National Geographic - Our World
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/657865
17 21 From Theory to Practice Joan Kang Shin and JoAnn ( Jodi ) Crandall Teaching Young Learners English English Teaching Young Learners English Joan Kang Shin and JoAnn ( Jodi ) Crandall 3/7/13 9:27 AM Why use readers in your classroom? • Children should participate in a variety of reading experiences, both print and online. • Readers help students make cross-curricular connections and aid in comprehension of text. • Building cultural knowledge helps prepare young learners to be effective readers and writers of English across cultures. • Readers help model and teach various reading and writing strategies. • Reading helps to build vocabulary and automaticity of high frequency words. • Storytelling helps young learners build automaticity in bottom-up skills, such as phonics, to decode and spell words. Teaching Young Learners English Teaching Young Learners English focuses on teaching English as a foreign language to children aged 7-12. It presents foundational concepts, best practices and practical suggestions on how to develop lessons and activities for the energetic and curious minds of young learners in the 21st century classroom. It also features the perspectives and suggestions from practicing teachers around the world, and can be used as a basic text for prospective teachers or as a professional development tool for teachers and administrators wishing to develop the knowledge and skills to teach English to young learners. Joan Kang Shin and JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall More Reading Ideas! Make Inferences Readers often have to make inferences, or guesses, about a character and his or her actions. The reader has to "read between the lines." A writer doesn't always say why something happens or why a character acts a certain way, but through pictures or other words, the reader makes an inference. Help students make inferences about characters by reminding them to ask questions such as Why is she doing that? Why is he saying that? u Topics covered include lesson planning, classroom management, assessment, and ongoing professional development. u Teacher to Teacher sections in each chapter include real teachers from all over the world expressing their views on that topic. u Each chapter includes a list of useful publications, references and websites for further study. NGL.Cengage.com/TYLE Use Reading Strategies Identifying the main idea and details in an informational text helps students focus on important facts and details, and understand how they relate to the main idea. Help students identify main ideas and supporting details by stopping every few pages and asking questions. Visualize Encourage students to make pictures in their heads as they read or listen to a reading. Suggest that they close their eyes and think about what they have read or heard. Encourage them to draw what they "see" in their minds. Visualizing helps clarify information and engage students with the content. When students make pictures in their minds, they feel connected to the text.