This document discusses effective early literacy instruction strategies for English language learners. It outlines key early literacy skills like alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness that ELL students need to acquire. Recommendations include supporting students' native language, providing balanced and meaningful literacy programs, and ensuring instruction is culturally appropriate. Classroom strategies presented focus on interactive storybook reading, games to identify letters, and connecting skills between a student's first and second language. Potential pitfalls for teachers to avoid are mismatched instruction, an imbalanced focus on skills, and a lack of ongoing professional development.

1. Leah Snedegar
Effective Early Literacy
Instruction Strategies
for ELLs

2. • Early literacy instruction is essential to students’ cognitive and social
development, especially English language learners (ELL) who are learning
English for the very first time. In my research, I found ways in which a teacher
can provide effective early literacy instruction to these students.
• During my presentation, I will discuss
– Early literacy
– Literacy development
– Early literacy skills
– Principles and recommendations
– Classroom strategies
– Implementation pitfalls
Introduction

3. • What is early literacy?
• What are early literacy skills that ELLs are expected to acquire?
• What are recommendations for ELLs in the classroom?
• What are proven to be effective early literacy instruction
strategies that can be used in the classroom?
• How can a teacher provide effective early literacy instruction to
ELL students?
• What pitfalls could a teacher face during implementation of early
literacy instruction?
Questions During Research

4. “By 2023, more than half of the country’s student population will be
non-white, and by 2042, the majority of the overall U.S. population
will be non-white…The fastest-growing subpopulation is
Hispanic/Latino---indeed by 2050, nearly one in three U.S. residents
will be Hispanic---yet Hispanic children have some of the poorest
educational outcomes in the country” (The changing child population
of the United States, 2011).

5. 1980 1990 2000 2010 Change 1980 to 2010
Number Number Number Number Number Percent
Total Population Under Age 18 63,754,960 63,604,432 72,293,812 74,181,467 10,426,507 16
Non-Hispanic Whites 47,035,526 43,807,311 44,027,087 39,716,652 -7,318,874 -16
Minorities 16,719,434 19,797,121 28,266,725 34,464,815 17,745,381 106
Non-Hispanic 11,091,478 12,039,621 15,924,466 17,333,924 6,242,446 56
Hispanic 5,627,956 7,757,500 12,342,259 17,130,891 11,502,935 204
Table 1: Changes in the Number of
White Non-Hispanic and Minority
Children, 1980 to 2010
(The changing child population of the United States, 2011)

6. • English language learners (ELLs) represent approximately 20% of the
nation’s young children and are the fastest growing student population
in the U.S., growing by over 50% from 1998-2008.
• Spanish is the most frequent non-English language spoken of the more
than 400 different languages represented in the ELL population.
• ELLs are particularly vulnerable to low literacy levels at the end of third
grade.
Background Information

7. • Of all fourth grade ELLs in the U.S., only 6% score at or above proficient
in reading comprehension.
• ELLs’ knowledge of vocabulary has been shown to be two standard
deviations below the national norm in preschool and continue to be
significantly low through middle school.
• All young children need to learn to read and write in order to have a
chance in school and later in life and solid reading skills by the end of
third grade are essential to all future academic progress---and this
begins with effective early literacy instruction.
Background Information (cont’d)

8. • Early literacy is what children know about reading and writing before
they can actually read and write.
• There are certain skills that underlie the ability to read.
• All children can learn to read if they have the opportunity to learn
fundamental language skills within the context of safe and supportive
personal relationships.
• Achieving literacy involves developing a broad schema that includes
specific knowledge of a variety of subjects, enabling one to
communicate in a particular environment.
What is Early Literacy?

9. • Ages 0-2
– Children’s experiences with oral language development and literacy begin to
build a foundation for later reading success.
• Ages 2-3
– Children begin to produce understandable speech in response to books and the
written marks they create.
Literacy Development

10. • Ages 3-4
– Children show rapid growth in literacy.
– They begin to “read” their favorite books by themselves. Children focus mostly on
reenacting the story from the pictures, eventually progressing from telling about
each picture individually to creating a story from picture to picture using
language that sounds like reading or written language.
– They also begin to use wavy scribbles to imitate adult cursive writing.
Literacy Development (cont’d)

11. • Age 5
– Children enter school and begin receiving formal literacy instruction.
– They continue to make rapid growth in literacy skills if they are exposed to
literacy-rich environments.
– Readers are just beginning to control early reading strategies such as
directionality, word-by-word matching, and concepts of print.
– They use pictures to support reading and rely heavily on their knowledge of
language.
– Children’s writing also develops rapidly.
– They plan their writing and are able to discuss their plans with others.
– They begin use of invented spelling.
Literacy Development (cont’d)

12. • Alphabet knowledge
– ELLs are taught to recognize and name upper and lower case letters and begin to
associate letters with the sounds they make.
• Phonological awareness
– ELLs learn to be able to manipulate the sounds that make up language,
independent of meaning.
• Print awareness
– ELLs learn to understand the features of books and print.
Early Literacy Skills

13. Principle #1
• Oral language and literacy development is supported by the student’s
native language.
– Development and learning begin in the first language, and it is in this language
that children begin to construct their knowledge and form meaningful
communicative relationships.
– Young ELLs should receive their initial reading instruction in their native language.
– Incorporating the native language to the second language learning process will
allow young children to associate reading and writing with meaning and literacy
knowledge derived from their home experiences.
Principles and Recommendations

14. Principle #2
• Literacy learning in English is an on-going process that requires time
and appropriate support.
– All children learn at different rates.
– It varies based on a number of factors, such as how much literacy background
they already have, the difference between the languages’ writing systems, the age
of the student when they were introduced to schooling in English, and the nature
of the demands.
– ELLs can begin to develop literacy in English while they are still acquiring English.
Principles and Recommendations

15. Principle #3
• Instruction and materials are culturally and developmentally
appropriate.
– ELLs who are at the early stages of schooling need to experience developmentally
appropriate instruction that will help them acquire oral and written language
proficiency in one or more languages.
– In developmentally appropriate classrooms, students spend most of their time in
rich language environments in which they observe, touch, listen, talk, and interact.
Principles and Recommendations

16. Principle #4
• Literacy programs are meaning-based and balanced.
– ELLs need to understand why people read and write in order to be motivated to
excel in their own literacy development.
– A balanced literacy program will teach both reading and writing skills within the
context of meaningful interactions with texts that elicit students’ emotional and
intellectual responses to ideas, characters, and events.
– Exposure to variety is key to ELLs.
Principles and Recommendations

17. Principle #5
• Assessment is reliable, valid, and ongoing.
– A variety of formal and informal tools should be used to accurately assess the
literacy development of young ELLs.
Principles and Recommendations

18. Principle #6
• Professional preparation and development is continually provided for
educators regarding linguistic and cultural diversity.
– The presence of ELLs and culturally diverse classrooms is becoming the norm
throughout the country.
– All educators and administrators need to have both pre- and in-service training
opportunities in linguistic and cultural diversity, and in principles of first and
second language development.
Principles and Recommendations

19. “Early childhood education can play an essential role in preparing
young English language learners for later success in school…children
who have an opportunity to develop basic foundational skills in
language and literacy in preschool enter kindergarten ready to learn
to read and write” (Ford, 2011).

20. • Design instruction that focuses on all of the foundational literacy skills.
• Activities:
– Interactive storybook reading
– “Pretend” reading and writing
– Games and other activities to help children identify the letters of the alphabet
– Interactive experiences with language and print through poems, nursery rhymes,
and songs
Classroom Strategies

21. • Recognize that many literacy skills can transfer across languages.
• Activities:
– Use home language to teach rhymes and songs
– Play word games
– Share storybooks
Classroom Strategies

22. • Accelerate English literacy development by helping ELLs make the
connection between what they know in their first language and what
they need to know in English.
• Activities:
– Start with same phonemes of L1 and English, starting with those phonemes for
rhyme or beginning sound activities
Classroom Strategies

23. Literacy and Line Dancing
A community collaborates to
focus on literacy for English
language learners.

24. • Teachers deal with the difficulty of matching the method of teaching with each child’s
level of literacy development and individual skills.
• Traditional school-based literacy programs often assume that children’s literacy
concepts are more developed than they actually are—this assumption may or may
not be true. Instruction needs to be appropriate to the child’s development.
• Teachers might provide a more conventional model of reading instead of an
emergent model, causing students to learn in a more direct instruction than taking
the time to determine the appropriate instruction for each child.
• When working with children, a teacher might focus on one literacy component to the
exclusion of others.
• Teachers are not provided long-term professional development, resulting in a
misunderstanding of children’s literacy development and misuse of reading tools and
materials.
Pitfalls During Implementation

25. • For ELL students, the complexities involved with literacy and language
development are compounded by the fact that they must be achieved
in a language other than their native language, and in most cases,
before they are literate in that language.
• Language and literacy knowledge in one language can serve as the
foundation for a new language.
• As teachers, we must provide language-rich literacy instruction. Also,
we must ensure that students are motivated to read and write and are
better prepared to understand texts at more advanced levels of literacy
development.
Conclusion

26. • Aukerman, M. (2007). A culpable CALP: Rethinking the conversational/academic language proficiency distinction in early
literacy instruction. Retrieved from http://library.semo.edu:3608/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f23b7bc6-ad38-49a0-9ee2-
722adc2195a9%40sessionmgr112&vid=4&hid=126
• Espinosa, L. (2010). Promoting early language and literacy development of English language learners: A research-based
agenda. Retrieved from http://earlysuccess.org/sites/default/files/Espinosa%20research%20Based%20Agenda.pdf
• Ford, K. (2010). 8 strategies for preschool ELLs’ language and literacy development. Retrieved from
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/36679/
• Helman, L. (2009). Literacy development with English learners: Research-based instruction in grades K-6. New York: The
Guilford Press.
• Johnson, D. & Sulzby, E. (1999). Critical issue: Addressing the literacy needs of emergent and early readers. Retrieved from
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li100.htm
• Position paper on language and literacy development for young English language learners (ages 3-8). (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.tesol.org/docs/pdf/371.pdf?sfvrsn=2
• Seidlitz, J., & Castillo, M. (2013). Language & literacy for ELLs: Creating systematic change for academic achievement. San
Antonio: Seidlitz Education.
• The changing child population of the United States: Analysis of data from the 2010 census. (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.aecf.org/resources/the-changing-child-population-of-the-united-states/
References