What to Know in ELLs Classroom to Effectively Teach Reading

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Chapter 8
A tutor needs to know the background of their students, the approaches, ad strategies to employ to teach ELLs. Also, an educator of ELLs needs to understand how to develop literacy development and the tools and approaches to use. Literacy is a process that involves all modes of language, listening, speaking, and reading, while the students can convey their written texts. There are different levels of literacy, and every level requires special tools and approaches. These levels include emergent literacy, early literacy, early fluency, and fluency. There are different approaches through which ELLs learn; the Top-Down approach and bottom-up are commonly used for literacy development. The top-down approach ensures ELLs develop meaning from vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and fluency. This ensures that students slowly develop meaning from the surroundings and things they can relate to the fluency level.
Further, the bottom-up model involves students understanding languages by gaining individual meaning or grammatical characteristics from basic units such as text sounds and movement to try and understand the context. Therefore, an educator should know that different English learners require a different set of instructions and organizational structures for the ELLs to be effective. Also, understanding the characteristics of each proficiency level helps an educator to make decisions on the approach to which and the strategies best for the learners (Levine & McCloskey, 2012).
Further, information about ELLs students helps an educator to learn about their culture, native first language, and culture. This helps the educator on how to handle a student and the best approaches to use to make learning effective. An educator can gather information from students themselves, from the parents, home language survey, siblings, or students' records. Also, an educator can conduct a home visit to understand the real origin of the students. For instance, a student may be born in Russia but the parents are Ukranian and their historical context and traditions are Ukranian. Therefore, conducting a home visit can be effective in ensuring an educator gets in-depth information about particular ELL students.
Levine and MacCloskey discuss different strategies an educator can employ at given literacy levels ( 2012). First, they recommend an educator choose texts relatable to the students and ask them to say them aloud. This can include the use of rhythm, rhyme, or even poems. Also, they recommend illustrations as it easily comprehended by all students. This means that including all the senses of a student can make comprehension easier and improve literacy. Also, before reading, an educator can ask students to recite previous readings to evoke their memories. Also, motivating them and encouraging them making them understand the purpose of the day's reading will ease the lessons.
During the reading, a teacher can reinforce key comprehension skills, gradually release responsibilities, and share reading to enhance the day's lesson. After the reading, an educator can ask questions as the students respond orally. This will measure their lev...