Reading Comprehension Intervention for ELL

There are 5 Big Ideas in beginning reading:

1. Phonemic Awareness:  The ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
2. Alphabetic Principle: The ability to associate sounds with letters and use these sounds to form words.
3. Fluency with Text: The effortless, automatic ability to read words in connected text.
4. Vocabulary:  The ability to understand (receptive) and use (expressive) words to acquire and convey meaning.
5. Comprehension: The complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to convey meaning.  (Big Ideas, 2007)

English Language Learners

English Language Learners (ELL) are the fasted growing group of students in our public school systems.  In some systems, their numbers have more than doubled during the past decade.  In order for these students to participate meaningfully in the academic activities required to meet standards and make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), educators must facilitate the development of language skills beyond those of social fluency (Jarrett, 2002).  “The U.S. Department of Education defines ELLS as national-origin-minority students who are limited-English-proficient.  The ELL term is often preferred over Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) as it highlights accomplishments rather than deficits,” (Francis, Rivera, Leaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, (2006, p. 3).   Young ELL learners are tasked with acquiring a second language while simultaneously developing a first language (Fancis, et al., 2006, p. 6).  Academic language is a very important for academic success, however, many ELL students are lacking in this area even when socially conversationally competent.   ELL students frequently struggle in the area of Vocabulary, which limits their ability to learn about and discuss academic topics.  Comprehension is another area of difficulty, particularly in the ability to make inferences, comprehending and analyzing text.  Low vocabulary levels hinder the ability to develop adequate reading comprehension and writing skills (Francis, et al., 2006, p. 14).

Recommended Interventions for ELL students

• Explicit, early, and intensive phonological awareness and phonics to build decoding skills.
• ELL students demonstrating difficulty in the acquisition of these abilities require Tier 2-3 interventions and delaying intervention until the students gain proficiency in English is discouraged
• Increase instruction and opportunities to develop sophisticated vocabulary knowledge.
• An area that remains neglected in most classrooms
• Explicit teaching of individual words as well as teaching word-learning strategies
• Strategies to comprehend and analyze challenging text as many ELL students read passively, without effective monitoring/strategy use, a process, which is narrow in focus and hindering.
• Focus on process rather than products of comprehension
• Explicit and direct instruction
• Strategies to promote fluency, focusing on vocabulary

Repeated reading to include:
                                                               i.      Oral reading
                                                               ii.      Corrective feedback
                                                               iii.      Discussion and questioning
                                                               iv.      Exposure to print
                                                                v.      Engagement and motivation
Engagement in structured, academic talk
Language learning depends on practice, particularly in academic settings
Structured opportunities for language practice in educational settings with supports is more important than in informal settings (Francis, et al., 2006), p. 27).
Independent reading with structure, goals, careful text selection with purpose, direction, immediate corrective feedback, and an avoidance of self-directed, self-chosen, independent reading programs without direct involvement by an educator.
Must be a match between reading ability an text characteristics (90% accuracy)
Ratio of known to unknown words that support vocabulary development
Relationship between text for ‘independent’ reading and that of material covered in class
Follow up activity with discussion, strategies, and review for comprehension
Shared understanding of purpose or goal that guides each session.  (Francis, 2006, p. 30)