Description: A practical, research-based guide, Teaching Reading to English Language Learners gives ESL teachers and grade-level teachers the information and strategies they need to support second language literacy development with their Culturally Linguistically Diverse (CLD) learners, in addition to the program the school already has in place. Throughout, the authors guide teachers to modify literacy instruction to address both the assets and the needs of their English learners. Included are strategies for converting research into practical application; illustrative student samples from multiple grade levels and language backgrounds; teacher insights; a look at the sociocultural, academic, cognitive, and linguistic dimensions of the CLD student biography; and a number of helpful pedagogical aids.
Review Quotes: "...unlike many texts on second language learners, this text looks at literacy learning for second language learners from a sociopshycolinguistic perspective. Most importantly for credential students, this text provides multiple teaching strategies and ideas for teaching that are research based and connected to theory. This way student teachers can bridge their own practices and what they observe in the classroom with the language and literacy theories they are experiencing in their university courses." - Cinzia Forasiepi
"The major strength of this book (and the reason I use it in my class) is its focus on teaching reading to linguistically diverse students at the elementary level. It addresses cross-linguistic transfer issues and ways to teach so that a child's knowledge of L1 supports his or her learning in L2. This makes the book unique. I also like the strong focus on the use of multicultural children's books to illustrate concepts being taught. The "Strategies in Practice" examples in each chapter are excellent, especially the strategies that teach ways to focus on comparing and contrasting languages." - Elizabeth Franklin, University of Northern Colorado"I enjoyed and appreciated the cultural underpinnings of the text and how it was carried out throughout." - Robert D. Leier, Auburn University