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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators worldwide have faced unprecedented challenges in ensuring students receive quality education. Among those most affected are English as a Second Language (ESL) students in middle and high schools. For these students, who may already be grappling with language barriers and cultural adjustments, the disruptions caused by the pandemic have exacerbated existing educational disparities. One critical area that demands attention is remedial reading instruction. In this blog post, we'll delve into why remedial reading instruction is indispensable for ESL students with educational gaps or learning loss (also known as SLIFE students), offering insights into its importance and potential benefits.
The Challenge of Educational Gaps: ESL students often face unique challenges in the classroom, including language barriers, cultural differences, and varying educational backgrounds. Many ESL students arrive with educational gaps, either due to interrupted schooling in their home countries, limited access to resources, or the complexities of learning a new language. The pandemic has only widened these gaps, with school closures, remote learning, and disrupted routines leading to significant learning loss for many students, especially those from marginalized communities.
Remedial reading instruction plays a pivotal role in addressing the educational needs of ESL students with gaps in their learning. Here's why it's so crucial:
Building Foundational Skills: Remedial reading programs focus on strengthening fundamental reading skills such as phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. For ESL students with limited English proficiency, these foundational skills are essential for academic success across all subjects. Additionally, research shows that literacy skills in one language, boost the literacy level in any other languages. Even though the sounds and words may not be the same, the top-down processing of words and the understanding of the building blocks of language DO transfer over to other languages.
Filling Knowledge Gaps: Many ESL students have missed key concepts and academic content due to interrupted schooling or learning disruptions. Remedial reading instruction provides targeted interventions to address these gaps, ensuring students have the prerequisite knowledge needed to progress academically.
Now, this is easier said than done, as most U.S. schools do not have multilingual reading interventionists. I've been in several school that had NO reading interventionists at ALL at the secondary level. Therefore, this job often falls to......the ESL teacher!
Accelerating Language Acquisition: Reading is a gateway to language acquisition, allowing students to expand their vocabulary, improve grammar, and develop language proficiency. By providing ESL students with tailored reading instruction, educators can accelerate their language development and facilitate their integration into mainstream academic settings.
Strategies for Effective Remedial Reading Instruction: to maximize the impact of remedial reading instruction for ESL students, educators can implement the following strategies:
Multimodal Approaches: when I teach students a new letter blend, for example, I tell them to watch my mouth. First they watch and listen. Then, we practice together. Finally, they practice to each other. This often induces lots of giggles and lowers stress, because we are all sitting around making what seems like random noises!
The next thing I do is add on a vocabulary word to the letter blend to help them remember. For instance, I do a phone motion with my hand when we practice the -ph sound. Another example is the -sn blend; for this combo we snap our fingers. Engaging the body and adding motion to sound is an excellent, research-backed way to improve retention and vocabulary acquisition, not to mention boost reading skills.
In terms of actually designing my reading worksheets, I do include pictures because many of the words are brand new to Newcomer ESL students. However, I choose basic clipart or even real photographs. I do not opt for the cutesy, little kid themed images. See picture to right for an example of what I mean.
**I recommend that you be careful when selecting the type of resources you plan to use. Students in middle and high school do not want to use worksheets that are for kindergarteners. Even if that is the reading level they are at, the stigma they will feel from the little-kid look of such worksheets will often shut down any learning opportunities.
To get around this, I make my own worksheets that are not overwhelming, but have an older look to them. See the pictures included in this post for examples. They are simple and clear, but don't have huge letters and little kid clipart.
Infuse Academic Content: It may sound impossible: teach the ESL Newcomers about Photosynthesis...in English! How on Earth do we teach academic content and vocabulary to beginners who are just entering the country? It may take some careful and creative planning on your part, but it IS possible! I promise! Take a look at how I did this for my Newcomers last year when they were really struggling with a lesson on plant life in their Science class.
As you can see from the photosynthesis worksheets, there is always an introduction to key terms and writing practice (tracing the words). This may seem silly, but it's crucial for struggling readers to physically write the words. Additionally, the worksheets are highly pictorial and use carefully selected clipart. I prefer clipart for this type of concept because it is more "instructional" (for the time being) than a real photograph of a plant. Finally, the key stages of the scientific process,
in this case photosynthesis, are broken down using arrows. Notice that for this stage, I used the exact same pictures as the key vocabulary words above.
After going through these worksheets together, I would then have students practice reading aloud simple sentences such as "Plants are green. Plants are good. Plants need sun. Plants need water."
If they master this, I might up the level a bit with sentences like "The sun gives light. Plants make clean air." It depends on where they are in their reading level.
Ongoing Assessment and Monitoring: if you're a public school teacher, you probably know all about SGO (Student Growth Objectives). While these are usually an annoyance due to all the other tasks teachers have on their plates, they are useful for tracking growth. You can do your own, low-stakes type of SGOs weekly with your Newcomers with reading passages. How? Well, on Monday, have them try to read a simple and short passage with the phonics blends/sounds that you are going to teach and practice that week. Count how many words are in the passage ahead of time. Then, as the student reads aloud to you, put a tally mark on a notepad for every word they mispronounce or cannot sound out at all. Do the same thing on Friday and retest. No need to "grade" but you could show the student his/her progress at the end of the week.
This is a great confidence booster activity as well! When students are explicity shown their academic growth, they can't help but feel good about themselves!
Conclusion: Remedial reading instruction holds immense promise for ESL students grappling with educational gaps or learning loss, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. By prioritizing remedial reading programs and implementing evidence-based instructional practices, educators can empower ESL students to overcome academic challenges, unlock their full potential, and embark on a path to success in school and beyond. Investing in the literacy development of ESL learners isn't just an educational imperative; it's a moral imperative that underscores our commitment to equity, inclusion, and the promise of education for all.
Looking for ESL reading resources? Check out my GROWING Google Drive folder of phonics-focused readings with picture supports to boost language proficiency.
Did you find this post useful? Perhaps you might like to read a similar article about using modified novels for ESL students in the Language Arts classroom.
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