ESL Literature?, Mexico

Hello,

Do you currently use books at all? If not, what materials are you using with them? What kind of literature are you looking to use with them? Children's books?

I am an ESL teacher in Brooklyn, New York. I would be happy to talk to you about this, but I would like some clarification first. I don't want to suggest something that you already do.

Let me know,

Alison

Probably, the best way to teach ESL literature to the younger kids is using children books, especially fairy tales, and take it as a game. They appeal to them more easily. For the elder ones, you should try not to make them feel forced to read; they might hate reading in English forever. It is easy to say and difficult to do, but you should try to awake their taste for reading, first by choosing easy-to-identify books, like Tom Sawyer, Adrian Mole and the like, and then by moving towards more difficult ones. Once, I made my students read Othello (obviously an abridged version). You can imagine the result. Many regards

Hello!

Have you tried using picture books for ESL Literature in your classroom? Picture books work wonderfully for any age, any grade. You could use the Language Experience Approach and write what the students tell you, word for word. Then, as part of the writing process you could edit the story and create your own class story. It's just an idea...hope things are working out for you!

Have you found any literature that grabs you yet? A fantastic book for upper elementary students and middle school students I know of is, "Esperanza Rising," or "Esperanza Renace," by Pam Munoz Ryan. I also love, "The House on Mango Street," or, "La Casa en Mango Street." There are short chapters yet it is poetic and sends such a strong message.

Good luck!

Happy Easter!

How about making pop-up books? My students had a blast making a pop-up book to take home and read to their families. Another way to teach literature is the ESL method: "Ten Important Sentences", by Dr. Gonzalez. He was my college prof. at Pan American University, Edinburg, Texas; then, he was an Educational Consultant with Scott Foresman Publishing Co. I use this method when I teach Spanish and we're reading a story. Each paragraph has a main idea. the 1st 10 paragraphs have 10 main ideas. From those 10 main ideas, you can draw your conclusion about the story: what it's about.

Try these ideas.

Loretta McCarthy

Joath,

One great way that I have found is to get books that translate, for example, No Fear, Shakespeare. You can find these types of books for all grade levels. I also have them complete nightly reading logs and I can email you a sample of this.

Hello,

I teach EFL in France, which is slightly different but maybe you could get ideas from EFL on the sites of Oxford UP or Cambridge UP and use some of their "young readers". I don't know if you've already seen some of them : they're written by professional writers with a simple enough vocabulary and there are many levels from young beginners to advanced.

Hope that will you a little.

Sylvie F