Entry 5: Children's Books

I looked at and reviewed the children's books Fox in Sox by Dr. Seuss and Disney's Aladin by the Little Golden Books series. I chose these books because I think that both play important parts in a child's learning to read and how it can affect comprehension due to cultural aspects.

Aladin

1. Student might not have ever heard of Aladin, due to age, and if Disney was present in the child's life prior
2. Student might have trouble pernouncing some of the worlds as they are not common in English, especially when English is the second language
3. Student might follow a long more by the pictures and understand the story more so than by the words
4. There might be too many words on each of the pages for the ELL student/s and they might get discouraged or intimidated

Fox in Sox

1. Student might not understand rhyming schemes
2. Student might not be aware of phonemes and the phonetic sounds that a letter might make, i.e. /x/ in "fox"
3. Pictures might confuse a student
4. Rhyming might confuse the student on comprehension, but could help them understand how to pernounce words

How I would introduce this to an ELL reader would be to ask questions (kind of like and KWL but not to that extent) to find out their prior knowledge of what they might now. I would then read the story to the student/students and ask questions as they go along, pointing out harder words and having them repeat the words. I would also have the students underline words they might not know or know how to say. I would then, with a dictionary, have the students look up the words so that they could see the word, how to pronounce it, and what it means. I would should the different elelments to rhyming, but introducing songs, reading other rhyming schemes and have the students understand the different schemes.