Children's Books- Increasing ELL Schema

While reading books to/with ELL students, it is crucial for the teacher to determine what components of the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects and also to find ways to introduce or teach this schema to the ELL students to increase their understanding. Below I have identified possible challenges for ELL students while reading two books, Snowmen at Night and Martin's Big Words, and also ways to increase schema and understanding with each book.

Snowmen at Night, by Caralyn Buehner

Snowmen at Night details a boy’s theory of why his snowman looks different from one day to the next. He shares the activities the snowmen might be doing at night when they come alive and meet up with their friends, including drinking cocoa, play baseball and having snowman races.  The following factors may influence student comprehension of the story…

1)      Depending on where the students are from and where they have traveled in the world, they may have little or no experience with snow or snowmen.

2)      There may be unfamiliar vocabulary in Snowmen at Night, such as “cocoa,” “anxious,” and “sledding.”

3)      Understanding the humor in the story, like when the snowmen drink “ice-cold cocoa.”

4)      Students may not comprehend that the entire story is a boy’s theory of what happened to his snowmen, as a theory is very abstract idea to comprehend.

To increase student understanding, the teacher could have students share what they know about snow and what questions they have about snow with their peers. Engaging in a discussion would give students familiar with snow the opportunity to share their knowledge with students who are unfamiliar with snow.  The teacher may also consider using gestures to model how people can roll snow into giant snowballs and then stack them to create a snowman. This nonlinguistic representation may help students to better understand what a snowman is and how snowmen are made. The teacher could also preview the vocabulary with the students using pictures of each of the words that will be found in the story. When the teacher reads the word that was previewed in context, he/she could emphasize the word and check for understanding of the meaning of the word again.

Martin’s Big Words, by Dorreen Rappaport

This book is a narrative story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s influential life. It details his experiences as a child and the many ways that he changed America, and the world, forever for the better.  Martin’s Big Words also has phenomenal illustrations that will appeal to ELL students (and all other readers) by acclaimed illustrator Bryan Collier. Some challenges that English Language Learners may have comprehending this story are detailed below.

1)      Figurative Language, like “his big words are alive for us today,” can be confusing and difficult for ELL students to understand.

2)      Students who are not from the United States may not have background knowledge on the slavery, segregation and eventually the Civil Rights Movement that occurred in the U.S.

3)      Unknown vocabulary, like arrest, freedom, hate or jailed, could limit comprehension.

4)      Students may find making the connections between Martin Luther King Jr. and other historical figures in the story, like Rosa Parks.

To increase student schema, the teacher may consider doing a vocabulary activity prior to reading the book. Students could illustrate key vocabulary words with teacher guidance and then practice explaining their illustrations to their peers verbally.  The teacher could also have pages of the book marked, that show “Whites Only” signs and other images of segregation to pre-teach these key concepts prior to reading. When a key concept like segregation is taught in advance, the teacher can refer to the concept and prior discussion throughout the book to increase student understanding.