Good morning all 

 

It's 7 am here in Southern New Mexico, it's still nice and cool and the
roses are blooming big time and I should be going out to water soon
(coffee first, though)

 

 

I wanted to welcome you to the discussion on ESL Reading and am hoping
that we'll have a lively back and forth as you pose questions, challenge
assumptions, and share your own experience teaching reading to ESL
students - either teaching these skills explicitly and systematically or
just folding reading into your regular curriculum. 

 

I would like to invite you to tell us a sentence or two about yourself
and your work and your experience before you post your messages.

 

Just a bit of background: I'm Heide Spruck Wrigley and my work revolves
around the intersection of research, policy and practice. I've been
involved in several studies on ESL literacy (broader than just reading)
that we can talk about, and this year I'm doing quite a bit of work
around workplace literacy.  Most of my work has been with language
minority adults who are relatively new to English but I've also taught
in intensive reading programs at the university level.  

 

I've been working with the Texas GREAT Centers (professional development
centers) for a number of years, and this year we started a series of
institutes that focus on ESL Reading with a special emphasis on
comprehension skills. So this discussion is an outgrowth of this work. 

 

A bit later, I'll write a note about the 2 or 3 things we know for sure
about reading (of any kind, not just reading in another language so we
don't have to get caught up in the "reading wars"). 

 

But in the meantime, I'd like to invite you to jump in and say a bit
more about who you are  and what issues you are grappling with when it
comes to helping your ESL students understand what they read.  

 

And a special welcome to the Texas teachers who have been involved in
the institutes. I'm hoping you will share your experience teaching
reading and tell us what has worked for you. 

 

All the best 

 

Heide

 

 

 

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Lynda Terrill
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 7:21 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2374] Discussion on Reading and Adult
EnglishLanguage Learners begins

 

Dear subscribers,
 
I am happy to announce that our discussion on reading and adults
learning English as a second language is beginning.  Heide Wrigley will
be facilitating this discussion along with Texas practitioners who have
been working on a project related to reading.  I look forward to hearing
what they have to share, butI  also look forward to hearing many of your
experiences, questions, and answers about this important topic.
 
Lynda Terrill
lterrill at cal.org
 

________________________________

Stay in touch when you're away with Windows Live Messenger. IM anytime
you're online.
<http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Re
fresh_messenger_052008> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20080512/83b94f29/attachment.html