Part 2-English language reading provision for EAL Students who are not literate in their first language

 Reading Sessions  (Diagnostic Reading)

Chosen from www.englishavenue.com

Jeff’s letter (Level 2)

Malik’s reading session;

Before reading activities;

I explained Malik that there is a boy called Jeff in the story and he lives in China. He has a grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, brother and sister. His sister, brother and he go to East Elementary School. His sister goes to 2^nd grade and his brother goes to 6^th grade. His mother is a clerk and works in a book store. His father is a doctor and works in a hospital. His grandmother is a nurse but she does not work in hospital. She works in Jeff’s school as school nurse.

Malik’s reading from recorded transcript. 

Hello! 

My name is Jaff. I am 12 years old. I am in the 6 gate. I live in a big city in Jina. I live with my grand mother, my grand - my mother, and my father, my sister and my brother. I – am- brogrer, my sister and I go to East Element School. My sister and- is in the end gareth . My brother in the 4 gareth. My mum in a kitch. She work in a big book setten . I like to reading books. I have man man reading. My father is a dockitch. He work in a harpet. What work in the harpetting. She works in my school. She in a school nersa.

See you

After Reading activities 
I asked him 3 questions;
Where does he live? Does Jeff live in America? He said, “No, China.”
How old is Jeff? He said, “twelve years old”
Does he like to read? “Yea”

Analysing reading session 1 

I came to the conclusion that the text I chose was not very reflective of Malik’s real life experience, because it had unfamiliar words such as; grade, elementary and clerk. When I checked the transcription I realized that; to be able to analyse the miscues appropriately, the text should show his true reading potential. This text did not let Malik to use any of the strategies to predict the words because the Chinese school system is not similar to the British Education system.

In addition, the questions I asked were not enough to check his comprehension because they did not cover the entire story in Jeff’s letter. Therefore, I have changed it to something different; I used the story Malik created during one of our reading withdrawal support lessons at school. He told me the plot and I scribed it for him. Afterwards he read the story back to me. Here is the transcription;

Malik’s second reading session:

Malik’s story is called ‘Fire’. It is a story of a fireman who leaves his children alone at home. When the children play with matches, fire breaks out. Ben comes home and calls the police, puts out the fire. Police told him not leave his children alone at home again.

Original Story created by Malik; Fire Ben has a beard and he is black, skinny, and tall with dark and curly hair. He is a fireman. One day Ben’s house was in fire because his children played with matches. When Ben came home, he put out the fire. Police came quickly and asked questions about the fire. They told him not to leave his children at home alone.

Malik’s reading; Fire Ben has a beard and he is black skinny, told, tall with with with dark hair, cuddly hair. He is a fireman. One day Ben house was in, was in fire because his children played with matches. When Ben came, when Ben came house (home), he he puts out the fire. Police came (quickly) police came and asked question, asked question (about the fire) They ask question. puts, pots the fire, they put the fire out. They ask, they told him to not leave his children at home (alone).