SIFE: Giving Them What They Need

Description

In this workshop, we will consider ways that Migrant Educators can support and develop SIFE students’ emergent literacy skills. Working with NYSED’s definition of SIFE, “ELLs who are two or more years below grade level in literacy in their home language,” (NYSED, 2019), a key role for Migrant Educators is to help improve students’ literacy skills in English.  Participants will explore the difference between decoding text and reading for comprehension, and think about the necessary interdependence of these two processes in building a successful reader.

Using resources from Reading A-Z, the presenter will share some guidelines as to how to select appropriate texts for SIFE learners based on interest, visual cues, and complexity of syntax and vocabulary.  Then, she will model effective, one-on-one guided reading techniques for use with emergent readers, which participants will then be encouraged to practice.  A list of suggested texts and resources will also be provided to support Migrant Educators’ effort toward improving students’ English reading skills.

The activities in this workshop are intended for use with SIFE students in middle school and high school, who are receiving regular instruction from the METS program.

The content in this presentation is geared towards serving the migrant populations in New York State as defined under Title I, Part C and the approved State Service Delivery Plan, and may NOT be appropriate to all situations.

Objectives/Learning Targets

Participants will

1. Explore the difference between decoding text and reading for comprehension
2. Learn how to select texts for SIFE students to read
3. Practice one-on-one guided reading techniques for use with emergent readers.

Presented/Developed by

Beth Clark-Gareca, Ph.D.

• Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the TESOL Program
• Director, Clinically Rich Intensive Teacher Institute
• Department of Teaching and Learning
• School of Education, SUNY New Paltz

About the Presenter

Beth Clark-Gareca, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of the TESOL program at SUNY New Paltz. She also directs SUNY New Paltz’s Clinically Rich Intensive Teacher Institute in ESOL, a NYSED grant initiative designed to better meet the needs of ELLs in the state of New York. Her research interests include classroom-based assessment for ELLs, second language acquisition, and teacher education in K-12 contexts. Before coming to SUNY New Paltz, Beth was a lecturer in the TESOL/Applied Linguistics program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Beth has taught ESL and Spanish in a variety of educational settings including K-12 classrooms, adult literacy programs, community colleges, and undergraduate and graduate academic programs. She enjoys international teaching and has strong ties to Wuhan University in Wuhan, China, where she taught for five summers, and to the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, in Córdoba, Argentina where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Her current projects explore the linguistic worlds of students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in secondary classrooms, and focuses on assets-based thinking about students and their scholastic trajectories.

A-Z Readers used during the workshop included:

• Fruit Colors (Level A)
• This is a Bird (Level G)
• Building a House (Level G)

You'll find the PowerPoint Notes and Correlation Handout below.