After looking through an old Steck and Vaughn catalogue, the obvious hit me. The proper development of a good reader is greatly enhanced by following the simple progression of vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Ok, so we all know that, but is it reflected in our teaching materials? For the most part, I think not.
Obviously, if a child lacks vocabulary they will not be fluent in the target language and their reading will probably be slow (another factor here is students that are purely phonetic readers trying to read everything too perfectly). If reading is slow and not fluent, then that will have an impact on overall comprehension. A reader that reads too slowly will struggle with comprehension, as will the “perfect” phonetic reader.
I think that, from the catalogue, the Steck and Vaughn system looks pretty impressive. However, it is very expensive (although I have ordered the Reading Comprehension series). Therefore, I would like to read what other posters are using, in the form of materials, that meet the needs of vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, without blowing a school or students budget.
Once a student has the emergent reader phase underway, can use phonics to work out unfamiliar words, and feels a little more confident in reading, what materials are your favorites for building the skills that I have mentioned?
Actually, I am very impressed with the Steck and Vaughn Elements of Reading series.
We’re using my beginner books (Smart Start) to build and manage vocabulary and learn reading/critical thinking skills at the same time. We also use a TPR ABCD rhyme book (not published) to do the same, build vocab and usage, and demostrate how English grammar is used using pictographs. It’s our ace in the hole.
This sets the pace for reading. Then we use my Reading Schema books to get them going, simple repetitive sentences, critical thinking activities and games.
I’m going to start using something that has always worked well in the past in our regular ESL program this coming semester…TPR story telling. It is a great way to promote comprehension (a key element in reading that seems to be missing in Taiwan buxibans…). Joe Sax is a big fan too.
After a year in the ESL program, we switch the kids into I Wonder Why series. It is a fantastic encyclopedia type thing that the kids love. They learn more about, say insects, in two weeks than they do in two years of Chinese school. We teach nothing in a cursory way.
Finally, the mid-level ESL kids get the Magraw-Hill books, the same ones many schools in the US use as their text books. Science, social studies, History. It is US based, and that is a problem at times, but we do lots of activities that expand the learning…
The rest is a secret.
Tell me Bassman…why is it that YOU haven’t written a book yet? That way we can go on tour together!
[quote=“jdsmith”][quote=“Bassman”][quote=“jdsmith”]
Tell me Bassman…why is it that YOU haven’t written a book yet? That way we can go on tour together! [/quote]
Just started.
Really![/quote]
Good for you brother! My ear is always here. :bravo:[/quote]
I think the HESS system works well. They have 4 or 5 books. And new words are introduced slowly through the reading book…and then integrated into the others. With many other English sets…you sometimes can have many many new words on each page…which is too time consuming. I like the HESS way.
Although Hess must have some good points (cough, cough), I am thinking of something that develops each skill in isolation. At least the main focus of the material is building one of those skills.
Comprehension should have specific workbook or worksheet material.
BTW, Hess, or any other franchise system is not an option.
That being said, I have very little knowledge about Hess. Please enlighten if you can.
You raise an excellent point, Bassman, one which I was in fact just discussing with a colleague yesterday. The simple truth is the majority of texts made and designed for kids in the US are not appropriate for ESL learners, regardless of whether or not they’re in so-called “all English” schools. That’s because kids here in 1st, 2nd grade and so on lack the necessary vocabulary, grammar, and other tools needed to understand books written for native speakers.
I see this as a case of one-upsmanship by schools looking to stand out from others and advertise themselves as “American style”. But talk to teachers, and you’ll see that there are serious issues with using the Science, Language Arts, and other books by companies like McGraw Hill. That’s not to say no schools can handle this material, but based on my discussions with teachers who have actually used such material, the challenges are daunting. But this is a relatively new trend, and I think it will taper off over time, or schools will start using more appropriate materials.
You point to one of the critical problems in these texts, that being vocabulary. Very few texts from the US do a good job introducing vocabulary at a measured pace (at least at a pace palatable to non-native learners). I was just looking at the Spectrum K- 6 (I think) series by McGraw Hill. This seems to be a bit better, but it’s nothing but a collection of stories, so the series lacks the challenges presented by content area issues.
A friend recommended a series, by Scholastic I think, that does a better job with vocabulary development. He also likes the McGraw Hill SRA reading series. I need to talk with him soon anyway, so I’ll try to get the names of specific titles.
Incidentally, for the hard truth from the master of vocabulary acquisition, I’d strongly recommend reading Paul Nation’s book Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, part of Cambridge’s Applied Linguistics series. It’s not easy reading, but man is it powerful.
[quote=“Bassman”]Although Hess must have some good points (cough, cough), I am thinking of something that develops each skill in isolation. At least the main focus of the material is building one of those skills.
Comprehension should have specific workbook or worksheet material.
BTW, Hess, or any other franchise system is not an option.
That being said, I have very little knowledge about Hess. Please enlighten if you can.[/quote]
I really think you should look into the HESS books…if just to satisfy your own curiosity. I find as far as vocabulary development goes…none are better. The franchise schools have flaws because the teachers get graded by how well their students do…causing the teachers to supply their kids with answers to test…etc. Also the schedule is set…so if a class is “slow” then you can’t take time to review. But using the books outside of the franchise might be ideal.
Also an interesting side note…HESS books can be used in non-franchise schools. I know of a few non-HESS schools that use the HESS books…and HESS doesn’t object. I think the restrictions are that they don’t provide you with a teaching plan…(but there is a teaching plan in the worksheet book for the students to write into their communication books :s ). And you can’t use the most recent books? I think that’s about it.
I don’t think so much that it is a flaw in the series itself, but in the application to the average student in Taiwan. Using content area material is an excellent approach, but it must be done correctly-- and as you said, the material has to be appropriate to the students.
Most of the ESL material put out in the US is centered around Spanish speakers learning English. They are not paced for “truly foreign languages” like Russian or Chinese. The McGraw Hill series would be more appropriate for Intermediate-High to Advanced students. But it takes longer for typical Chinese students to reach that level of English than typical Latin-American students because of the greater language distance between Chinese and English.
Hess books are not bad for what they’re intended. The early N level Hess books seemed pretty good to me, but everything after N4 was just too contrived. And the K series books were not good. But still, they are at least better than what I’m working with right now.
But the kind of books they’re talking about here are not for developing BICS (just basic English), but rather CALP (English for academic purposes). Teaching other content areas through English as a way to contextualize the learning process is where ESL is heading in the US, but that is not reflected in most classrooms in Taiwan. What I am hearing from Bassman and JD is content area instruction- but the Hess books don’t address this at all.
Content is key. I want kids to learn more than just sentence structures or cute stories. I would like them to actually learn something while learning English.
Sure, but that must have a certain level of reading ability/comprehension first. That will make it a whole lot easier to teach them about oceans, for example…
Those cool TPR books that you use now will help with the former.
Sure, but that must have a certain level of reading ability/comprehension first. That will make it a whole lot easier to teach them about oceans, for example…
Those cool TPR books that you use now will help with the former. [/quote]
I am thinking of kids that eat those cool TPR books in 5 minutes flat.
Right, you want books with content and not just fluff, but there’s the rub. Most books with interesting content written at a children’s level are imported from overseas, and a good number of them are not intended for use in classrooms in which students don’t possessive the necessary language aptitude.
You want something that is at an appropriate developmental level, with engaging content, and with an incremental increase in its lexical difficulty.
This is a significant challenge, which some of us are addressing in our various specialties. Given the large number of non-native English speakers in the US, there are more and more titles coming out which address this need.
But it is really a difficult problem, since each topic and discipline necessitates the use of a range of content words that are almost always beyond a beginning-intermediate level student’s language level. The key is to introduce these words at a measured pace and, when the word is significant (general high-frequency or specific high-frequency to that subject) then do more work strengthening the s’s knowledge of that word.
What we have now, for the most part, are many, many language courses (texts) as well as graded readers, written for native and non-native speakers, for just about every level and age group. I think that’s a niche that has been very nicely filled.
The question is, what about non-native kids learning math, science, and so on? I’ll have a sit down with my colleague and see if I can point you in the direction of some appropriate materials. If anyone has the answer to this question, he does.
At the moment I think that some children coming out of full English kindies possess the skills to handle some of these materials. However, they are probably starting from the “K” level of the imported books.
Steck and Vaughn seems to have a reasonable plan for building vocabulary.
I think that one has to be careful about the motivation behind wanting to teach this kind of stuff though. Is it that the school wants to put on a show to impress? The teacher is bored and wants a challenge, but perhaps more of a challenge than the students need? OR is it that it would be the right thing to aim for?
[quote]You want something that is at an appropriate developmental level, with engaging content, and with an incremental increase in its lexical difficulty.
This is a significant challenge, which some of us are addressing in our various specialties. Given the large number of non-native English speakers in the US, there are more and more titles coming out which address this need.[/quote]
Yet, hardly any of them really fit the needs of the market in Taiwan. However, the market in Taiwan is not always something that a reputable publisher should be trying to please. Ever get the feeling that the right things could have been done long ago, but the people here constantly shoot themselves in the foot?
A very good point. A point that is missed by so many teachers.
It is an overfilled niche. Stuffed with so many different books. It has become very difficult to find one that stands out from the pack. It’s like a sea of drowning people all waving their hands for attention, but none of them are super models and it takes me a while to decide which one to pull out first.
Basically, I think that there must be something cheaper that builds good vocabulary and fluency that could lead to launching into something like the Steck and Vaughn Comprehension series. Actually, I am on to a few leads at the moment and may be able to answer my own question in a month or so. I am still interested, really interested, in what others have to say though. Heck, it could save everyone some time.
You need really fun stories or ‘content’ that kids will want to read along with the CD at home. I repeat: Kids who like to read books at home with the CD have amazingly good English.
This should be your goal: to get kids to want to read for themselves. I know that sounds obvious but the obvious often gets overlooked when the MEds are designing their crappy curricula or boring book series.
You need really fun stories or ‘content’ that kids will want to read along with the CD at home. I repeat: Kids who like to read books at home with the CD have amazingly good English.
This should be your goal: to get kids to want to read for themselves. I know that sounds obvious but the obvious often gets overlooked when the MEds are designing their crappy curricula or boring book series.[/quote]
Check! Got that on the table already.
BTW, I just looked at the Steck and Vaughn K and Grade 1 (A) books. They were great and didn’t have any vocab that I thought was too much for the kids. Now, to work on the price.
That way we can go on tour together! 
