What It Means by Good Comprehension Instruction Takes Place Before, During, and After Reading
Effective or good comprehension instruction means helping students or learners become metacognitive, strategic, and independent readers who can develop, utilize, and control various comprehension strategies to ensure they understand what they read. This objective is achieved through robust comprehension instructions, which must commence as soon as learners start to read. In this case, the comprehension instructions must be persistent, intensive, and explicit (Stanberry & Swanson, 2022). Additionally, they must assist leaders in becoming aware of the need for text organization and motivating students to read widely. What it means that good comprehension instruction takes place before reading is that pre-reading strategies are introduced to boost the children’s reading comprehension.
Some pre-reading strategies include assisting the child with the necessary guidance, structure, and background knowledge before exploring new learning materials. What it means that good comprehension instruction takes place during reading is that some strategies are used to help learners become more proficient in class. Some strategies include answering questions about the text and summarizing what is read (Lesaux, 2019). What it means that good comprehension instruction takes place after reading is that the learners reread selectively and reflect on the material they have just covered. In addition, after reading, the students think about what the information they have covered may be applied in the future and summarize everything they have done in class.
Examples of Academic Language that Students Need to Know
The students need to know an academic language characterized by the structure and words used in schooling. Academic language is as relevant as other parameters crucial in teaching students, such as comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and decoding. Although it is not a strong predictor of academic achievement, it is a relevant part of what is taught in schools. The academic language in grades 4-6 enables classroom learners to participate fully in the given assignments and activities. In essence, academic language plays a pivotal role in the student success of all ELLs (Stanberry & Swanson, 2022). Although someone might be fluent in English, he may be deficient in academic language, which might create challenges in learning. In this case, the student might struggle in their academic assignments compared to normal learners. Most students, including ELLs, might have challenges mastering the academic language required to succeed in school. This situation happens when such learners have never been taught how to use English. For example, those students who have been in the US all their life often have challenges in how use the language because they have not yet mastered it.
Describing Some Specific Effective Strategies to Help ELLs Students
Some of the effective strategies that help ELLs students include using television and computers and encouraging the use of oral language. ELLs can use TV sets and computers to enhance their language skills to learn vocabulary. Such programs are proven supplements that assist English learners in improving their reading and language skills. Computer programs are very instrumental in language comprehension to assist learners in proficiency. The programs effectively help learners work independently without a standby instructor (Lesaux, 2019). Therefore, they can learn valuable vocabulary without the assistance of anyone. Some of the things they can learn using TV sets include writing, reading, syntax, and English.
Encouraging oral language is also a good way for ELLs to learn. ELLs will not learn English from their peers or parents but from the teachers because they spend most of their learning time with them. Therefore, the teacher can offer the best assistance to the learners by promoting the use of oral language (Stanberry & Swanson, 2022). The teacher should ensure that the students know the commonly used instructional words, such as describing, following instructions, and highlighting verbs. Teachers can also develop the learners’ writing skills to make them more proficient and provide more opportunities for interaction in the classroom environment.
Creating a Graphic Organizer That Could Be Used in a Class
The graphic organizer chart that would be the best to use is KWL (What I Know, What I Want to Know, and What I Learned). The KWL chart is critical because it tracks what a learner knows, has learned, and wants to know about a particular topic. The chart helps because learners can prepare to research a specific topic and apply it to track information (Lesaux, 2019). The methodology will assist learners in authenticating what they know about a specific topic and encourage them to think about how to proceed with their research.
KWL Chart
Figure 1.1 shows a KWL chart
Methods that Might Be Used to Review Difficult Vocabulary
Some methods to review challenges in vocabulary or concepts with ELLs include labeling objects, wording walls, bonuses, weekly charts, and vocabulary games, among others. Students will improve their vocabulary comprehension strategies if the new lesson applies these methods. For example, vocabulary games will assist a great deal in helping the students speak and comprehend English vocabulary (Lesaux, 2019). The games in the classrooms include Go Fish and Vocab Land. Although the games are meant to assist students in speaking and comprehending complex vocabulary, they also help to make it colorful and fun. The learners can play and replay the games and get bonus points when using vocabulary. Weekly charts are also good because they encourage the application of new words, which are filled in a sheet to help the learners remember.
References
Lesaux, N. (2019). Reading to Learn: English Language Learners in Grades 4-6 [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Stanberry, K. & Swanson, L. (2022). Effective Reading Interventions for Kids with Learning Disabilities. WETA Public Broadcasting. Web.