structures that maximize participation and
  learning
• Use transitional periods as teaching time
• Make work while waiting for the bell to ring
  sensible and pleasurable
• Make resources in the room useful
• Reduce interruptions
• Make time for ongoing professional development
• Visualize and work for the legacy you want to
  leave for your students

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• Above all things, enjoy the profession you
  selected to live. Enjoy your students, enjoy
  teaching,
• enjoy your life and leave a legacy that will
  impact the education of your LEP for ever.