Blog #5--Children's Books Review/Adaptation

For my two children's books for review, I chose "The Three Little Pigs" and "Corduroy" to adapt for ESL learners. Children love these two classics and so do I. Below is a list of the four components of each book which may affect comprehension due to cultural aspects. Listed below these components is a synopsis of how I would introduce these children's texts to the early production ESL student within the regular classroom. I will base my determinations on using the texts with second language learners from Uganda. I correspond with three middle school aged girls from this country and have experience supporting their understanding of our cultural differences.

The Three Little Pigs

Components which may affect comprehension:

1. Just what is a pig?;
2. Living on a farm vs. the city, the suburbs, a village, etc.;
3. The concept of a fable/fairy tale (i.e. animals that talk?);
4. Complex English sentence structure.

Corduroy

Components which may affect comprehension:

1. Just what is a toy store?;
2. Teddy bears which come alive and walk around??;
3. Mattresses used to sleep on;
4. Once again, complex English sentence structure.

Scaffolding Understanding

First of all, supporting ELL's from Uganda in their understanding of the above texts would entail explaining a variety of components from both stories. For example, What is a pig?, What is a toy store?, and You sleep on mattresses? Just what is a mattress? Not one of the three girls I sponsor has ever been in a toy store or slept on a mattress. Just what is a fairy tale/fable, anyway? Moreover, they all live in villages and are not familiar with the term "farm." Consequently, I would introduce new vocabulary from each story to my ELL's along with a picture of the same to help students better retain information. I would do this together with a picture walk of the corresponding book prior to reading. Also, I would develop, along with the students, a word wall poster (Hill, p. 21) for the main characters, items, etc., for future reference in relationship to each text. Afterwards, I would then scaffold students by encouraging their reading attempts and assisting them in tapping out words during reading, as well as helping them with their word selection during responses after reading. Making text-to-self connections would be another technique I would employ. Most importantly, however, I would model for ELL's just what good reader's do to enhance their language development by reading the story aloud for them myself while they follow along (i.e. look at the pictures to help decode text, tap out words, read ahead to help figure out an unfamiliar word's meaning, etc.). Lastly, for my writing extension activity, I would have each student create his/her own simple sentence version of each separate text to be published for future rereadings and practice. This would include drawing, coloring, writing of simple sentences to summarize the important aspects of the story, as well as a title page, author (self), etc. These self published books would then be used to reread at the beginning of guided reading groups, during free time, SSI, etc. Children love to read their own work!

I'm sure I've left something out as it's tough to think of everything I would do in a vacuum. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.