Supporting Reading Literacy

With Information Technology

       The Pacific region has many second language learners that seem to find it hard to immerse themselves among proficient English speakers.  It seems that there is a perceived need for ESL students to learn English as a second language.  These ESL students come from different ethnic backgrounds such as Chamorros, Japanese, Koreans, Micronesians and so forth.  The ways in which children communicate in their home cultures are critical to the development of written language models of reading and writing.  Their home languages provide the foundation for the emergence of reading and writing behaviors in the classroom.  Foetsch (1998) describes second language learning as an important factor that influences how children learn to read.  He further discusses the issues of home language structure, values, and expectations verses school language as they enter an English based educational system.  Students with first home languages may be at a disadvantage for success in early reading tasks, and thus spend their entire school careers attempting to catch up (Gay, 1988; Snow, 1992).  Snow (1992) suggests that literacy be defined in light of language variety.  That is, literacy should be defined in terms of what it takes to function in one’s culture on a daily basis rather than solely upon an indefinable standard language.  Thus, literacy is much more than simply being able to read and write, rather, it is a set of complex tasks and behaviors that may, for some individuals, encompass the use of several languages and ways of being literate.  Given this definition of literacy, learning to read in the language that encompasses those things familiar and meaningful is critical to success in learning to read in a second language.  With this complex task of teaching ESL students on Guam and elsewhere throughout the United States, teachers must try to develop a well thought out plan that will help these ESL students to become proficient in reading, speaking, and writing English.

        With this task in mind, our first lesson activity has helped me to come up with a lesson that is geared for the advance ESL student.  The focus of my activity incorporates spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel (information technology) supporting reading literacy.  It is a new approach to teaching and learning.  Integrating technology as an educational tool can help students take on a new prospective to learning.  By allowing the students to read a story and identify pertinent elements of a story can help the students understand the dynamics of how the story unfolds.  This activity has helped me to become aware of how detail a lesson plan needs to be.  The meticulous task of prescribing in detail, what the students are actually going to do, needs to be precisely worded using proper verbs.  I’ve learned that we need to be clear and concise in which the student understands all facets of the activity.  The lesson plan needs to have adequate white spaces so that students clearly see each segment of the activity.  From our in-class discussions, I’ve learned that it is important to make the lesson plan less wordy and uncluttered.  A wordy lesson plan may tend to detract a student’s focus and interest.  We must think from a student’s perspective of doing this activity.

       In regards to content standards, this activity must be aligned with certain standards like the Guam Public School System content standard or TESOL and so forth.  The TESOL content standard 3.c was well aligned for this activity.  This standard covers the element of integrating technology as a resource with ESL and content instructions.  This TESOL standard allowed us to take on a new perspective to motivate students to read.  By incorporating a technological approach, the students will have more opportunities to use computer software with their assignments.  Using microcomputers is considered cutting edge technology of today.  The students are delighted to get on a computer.  Even though for some students, using computers are new to them, yet they are very interested to learn.  It is this interest that we must capitalize on.  The spark it creates can help motivate reading literacy.  As I developed this lesson activity, I seem to have other ideas that came up in my head.  Designing a theme based lesson plan can help gain more interest and participation from students.  This activity has helped me to think a bit harder and place more effort to developing a sound lesson plan.  Timeline is another factor that needs to be well planned.  How long will this activity be?  What are the first things that the students need to do and the second thereof?  Will the students have enough time?  Is the needed technology accessible for students?  All these questions warrant considerable attention-to- detail as we spend time to devise a plan for our students. 

       With more revision and editing, this activity can be improved to gain more interests from the students.  That’s the key for me.  I feel that as an educator, we must focus on student’s interest and motivation to participate.  The activity needs to be fun and educational.  I would probably improve this activity by modifying the whole concept to be a theme base lesson plan.  For example, if the students are reading about Romeo and Juliet, the students can choose a scene to acting out in class.  Dressing for the part, the students will recreate a scene in the story.  Not only do they spark an interest in reading, the students’ are actually role-playing a scene in the story.  The story becomes alive.  I can imagine the interaction, the smiles, and the joy from the students in doing this activity.  I can feel it already as I type this essay. 

       Taking it from a different perspective, sometimes, we need to involve student’s input of what they really would like to do.  We must find out what other things of interest that they have in mind.  You never know what ideas they come up with.  I am beginning to see many different angles to this approach.  Our approach, methods, and techniques should be properly based on their grade level and probable skills of the students.  If you allow the students the opportunity to be creative, I believe they will prosper in many ways.  This is what I really like about this assignment.  This assignment enabled me to think even beyond my first lesson.  This assignment allowed me to see more of what we can do to improve the first draft of lesson one.  We can build on it.  By capitalizing our thoughts and experiencing many more activities like this can help us build that bag of tricks that experienced teachers have. 

       Another thing that I like about this assignment is how it really teaches us to incorporate a spreadsheet to our content instruction.  By using spreadsheet software, the students will have a hands-on experience using information technology supporting reading literacy.  With a presentation that followed, the students were able to present to the class what they have learned from this activity. 

       As far as dislikes concerning lesson plan one, I felt uneasy because I am new to this type of planning.  I do not have much experience as a teacher yet.  Unlike the others in class, they already had a great plan to present.  I can sense the experience in them.  I considered myself a rookie in this case.  But this mentality did not deter me from accomplishing this activity.  It was a great learning experience for me.  With that said, my bag of tricks continues to fill as we continue to do more lesson planning.           

       In view of this first activity, I have found that there is still more creativity out there to be discovered.  Taking on a new perspective to teaching and learning using technology as an educational tool can help gain a new found desire for students to participate in the lesson with great enthusiasm.  The motivation that this integrated activity can bring to the classroom should be capitalized in support of reading literacy.  With this said, I look forward to lesson plan number two.

Work Cited

Foertsch, M. (1998). A study of reading practices, instruction, and achievement in

        District 31 schools. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Education Laboratory.

Gay, G. (1988). Designing relevant curricula for diverse learners. Education and Urban

        Society, 20(4), 327-40.

Snow, C. (1992, March). Perspectives on second-language development: Implications for

         bilingual education. Educational Researcher, 21(2), 16-19.