Improving Reading Strategies in the General Education Classroom

Abstract

This capstone project aims to support the development and use of new strategies that can be used to support English language learners also known as ELLs in the general education classroom. The strategies discovered and explained throughout this paper will be applied to real classrooms and data will be collected to show evidence of successful implementation of the strategies discussed. For the growing population of English language learners attending United States public schools, it is important that we support them academically and in their language development process. Implementing strategies into the classroom is an effective way to support English language learners in the classroom. There are many different strategies that can be used to support students academically and in their language development. The use of Spanish-English cognates is one vocabulary strategy that can be used in the classroom to support language development. Students are taught to look for familiar words as they read in the target language. They are also taught to use other words on the page to help them in determining the meaning of the unknown word, determining if the cognates are in fact true. Another effective strategy is the use of conversations in the classroom. Students can learn language through interaction with classmates. Finding ways to build a language learning and supportive community in the classroom and teaching students how to have meaningful interactions about books leads to support in reading comprehension. Lastly, we will discuss how parent engagement can be included into existing lessons. How parents can teach their children at home and bring a rich learning environment to the home and classroom workspace.