Ready steady read

Ready, Steady, Ready, Steady, Read.Read.

Ready, Steady, Ready, Steady, Read.Read.Madrid, Spain 2014Madrid, Spain 2014

Jennifer WilsonJennifer Wilson

Goals for the session• To understand what literacy really

means. Or try to!!!• To identify essential components to

ensure success.• To focus on strategies to teach

reading and writing to non-native English speakers from3-5 years old.

I never try to teach pupils. I only try to provide conditions

in which they can learn.

What is Literacy? . . .

BLA; BLA; BLA.Can it be the same for non native speakers of

English?

Songs + Stories + Actions +Picture +Letter

Letter

Pictures

SongsActionStories

Set the stage• Create a supportive enviroment.• Be methodical and stick to the routines

and class rules.• Stimulate a love for the new language.• Find constant connections with everyday

life.• Make them laugh.The sillier the better!!!• Sing and talk a lot in English.• Give chunks of classroom language not

vocabulary lists.

The Four Skills

• Until children have listened for a long time to the new language and have begun to produce words, it is unrealistic to expect them to read and write.

Linguistic ImmersionSaturated byEnveloped inFlooded bySteeped inBathed in that

which is to be learned.

Children who cannot or do not listen are at a huge disadvantage when beginning the

literacy process in a second language.There’s always one or two in every

classThey seem to be switched off for

language learning

• Observe• Listen• See• Witness

• Experience• Feel• Explore• Try out

The recipe for success is:• Lots and lots of listening and singing.• Listening to stories and acting them

out.• A stress free environment.• A good role model.• Lots of images to connect to objects.• Use Infant Directed Speech or

motherese as you would when talking to a baby.

Classroom Language. Be natural. Don’t think grammar.

• Hang up your coat. Put it on. Take it off.• Put the paper in the bin. Do up your buttons.• Line up. Tie up your laces. Tidy up!• Look, listen and Be Quiet ! (Dream on)• Sit down, stand up, Zip up your coat!!!• Put it in the bin!!• Colour in your picture. • That’s wonderful, beautiful, marvellous!!!• (So, non native teachers of English beware, make

sure you know your phrasal verbs).

©Maiers,2007Thankyou so much

Reading in Action!

Limbic: Emotion

Visual Cortex:See the WordVisualize

Auditory: Hear the sounds

Long Term Storage Sites:High frequency words Background Experiences

Brocha’s and Wernicke’s Areas

Most language learning takes place before the age

of two• Babies brains are programmed to pick up

on new sounds from different languages.

• If those sounds haven’t been heard before the age of two, the human vocal aparatus shuts down the parts it deems unecessary and therefore it is much more difficult to articulate these sounds later.

Jwilson2014

Role play is a great way to practise language in a stress free enviroment.

Masks really help to give confidence.

Kids needs to hear the word before they can say the word, decode or read the word, and then finally

write the word.

TalkTime all the time• Rich Experiences• Rich Language Experiences-• Reading and Writing this can be a

picture• Rich Text Great story books• Rich Images but nothing abstract• Rich Talk-DAILY! Routines 20-30

minute carpet session• Rich Questions• Use intonation as a teaching tool

Leading Research says……

• Storybook Learning has an

essential role in literacy development in young children. Particularly within the family. So, create a cozy, classroom environment for story time.

Experts also say…………..

• Literacy in English when initiated early improves accent, intonation stress and understanding.

• Oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Kids that are poor in their mother tongue usually have more problems learning the second language

• Children’s experiences with the world and with print greatly influence their ability to learn in later life. So make them fall in love with books!

Demonstrate Writing• Make the connection of language to

print. Use the same script as in mother tongue writing.

Their words=meaningPICTURES ARE WRITING

• Do NOT correct infant writingIt’s not motivating to see lots of red pen!

Write the correct version underneath

Give them a reason to write• Make writing something important• Like writng an invitation to the class party• Write a guided story (always funny or

scary) together. Scary and funny sticks!!• Include things close to kids that they can

relate to. My weekend! Classroom diary!• My head teacher always ends up eaten by

the shark. It’s pay back time!!!!

Provide a wide selection of wonderful children’s booksRead them great stories!

• Spot The Dog stories and Maisy Mouse for three year olds• Anything by Eric Carle, Nick Sharatt and Tony Ross Four year

olds • The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson, Handa’s Surprise Eileen Browne,

We’re going on a bear hunt Michael Rosen. Traditional fairy tales (with a twist)

for the five year olds. (No Disney God Forbid)

•

Encourage parents to read to their kids in their own

language if they don’t speak English

• Children who are fluent and have a good level of language in their mother tongue can easily transfer their knowledge to the second language.

• So if parents ask how they can help, tell them to talk and sing a lot and read to them in their mother tongue.

Exposure to the Exposure to the languagelanguage

Exposure to the Exposure to the languagelanguage

15 Minutes of T:V every day in 15 Minutes of T:V every day in EnglishEnglish

Just an episode of Pepa PigJust an episode of Pepa Pig

Or Dora The Explorer is enoughOr Dora The Explorer is enough

Don’t forget………• Literacy learning is nurtured by

responsive adults. (Make them love English)

• Literacy learning is deeply rooted in a child’s culture and family so always include the family in your teaching.

(So be literate in L1)• Being literate always follows the same

steps. First we listen, then we talk then read and finally we write.

• (So watch T:V in English)

“The Big Five” up to five

• Holistic approach to teaching the very young. It’s never just about reading and writing.(Lots of

HuGs )• Vocabulary input through songs and stories • Make them scared and make them laugh!!!• Between 70/80% of class time is oral work• Phonetics teaching of the individual sounds. 5/10

minutes (maybe not every day!!!)• Three letter word building and beginning to

decode.• Exposure to the language

Begin to teach the sounds of the

English Language from 4 years old

One each week. Be systematic!Non native students need more

time to build up vocabulary In the 3 year old classroomteacher input should be 80%Oral and Listening skills

Colouring in (although a nice

quiet activity) is notUnfortunately Learning English

Begin to teach sounds in this order

so kids can start to three letter word build ASAP

No more than 5/10 minutes a dayDon’t get carried away with

phonics for non native speakers of English real language input is

much more important• S, A, T, P ,N CK, E, H, R, M, D,

G ,O, U, L ,F , B, AI, J ,OR, EE,• This is usually as far as I get with Spanish 5

year olds plus first fifty high frequency words with parents help.

Don’t forget classroom vocabulary!!!And all the vocabulary input from songs and

stories.

What games to play?• I spy with my little

eye………….• Pairs or memory

games (pelmanism)• Simon Says (My

personal favourite)• Key Word Bingo• Magnet board

figures

• Song and action for each letter

• Hang Man (another favourite) with steps and a shark waiting at the bottom

Usually for my head teacher.

• I packed my bag to go to London and in my bag I put a…..

• Who’s got…?

Tricky Words At the same time as you are

teaching individual sounds, don’t forget about high frequency words that are not decodable. In The five year old class. Get parents involved. Try ten every 15 days.

Student’s with mini black boards and tricky

words

Walls Talk…• Label everything

in the classroom in English.

• Have the students names on display

• Always write teachers explanations of what’s on display.

• Have word banks at children’s height.

• Have the alphabet on display also at the right height

• The calendar • The weather chart• The daily helpers• The numbers

• A good story can keep you going for two and sometimes three weeks of classroom time and that’s a session every day.

What do I do with a book?

• Read aloud, Retell, Revisit. Focus on Key words. • Look for patterns of words that look the same• Focus on new words. The title, the author. • Prediction about the story. Use repetitive language• Shared reading, Group reading (Oxford reading Tree) .• Changing the story ending. Tell the story wrong• Make comics, draw pictures. Understand and

sequence the stroy• Finishing sentences. Say who the characters are.• Inventing dialogues act out the story• Don’t read the book. Tell the story!!!!

How to choose a story• Find texts with a repetitive element• Text with a strong story line, beginning,

middle end.• Texts with rhythm and that match the

pictures• Nice images, a big copy for whole class

reading. • Be easy for children to retell

Look after your voiceIt’s exhausting work and if it’s your

first year teaching English in pre- school take lots of vitamin C, royal jelly and gargle with antiseptic mouth wash. Even so, by November you will probably have no voice left. If you’re doing it right!! This is not a joke!

The EndRemember . . .

Teach a child to read,Give a gift for life!!

Teach a kid English and it’s a job for life!!!

Thank you for your kind attention!

Happy Teaching!

Contact information

Jennifer Wilson

Jenny-learningshouldbefun.blogspot.com

Websites of Interest• http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/• http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/• http://supersimplelearning.com/• Youtube Meg and Mog Funny Bones• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqm3lisZG

N4• http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/

preschool. http://www.familylearning.org.uk/images/hfwordsrec.