As a way of thinking about differentiated teaching for ELLs, "each student needs and deserves a teacher who will be an active partner in helping that student identify and build upon personal strengths and identify and address areas of weakness" [Carol Ann Tomlinson, An Educator's Guide to Differentiating Instruction, 2006].
Since more and more ELLs (English language learners) are not achieving proficiency in general education classes, teachers need to differentiate instruction so that their struggling ELLs can encounter words heard orally on both a word and text level.
A balanced mode of teaching reading using oral instruction is slowly becoming the accepted norm for teaching early reading skills for entering ELLs in ESL learning groups and large general education classes. Unfortunately, there is no transitional group for such groups and very quickly, ELLs need to catch up with their native English speaking peers with regard to achieving reading proficiency.
Defining a Balanced Mode of Reading Instruction in Differentiated Learning Contexts for ELLs
A balanced mode of reading instruction is differentiated when teachers provide activities that reinforce ELLs' oral knowledge within a reading-based context. Here are some examples of a balanced mode of reading instruction in action:
- Lower-performing ELLs–This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words of varying length and difficulty depending on their performance.
- Middle-performing ELLs–This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words/sentences of varying length and difficulty and and then matches the word to the picture or matches the sentence that describes the picture.
- Higher-performing ELLs –This group reads a short text of varying text and difficulty using the targeted words teacher has taught previously. In pairs, they then read the sentence found in the text that corresponds to the questions. This assumes that ELLs have acquired a deeper meaning of the words and sentences.
For struggling ELLs in general education classes, teachers need to strengthen the decoding process, which leads to comprehension. This allows ELLs to make connections between ideas while reading. Teachers should provide effective oral reading instruction that includes vocabulary and phonological skills. It is absolutely critical that teachers use oral instruction with other teaching approaches to maintain student interest. Many discipline problems have been known to occur when teachers rely too much on oral instruction .
Helping ELLs Succeed using a Balanced Approach to Differentiate Reading Instruction
In conclusion, when teachers differentiate oral instruction to support early reading instruction, they have a higher chance of helping struggling ELLs achieve fluency and deeper comprehension. As ELLs are expected to read with deeper understanding, oral instruction helps teachers close some of their reading gaps in word and text based skills.
Dorit Sasson - Hello! I'm an ESL instructor, teacher diversity coach and writer for the educational markets who writes on English language learners ...
