Entry#5 Review 2 children’s books and determine what components in the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects. List 4 per book and tell how this schema could be taught or introduced to an ELL learner. (Include an annotated entry for each book-summary of the book, any themes that might be addressed as well as the APA listing for the book, etc.)

Learning to read and comprehend in English is a challenging task. English has so many rules, and exceptions to the rules, but in addition to that, many books that are written in English include cultural bias, that for a second language learner adds even more of a challenge.  Let’s take for example the book Lucy Takes a Holiday by Salvatore Murdocca.  This book is about a dog named Lucy who gets tired of being a family dog and decides to take a vacation to dog town.  First, many kids in this part of the country are more familiar with the word vacation than they are with taking a holiday. A holiday here is more commonly thought of as a day in which some sort of celebration occurs. The title alone presents a challenge which could impact what predictions they may make about the story. In the story, Lucy takes a ferry boat over to Dogwood Island. Being in this part of the country, (not near water) a child may not be familiar with what a ferry is or even an island. The book also includes other words having to do with a boat such as the bow. If students have never been on a boat, they may not be familiar with these terms. Finally, having used this book with students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, I know that their background knowledge on vacations is very little since they come from families that are unable to take family vacations. That makes understanding some of the parts of her vacation hard to understand. For example Lucy goes shopping, to a beauty parlor to be pampered and made up, scuba diving, mountain biking, and even sailing. These are all concepts that may not be familiar to some ELLs.

 I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting off a little Self-Esteem by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell is another example of a book that could present challenges for ELL’s. Again the title alone may be challenging to understand since it is a play on words from a common idiom “letting off a little steam” and it includes the concept of self-esteem. Furthermore, the book has a lot of vocabulary such as fad, task, grin, plaid, etc. that will need to be taught to students to help them make meaning. In addition to the vocabulary, the book includes phrases like “jump out of bed”, “clean in a flash” and knowing something “like the back of your hand”. These are phrases or idioms that may not be understood by students learning English. Finally, the book includes some concepts that might be foreign to ELL’s, such as taking the bus to school or what it means to be picked last when teams are being made, or what they mean when they say they open a box that only has socks.

These two books are obviously not the only books that present challenges for English language learners. Every book will have some aspects of cultural bias and that is simply because books are written within and for a certain cultural group. Knowing this, it is critical that teachers anticipate these challenges and even prepare for them. A great way to do this is to build background knowledge and preview vocabulary prior to reading these texts with kids. If there are concepts that are important to the story line such as in both of these texts, these should be introduced and explored thoroughly before students read. This could include showing  a movie clip of sailing or vacationing for Lucy Takes a Holiday and perhaps a discussion of what it means to love and appreciate yourself for I’m Gonna Like Me. Moreover, teachers should introduce new vocabulary, concepts, or idioms with other types of visual supports like pictures, concrete objects, video or sound clips, etc. These visuals should be made available to students throughout the reading of the text and even assessed after reading the text. If possible the teacher might choose other books with similar themes or concepts to reinforce the new learning.  In summary, there is no way to find books in a particular language that will not challenge students’ comprehension of the text, but that is why teachers need to set students up for success by anticipating and planning how they will best support students while reading the text.

References:

Curtis, J. & Cornell, L. (2002) I’m gonna like me: Letting off a little self-esteem. New York: Harper Collins.

Summary: A young girl learns to like herself every single day, no matter what.

Themes- Fiction: Self-esteem, conduct of life

Murdocca, S. (1998) Lucy takes a holiday. New York: MONDO Publishing.

Summary: Lucy the dog gets tired of her family and decides to take a well-deserved vacation to Dogwood Island.

Themes-Fiction: Dogs, vacations