As reading resource teachers at Bailey's Elementary School in Virginia, we experience daily the power of attentive listening in guiding English language learners to reading success. Listening to a student read—and learning from careful observation about that student's reading struggles and strengths—often yields more clues about ability than formal language assessments do.
Recently, we observed a student named Danny reading The Boy Who Cried Wolf aloud to our fellow reading specialist Pat Johnson. Danny, a 4th grader with brown eyes and a distinctively raspy voice, has been at Bailey's since 1st grade. Danny is still mastering English. Oral communication is his strength, and he has been making steady progress in reading and writing, although he still reads slightly below grade level.
Danny read this story well, slowing down or rereading when he needed to take a closer look, and making only a few miscues. When he reached the sentence “they heard the boy's cries,” Danny read, “they heard the boy's cries? calls?”
At this point, Danny stopped and looked up at Pat, who waited a moment before she said, “You're not sure? All the people heard his yelling, didn't they? They heard his cries. That means they heard him calling out about the wolf.” Danny nodded. “You read it right the first time, Danny, it says cries. That's a different way to use that word than you may have heard before, though,” Pat went on. She covered up the word cries with her thumb and pointed to where she wanted Danny to begin rereading. “Why don't you read this part again and think of a word that makes sense to you here?”
Danny read, “they heard the boy's . . . screams?”
“Good job. Cries means the same thing as screams in this sentence,” Pat told Danny, affirming his success with the strategy she had shown him.
When and How to Intervene
When listening to an English language learner read, teachers need to try to determine why a student made a particular error or slowed down at a certain part so that they can decide how to best instruct that reader. We were impressed with Pat's responses to Danny because she sensed that Danny's confusion centered on meaning rather than on decoding the word—and she took the time to make sure her guess was correct. Our immediate thought was that Danny was confused with the visual information and needed to look more closely at the beginning letters of cries. Had Pat prompted him to “check the first two letters,” he probably would have read the word correctly again, but he still may not have understood the phrase.
Instead, Pat responded to his appeal for help by focusing on the meaning of the phrase. This was especially important because that particular phrase is crucial to understanding the story. Danny probably only knew the word cries as a verb and had never heard it used as a noun. Because this was a new language structure for him, Danny had no way to confirm for himself that he was right. Pat taught him a strategy for guessing at meaning by substituting words that make sense in the story's context. The next time Danny isn't quite sure what a word or phrase means, he can try asking himself, “What word would make sense here?”
It is often easy to notice the errors that a student learning English makes when reading, but it can be difficult to decide when to intervene. It helps to listen carefully to the reader's pacing and intonation—and to consider how essential a missed word is to understanding the entire piece before you jump in. Previously in the story, for instance, Danny had mispronounced the word grazed as grassed (“the sheep grassed in the field”). Pat decided not to intervene at that moment because Danny's reading was so fluent and his substitution made sense contextually and visually—in fact, it was quite a poetic substitution! Pronouncing grazed correctly wasn't essential to Danny's understanding of the story, so Pat made a note of it but let it go for the moment.
After Danny cleared up his confusion on cries and read a few more paragraphs, Pat decided that Danny could continue reading on his own. First, she explicitly repeated the strategy for trying to deduce a word's meaning and gave Danny an opportunity to try the strategy out with the word grazed: “Remember when I covered up this word and you thought about what it could mean? That's something you might do when you're reading that can help you learn a new word. Up here you read this sentence so well, and this is a new word for you, isn't it [points to grazed]? Were you thinking what it might mean?”
“They stood there, in the grass.”
“That's close and makes a lot of sense! It means they nibbled on the grass, they ate it every now and then. They grazed. When you're reading and you aren't sure of a word or a phrase, you can think, ‘What might this mean?’ If the story still makes sense with that meaning, keep reading.”
Pat wisely taught Danny only one strategy during this reading conference, and she did so very explicitly. The strategy she chose to focus on met a key criterion: It will help the reader in many subsequent reading experiences. Teaching Danny how to maintain meaning while reading unknown words will serve him well as he reads many texts, whereas telling him how to correctly pronounce grazed would only help him with a limited number of texts.
Because Pat had extensive experience reading with Danny, she was savvy about what he might find difficult. Teachers need to know each student they teach—his or her interests, experiences, and current skill level in English. The more experiences teachers have listening to an individual student's English, the easier it will be to recognize potential challenges or confusions as that student reads. Students who are less fluent in English than Danny may be more difficult to understand right away; sometimes it takes time and multiple conversations to learn how to communicate together.
Understand First, Then Teach
English language learners go through much of their school day striving to understand the English spoken around them—from their peers' chats at lunch to their teacher's explanation of how to set up a science experiment. Teachers need to meet English learners halfway, and do our best to understand what a student is trying to say before we dive in headfirst with a teaching point. Sometimes we assume we know a student's intended meaning (or even assume that he or she is confused) and continue teaching without checking to see whether our interpretation is correct. Negotiating meaning takes a lot of patience and humility on the part of both student and teacher. Our goal should be genuine two-way communication with English language learners.
A Cow by Any Other Name
A recent interaction between Kathleen and a 3rd grader at Bailey's named Ibrahim highlights how crucial it is to be flexible and persistent in our attempts to understand English language learners. Ibrahim came to Bailey's from Pakistan in the middle of 2nd grade. Outgoing, inquisitive, and talkative, Ibrahim had made great reading progress during 3rd grade, but he still read below grade level. Kathleen was showing Ibrahim Cynthia Rylant's book Henry and Mudge Get the Cold Shivers, part of a series about the adventures of a boy and his dog Mudge.Kathleen: Have you read any Henry and Mudge books before?Ibrahim: I read another one of him.Kathleen: Good. OK, so let me tell you a little bit about this Henry and Mudge book. You know that Henry and Mudge are friends, and that they live together in the same house?[Before she could go further, Ibrahim stopped her.]Ibrahim: I have a question. Mudge is the . . . in my country we call the Mudge, no moo, what is the moo, the cow? Cow. Yeah. Do you call the Mudge, cow?Kathleen [pointing to the picture of the dog on the cover]: You're wondering if this is a cow?Ibrahim: Yeah.Kathleen: This is a dog. But you know what, Ibrahim, he's such a big dog he looks a little bit like a cow, doesn't he? Is that what you were thinking?Ibrahim: Yeah.Kathleen: Do you want to know how I know he's a dog? We can find clues. His tail. . . .Ibrahim [pointing to Mudge's claws]: Yeah. And that. . . .Kathleen: Right. His claws are like a dog's claws. This right here around his neck, have you ever seen that? This is called his collar. And you know what else? This is a big clue, look what it says right here.Ibrahim [reading aloud the first sentence of the book]: Henry's big dog Mudge [he giggles].Kathleen: It says he's a dog on that first page, doesn't it?[Kathleen and Ibrahim briefly discussed a Henry and Mudge book that Ibrahim had read previously. Ibrahim seemed to have understood that Mudge was a dog in that story.]Kathleen: How come you were thinking Mudge was a cow in this book?Ibrahim [clearly annoyed that she has him all wrong]: Nooo! I was asking you a question 'cause I'm telling you that in my country we say Mudge, a cow. So I get messed up. That's why I ask.Kathleen: Because of the word Mudge, or because of what he looks like?Ibrahim: Word Mudge.Kathleen: Oh, now I understand! How do you say cow in your country?Ibrahim: Mudge.Kathleen: Are you serious? Wow! See, that is how smart you are! You knew he wasn't a cow, but you were wondering why they called him that. I wonder if that's why Cynthia Rylant decided to name this dog Mudge.
Kathleen could have pressed ahead with her book introduction and had Ibrahim read the story. Instead, she set aside her initial plan so that she could explore his question and give him the opportunity to clarify it. Kathleen's extended conversation with Ibrahim helped her see his ability to understand complex ideas; she can now plan appropriate lessons for him.
During a later conversation about Ibrahim's research on the rain forest, he told Kathleen he wanted to figure out whether there were any dogs left in the rain forest because “all the people has the dogs.” Again, Kathleen probed and discovered a sophisticated concept lingering in Ibrahim's mind: He was trying to get a handle on how animals like dogs become domesticated, and whether there are any wild dogs left in uninhabited regions like the rain forest.
A Nontrivial Pursuit
Ibrahim's comments show his ability to discuss texts on a deeper level. The Henry and Mudge books have simple storylines, yet Ibrahim also considers the author's intent and writing style—a sophisticated thought process for a 3rd grader. His independent reading level is below grade level, but his ability to think about texts appears to be advanced. It is also interesting that Ibrahim's knowledge of two languages enriches his understanding of the world, leading to his discussion with Kathleen on the subtle craft of using proper names to identify character traits.
Kathleen's conversations with Ibrahim illustrate the benefit of listening and taking time to help English language learners pursue their thoughts. Because she did not cut Ibrahim short, he was able to express more sophisticated thinking, and Kathleen was able to introduce the idea of an author's intentions.
It is important to make time for this kind of pursuit. Authentic conversations with English language learners provide opportunities for teachers to clear up confusions, to teach strategies in meaningful contexts, to gauge comprehension, and to build a rapport with students. Not only does each interaction improve a student's English, but the extra time also pays off in insights that lead to more meaningful reading instruction.
