Annotated Bibliography

It is fascinating how culture affects everything that people do and especially the way they perceive things. Reading in a different language then one’s native language is very difficult, especially if one does not know the background or have the cultural knowledge required to understand the text properly. A good example of this includes social studies in U.S. schools. Social studies is one of the most difficult subjects to teach ELLs (English Language Learners) because of all the background and cultural knowledge that one must already know to even understand basic historical concepts. The English literature is also full of passages that require one to understand the culture before they can even begin to make sense of the passage. Through this multi-genre project the cultural problems and difficulties that nonnative speakers of English have when confronted with English texts will be shown and some strategies that ELLs can use to navigate through culturally embedded texts will be introduced through the means of various genres.

It was long thought that reading in a second language was simply a slower version of reading in the first language, but recently many more factors that include the culture, language and educational backgrounds of the readers have been shown to influence the second language reading process (Singhai, 1998). Specifically, cultural knowledge appears to play one of the largest roles in reading comprehension and the entire second language literacy process (Hyland, 2004; Kucer, 2001; Singhai, 1998; Pritchard, 1990; Bell, 1995; ; Johnson, 1981; Steffensen, Dev, and Anderson, 1979).

The ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher should strive to learn as much about their students’ language and cultural background, as well as trying to find as much information as possible pertaining to their students’ views of literacy in their first language (Singhai, 1998). Reading strategies taught to the students in the classroom and used by the teacher in order to help ELLs comprehend reading are essential in any ESL classroom. The ESL teacher should also understand the emotional state of their students as the students struggle to learn to read and write in their second language and how their students’ cultural views about literacy may affect the second language learning process (Bell, 1995).

Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

This book mostly deals with the structure of writing and how one from a different culture can learn to figure out what kind of genre is being dealt with and, therefore, read it effectively based on their prior knowledge and the type of genre or writing being presented. The book does touch on culture and schema a little bit and I believe it to be a good source for this project.

Johnson, P. (1981). Effects on reading comprehension of language complexity and cultural background of a text. TESL Quarterly, 15, 169-181. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from JSTOR database.

This study involves Americans and Iranian ESL students reading texts that contain both stories from American folklore and Iranian folklore. The study found that the Iranians comprehended their folklore to a greater degree than the American folklore and the same was true for the American students. The study clearly shows the cultural differences and problems with reading in the L2 and only give a few broad strategies for how learners can overcome these problems.

Kucer, S. (2001). Dimensions of literacy: A conceptual base for teaching reading and writing in school settings. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

This is a wonderful book that deals with the teaching of reading and writing across cultures. It also has a lot of good information on the structure of our writing system and deals with the sociocultural dimensions f literacy in great detail.

Pritchard, R. (1990). The effects of cultural schemata on reading processing strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 273-295. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from JSTOR database.

In this article the author examines participants’ reading comprehension using texts that are written in their native language, but are about culturally different funerals. It reinforces the fact that readers that can relate to the material culturally will comprehend more than if they cannot. This article also lists the different strategies used by readers when dealing with materials that are from a different culture.

Singhal, M. (1998). A comparison of L1 and L2 reading: Cultural differences and schema. The Internet TESL Journal, 4. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from www.iteslj.org

This paper offers a very good overview on the role of culture in L2 reading and offers very good strategies that L2 readers can employ to discover the meaning of a text. This paper also quotes several case studies that specifically study culture’s role in L2 reading.

Sinclair Bell, J. (1995). The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicated factors. TESL Quarterly 29, 687-704. Retrieved September 18, 2007, from JSTOR database.

This article addresses the preconceived cultural notions one brings into learning to read in a different language. This article does not give insight into the cultural differences in meaning or how an ESL learner can use certain strategies to find cultural meaning, but it does give insight into the emotional state of our ELLs and what they may go through in learning to read in the L2.

Steffensen, M.O., Joag-Dev, C., & Anderson, R. (1979). A cross-cultural perspective on reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 10-29. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from JSTOR database.

This is a very detailed article that lends to the theory that cultural background does indeed affect reading comprehension in a variety of different ways. The article doe not talk about reading strategies, but does discuss some of the most difficult problems in cross-cultural reading and makes the claim that this could be a reason why so many minority students in the U.S. struggle with reading comprehension.

Multi-Genre Project Paper

It is fascinating how culture affects everything that people do and especially the way they perceive things.  Reading in a different language then one’s native language is very difficult, especially if one does not know the background or have the cultural knowledge required to understand the text properly.  A good example of this includes social studies in U.S. schools. Social studies is one of the most difficult subjects to teach ELLs (English Language Learners) because of all the background and cultural knowledge that one must already know to even understand basic historical concepts.  The English literature is also full of passages that require one to understand the culture before they can even begin to make sense of the passage.  Through this multi-genre project the cultural problems and difficulties that nonnative speakers of English have when confronted with English texts will be shown and some strategies that ELLs can use to navigate through culturally embedded texts will be introduced through the means of various genres.

 

It was long thought that reading in a second language was simply a slower version of reading in the first language, but recently many more factors that include the culture, language and educational backgrounds of the readers have been shown to influence the second language reading process (Singhai, 1998).  Specifically, cultural knowledge appears to play one of the largest roles in reading comprehension and the entire second language literacy process (Hyland, 2004; Kucer, 2001; Singhai, 1998; Pritchard, 1990; Bell, 1995; ; Johnson, 1981; Steffensen, Dev, and Anderson, 1979).

The ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher should strive to learn as much about their students’ language and cultural background, as well as trying to find as much information as possible pertaining to their students’ views of literacy in their first language (Singhai, 1998). Reading strategies taught to the students in the classroom and used by the teacher in order to help ELLs comprehend reading are essential in any ESL classroom.  The ESL teacher should also understand the emotional state of their students as the students struggle to learn to read and write in their second language and how their students’ cultural views about literacy may affect the second language learning process (Bell, 1995).

 

There are many strategies that ELLs can use in order to overcome or assist themselves in the second language reading process and all ESL teachers should be aware of these strategies in order to assist their students in reading texts that may be difficult due to culturally specific language.  Singhai (1998, p.6) outlines several strategies that second language readers can use to assist themselves in overcoming their own lack of cultural knowledge.  The strategies suggested include:

- Overview the text

- Look for context clues, such as titles, subheadings and diagrams

- Attempt to relate important points in the text to one another (important points might include

   high-lighted words, titles or subheadings)

- Try to use prior knowledge to interpret the text (prior knowledge would include things talked   

   about in class or movies)

- Attempt to discover the meaning of words, first by context and then by dictionary

- List the main ideas of the text on a piece of paper

- Rent or barrow a movie that is related to the text

 

The genre related to Singhai’s reading strategies is a letter from an ESL teacher to a parent of a student who is having difficulty with the reading process.  In the letter the teacher outlines the different strategies that can be used by the student and encourages the parent to assist the student in developing these reading strategies.  The strategies are very practical and most ELLs would be able to use the strategies with some assistance.  Involving the parent in the learning process seemed to be an appropriate way of expressing this genre.

 

In a study done by Pritchard (1990) it was found that readers engaged in culturally unfamiliar texts used a variety of strategies.  These strategies included developing awareness, accepting ambiguity and establishing intrasentential ties.  Developing awareness is simply the reader being aware of their reading progress and aware of the problems that they may be having while comprehending the text.  Accepting ambiguity is an extension of developing awareness where the reader notes that there is no comprehension of a particular portion of the text and continues to read with the notion that comprehension may come later on in relation to a part of the text that has not been read.  The last strategy, according to Pritchard (1990), is establishing intrasentential ties.  There are two processes involved in establishing intrasentential ties.  The first is when the reader tries to develop an understanding of a sentence they are reading without using background knowledge or relating it to any other part of the text.  The second is when the reader tries to make connections between a sentence and the other portions of the passage being read.  The ESL teacher should be aware of the second language reading tendencies studied by Pritchard and assist their students in developing their own mental reading processes.

 

The genre related to this research is a reading strategies graph that clearly shows the reading strategies employed by American students when reading both culturally familiar and unfamiliar texts.  Pritchard’s study does not emphasize any particular strategy that should be used by second language readers.  The goal of Pritchard’s study is to inform people about the different strategies employed.  A bar graph illustrating the research seems to be an applicable genre, making the findings a little easier to understand.

 

Spack (1993) outlines a teaching method that can assist ELLs in both their reading and writing simultaneously. Spack’s method includes first drawing from the ELLs’ personal experience related to the text by asking questions and having the students write in a journal about the subject to be addressed in the reading. The students are then to annotate the text, write an entry in a reading journal, summarize the reading, discuss the reading, analyze the writing assignment and then finally draft the writing assignment. This information is very helpful to the ESL teacher who seeks to help build a base of background knowledge for material that might be culturally difficult to understand.

 

The genre related to this teaching strategy is a lesson plan using Spack’s specific method and building the students’ background knowledge pertaining to the text. The genre also includes a cause and effect essay diagram that is needed to help the student brainstorm and scaffold the writing assignment. Teachers need to be aware of the different things that they can do within the classroom to help build a student’s cultural knowledge base when reading materials. The lesson plan is one of the most applicable genres available to the teacher in order to assist the student in any subject. Also included is another lesson plan genre that follows the CBI (Content Based Instruction) model. This lesson plan genre simply builds the student’s knowledge about the Great Depression from nothing, giving the student a cultural and contextual base to read the textbook. Freeman and Freeman (1988) believe that this type of instruction is very beneficial to ELLs because it instructs both content and language at the same time.

 

The emotional state of students coming to the United States to study in a high school or university cannot be emphasized enough.  This emotional state has a deep effect on all aspects of second language acquisition and certainly on second language literacy (Brown, 2000; Bell, 1995).   Bell (1995) discusses her emotional well-being while trying to learn to read and write in Chinese.  Bell’s preconceived ideas about literacy pertaining to her first language were found to be irrelevant when studying Chinese, therefore causing her feelings to be affected deeply by her lack of progress.  All ESL teachers need to be aware of their student’s emotional states in regards to every aspect of second language learning.

 

The genres that reflect these findings include a song written to reflect the feelings of a Spanish speaking student to his teacher and his own feelings of inadequacy and a diary entry by an Arabic speaking student and her feelings about the whole literacy learning process. Including the song and the diary entry makes the multi-genre project more personal.  Both styles of genre are very personal in nature and often times include a deep sense of feeling and emotion regardless of the subject matter.  The usage of these genres are very appropriate for this context and convey the meaning well.

 

A lot of different sources were used in both the construction of the different genres and in the overall thought process of putting together a multi-genre project.  Some of the sources could have probably been integrated better into different genres and the genres themselves possibly could have conveyed more meaning, but the essential meaning was clearly expressed through the genres.  The vast importance of understanding the fact that student’s who come from different cultural backgrounds cannot comprehend texts written in English to their fullest was expressed through the genres and the feelings that students have when learning to read and write in a second language was also shown.  These genres are very important in helping the ESL teacher understand their students and how to assist them with learning to read culturally different texts in the second language.

 

In conclusion, the multi-genre project is a great way for students to express themselves in any content area.  The project also requires students to think on many different levels and interact with their topic in a number of different ways in order to express their topic’s meaning through the different genres.  The project allows the student to easily present the topic of study to a group or a class without the extended work of creating an outline or a handout, because the topic is already presented in a condensed form that can be fun and understandable. The multi-genre project also can be done in small group work, where as a research paper of the same magnitude would be very difficult to collaborate on and construct in a small group. All classes, regardless of the subject matter, should seriously consider implementing some type of multi-genre project in their classes to not only build the students’ knowledge of the subject, but to also help the students develop their creative skills.

 

Genre Number 1: A Content Based Lesson Plan

CBI Lesson Plan

Potential Voice: Teacher

Potential Audience: Students

Rationale: Content based instruction is a little bit different than the traditional methods of teaching and education. CBI really takes into the account that students need context in order to comprehend knowledge about the subject being taught. In areas such as social studies where culture and context are already assumed to a large extent by the text book companies, this type of instruction is very important for ELLs who have no context or cultural knowledge to base the text.

This lesson plan is designed to give the ELL a contextual/cultural base before reading the mainstream text on the subject matter. Keep in mind that the only focus is to give the students context – it’s not designed to teach grammar, but some vocabulary will be included.
 

Reference: Freeman, Y,. & Freeman, D., (1988). Sheltered English instruction. ERIC Digest. Retreived November 7, 2007, from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9210/english.htm

CBI Lesson Plan 

Lesson: The Great Depression
Grade: 10th grade (I believe 10th grade is when the students study the Great Depression here in MN)
English Level: Intermediate

Materials: Stock Market Madness with all of its pieces, different magazines, poster board, glue, scissors, markers, chalk/whiteboard markers, novels/story books about the Great Depression, mainstream text section on the Great Depression, and simplified text section on the Great Depression.(Before doing a lesson or activity that contains a lot of numbers it’s best to do a little warm-up game. I call this Number Writing Races!)

Number Writing Races!

Objective: This activity is to be used as a number listening exercise primarily for listening to dates (2007, 1919, 1929, etc…) and monetary values ($1, $20.75, $11.12, etc…) before talking about numbers in class or having the students do an activity that involves different number values.Materials: paper, pens or pencils, writing board (white board or blackboard), markers or chalk (depending upon the board), two chairs and students!Warm-up: Give every student a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. The teacher dictates ten different numbers including both dates and monetary numbers to the students. The students write the number the teacher has stated onto the piece of paper.Activity: 1. The teacher divides the class into two teams and calls one student from each team to the board to participate in the writing race. Do not allow the students to hold the marker or the chalk. 2. The teacher says a number and the first student to pick up their writing utensil, write the number correctly on the board, place their writing utensil back down on the writing board shelf with cap on (if it’s a marker), sit down in the chair and raise their hand wins.

3. Each pair of students should get three opportunities to write different numbers each time they go to the board. Which ever student wins two out of three writing races earns one point for their team.

4. Continue the above sequence until every student has had a chance to write at least once. If the teacher feels that it is necessary to continue to play the game he or she may do so.

Stock Market Activity – Stock Market Madness!

Objective: To teach the basic workings of the stock market and key terms that relate to the Great Depression.Materials: white board/blackboard, writing utensils (pens and pencils for the students, chalk or markers for the writing board), Risen and Fallen spinner, Great Depression spinner, play money, money amount deck of cards, share cards, loan application forms, default cards, foreclosure cards, two calculators and individual stock market scripts.Object: The object of the game is to make more money than everyone else by playing the stock market.Set-up: Across the top of the writing board write down the names of five potential stock companies (ex. Coke Cola, Walmart, Sony, McDonald’s, and Blockbuster) and set up a small table (label the table STOCK MARKET) next to the writing board with both spinners on it. On one side of the room set up a table (label the table BANK) with play money, default cards, foreclosure cards, one calculator, and loan application forms and on the opposite side of the room set up a table (label the table BROKER) with play money, a calculator, money amount deck of cards, and stock share cards.One student needs to work at the BANK table, one student needs to work at the STOCK MARKET table and one student needs to work at the BROKER table.The rest of the students start with no money!

In the beginning all stocks cost $2.

ROUND 1

1. The students must take their script, go to the bank, fill-out a loan application form and say, “I would like to take out a loan for _________ dollars please.” The bank gives the students the money and may allow the students to borrow as much money as they want, but the student must pay it back every 5th round. The banker must keep track of how much money each student owes.

2. The students must take their script, go to the broker and say, “I would like to purchase____ shares of ______ please.” The students are allowed to purchase as many stocks as they have money to purchase and the broker must give each student a share card for each stock share purchased.

3. The stock market spins the Risen and Fallen spinner and reads where the arrow has landed (ex. Risen) and calls out, “The stock market has risen!”

4. The broker draws a card from the money amount deck and calls out each company with the corresponding amount card (ex. The broker draws the first card and says, “The Coke Cola stock has risen 1 dollar.” The broker draws the second card and says, “The Walmart stock has risen 3 dollars.” Etc….). While the broker is calling out the stock amounts the stock market is writing the total amount of the stocks on the board (ex. Coke Cola started at 2 dollars and has risen 1 dollar, so the stock market draws an up arrow – to indicate that the stock has risen – and writes 3 dollars under the Coke Cola stock on the board).

5. The students now have the option of selling their shares back to the broker for a profit or a loss depending on how their stock did. If the students chose to sell their shares, they must pay back as much money to the bank as they can and say, “I would like to put ________ dollars towards my loan.” The banker should adjust the student’s loan application as necessary (ex. After Jim’s stocks drop he sells the shares back to the broker and then pays the banker, but since the stocks dropped and Jim only has 15 dollars instead of 20 dollars the banker then writes on Jim’s loan application that he only owes 5 dollars).

6. After the students finish selling their shares back to the broker and paying back the bank round 1 is completed.

ROUND 2, ROUND 3 and ROUND 4 – repeat ROUND 1

ROUND 5

1. Same as previous rounds.

2. Same as previous rounds.

3. The stock market spins the Great Depression spinner, which indicates whether the stock market has risen, fallen or crashed. The stock market then calls out the corresponding situation.

4. If the stock market has either risen or fallen, repeat steps 4 through 6 from round one, but everyone must pay back the bank. If the stock market has crashed all the students must give all of their shares back to the broker and proceed to settle accounts with the bank.

5. The students must pay back the bank any money that they have. If the students are unable to pay off their loan they say, “I am not able to pay, I do not have any money,” then the banker says, “Your loan is in default, the bank must foreclose on your house.” The banker then gives the student a default card and a foreclosure card. The bank must continue to keep track of how much money the students still owe.

6. The student with the most money wins! If all students default, all students loose.

Continue playing as time permits and/or students are having fun.

Poster Activity: Divide the students up into pairs and have them look through magazines to try to find pictures that might reflect the time period of the Great Depression. The students are to glue the pictures they find onto the poster board and when they are finished explain their poster to the class.

Storybook: Read a storybook that deals with the Great Depression or something specific related to the Great Depression in order for the students to receive less formal input that they can remember later.

Simplified/Mainstream Text: The students should read the simplified text with the teacher and specific vocabulary from the text should be taught. If the students are able, the mainstream text should be read by the students with the teacher’s assistants (if needed), all homework or exercises from the text should be completed with the help of the teachers (if needed).

The first two activites (Number writing races and Stock Market Madness) should fit into about a 1-2 hour time frame (of course I’ve never actually played Stock Market Madness)and then the other activities would be implemented. Depending on the needs of the students and the teacher, I think that the activities regarding the poster and books could be very short or very long – it just depends on a lot of things.

Note: there are a lot of materials that go with Stock Market Madness! If anyone is at least interested in seeing the supplemental materials I can certainly email them to you or even post them on this blog (with the exception of the money and spinners).

Genre Number 2: A Spanish Song

 A Spanish Song

Potential Voice: Student

Potential Audience: Teacher

Rationale: I believe this song will give the teacher an idea of how the student feels when he cannot understand or fully comprehend his school work because he doesn’t have the contextual knowledge necessary.

Jose No Comprende Libros

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Vino Jose a éste pais de sueños, pero no tiene amigos
No comprende sus libros y todos dicen estupido

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Jose no tiene la misma cultura, por eso él no comprende los libros
necesita maestros que le enseñen cultura, o él no quiere estudiar

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Los maestros dicen que Jose comprende, pero él no recuerda los libros
primero deben ensenar cultura, entonces el comprenderá la escuela

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Nosotros Debemos Ensenar Cultura Americana!

English Translation

Jose Doesn’t Understand Books

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

Verse
Jose came to this country of dreams, but he doesn’t have any friends
He doesn’t understand his books and everyone calls him stupid

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

Verse
Jose doesn’t have the same culture, therefore he doesn’t understand the books
He needs the teachers that will teach him culture or he won’t want to study

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

The teachers say that Jose understands, but he doesn’t remember the books
First they should teach him culture, then he will understand the school

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

We should teach American culture!

This song was adapted based on the experiences of Sinclair Bell:                                                                             

Sinclair Bell, J. (1995). The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicated factors. TESL Quarterly 29, 687-704. Retrieved September 18, 2007, from JSTOR database.

Genre Number 3: A Letter to a Parent

A Letter to a Parent

Potential Voice: Teacher

Potential Audience: Parent of an ESL student

Rationale: This letter is from a teacher to a parent of an ESL student who is struggling with reading his textbooks. The teacher will give the parent several ideas that might help the student comprehend the information better while he reads. I think that this will be a good way to present some of the strategies that ELLs use when reading material that might be difficult to comprehend based on their cultural knowledge.

A Letter to a Parent

Dear Mrs. Farid,

Your son Moses has been having trouble comprehending what he is reading in social studies class and I would like you to know that this is normal for students who do not know the the cultural or historical background of the United States. All of our students in the school struggle with the same problems regarding reading comprehension as your son, I assure you that there is no need to be alarmed.

I would just like to inform you of some reading strategies that might help Moses better comprehend his textbooks and give him some historical or cultural knowledge that would assist him in his reading comprehension.

Here are some strategies that you can help your son use in order to better comprehend the information in his textbooks:

- Overview the text

- Look for context clues, such as titles, subheadings and diagrams

- Attempt to relate important points in the text to one another (important points might include highlighted words, titles or subheadings)

- Try to use prior knowledge to interpret the text (prior knowledge would include things talked about in class or movies)

- Attempt to discover the meaning of words, first by context and then by dictionary

- List the main ideas of the text on a piece of paper

- If the textbook is about United States history, often times you can rent a movie that is related to the text and this would be a great way to understand the context of the textbook

Well, these are a few methods that our students have used to successfully understand their textbooks. If you have any questions regarding this letter please feel free to call me or send me an email. I would be happy to meet with you and Moses and talk about some of the things we can do together in order for Moses to continue to be a successful student.

Thank you so much for your time,
Alan I. Clipperton

The reading strategies were adapted from:
Singhal, M. (1998). A comparison of L1 and L2 reading: Cultural differences and schema. The Internet TESL Journal, 4. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from www.iteslj.org

Genre Number 4: A Graph of Reading Strategies

A Graph of Reading Strategies

Potential Voice: Researcher/Teacher

Potential Audience: Teacher/School administration

Rationale: The graph represents the reading strategies used by American students when reading culturally unfamiliar texts.  The graph can be used as a tool to illustrate the kinds of mental processes that happen when trying to read something that may be culturally unfamiliar to the student.  It is important for the teacher to be aware of the kinds of things that could possibly be going on in the heads of the students.

Explanation:

The graph is divided into two sections: The darker posts that represent culturally familiar texts and the lighter posts that represent the culturally unfamiliar texts.

The Americans in this study were observed using five different types of strategies when reading both culturally familiar and unfamilar texts. The frequency of the employment of these strategies is illustrated in the graph.

The strategies with subcategories:

- Developing awareness
1. Refer to experimental task
2. State loss of concentration
3. State failure to understand

- Accepting ambiguity
1. Skip unknown words
2. Formulate a question
3. consider other inferences
4. Suspend judgement

- Establishing inrasentential ties 1
1. Read ahead
2. Relate to previous text
3. Extrapolate from text
4. Verify an inference

- Using background knowledge
1. Use knowledge of format
2. Refer to previous passage
3. Respond affectively
4. Visualize
5. Relate to experience
6. Speculate beyond text

- Esstablishing intersentential ties
1. Gather information
2. Reread
3. Paraphrase
4. Use context clues
5. React to author’s style

For the purpose of this graph I have not broken up the main headings into the subheadings listed above. Just understand that each main heading includes all the strategies listed above.

This graph was adapted from:
Pritchard, R. (1990). The effects of cultural schemata on reading processing strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 273-295. Retreived September 17, 2007, from JSTOR database.

Discussion:

One can see that when readers are reading a text that is culturally unfamilar they tend to rely on strategies that include: developing awareness, accepting ambiguity or establishing inrasentential ties (2). It is believed by Pritchard (1990) that readers use these particular strategies because they may have “difficulty relating stimulus sentences to other portions of the text or to their own background knowledge” (p. 288).

It is our job as ESL teachers to assist our students in using as many reading strategies as possible, especially by helping the students establish a background knowledge of the material that they are reading.

Genre Number 5: A Diary Entry

A Diary Entry

Potential Voice: Immigrant student

Potential Audience: none

Rationale: This is a diary entry by an immigrant student who is struggling to learn the language. The entry will be focused on the student’s individual feelings and is adapted from Bell (1995).

Reference:
Sinclair, J.B. (1995). The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicating factors. TESOL Quarterly, 29, p. 687-704. Retrieved September 18, 2007, from JSTOR database.

A Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

It’s another difficult day in the United States. I miss my home, but at least I feel safer here. School here in the United States is a lot of fun, but I’m really having problems reading and writing. I often feel like other people are judging me and that I need to do better. It’s sooooo hard though, English is so much different than Arabic. The letters are really different and the whole writing style just makes me mad.

The teachers here ask me to write the letters several times so that they look just right, but I hate writing letters in English – can’t they read them the way they are? Why do I have to write them again and again?
The teachers are nice though, but I often feel like they are giving me too much praise for my poor school work. In my culture teachers are harder on the students and this makes me work harder and understand what I need to work on. Here in the United States the teachers tell me I’m doing a good job and then I get my paper back and it’s all covered in red because of all the mistakes I’ve made. I’m starting to resent the corrections that the teachers are giving me and I feel like a failure. I just don’t know what to do to improve my English writing skills.
I think I just need to change my learning style. I cannot use the same strategies that I used when I learned my first language. I must develop new ways to learn English effectively. I think I also most learn to adapt to American culture better. I know that my teachers mean well and just want to help me, I shouldn’t resent them and their corrections.
Tomorrow I will start to try and look at English from a cultural perspective and value what the Americans value. Perhaps my English will improve and my attitude will change, I’m just tired of being judged and feeling like a failure.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Genre Number 6: A Literacy Based Lesson Plan

A Literacy Based Lesson Plan

Potential Voice: Teacher

Potential Audience: Student

Rationale: This is a literacy based lesson plan developed to aid students in reading and writing. The lesson plan was developed using Spack’s (1993) reading and writing cycles. The lesson plan begins by having students draw from personal experience and then write their way into reading. I think this is a wonderful reading/writing teaching style because it first tries to link the reading to the students’ own backgrounds and experiences before they even try to read the given text or compose something related.
This type of lesson plan can be integrated into any writing curriculum and really can help students from all different cultures with their reading and writing.

Reference:
Spack, R. (1993). Student meets text, text meets student: Finding a way into academic discourse. In J. Carson and I. Leki (Eds.). Reading in the composition classroom: Second language perspectives. (pp. 183-196). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

The Literacy Based Lesson Plan 

Students: High-intermediate ELLs in a college setting

Objective: The students will be able to interact with “The End of Something” (by E. Hemingway) text both in writing and orally and then write their own Cause/Effect Essay on broken relationships.

Pre-Essay writing tasks

Vocabulary: lumbering town, mill, schooners, hoisted, revolving, circular saw, hull-deep, canvas, bunk houses, sawdust, limestone, rowed, trolling, channel-bank, night lines, trout, ruin, striking, oar, bait, minnows, perch, skinned, ventral fin, leader, overboard, slab, driftwood, ran taut, click on the reel, glinted on, gone to hell, clearing and scene (Note: I probably wouldn’t explicitly teach all of these vocabulary words, but this is a list of words that could possibly be unfamiliar to the students).

Warm-up/pre-reading questions: Have you ever been in a relationship? What types of things did you enjoy doing with your girlfriend/boyfriend or husband/wife? Have you ever had to breakup with someone? How did you breakup with them?

Pre-reading/writing from personal experience: The students should write about a previous relationship where they had to breakup with someone or someone broke-up with them or something they enjoy doing now and would enjoy doing even more with someone else or write about something they enjoy doing with their girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse. The teacher should make these options clear to the students by writing the options on the board. The students should only write about a paragraph or two.

Reading: The students should read the story called, “The End of Something” by E. Hemingway and annotate the text. The teacher can demonstrate different styles of note taking while reading if needed.

Post-reading/writing: The students should write at least one paragraph about the text – this can include anything from their personal feelings to difficulties in reading.

Summary: The students should summarize the text in only a few sentences or a paragraph.

Discussion: The teacher should facilitate a student discussion regarding the text. Discussion questions might include: What are the different scenes in the text? Do they relate in anyway to the relationship? Do both Nick and Marjorie enjoy fishing? What do you imagine Nick and Marjorie to look like? Why was Nick in a bad mood? Why did Nick breakup with Marjorie? Did Marjorie expect Nick to breakup with her? Why or why not? Do you feel sorry for Marjorie or Nick? etc… The questions could certainly go on and on depending on the students’ responses. These are just a few that can be used to facilitate discussion.

Essay Writing Task – Cause/Effect Essay

Brainstorming outline: Split the students up into groups of two and have them brainstorm using the Cause and Effect Essay Diagram. The topic should be “Broken Relationships.”

Cause and Effect Essay Diagram

Topic:______________________________________________

Causes and Effects

Thesis statement:_____________________________________

____________________________________________________

The students should write the topic in the center of the diagram and then list the causes on the left and the effects on the right of the center circle.

Peer review of the outline: The students should be split up into different groups of two to review each other’s outlines and offer feedback. The teacher may provide a peer review worksheet.

Essay writing: The thesis statement should contain at least three causes OR three effects of a broken relationship and these should then be used as the topics for each body paragraph. The teacher may provide a body paragraph outline as well.

Peer review of essay: The students should be split up into different groups of two in order to review each other’s essay. The teacher may provide a peer review worksheet.

Language/terms: These are some of the terms that may be associated with a cause and effect essay. For an essay focused on causes – because, causes, caused by, the reason, since and therefore are all very common terms and for an essay focused on effects – as a consequence of, as a result (of), consequently, then and resulting in are all very common terms.