Week 2.2: Children's Books Review

Entry #5: Review 2 children's books and determine what components in the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects. List 4 per book and tell how this schema could be taught or introduced to an ELL learner.

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood

1. Difficulty: The student may not understand who the story is about. As adult readers, we know the story is about the little boy but an ELL learner may not pick up on that right away.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should inform the ELL learner that the book is indeed about a little boy comparing himself to each of the animals in the story. It would be a good idea to also point this key piece of information out throughout the story, as well as at the end of the story. 

2. Difficulty: The student may not understand why there is some contradiction in this book. For example, "I'm as small as an ant, I'm as large as a whale?" The student may ask themselves, "How can you be small and big?" This may be confusing for the student to comprehend.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should discuss with students how there are a lot of opposites in the book. It may be fun for students to recall the opposite words that were used. The teacher can hold up the picture of the boy being strong like and ox and ask students about a time when they felt really strong like an ox. Then, the teacher could hold up the picture of the boy being weak like a kitten, and ask for students to recall a time they felt weak. The importance should be on how there are times in our life we feel one way, and other times we feel the opposite way. The objective of this is for ELL students to make connections through personal experiences to text content. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004)

3. Difficulty: Similes are used throughout the book which may be a very new concept for students.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should introduce similes before reading the book and inform students that a book will be read that has the simile I'm as ______ as a __________. "English language learners need to have an established purpose for reading something so they can evaluate whether they are successful" (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). At the end of the story, it may be fun for students to fill in the writing prompt in their own creative way and draw a picture that corresponds to the prompt. The teacher should provide scaffolding as needed. 

4. Difficulty: Students may be unfamiliar with the vocabulary words: tough, gentle, brave, and tame. 

• Teaching Schema: The teacher could introduce these vocabulary words before the story or explain them during the story. An ELL learner may learn best by imitating the actions with the class. Show being gentle and tame together since they are closely related. Show pictures of fire fighters, police officers and discuss why they are considered to be brave. Have students act wild and crazy and then tell them to be calm to demonstrate what it means to be tame. 

2. Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle

1. Difficulty: There are steps at the beginning of the book that the student is supposed to do before reading in order to fully enjoy the story. The steps are written within a paragraph unnumbered which makes it a little more difficult to follow each of the steps. Since this is supposed to be completed before reading the story, it's essential the student is able to do it in order to comprehend the story.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should number the steps in the text and provide it on a slip of paper for students who are planning on reading the book. Numbering the steps will help the ELL learner to read the steps more carefully. 

2. Difficulty: There is a single dot is on every other page. This may be confusing to students and make it difficult to comprehend the story.

• Teaching Schema: It would be recommended for the teacher to do a picture walk through the book without reading any of the text. At the end of the picture walk, "ask students to write down what they think the text is about, based on the pictures alone" (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). This way, ELL students aren't focusing on the dot alone, but are thinking about the pictures of the animals in the book and making predictions about what the story could be about. Students could make predictions about the meaning of the dot once they have made a solid prediction on the meaning of the story as a whole. 

3. Difficulty: The text reads one color of animal when the picture shows a different color of animal. For example, there is a picture of a green fox on the page, but the text reads about a red fox. 

• Teaching Schema: Again, this should also be explained to students before reading the story. Even though there is a green fox on the page, if you look closely enough the red fox can be seen. It would be recommended for ELL students to work collaboratively in a small group of 2-3 students. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). 

4. Difficulty: The student may have difficulty with understanding why there is a picture of a wheel at the beginning and end of the book that has a lot of color on it. 

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should introduce the color wheel and explain what it means to the story. Students should be given time to practice blending colors together to make a new color. The obective for ELL students is to interrelate concepts using a structured overview and visuals. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). 

This book is also written in Spanish so it may be fun to have a Spanish speaking parent read it to the whole class.  

References

Bradley, K., & Bradley, J. (2004). Scaffolding Academic Learning for Second Language Learners. The Internet TESL Journal, X(5).  

 Carle, E. (2001). Hello, Red Fox. New York, New York: Aladdin.  

Wood, A., & Wood, D. (1982). Quick as a cricket. New York, New York: Child's Play (International).