Levels of Comprehension

To understand aspects of reading, we must learn and use the different levels of comprehension. According to Seymour, there are three levels of comprehension: the literal level, the inferential level, and the critical level.  All equally important, however each requires different things.

The Literal Level: what the text says and what happens in a story. 

The Inferential Level: determining what the text means.

The Critical Level: analyzing or synthesizing information and applying it to other information. 

 Students need efficient comprehension to be able to relate the textual material to one's own knowledge (Seymour, 2017). There are different ways teachers may assess students' comprehension level when reading a text. For example, reading the novel “Esperanza Rising” the teacher may ask the following questions:

What problem was Esperanza facing? (Literal)

Why was Esperanza reluctant to give up her old lifestyle? (Inferential)

How would you feel if your life was dramatically changed as Esperanza’s? (Critical)

It is important teachers use a variety of questions to get English Learners and other students to comprehend the text efficiently. Educators should also provide texts that are meaningful and engaging through the use of culture for success (McVee et al., 2005, pg. 550).

Multi-modalities as accommodations

It is important to understand that traditional text is only one form of modality. There needs to be multiple forms in order to reach all learners in the classroom.

the purpose of multimodalities is to “increase an audience’s receptions of an idea or concept” which means that every accommodation and modification through the usage of multimodalities must be strategic because the purpose is to enhance a student’s learning of a concept (The Audiopedia, 2017).

When it comes to reading many english language learners will have a difficult time reading english books because they do not know how the words are supposed to be pronounced. using an audiobook can be an accommodation to assist them in reading. Here is a link to the novel Esperanza Rising, a book that uses both Spanish and English so that students can hear what the words are supposed to sound like while also hearing its Spanish translation.

Esperanza Rising Full Audio Book

Marzano's 6 Steps in the 21st Century

There are ways to make Marzano’s 6 steps fit into a 21st century classroom. For example, instead of drawing a picture of the vocabulary word, students can look up pictures from the internet that match the vocabulary word. Students can also write their sentences on the computer instead of writing them on paper. There are many games online that you can incorporate vocabulary words into. For example, Kahoot! is a game where students compete individually or in groups. Fitting Marzano’s steps into the 21st century classroom gives every student a chance to succeed.

Teaching Academic Vocabulary to ELL's

One great way to teach ELL students vocabulary is by using Marzano’s 6 steps. His steps include description, restating, drawing, activities, discussion and games. All these steps are beneficial for ELL students because it gives them multimodalities for learning. For example, the student gets to draw a picture, which gives them a visual. Using all these steps gives the student the best chance of truly understanding the vocabulary word.

What is Academic Vocabulary?

When it comes to academic vocabulary every student becomes an english language learner because this kind of language is new to all of them. Academic vocabulary can be defined in two ways. There is domain-specific vocabulary that is vocabulary that is found in specific subjects like math or science. There is also general academic vocabulary that is vocabulary found across all domains, not just one (Baumann and Graces, 2010).  Nancy Cloud explains that there are 400 words that make up the bulk of the English language. These words are coined Word Zone words by Elfrieda Hiebert (Colorincolorado, 2016). The reason why teaching academic vocabulary is so important is because the more vocabulary students understand, the better they can comprehend the text. They also can spend more time focusing on difficult words.

Using Schemas

Schemas or prior knowledge plays an important role when it comes to being able to learn. If a student is less familiar with the context then it will be significantly more difficult to comprehend it. But if their schemas or prior knowledge have an understanding it will make it easier to gain comprehension. Educators should provide texts that are meaningful and engaging through the use of culture for success (McVee et al., 2005, pg. 550)

Below is more information on what teacher should know about using Schemas, how to apply them in the various instructional strategies. 

https://evolllution.com/programming/teaching-and-learning/schemata-and-instructional-strategies/

21st Century English Language Learners

Teaching English Language Learners in the 21st century is no easy task, but luckily there are many resources and tools to use. Using a combination of resources can be very beneficial to ELL students. Here you will gain a new insight on how to make each student's learning experience equitable. This will provide you sources to implement into your classroom.