To begin let me introduce some general guidelines for classroom read alouds. These are great for any classroom, but will also benefit ELLs. First of all, let students get comfortable. If a student is sitting straight up in her desk, she more than likely will not concentrate on the text. Second, I like to let students doodle if they want. Many kids concentrate better when they're doodling. Finally, students are not allowed to make noise!
Now, with those in mind, the teacher in this chapter displayed some great strategies to help ELLs with read alouds.
~First, prior to starting the book, he introduced the concept of what the book is about. Stone Fox is about dog sledding so the teacher took students outside for a demonstration.
~With this background knowledge, he then introduced vocabulary. He picked words that would not be familiar to ELLs and showed pictures on the overhead to give the students a visual of what the word means.
~Next, for students just beginning to learn English, the teacher showed a video of what they would read the next day. Seeing the video allowed students with very limited English to imagine the action even without understanding most of what is read.
~For students who have reading skills in their first language, the teacher provided copies of the book in that language so that students could read ahead and have an idea of the story before reading in class.
With each of these strategies, the teacher built prior knowledge and made the text more accessible for his ELLs.
Some places to look for videos of books:
United Streaming - http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
YouTube - www.youtube.com
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