The video clips from our last class really activated my thoughts on the impact of language in reading development. I have always known that there is a strong, if strong is the word, connection between language development and reading success. My undergraduate program at Florida State University required me to take ESOL courses to earn an ESOL endorsement. Through these courses I was required to integrate differentiation into my lesson plans to include the English Language Learner. I also shadowed an ELL student for one semester as they went from their regular education class to their ESOL pull out class. Through my studies I was taught that language impacts the reading development. I continued to see the affect of language in reading success as a classroom teacher in Florida, since Florida has a very large Hispanic/ELL population.
However, what I quickly learned when I moved to Mississippi is that there is an entirely different type of ELL student. These are the ones that are not classified as ELL. They receive no differentiation, no IEP goals, no special services. These children were born in America and have parents who were born in America. The only language spoken at home is English. These are the children who come to us from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Often times children who come from poverty have not been exposed to language as much as those children who come from a middle class family. In my experiences teaching kindergarten in an inner-city school in Mississippi I used my ELL strategies as much, if not more, than I did in Florida. These children had a very limited vocabulary, they had difficulty pronouncing their sounds correctly, and their background knowledge was so poor that teaching this vocabulary included videos, trips outside, and bringing in materials to expose the children to.
One particular child, who I will call Z, came to me using only telegraphic speech. Upon meeting the family I found that they were wonderful, caring parents who truly wanted the best for their daughter. However, dad had only been to school through the eighth grade and mom had finished school but was very quiet and soft spoken. Neither one of them spoke to the children in normal conversation. They spoke only to convey orders and simple messages and never read aloud. The father asked me at parent/teacher conferences what a lunchbox was. Z is as much an ELL student as the student who comes to us from a Spanish speaking home. Her exposure to language at a young age was very minimal and therefore did not set the premise for reading instruction that she needed. Her interventions included being read aloud to daily by my assistant and or myself. These read alouds were not the interactive read alouds done with a whole group reading class. This was Z and myself sitting quietly in corner, her on my lap, pointing to the text as I read and making statements such as, "This is a lion. A lion says roar." I am proud to say that Z is now a third grader in the same school. She is reading on grade level and makes the honor roll consistently. However, I strongly feel that without the language interventions I provided she would never have made the reading progress that she did.
