NLP+Research+Reccomendations+submitted+by+Maribel+Villegas

**Recommendation from the National Literacy Panel submitted by Maribel Villegas**
This is a recommendation on how to better meet the needs of language minority students who may be exhibiting some kind of reading difficulties. Based on the research findings from the National Literacy Panel in Chapter 8 entitled, //First-Language Oral Proficiency and Second-Language Literacy// pages 185-195, the studies reviewed dealt with the relationship between first-language oral proficiency and second-language word-level literacy skills. The National Literacy Panel found that there is a strong correlation between first- and second-language phonological awareness which suggests that phonological awareness is a common underlying proficiency. Language minority students need early, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonological awareness and phonics in order to build decoding skills. On occasions we, educators, don't act right away and simply wait to see if the student is grasping the concepts we are teaching. We believe that the student simply needs more English language exposure and consequently he or she will improve with their reading difficulties or "get it". Language minority students at the very beginning of English acquisition can benefit from phonological awareness instruction and acitivities. The longer we wait to give language minority students the tools necessary for school success the more we aide in their reading difficulties. We must not delay any type of interventions until students are proficient in the English language, it must start right away! Dr. David J. Francis, NLP Panelist, believes that schools should consider two complementary formats for explicit, intensive, and systematic instruction and intervention in phonological awareness and phonics for language minority students. These two formats are: The most important factor with any type of intervention is to make sure that whatever you decide to implement, it must meet the need of the student. There needs to be some kind of record keeping to track growth and to see if the intervention is working.
 * 1) class-wide instruction for all learners and their classmates;
 * 2) supplemental intervention for the subgroup of children who experience sustained difficulties despite effective class-wide instruction, and whose skills are significantly below their peers, whether ELLs or native speakers.

**Specific classroom or school-based examples of implementation:**
A very easy and quick lesson is to obtain picture cards with depictions of familiar objects to the students. Later on you can get picture cards which students may not be familiar with in order to increase their English language vocabulary. I usually have about three cards which the students have to identify a particular sound. I might start with easier sounds the students are aware of like, scissors, sandwich, and sock. I would ask the students to tell me what sound they heard at the beginning of the words in the picture cards. I then move to more difficult sounds, later on I change what I ask them, like I might ask the ending sound or medial sound of the picture cards.
 * Nursery rhymes is a good way to start. Students not only practice vocabulary but also hear the rhyming words and repititions.
 * Using any kind of songs which deal with letter sounds. Some kids love to sing and this is a good way of having them learn the letter sounds individually.
 * Activities where you give a series of pictures and students identify a specific sound, whether it be the beginning, ending, or medial sounds.

Web-based links for additional resources:
What is phonemic awareness? Why is it so important? Find out here: http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/phoemic.p.k12.4.html http://www.sraonline.com/mail_downloads/imagineit_ca_did_you_know.html

Don't have an idea or do you want to perfect the art of teaching phonemic awareness? http://reading.uoregon.edu/pa/pa_teach.php

Do you want to find out what literature and/or books are available on the subject? Type in **phonemic awareness** to do a search and get many resources. http://apps.reading.org/search/svc/submitquery

Have your students and/or child "play" while they practice important skills to help them become accomplished readers. http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/play.htm?f

[|www.education.com/activity/kindergarten/reading/]
 * FUN** kindergarten reading activities: