Evaluating+Materials+for+ESL+Reading+and+Content+Instruction

=Evaluating Materials for ESL Reading and Content Instruction: =

BRIEF OVERVIEW:
Below you will find a table documenting my evaluation of three different types of texts that may be used for ESL Instruction. Below the chart you will find the bibliographic entries for each and an outside resource that may be helpful.

Great Materials for Promoting ESL Readers:

Contains journal prompts and higher level thinking questions and activities. || **25/30** There is a section after every few chapters that contains question and activities to promote higher level thinking. There is some, but not a lot of, background information at the beginning of the text and the student may or may not connect the text to prior experiences. || **20/30** Will assist students in building background information and create new information. It does foster discussion and is somewhat appropriate for the development of higher level thinking questions and activities. It does not help the learner connect the information to previous experiences. || Teacher’s edition has pre-reading activities and suggestions for connecting to previous knowledge and experiences. || **25/30** There are interesting ideas and concepts such as adventures, friendship, slavery and racism. Information may or may not be connected to previous experience. Some metacognitive tools may be developed. The language may lend itself to the development of these tools. || **21/30** It does present interesting ideas and/or concepts such as travel, adventure, civil war, etc. It encourages the design of metacognitive tools and the panguage may match with these tools. New information can be constructed but the learner may not connect the information to previous knowledge. || Contains pronunciation and definitions of more difficult vocabulary and goes over academic vocabulary at the end of each piece/work included. Teacher’s edition contains activities and projects which may help build Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills. Points were deducted because the amount of vocabulary may become overwhelming if not careful. || **20/30** There are project ideas in the back of the text that may promote Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills and the book lends itself to literature discussions/circles as well. Some academic vocabulary is addressed in the activity and discussion sections after every few chapters. Only some of the vocabulary in the text may be used in pre-reading activities and the slang/dialect used may prove troublesome for ESL students. || **18/30** The vocabulary in the text could be utilized for pre-reading activities and the text is great for building Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills if used for a read aloud/discussion activity or group project work. However, the storyline does not contain or utilize Cognitive Academic Language. || Other great qualities are the many wonderful illustrations and the fact that it is multicultural. || **70/90** Another great quality of the text are the questions about the text throughout the reading that may be used as checks for understanding or comprehension. These could prove to be even more useful to ESL students. One other bad quality, however, is the lack of illustrations. The lack of pictures may impede understanding and comprehension of the action of the text and underlying themes. || **59/90** This text can be very useful and engaging. The moderately complicated vocabulary and the beautiful illustrations definitely lend themselves to the language development of ESL students. ||
 * || **Basal/Content Area Text** || **Adolescent Literature Text** || **Non-fiction Text** ||
 * **Score for Discussion Generation** || **30/30**
 * **Score for Metacognitive Skills** || **30/30**
 * **Score for Vocabulary BICS-CALP** || **28/30**
 * **TOTAL SCORE** || **88/90**
 * **Grade Level and Proficiency Level** || Great for use with 8th grade ESL learners of moderate to high English Language proficiency. It is possible to use with students of lower proficiency but may become overwhelming. || Good for use with 8th grade ESL learners of moderate to high English Language proficiency. It would be best to have students read a version containing illustrations while the teacher uses the background information in the beginning of the book, many of the activities and questions in the “Responding to the Selection,” most of the checks for understanding questions throughout the story and some of the project ideas. The teacher may make transparencies or handouts of some of these things for the students to utilize. || Great for use with students in the 8th grade that are at either moderate to high English language proficiency. Still, this text would be useful to students in lower grades as well. ||
 * **Text Uses for ESL Instruction** || Great for read alouds, discussion groups, small group work and large group work. There are a few activities, such as the journal prompts, that are useful for individual work. Could easily be used for writing instruction, reading, content, listening instruction, speaking instruction, language development and grammar instruction. || Good for content, reading, writing instruction, speaking instruction and listening instruction. || Great for language development and listening instruction mainly. Would be excellent for the teacher to read aloud and ask the students to discuss certain ideas and information it contains. Might also be useful for sparking engagement and motivation to do group research projects on the different events that Mark Twain witnessed and/or participated in. Finally, although this text did not score as high as the others, it can be very useful to ESL students, especially in conjunction with the other texts evaluated. ||

Bibliographic Information for Texts Evaluated:
Basal/Content Area Text:
 * Skiba, L., Coleman L. A., Owens, B., et al (Eds). (2005). //Literature and the Language Arts: Responding to Literature// (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: EMC/Paradigm Publishing.**

Adolescent Literature:
 * Shepherd, R. D. (Ed). (1998). Twain, M. //The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.// St. Paul, MN: EMC/Paradigm Publishing.**

Nonfiction Text:
 * Harness, C. (1998). //Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi.// New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.**

USEFUL OUTSIDE RESOURCE:
[|Teaching Middle School ESL Effectively]


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Ms. Cristina Hudgins cmh3j.mtsu@gmail.com

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