ch 3-8

The use of read-alouds in a class of English learners is a great idea! In addition to the benefits stated in Chapter 4 of Ladybugs,Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies by Brad Buhrow and Anne Upczak Garcia; read-alouds appeal to many learners because it includes using different things at the same time. For example, when a student learning English reads a paragraph, they are looking at the words on the page, saying the words verbally, and hearing the sounds of the words while also seeing pictures that relate to the words.

A downfall to read-alouds is embarrassment for the student reading, inflicted by himself or herself, or by his or her peers. I know that public speaking (and reading) can create a high stress environment, which is harmful to students’ learning. However, one way that we can avoid anxiety in the classroom is to assign the given text to read and analyze individually before asking them to read-aloud to the class. Another way to evade embarrassment is to ask for volunteers so that only the students that feel comfortable on a ‘platform’ can choose to read for the class. Obviously, the other students are neglected the benefits that comes with read-alouds. So, in my future classroom, I will let the students know what passages will be read when so that they can study the texts before the read-aloud in class.

On page 63, I came across a technique that I may even try for myself. Finding captions and connecting them to their image. This increases vocabulary in any language, so it is an excellent tool to use when teaching or learning a new language. Of course, there are many ways to use nonfiction in the classroom, and I will add this one to the list. Students find a nonfiction book of their own interest, select a caption, write the word that’s in the caption, and look at the picture it points to, and repeat. This activity might be considered a little dry, but it seems more interesting to me than a traditional vocabulary lesson. The difference is the selection of the nonfiction book: it must be chosen by the student for his or her own enjoyment.

Finally, the comprehension strategies explained later in the chapter are familiar to me.  In a previous class, we spent many classes discussing questioning, schema, making connections, sensory images, inference, determining importance, and synthesizing texts. After working extensively with these techniques, I conclude that they are effective strategies to improve comprehension skills.