Melinda,
   
  I completely agree with you with word calling. I was doing word of the day, and as long as I was asking the student to repeat the definition they were getting 100% on the weekly test. Once I began to use jig saw sentences and  crossword puzzles with sentences they began definite steps toward better reading comprehension
   
  Gail Wade

Melinda Whittlesey <whittleseym at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
            Hi Everyone:
       My name is Melinda Whittlesy and I teach two level 3 ESL classes for Houston Community College in Houston, TX.  Most of my student are preparing for GED and require lots of reading practice to make the transition  from ESL to GED.  In my classes I find that teaching decoding skills and phonemic awareness is not really necessary.  Most of my student have basic work calling - skills by the time they get to me.  My main concern is comprehension skills.  I've found that comprehension goes up for all the students if I pair the students to co-cooperatively discuss, read, and answer comprehension questions about readings that has been read as a  whole class reading before hand. The students support each other in reading the questions, searching the material for the information, and arguing over which answer is correct.  My main challenge is the student who can word-call anything you give to him or her but has difficultly understanding the words he or she  has read even with
 a second language dictionary(the student can't understand the entry in the primary language even though he or she  can word call them). What's surprising these students can discuss things with me and with other students. I give these students extra support in their small groups but  I would really love to find a dual language dictionary that is simply worded  but advanced enough for a level 3 student that functions well in all other aspects. 


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