LEA: Language Experience Approach Dr. Kristen Pennycuff Trent

Language Experience Approach: LEA LEA interrelates the different language arts and uses the children’s experiences as the basis for reading materials. All children have experiences that can be converted to stories Concrete experiences can be provided to help create the stories Stories developed by children: Motivational More meaningful because language of the children used Effectively used for ELL children: provides material they can understand

Language Experience Approach: LEA Participating in a common experience Discussing the experience Cooperative writing of the story on a chart, board, or computer Participating in extension activities related to the story

Language Experience Approach LEA Advantages: Children see transformation of oral language to print including directionality, spacing between words, meanings, punctuation, and capitalization Children see relationships between reading and their oral language Teacher observations during dictation and reading provide diagnostic insights into children’s reading difficulties

LEA Advantages Variety of modes of learning offers something to all children Auditory: dictation or read aloud Kinesthetic: writing the stories Visual: reading stories Promotes good self-concept What they have to say is important enough to write down and others interested Promotes close contact between teacher and students Remedial older learners and ELL consider this reading more authentic than some of the remedial material exposed to in classroom Excellent way to provide variety of programs that are need to teach reading

Language Experience Approach: LEA Implementation in Kindergarten: Emphasize oral language can be recorded and reconstructed Process writing—choose topics, discussion, drawing, and dramatic play before writing, drafts used Teaching of vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension skills Show-and-tell writing—invented spelling

Language Experience Approach-LEA Implementation in the Primary Grades: Participating in a common experience Discussing the experience Cooperative writing of the story on a chart, board, or a computer Participation in extension activities related to the story Rereading story Finding words Matching sentences with sentence strips Word banks—word cards containing words a child has used in stories Used for sight vocabulary, word recognition skills, and develop comprehension skills Writing of Computer-generated stories Illustration of stories Sharing of stories Creation of books

Language Experience Approach-LEA Implementation in Higher Grades: Content area instruction: Writing the result of scientific experiments Comparing and contrasting people, things, or events Writing directions for performing a task Computer-generation important Enter stories easily, ease of revision without recopying Direct teaching of story structure during LEA helpful to older remedial learners Include revision and editing as natural extensions

Language Experience Approach: LEA Participating in a common experience Discussing the experience Cooperative writing of the story on a chart, board, or computer Participating in extension activities related to the story

Language Experience Approach: LEA Your Turn: Create an LEA for your third grade students who have just returned from a field trip to the fire station. Remember to include all the steps. Participating in a common experience Discussing the experience Cooperative writing of the story on a chart, board, or computer Participating in extension activities related to the story

Language Experience Approach: LEA Jigsaw the sample lesson plan for LEAs. Home team Expert teams Unit-Set Instruction Closure-Assessment and Evaluation Supplemental Activities-Reflection of the Candidate