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Reading Global Literature

NYS TESOL & WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Nadia Kalman, Maggie Vlietstra, Stephanie Chiu, Dr. Sandra Vargas, Tinglei Huang

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Meet the Secondary SIG

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Stephanie Chiu

Tinglei Huang

Dr. Sandra Vargas

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Meet Words Without Borders

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Nadia Kalman, Global Education Director

Maggie Vlietstra, Education Program Coordinator

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NYS TESOL

NYS TESOL

NYS TESOL Communications and Publications

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What are your thoughts on how to make this poem and related resources accessible to ELLs?

  • How might you teach the poem? What language or references might students need support with?
  • How might you support ELLs in using the informational texts to build background knowledge?
  • How might you support ELLs in using the Haiti Beyond the Headlines photo essay and/or video montage to learn about a different portrait of Haiti?

What other ideas or questions come to mind?

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

Breakout Rooms

TESOL

NYS

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WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Amplify the Text

  1. Add line numbers
  2. Pre-teach vocabulary
  3. Glossary and/or translation for unfamiliar words
  4. Pictures or other visuals
  5. Listen to and read the text in the students’ L1

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WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

  • Unfamiliar words: “budge,” “conks out,” “veins,” “slit”
  • Figurative language: “engineer,” “concrete of death”

Linguistic Demands

TESOL

NYS

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THOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Close Reading & Collaborative Annotations

WORDS WI

  • Enlarge poem and place in middle of poster paper
  • Work in groups to discuss and annotate poem
    • Checklist of ideas to annotate

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THOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

  • Rotate posters
  • Respond and add to another group’s annotations
  • Rotate and repeat
  • Minimum 2 rotations before returning posters to original group → reflection

Close Reading & Collaborative Annotations

WORDS WI

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THOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

  • Match visual details to the word choice, imagery, and mood of the poem
  • One-pager

Illustrate the Poem

WORDS WI

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THOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Analyze Diction & Imagery

WORDS WI

  • BEFORE reading: give students list of words/phrases (from poem) & determine if positive/negative/neutral
  • AFTER reading: connotations

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THOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Analyze Diction & Imagery

WORDS WI

Word or Phrase

Positive, Negative, or Neutral?

What feeling and images does it evoke?

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WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Give students from the country the opportunity to explain references and background information, if they want.

But be careful not to put students on the spot!

Context

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What background information is needed to understand “Poem for Children with Trouble Sleeping”?

  • Gang violence, police abuse, government corruption
  • Poverty
  • Earthquake
  • Reginald Boulos

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Context

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Build the background information that students need to know to understand and interpret the text:

  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • Interviews
  • News reports
  • Informational texts

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Context

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Provide additional context to show another dimension of the country.

  • “Haiti Beyond the Headlines” photo essay in the Columbia Journal and video montage

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Context

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  • Gallery Walk
  • Generate language
    • Label pictures and co-create word bank with students
    • Sort words by part of speech
    • Use word bank to write sentences describing the pictures

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Picture Description

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  • See-Think-Wonder
    • What do you see?
    • What do you think is going on?
    • What do you wonder?

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Picture Description

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  • Costa’s levels of questioning
  • GATHER: observe and identify
  • PROCESS: infer, analyze, compare/contrast, explain
  • APPLY: evaluate, imagine, judge, predict, hypothesize

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Picture Description

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  • What visual details do you observe? → Based on the visual details, what is the mood and message of the image?
  • Categorize images: explain the categories and what the images within the category highlight about Haiti

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Picture Description

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  • D’Amérique’s essay “What it Means to Be Haitian Now” after the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse
  • Human Rights Watch report on police brutality in Haiti from 2021 (when this poem was first published)
  • Myriam J. A. Chancy’s essay for NPR: critical look at depictions of Haiti and Haitian history
  • What’s Happening in Haiti?” - news report from NPR’s 1A on current issues in Haiti (listening)

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Informational Texts

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Build background knowledge and practice non-fiction readings skills

  • Collaborative reading (e.g., Reciprocal Reading)
  • Side-by-side versions in English and students’ L1

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Informational Texts

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  • Use AI to rewrite texts in more accessible reading level (*always double check the work of AI)
  • Chunking
    • Add subheadings
    • Add summary of section in students’ L1
  • Excerpts

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Informational Texts

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  • Glossary for unfamiliar words (with translations and/or definitions)
  • Pictures and other visuals
  • Guiding questions
  • Note-taker
  • Jigsaw different texts

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Informational Texts

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Ask students to compare and contrast the imagery in the poem and the images of Haiti in the photo essay and/or “Beyond the Headlines Haiti” video photo montage.

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Compare & Contrast

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NYS TESOL

NYS TESOL

https://sites.google.com/view/nystesol/home

NYS TESOL Communications and Publications

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NYS TESOL

NYS TESOL

NYS TESOL Communications and Publications

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Please complete the survey from Words Without Borders.

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

NYS TESOL

Thank you!

Feel free to reach out to us:

Secondary SIG at NYS TESOL:

secondary@nystesol.org

Nadia Kalman, Words Without Borders

nadia@wordswithoutborders.org