ELL Students

Carrison, Catherine (2005). “From Silence to a Whisper to Active Participation: Using Literacy Circles with ELL Students” Reading Horizons 46 (2).

This article advocates that use of literacy circles to improve reading levels of ELL students. For those who aren’t familiar with literacy circles, also known as book discussions, a typical literacy circle consists of a class of students gathering around to raise questions and dialogue about what they have just read. The study tracked ELL student reading levels for one teacher who incorporated various rounds of literacy circles into the classroom. It was discovered that the reading level of her ELL students increased dramatically throughout the course of one year.

The article argues that literacy circles are beneficial for ELL students because they foster a safe, sharing environment due to their collaborative nature. Literacy circles require students to both ask and answer questions about the text. This can provide a safe place for ELL students to tone their comprehension skills because not understanding the text and raising questions can be celebrated as active participation.

I personally agree with the idea of using literacy circles with ELL students. It gives them a chance to independently practice reading comprehension skill with the safety net of having a lengthy discussion afterwards. Furthermore, many ELL students suffer from low self-esteem because they are constantly failing at school. Literacy circles can provide a chance for these students to contribute to the class and be celebrated for putting forth effort and raising questions about words or concepts they didn’t understand. My only problem with this article is although I agree with the principal of literacy circles I believe the case study was not conclusive. ELL students did show improvement over the course of a year, however that doesn’t necessarily mean it was because of the literacy circles. The study lacked a control; it would have been interesting to see how ELL students at the same school performed if not involved with literacy circles.