I love reading Stephen King and had access to a copy of Cujo in Spanish. Needless to say my assumption that I would be able to translate the text because I knew the story was definitely in error. I was truly frustrated at how powerless I felt while staring at the text that made no sense to me.
I decided to scale back to a smaller portion of the text and apply the reading strategies to that small section. The first thing I attempted to do was to apply my background knowledge to the portion of the text I chose. Using my previous knowledge of English and French as well as my previous knowledge of the plot of the text (from viewing the movie) I was able to locate and decode words that I was able to translate. However, in isolation, they were not really a key to understanding the text. But, initially I felt some sense of accomplishment for having decoded the previously unknown words.
The text did not have any pictures that I could refer to that would provide me with some visual clues for decoding. I therefore moved to sounding out the words. Because I am more than proficient in my native language I was able to accurately articulate some of the text, but being able to do so did not provide me with meaning for the words I was able to say.
My frustration level was extremely high at the moment so I walked away from the text for a few moments. In doing so I had this incredible moment of clarity as I realized the feelings that I was experiencing were very much like the ones an ELL student feels when tackling a text in English. Certainly because they are proficient in their native tongue does not mean that they will be able to translate a text given in English in the classroom. Keeping that in mind I returned to the text.
While continuing to work with the small section of the text I had chosen I decided to try and ask questions about what I was trying to read in Spanish. I wrote down a couple I had and tried to go through the text and answer the questions I had written down. Picking out key words that I could translate easily I answered one of the questions but not the other. I finally decided to get a Spanish/English dictionary to help with the process and was able to make some meaning. However, even though the section I had chosen made sense and I was able to retell and summarize, the process was extremely time consuming. How can I make the process easier for my students? If I felt this frustrated with reading a text that I had some background knowledge about, how do my students feel when attacking a new text in class?
Definitely, I need to front load the reading by providing vocabulary and tools that will help them when they get stuck (i.e., dictionaries, thesaurus, etc.) I also need to provide pictures to help with vocabulary and texts that are at an appropriate level for my ELLS that provides the information they need at a level they can comprehend.
THIS WAS HARD!!!
The text did not have any pictures that I could refer to that would provide me with some visual clues for decoding. I therefore moved to sounding out the words. Because I am more than proficient in my native language I was able to accurately articulate some of the text, but being able to do so did not provide me with meaning for the words I was able to say.
My frustration level was extremely high at the moment so I walked away from the text for a few moments. In doing so I had this incredible moment of clarity as I realized the feelings that I was experiencing were very much like the ones an ELL student feels when tackling a text in English. Certainly because they are proficient in their native tongue does not mean that they will be able to translate a text given in English in the classroom. Keeping that in mind I returned to the text.
While continuing to work with the small section of the text I had chosen I decided to try and ask questions about what I was trying to read in Spanish. I wrote down a couple I had and tried to go through the text and answer the questions I had written down. Picking out key words that I could translate easily I answered one of the questions but not the other. I finally decided to get a Spanish/English dictionary to help with the process and was able to make some meaning. However, even though the section I had chosen made sense and I was able to retell and summarize, the process was extremely time consuming. How can I make the process easier for my students? If I felt this frustrated with reading a text that I had some background knowledge about, how do my students feel when attacking a new text in class?
Definitely, I need to front load the reading by providing vocabulary and tools that will help them when they get stuck (i.e., dictionaries, thesaurus, etc.) I also need to provide pictures to help with vocabulary and texts that are at an appropriate level for my ELLS that provides the information they need at a level they can comprehend.
THIS WAS HARD!!!
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