So What? Why WL is valuable in Reading Education

I recently read an article that investigates cross-language transfer between L1 and L2 reading fluency and comprehension in native German-speaking elementary students immersed in an English language program. Cross-language transfer was measured by a cross-lagged structural equation model. The results showed reciprocal transfer effects between L1 and L2 reading comprehension and fluency. The path L2 to L1 showed overall dominance to path L1 to L2 and is attributed to the opportunities for academic reading in the L2 at school in an immersed setting. Successful reading skills acquired in the L2 transferred to the L1. The article uses the National Reading Panels definition of reading fluency: “the ability to read rapidly, accurately, and with proper expression.” The article uses the RAND report to define the cognitive process of reading comprehension as “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.” Previous research showed that reading fluency impacted reading comprehension between L1 and L2. Students reading comprehension and fluency were measured in both German and English. The tests were administered 8 weeks before the end of the academic year in grades 3 and 4. There were high correlations within each language.

I found this article very interesting because world language teachers often find themselves in a position of having to justify their programs existence due to constant budget cuts and ever more emphasis on “core subjects.” I think one of our strongest arguments is that world language programs have a profound impact on students’ ability to increase learning across content areas, particularly core subjects. Many schools are concentrating on literacy programs and working to improve lexile scores in the majority language the type of study done in this article helps prove that information and skills taught in the world language transfer to the majority language and increases fluency and comprehension.

 Language teachers have been using effective instructional methods to teach reading to acquire information all along. It is odd to sit in inservice meetings and hear instructional coaches teach teacher to teach the way we have always been teaching in World Language. Why do they hire these outsiders or snag people from other systems when all they had to do was walk down the hall and ask their WL teacher? It is very frustrating to know that our colleagues and administrators are so unfamiliar with our content areas that they feel it is necessary to go to someone else to tell them what we already know. We can be a valuable tool to our colleagues in other content areas who may not be as familiar in research-based practices to teach these transferable reading skills in the classroom. I suppose the only thing for us to do is to advocate for ourselves more by showing our school systems how valuable we are by continuing to use solid research-based practices and provide evidence such as found in this article.

Gebauer, S.K., Zaunbauer, A.C.M. & Möller, J. (2013). Cross-language transfer in English immersion programs in Germany: Readingcomprehension and reading fluency. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 38, 64-74.

What Drives Instruction

I came across a box of questions in a reading for a class. I really liked the simplicity of the questions and the title:

Questions to Drive My Instruction

Tovani (2004) p. 103

1.      What do the strategies look like as a student’s thinking becomes more sophisticated?

2.      How do strategies connect to real-world learning, and how do students use the strategies outside my class?

3.      How do I know when a student is ready to have a new strategy introduced?

4.      How do the strategies connect to other strategies?

These four questions neatly sum-up what I have been studying and applying in the classroom. This even appears to be the same over-arching objective that the TEAM lesson plan format and evaluation rubric seems to strive for. However, it is much more simply put in clear concise language in these four questions.

Here we have it all:

Objectives that progress through Bloom’s taxonomy (aligned with standards)

Real-world connection to authentic activities (that meet the objective)

Standards based assessment (that measure objective)

Cross-curricular connections.

Why do we have to have all these complicated templates and rubrics when all we need to do is just remember these four guiding principles? Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I think simple, clear, concise language that communicates our guiding principles will serve us better in our everyday endeavor to reach students.

Good teachers have been using a variation of this strategy for as long as teaching has existed. It will continue to be recycled and repackaged for many years to come. I intend to post these questions in the front of my lesson plan book. The next time I become overwhelmed by the rubrics and evaluations I am subjected too, I will look over these questions and if I can answer them, I will rest easy that my job is well done.

Text Set: Fairy Tales

Die Verwandlung – Franz Kafka (1915)
(Novella)
Audience: High School

Die Verwandlung is one of Kafka’s most famous stories. It is often translated into English as the Metamorphosis. This may not be a fairy tale in the traditional sense, but it is a fantastic tale with a moral in the spirit of fairy tales. The protagonist, a middle-aged bachelor, frustrated by his mediocrity wakes up to find himself transformed into a beetle. As time passes he comes to the realization that no one really misses him and miss only his small financial contribution to the family, but in his useless state they become independent and end up doing better without his contribution. As in most German fairy tales, there is no happy ending, the protagonist eventually dies as a beetle to the relief of his family. I am including this in my text set to expose students to a broader definition of fairy tale as well as a very important work in the canon of German Literature.

Der Schimmelreiter – Theodor Storm (1888)

(Book)

Audience: High School

Der Schimmelreiter is Storm’s most widely read work and is considered a classic in German Literature. It is also not a fairy-tale in the traditional sense. However, this work is also an important contribution to German Literature as well as an expansion to the definition of fairy tale. The story is about a young man who follows his father’s footsteps to become a dykemaster. He experiences much success and becomes very wealthy. However, during his tenure as dykemaster a mysterious horse skeleton disappears from the area he oversees. The townspeople believe his white horse is the ghost horse returned and the ensuing bad weather season is a result of the disturbed skeleton. During a storm he sees his wife and child about to drown and rides to save them. However, he drowns as well. After the storm subsides, the skeleton returns. The dyke he built saves the town and holds for many years to follow. Any discussion of traditional German literature including fairy tales would not be complete without this story.

Aschenputtel (Cinderella) – Brothers Grimm

Audio

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20051/m4b/20051-01.m4b

This links to an audio version of the Grimm Brothers’ traditional version of this famous fairytale at project Gutenberg.

Audience: High School

Cinderella might be the most well-known fairy tale of all time. Any discussion of fairy-tales would be incomplete without this classic tale. The Grimm Brothers version of this story may be the closest to the original. I have included this in the audio version because fairy tales were told in the oral tradition long before the Brother’s Grimm put them in writing.

Cinderella – Walt Disney Productions (1950)

Movie

Audience: Elementary- High School

This is the best known version of the fairy tale among American students. I am including it my text selection to illustrate the difference between the original German version of fairy tales and the Hollywood version of fairy-tales. I would show the German language version in my German classes since most, if not all, of the students would have already seen the movie in English.

Drosselbart – Brothers Grimm

(Audio)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12705/12705-m/12705-m-1.mp3

Audience: Middle School – High School

This fairy-tale, while known, is not as popular and over-used as many other fairy-tales. It exists in several versions as many other fairy tales, all of them are derived from the version recorded by the Grimm Brothers. The story is about a haughty young princess who is taught a lesson in humility. She makes fun of her suitors to the point of angering her father with her pride. She makes particular fun of a kind suitor with a thrush beard. Out of anger her father vows to marry her to the next suitor regardless of station. She is forced to marry a lowly minstrel, who we later find out to be the king she scorned. In some versions the princess dies before she discovers the true identity of the minstrel/king. In other versions, the princess finds out and lives happily-ever-after.

Das Märchen – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1795)

(Book)

Audience: High School

This story is about the conflict and coexistence of the senses (human nature) and self-actualization. It is a fantastical tale full of imagery and metaphors. The multi-layered text have many abstract concepts too difficult for high-school students to grasp in the target language but with lots of scaffolding they will be able to reach a basic understanding of the text. It appears in English as The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lilly. I would probably have my students read this story in English first, but I think it is important for them to be exposed to this in the original German as written by Goethe so they understand the rhythm and flow of the language.

Der Erlkönig – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1782)

Performed by Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Music by Franz Schubert

(Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XP5RP6OEJI

Audience: Elementary – High School

This poem is about a boy being carried home by his father. Many of the details of the poem are left out. We don’t know where or what kind of home the poem refers to. In the beginning the boy sees the Erlkönig but the father thinks it is an over-active imagination. As the story progresses the father becomes aware that something is really wrong with his son and “sees” the Erlkönig, however, it is too late to save his son and the boy dies. This poem, while abstract in content, is easily within the grasp of students language ability with some scaffolding by the teacher. I have included in video form because I think the performance set to music helps students to deduce meaning from the poem.

Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten – Brothers Grimm

(Short Story)

Audience: Elementary-High School

In this fairy tale, four animals past their prime set off to find their fortune by becoming musicians in the city of Bremen. Even though the four traveling companions never make it their intended destination they find a safe-haven and new life for themselves by striking out on the journey.

Die Furchtlosen Vier (The Fearless Four) – Warner Brothers (1997)

(Film)

Audience: Elementary-High School

This is an animated movie adaption of Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten targeting child audiences. I would include this film to show how the story can be adapted to many different formats and audiences. Even though the film is produced in German the Hollywood influence in the story is notable.

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick  - Carl Zuckmeyer (1931)

(Play)

Audience: High School

The best known line from this play: “We can find something better than death anywhere,” is the same theme as in the Bremer Stadtmusikanten. This film compared and contrasted to the Bremer Stadtmusikanten provides an excellent example of intertextuality. I would include this to show how a story can be adapted and retold to suit a different audience.

Hänsel und Gretel – Brothers Grimm (1812)

(Short Story)

Audience: Middle School – High School

A brother and sister, children of a poor woodcutter, are left in the forest by their parents to starve. In later versions, the woodcutter is remarried and the children are left at the prodding of the stepmother. The children find out about the plot and plan a way to find their way home. However they become lost but find a cottage in the woods where they are lured in by a witch who tries to eat them. They outwit the witch and return home with her treasure to find their father happy to see them again. I am including this in my text set because it allows students to examine acts of desperation and how people could be driven to such extremes.

Rotkäpchen – Brothers Grimm

(Short Story)

Audience: Middle School-High School

http://www.grimmstories.com/de/grimm_maerchen/rotkaeppchen

In the Grimm version of this well-known tale, both the Grandmother and Red Riding Hood are eaten by the wolf. The wood-cutter disembowels the wolf and both Red and her Grandmother emerge unharmed. I am including this story because students will most likely be very familiar with it and even able to tell a version of it from memory from their own childhoods. The version they were told as children is likely to be very different from the version originally told by the Brothers Grimm.

Little Red Riding Hood – Gustave Doré (ca. 1860)

(Illustration)

Audience: All

Red Riding Hood – Warner Brothers (2011)

(Film)

Audience: High School

This film takes a lot of artistic license with the fairy tale as told by the Brothers Grimm. However, it is an excellent example of how a fairy tale is taken and turned into a form of entertainment for today’s audiences expecting a Hollywood thriller with a happy ending. One way that is similar to the original fairy tale tradition is the way that horror and romance/sexuality are intertwined. This may not be a subject appropriate for all high school classes. But the film could still be a useful tool to point similarities in how fairy tales often blur the line between the beautiful and the grotesque.

Once Upon A Time – ABC (2011)

(Television Series)

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time/about-the-show

Audience: High School

This television series is based on Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I am including it in my text set because it is a great example of how stories are told and retold and adapted to fit each generation. I would probably only show clips of particular scenes to discuss similarities and differences in the Grimm versions and the modern version.

Grimm – NBC (2011)

(Television Series)

www.nbc.com/grimm/

Audience: High School

This television series is in the genre of police dramas that have become so pervasive in our culture. While not all the episodes are based on Grimm Fairy Tales, it is still a useful tool to compare and contrast the purpose of fairy tales in our culture. The merging of fairy tales and crime drama is an interesting commentary on our generation.

Graphic Oragainzers

There are so many ways to create graphic organizers of reading material that it can be overwhelming to try to pick one. Of course the type of text you are reading helps determine which type will be the most beneficial. The type of information you are reading to learn and what one plans to do with that information also plays a large role in determining how to organize the information. All of the suggestions Allen presents in his article are great examples of how to organize material.

Since world language teachers teach not only the grammatical structure of language but also the all-encompassing concept of culture, all of these suggestions could be used in the classroom. The list-group-label method could be used for vocabulary learning. For example, Chapter two of the textbook used at the HS I teach at includes family members, places, and specific regular verbs, but the vocabulary list is in alphabetical order. Students could look at the list and put the words into categories to learn them in related groups instead of practicing them out of context. Part-to-the-Whole could be used to understand major events and what other events played a role to bring about the larger event. The character chart could be adapted to use with literature or movies in understanding the roles individuals play in the occurrence of events.

I intend to use many of these suggestions in my classroom. I already use a lot of these techniques, but did not know they had official labels. I am always excited about the opportunity to use new visual representations since this is something that I tend to overlook in my own learning. I know that many of my students are visual learners and these tools will help me to reach them in ways that reading and listening cannot.