Parish. The first book I chose is another version of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of a wolf and little girl in the story there is a duckling that was referred to as Petite Rouge Riding Hood and her Grand-mere who was the Alligator. In the mid-1750’s a group of French-speaking people lived in an area of Canada knows as French Acadia, which was then ruled by the English government. In the beginning of the story there is a glossary of the words that children will encounter as they read. Next to the word it gives the meaning in English. I thought that having these words was a great way to discuss the vocabulary before reading the story. Challenges that ELL students or English-speaking students might face while reading this book is the accent in which it is read. Some of my highest students who are reading above grade level could not even read the book until I was able to read it a loud to them. We are currently doing a genre study on Fairy Tales and this was a book that I read a loud in Language Workshop. My students loved it, but they needed to hear it being read first in order to be able to read it on their own. Another challenge that ELL students might face is the missing letters, which are essential to be there for the word to be pronounced correctly. For example instead of the words “of and this” it reads “An’ some uh dis boudin” which means, “and some of this Cajun sausage.” ELL students or English speaking students would have difficulty reading these phrases because they are used to seeing “of” and “th” instead of “uh” and “dis.” Third, the story has many vocabulary words that are in French such as “adieu” meaning “goodbye,” “pirogue” meaning “a narrow, flat canoe that is pushed or paddled through the bayou, marsh, or swamp,” and “maisoui” meaning “yes.” Not only are these words tricky, but also I found myself having to refer back to the glossary while reading to make sure my students knew what I was referring to. The good thing about this story was that while reading the majority of the text is in English and using context clues gave a good idea of what the word meant in the story. Finally, even though the story is a different version of Little Red Riding Hood the story takes place in a swamp instead of the woods and the characters are different. I think ELL students who were not familiar with the story Little Red Riding Hood might become confused with what a swamp is and while reading they could lose meaning by not having enough background knowledge.
I would help ELL students comprehend the Fairy Tale by using a graphic organizer to compare and contrast what is different between the Little Red Riding Hood and Petite Rouge Riding Hood. I would also put the French words on note cards and accompany them with pictures so that each time I read the word or they read the word they could associate the new vocabulary with an image.
The second book I chose was Amelia Bedelia Under Construction. Amelia Bedelia
books include lots of idiomatic expressions that can be challenging for ELL students to understand. For example, the story reads, “I am expecting.” “Expecting what?” said Amelia Bedelia. “An addition,” said Mrs. Hardy. “I can help,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I am pretty good at math.” The word addition has two different meanings. It could mean adding another person to the family, or like Amelia Bedelia thought a math term. Throughout the story Amelia Bedelia thinks that words mean different things. For ELL students this could be challenging to understand because words have multiple meanings. To help I would give students the opportunity to hear, say, and read the words in different meaningful contexts. The article we read this week suggests this technique and I would also explain the vocabulary explicitly by acting out the words, through pictures, or verbal explanations. Another challenge in this story is the vocabulary. Since the family is building a house and needs marble counter tops Amelia Bedelia thinks she needs to put real marbles on the counters and does not understand what kind of marble the characters are referring to. Not only do words have multiple meanings in the story, but also the figurative language is evident throughout the story. To scaffold for my learners I would use pictures, demonstrations, and verbal explanations since they would not be able to infer meaning through the context clues provided. Third, the plot of the story is difficult and could result in a loss of meaning for ELL students. I would provide my students with a story map that they could use to help them identify the parts of the story. I would also make some sequence cards with pictures from the story that they could use to practice putting the story in order and telling a partner the story a loud before completing the story map organizer. Finally, I think ELL students would have difficulty reading some of the names in the story phonetically such as Amelia Bedelia, Eddie, and Andrew. The “ia” “ie” and “ew” chunks can be difficult to read. To help, I would write these names on a white board for students before reading the story and introduce the names before reading. I would also teach them the sounds of “ia” “ie” and “ew” using words they are familiar with so they will be able to associate the sounds with another word they are already able to recognize.
Overall, I enjoyed this task because it opened my eyes to what ELL students experience everyday while reading in the classroom. My own students were also able to identify with the challenge of not understanding a book and not being able to read a book until they were taught how. After being able to listen to the fairy tale, and practice reading it on their own, they loved it, and wanted me to read it again and again. They could connect to the challenges that ELL students face every day while learning English and that was rewarding to see!
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