Oral language often takes a backseat to other subjects in the curriculum. We do curriculum mapping to make sure we cover all of the reading, writing, and math standards for our students, but how often do we map out a plan for addressing oral language skills? In my state, Illinois, we use the Common Core Standards, and I have to admit that I almost always look at the other literacy standards and only infrequently glance at the “Speaking and Listening” standards. But guess what? THIS IS NOT GOOD!! Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in some professional development and learn more about students’ oral language and literacy development. I want to share what I’ve learned so far with you, because oral language development is definitely something worth paying attention to – whether you teach ELLs or students whose first language is English. Read on for some of the facts that I’ve learned about how students’ oral language affects their literacy development, as well as some tips to help develop your students’ oral language. 1. Oral language is one of the most powerful tools young children have to help them learn about the world. As babies and toddlers learn to understand and produce language, their knowledge about the world around them grows exponentially. For example, they may first call all small pets “dogs,” only later learning about the categories of “dog” and “cat.” When students begin school at the age of 5, their oral language development is far from finished. If we don’t allow our students opportunities to grow their oral language, we are impeding their learning. Which leads me to… 2. Oral language develops through use. We can talk all day until we are blue in the face, but students’ oral language will only develop when they have opportunities to use it. That means we gotta let ’em talk! 3. There are ways we can assess students’ oral language development. One 3-minute assessment I was recently introduced to is an Oral Language Assessment by Mondo. Click {here} to download the assessment for free (scroll down to where it says “Let’s Talk About It! Oral Language Assessment”). In this assessment, you say aloud sentences of varying lengths, and students have to repeat back the sentences to you (one at a time). Students are supposed to be able to correctly repeat back at least 14 of the 15 sentences by the middle of first grade. But… 4. Many struggling readers also struggle with oral language. If you give the assessment that I linked to above to struggling readers (even those in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade), they will likely not achieve the score that a 1st grader is supposed to have achieved. Eek! If you transcribe what a child has repeated back to you during the assessment, you can look for patterns. Is the child missing verb phrases? Subjects? Pronouns? Prepositions? These gaps will also show up in the child’s reading and writing. 5. Listening comprehension precedes reading comprehension. If a student can’t repeat back what you said during the assessment, then they will likely not comprehend the same sentence in text, EVEN if they can decode it. Let’s take a look at this sentence from the assessment: The car and the truck were carrying some large boxes. This sentence might seem pretty simple at first glance. But it contains all of the following ideas: – There was a car – There was also a truck – The car and the truck were carrying some boxes – The boxes that they were carrying were large If a child cannot repeat back the sentence exactly as it is spoken, he/she likely does not grasp all of those individual ideas that make up the sentence. Missing many small details like this adds up to poor reading comprehension and inferential thinking. 6. Oral language ability impacts students’ writing. Do you have any students whose writing consists of one big run-on sentence, a bunch of thoughts connected by “and,” “and,” “and?” They likely sound the same way when they talk. I feel like I’m sharing lots of bad news here!! And, honestly, poor oral language development can be really bad news for students when it comes to their literacy development. However, there ARE things that we can do to support students’ oral language development. Here are a few ideas: – Simplify directions given orally. Students who struggle with listening comprehension / oral language likely will not be able to understand or follow directions that are include lots of clauses, prepositional phrases, etc. You can’t stop giving multi-step directions just because you have students who struggle with their oral language. You can, however, give those directions in simple language, one step at a time, with pauses in between. – Have students engage in “turn and talks” (think-pair-shares) every 4-5 minutes. This sounded like a lot to me, but again, oral language develops through use – kids need to talk about what they are learning! – Provide low-risk opportunities for kids to practice talking. Kids need to feel comfortable talking about non-academic topics before they will take risks when talking about their learning. Low-risk activities can take the form of having students share about their activities over the weekend or asking them to talk to each other about what they see in a funny/strange picture. During these “practice sessions,” act as a participant or observer in the conversation, rather than bombarding kids with questions. Encourage kids to use specific vocabulary words during the discussion. – Help students extend their oral language with prompting. Here’s a sample conversation between a child (C) and teacher (T): T: Where did you go this weekend? C: The park. T: Oh, you went to the park? What did you do there? C: Played on the swings. T: Ah, you played on the swings. Who did you play with? C: My brother! T: Great! You could say, I went to the park and played on the swings with my brother. Can you say that with me? C & T: I went to the park
The Language Literacy Network infographic is attached and may be freely shared–unaltered and for non-commercial purposes- with reference-Learning By Design, Inc
Want to build your students AAC and Core Vocabulary Skills?This Thanksgiving Themed AAC Core Vocabulary Classroom Activities and Language | Literacy Lessons PAACK is designed to target AAC and Core Vocabulary practice, as well as developing language and literacy skills for our AAC users!! This Thank...
Browse over 90 educational resources created by Language and Literacy SLP in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store.
A blog on Speech and Language topics.
Browse over 330 educational resources created by Twin Speech Language and Literacy in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store.
In the first of a new video series, we sit down with Ms. Charlotte Wood to discuss language and literacy in Montessori.
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One Free Activity– So Many Ideas! Hi Friends! I’m sure you know that we give away a free activity every month, which is great, but it’s awesome when you realize that it can be used in a bunch of different ways. The August freebie is an activity that goes with Eric Carle’s book, From Head […]
Find out how to use storybooks in speech and language intervention to 1) Easily plan therapy for large groups, 2) Reduce planning time, 3) Target speech and ...
A new study compares children’s language and literacy development in both English and their home language over the course of one pre-K year.
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Эти же рисунки в увеличенном виде я, по просьбам "телезрителей", поместила на Яндекс.Народ. Вроде бы получилось. Так что, если есть желающие скачать картинки сразу по нескольку штук вот ссылки: А - http://narod.ru/disk/21843730001/%D0%90.exe.html ; О - http://narod.ru/disk/21846011001/%D0%9E.exe.html . Спасибо за внимание!
