Blog #5 Comprehension in Children's Books

The first book I chose for this assignment was Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall.  It was written by an Australian author.  The first area in which ELL students might face challenges is in the vocabulary.  For example, kookaburras and gum-trees are not well-known items outside of Australia.  As an effective instructor, I would provide pictures as to what the items were.  Verb choice would be another area in which ELL learners might face difficulty.  The author describes a talkative area in the bush as " twittering" with news.  For language learners, I might act out what a word such as this meant, and provide a word web with similar-meaning words.  Spelling differences pop up throughout the book, and could cause challenges for ELL learners who are trying to learn English in an American classroom.  Students could not perhaps understand why "favorite" is spelled "favourite" in this book. The use of dictionaries or thesauruses could prove useful to the students in this case.  Finally, the formality of sentences could prove confusing to ELL learners.  The author's description of a character acting with vigour and "fairly flying round the shops" could be rewritten in a way so that language learners could understand it, perhaps "The character moved with a lot of energy" might prove easier to comprehend.

The second book I chose for this assignment was Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.  The story takes place in a different era of American history, and is set in the South.  One area in which ELL learners might face difficulty is in the choice of vocabulary words.  Many language learners might not understand what oppossums, corn bread, and hounds are; I would have to provide pictures of them.  The choice of verbs would be another difficult area.  For example, "cooped up" might not be well understood by the learners; drawing the phrase on the board in picture form or acting it out would be beneficial to the students.  Regional activities such as hoeing corn and raccoon hunting could cause confusion; a class discussion would be needed to boost comprehension.  The formality of sentences in the book would, like my earlier choice, have to be rewritten on the board and explained during a class discussion.