Blog #4

Choose a text in a language that you are not familiar with, at a level at which you should be proficient (an adult publication). Read it. Find a way to make meaning. Do whatever you have to do to make this text comprehensible. Now scale back the difficulty of the text. How far back do you have to go until you understand what you are reading? What did you do to make meaning? What are the implications to teacher?

I went to the local library and asked the librarian to refer me to a good novel in Spanish.  The librarian suggested I read the book titled" La Sombra Del Viento," by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I took Spanish for four years in high school, so I thought I would be able to understand the jist of the book with little trouble.  The truth was I was able to comprehend very little from this book. I was able to pick up words here and there, which allowed me to make some sense of the story.  The easiest words to pick up were the ones that were very similar to English words or English words themselves that I suggest were not able to be translated. The next words were those Spanish words I could remember.  This helped me get an idea of what the sentences were trying to say.   I think I was able to get the whole idea of the book, but I definitely could not understand the details. 

Some of the strategies I used included making connections between words I knew and words that were similar.  I would try and find connections with words I understood to those that had the same suffix or prefixes; ella, la, le, mos, etc.  I would also ask myself: “Does it make sense? Or “What would make sense?” based on the words I could understand.  I would try and comprehend based on what I knew and what would make sense in that sentence.  I found I could only read sentence to sentence to try and making meaning.  My fluency was low, and I am not sure my pronunciation was correct either. 

This book should have been at my ability level, but it was very frustrating to read, and my comprehension was very low.  So, I decided to try a children’s book in Spanish. 

I then moved on to the children's books. I read the story "Eres Mi Mama?," by PD Eastman. Because of the very many, detailed pictures, and the familiar words such as perro,I was able to make sense of this book. I could understand that the dog was lost and could not find his mother. I established this with and without the pictures.  I did not have a complete comprehension of the book, but I was able to comprehend most.  There were words that I was able to pick up on, but the text as a whole was still very difficult for me to comprehend.

With this book, I relied on the strategy of checking the picture.  I found I went back to my first grade reading tricks list I give my students.  I was trying to reread the sentences for comprehension and pick out words I understood and tried to make sense without the ones that didn’t. 

This exercise was very eye opening.  It was a challenge of frustration and uneasiness.  I felt very uncomfortable and wanted to give up a few words into the text.  Reading was not enjoyable but a job.  As teacher, we don't want our students to feel this way about reading.  We want to make sure we are using successful ELL Strategies to help students.  As a teacher, I want to do everything I can to make sure students are receiving the support they need, so they don't feel the way about reading as I did with my unfamiliar text.  It was a great way to be put in their shoes.