Frame 1

Bridging the Gap: Helping learners

with longer non-fiction texts

Stephanie Frame, MA, Cuyamaca CollegeCATESOL State Conference, Oct. 19, 2017

Frame 2

ESL 2AB (1 AND 2 LEVELS BELOW TRANSFER) THE INSTRUCTIONAL CYCLEBefore each unit, students do pre-reading.

For every chapter they read in the non-fiction book, students do the following:

1) Annotations and submitted Summary and Annotation Log2) In-class activities to break down and understand the chapter3) Discussion board4) Journal (in class or at home)5) Other activities to help them use the text to answer the writing prompt

For each unit (a unit comprises more than one chapter in a book) students write:

1) Out-of-class essay 2) Comparable in class essay

SAMPLE SEMESTER CURRICULAContent Theme: Success

Dweck, Carol. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Ilian, George, Top 10 Visionaries

Unit 1, Success in Personal Relationships: Mindset Chapters 1, 6, 7, 8 – Example EssayUnit 2, Success in Academics/Sports, Mindset Chapters 2, 3, 4 – Summary, Argument, Response Unit 3, Causes of a specific person’s success: Mindset Chapter 5, Top 10 Visionaries, additional library research

Content Theme: Habits and Addictions

Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit

Nakken, Craig. The Addictive Personality

Unit 1, Changing a habit: Power of Habit Chapters 1-3 – Personal experience with text support

Frame 3

Unit 2, Habits in Business, Power of Habit Chapters 4-6 – Summary, Problem and Solution Unit 3, Habit, Addiction and Responsibility: Power of Habit Chapter 9, The Addictive Personality Parts 1 and 2, additional library research

ESL 2AB OUT-OF-CLASS ACTIVITIESSUMMARY AND ANNOTATION LOGSFor every chapter they read in the non-fiction book, students do the following and submit online.

Frame 4

DISCUSSION BOARDSI have students do the following for my discussion boards. It gives them practice making the “quote sandwiches” they need to be able to do when they write their essays.

Golden Line Discussion (Student Instructions)

1) Choose a passage from the chapter that you feel is particularly important (Golden Line). In your post, give the context for the passage (What aspect of the topic is the author writing about in general when that passage occurs?) Then give the passage (directly quoted with quotation marks) and the page number it occurs on. Then explain why you think this passage is so important. Your explanation can be in general or with personal examples, Either way, it should be thorough and complete.2) Read posts from other classmates.3) Ask one person in the class a question about their post.4) Respond to a different classmate's post with a comment about their Golden Line or explanation.5) Answer any questions from classmates on your original post.IMPORTANT NOTES: These are MINIMUM requirements for the Discussion Board. Meeting these requirements will earn you a 3.5/5. Additional points are awarded based on the QUALITY of your posts, questions, and responses and for going BEYOND the minimum requirements. You may need to visit the Discussion Board several times to complete the requirements. Just as in a face-to-face conversation, you will be waiting for posts, responses, etc. from others.

JOURNALSFor every chapter, students complete a journal. Sometimes, I have them do this in class and other times at home. In class they write for 20-30 minutes. Here are a few samples from the Power of Habit curriculum.

Journal 3

Frame 5

Think about the bad habit you chose in Activity 6. What is it you are really craving that has made that a habit? What could you do to change the routine while still keeping the cue and the reward? Try to write about several ideas for changing the habit.

Journal 4

Write a little bit each day about your habit changing experiment. What is working or not working? Are you still having cravings? How do your ideas connect to the ideas in “The Power of Habit”?

ESL 2AB IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES TO BREAK DOWN READINGSSPEED DATING

This activity can be used to help students understand key concepts in a text, challenging passages, or important quotes or to help them analyze and react to ideas in the text.

1) Choose the passages or concepts you wish to use for the speed date and make a handout or put them on slides.

2) In class, have the students make two lines, facing each, directly across from one another. The person they are across from is their partner. Each student should get a handout or be able to see the slides on the screen.

3) Set a time limit for students to discuss the first passage with their partner. They should explain it and discuss its significance in the text.

4) When the time limit is up, one line of students should move one person to the left or right with one person going to the other end of the line. Each student should have a new partner. They should discuss the same passage or concept again.

5) When time is up, the same line should move in the same direction, so that each student has a new partner. They should discuss the NEXT passage this time. Keep moving that line so that each student discusses each passage with 2 partners.

6) When all the passages have been discussed, conduct a whole class feedback session.

Here are some sample passages from “The Addictive Personality.”

Speed Dating for The Addictive Personality Part 1: Addiction as a Process

Follow your instructor’s directions for speed dating. Discuss what Nakken means by each of the statements and how it is important to the text.

Frame 6

“The sensations of the trance produce a feeling in the individual that connection has taken place. It creates a virtual reality in which the spiritual experience seems real but is in fact only illusionary” (Nakken 5).

“Slowly, addicts start to depend on the addictive process for a sense of nurturing and definition of who they are. Their lives become the pursuit of their addiction” (8).

“Once a person starts to look to an object or event for emotional stability, he or she is building the foundation of an addictive relationship with it” (10).

“Fooling people is a serious business, but when you fool yourself it becomes fatal” (15).

“Emotionally, addicts act like adolescents and are often described as adolescent in behavior and attitude” (17).

“Recovery is the continued acceptance of addiction and the continuous monitoring of the addictive personality in whatever form it may take” (18).

SUMMARY SENTENCE ACTIVITY

This activity is especially useful for essays that require a summary paragraph.

1) Before you assign the reading, break it into 6-8 naturally occurring sections. (If there are no physically visible breaks, you will have to make them yourself.)

2) When you assign the reading, give each student 1 sticky note for each of the sections. Explain where the breaks are. Tell them that as they read for homework, they should write a 1-sentence summary on each sticky note of each of the main sections the text is divided into.

3) In the next class, dedicate a space in the classroom to each of the sections. Students put their sticky notes in the appropriate sections.

4) Break the class into groups. Assign each group one section. Their task is to read through all of the summary sentences and decide/create the bestsummary sentence for that section.

5) Students write their summary sentences on the board, and the rest of the class copies them into a worksheet or notes. (Alternatively, you could do this as a jigsaw activity.)

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER AND TAG TEAM

Frame 7

For finding details in a chapter.

1) Find or create a graphic organizer appropriate for the reading. Make enough copies for each student.

2) Students fill in the graphic organizer while they read the chapter as homework.

3) In class, students work in groups of 4 and compare their organizers.4) Set up enough stations with whiteboard space or poster paper so that there is

one for each category on your organizer. 5) Give each group a different color marker. 6) To play the game, one team member on each team must go to any one of the

posters or whiteboard sections and write one of the things from the graphic organizer. They then run back to their group and hand off the marker to another teammate. Team members take turns adding to the posters/whiteboard space. THEY CANNOT WRITE SOMETHING THAT ANOTHER CLASSMATE HAS ALREADY WRITTEN. Have them tag team for a specific amount of time.

7) At the end of the time limit, count up the items written in each color. The team with the most ideas written down wins.

8) Have a whole class discussion about the items.

ROUND ROBIN

For sharing important parts of the text, as well as challenging ones and questions.

1) Give each student a copy of the handout (condensed version below).2) Students fill in their worksheet.3) Students circulate through the room, commenting on each other’s pages.4) Conduct a whole class discussion on necessary issues.

Students fill in

The most important idea I take away from this reading is ….

The most interesting thing in this reading is …

The most challenging passage in this reading is …

Frame 8

CHAPTER POSTER SESSION

Gives students practice understanding gist and detail, as well as providing text support.

1) Divide the chapter into sections. Break students into groups. If you have a small class, you can have one group per section. If you have large class, make more groups and have them duplicate sections.

2) Poster activity: Groups make a poster showing 1. The purpose of the chapter (What is the author’s claim or main point?) 2. A BRIEF summary of their section. 3) Four quotes that they think BEST support their information above.

3) Arrange posters so that ones with the same section are together.4) Poster session, in which one student stays by the poster to explain it to

others. Rotate the speaker at regular intervals so that everyone gets a chance to circulate.

5) Whole class discussion/feedback about the posters. (Which one got the claim the best, etc.)

6) Have students take pictures of the posters or save them for when students need to write the essay.

READING CIRCLES

Modelled after the same type of reading/literature circle you can do when your students read fiction.

1) Break the class into groups of 5. These will be their assigned reading circle for the whole text.

2) Students choose their role and do the assigned reading and fill out their role paper for homework.

3) In class, students meet first with everyone who had the same role as they did to compare notes.

4) Then students meet with their reading circle and contribute based on their role.

5) Students assign themselves new roles for the next chapter. The idea is that students get a chance to do each role at least once during the semester.

6) Each group shares one interesting thing from their discussion with the whole class.

Frame 9

Here are my roles. Word Wizards, Discussion Directors, and Golden Line Gurus are responsible for 5 items on their worksheet.

Cultural Connector

Your job is to find at least one cultural issue brought up in the book that you think may be unfamiliar to your group. Give the page number on which it is mentioned. Then do a little bit of research to find out information about this issue that you can share with your group. Lead a discussion about whether this issue exists in the other cultures represented in your group.

Discussion Director

Your job is to write a list of questions that your group might want to discuss about this section of the book. The best questions will come from your own feelings, thoughts, and ideas about this section of the book. They should NOT be comprehension questions. You should try to write 5 open-ended discussion questions. Remember, your goal is to get your group talking about the bigger ideas in the text.

Golden Line Guru

Your job is to find 5 important passages in the section you are reading and explain why they are important. You should highlight these passages in your book or mark them with a sticky note. Then write the page number on which each passage can be found and explain why they are significant. In the group you will lead a discussion about them.

Super Summarizer

Your job is to summarize this section of text for your group. Your summary should focus on main events and/or ideas in the section. Your summary should fill up the rest of this side of the page.

Pages summarized: ____________________

Word Wizard

Your job is to find 5 words or phrases you think might be unfamiliar to the group. Look them up in a good English learner’s dictionary, and write the definition and other important information about the word or phrase that you can find. You should also write the page number in the text on which the word occurs.

COMMUNITY BUILDING GAME

Useful for finding text evidence to support subtopics in essays.

1) Divide the class into groups.2) For each round, Give the class a statement for which they need to find

evidence in the text.3) Groups should find their evidence fairly quickly. Groups share what they

found (quote and page number) as well as their justification for the evidence. Do not comment or have the class comment on the quality of responses.

Frame 10

4) Then, as a class, decide which group gave the best answer. 5) The group that is chosen will be split up and the members will be distributed

to other groups.6) Repeat the procedure from step 2 until the class is back as one big group.

LONGER NON-FICTION AND:CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION

Using a longer non-fiction text allows for a content-based approach to ESL, which “provides a rich context for teaching all aspects of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and related discourse and pragmatic features” (Snow, 2014, p. 447).

CBI provides a wealth of opportunities for both comprehensible input and comprehensible output, both of which play a role in SLA (Snow, 2014).

ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING It has been suggested that the overemphasis in ESL classes on narrative

fiction accounts at least partly for the “disparities between the development of basic language skills … and more complex cognitive abilities.” (Gardner as cited in Anderson, 2014, p. 172).

Longer non-fiction provides opportunities for both extensive and intensive reading that support each other. “EAP students improve their reading abilities by reading – and reading a lot.” Grabe and Stoller, 2014, p. 191).

It allows students to consistently build directly relevant background knowledge and content and formal schema in way that improves reading comprehension and strategic processing (Grabe and Stoller, 2014, p. 191).

The sequence of activities promotes reading for a variety of purposes, including reading to learn, reading for general comprehension, reading to integrate information, reading to write, and reading to skim and scan for information (Grabe and Stoller, 2002, p. 13).

The sequence of activities promotes rereading the text, which builds reading comprehension and increases reading fluency (Grabe and Stoller, 2014, p. 200).

Non-fiction is more lexically dense than fiction, and contains more of the vocabulary learners need to know for academic success (an estimated 10,000 words) (Grabe and Stoller, 2014).

The activity sequence provides multiple exposures as well as multiple opportunities to engage with and use vocabulary, thereby promoting acquisition (Zimmerman, 2014, p. 292).

Frame 11

MOTIVATION Careful selection of a text that is relevant to the learners’ lives and

experiences makes the learning experience more attractive (Dornyei, 2014). The repetition of concepts and skills builds learner self-confidence. Lots of low-stakes, collaborative practice lowers the affective filter and

increases learner self-confidence as well as motivation (California Acceleration Project materials).

SOURCES AND RESOURCESAnderson, N. Developing Engaged Second Language Readers, pp. 170-188.

Dornyei, Z., Motivation in Second Language Learning, pp. 518-531.

Grabe, W., and Stoller, F. Teaching Reading for Academic Purposes, pp. 189-207.

Snow, M. A. Content-Based and Immersion Models of Second/Foreign Language Teaching, pp. 438-455.

Zimmerman, C. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary for Second Language Learners, pp.288-302

The above are all in:

Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (2014). M. Celce-Murcia, D. Brinton and M. A. Snow, Eds. National Geographic Learning, Heinle: Boston, MA.

Grabe, W. and Stoller, F. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. Pearson.

Hern, K. and Snell, M. California Acceleration Project (and all the CAP honey badgers).

And special thanks to all of the accelerators at Cuyamaca College for being huge believers in what our students CAN do. Acceleration isn’t about pushing students through who “are not ready.” It is about providing opportunity, skills, tools, and practice, so that those who are ready are not held back or blocked from reaching their academic and career goals.