Who?  English Language Learners  Learners of English  Students scoring below the 40 percentile on standardized tests  Students with language based learning disabilities

What?  Comprehensive literacy program  Reading program that includes reading, writing, listening, speaking and spelling instruction  Academic and Oral English  Vocabulary  Grammar

Why?  Research has shown that ELL need: Conversational English Academic English Oral English Grammar Vocabulary Listening, speaking, writing and reading instruction  All struggling readers need this as well!

Where and When?  At School, in your reading classroom  Every day in your reading classroom

How?  Steps 0-6 are included in each lesson  Students receive one lesson each day  Through these steps, students move from oral fluency to sound to text

Step 0: Speaking and Listening  Develops academic vocabulary  Grammar development through oral and written sentences  Practice speaking English in school setting

Step 1: Phonemic Awareness & Phonics  Students learn that words are made up of phonemes (sounds), which are represented by letters  Builds phonemic awareness, syllable awareness, morpheme awareness  Works on prefixes, suffixes, inflectional endings, sound-spelling correspondence

Step 2: Word Recognition & Spelling  Students use sound-letter correspondence to build words  Students learn top 2,000 HFW  Students learn spelling rules

Step 3: Vocabulary & Morphology  Students match meaning to words they can already read and spell  Multiple meanings are taught  Root words, antonyms, synonyms and homophones are taught

Step 4: Grammar & Usage  Students learn that meaning comes from word functions and their placement within the sentence.  Forms and functions are taught  Students learn to edit and revise

Step 5: Listening & Reading Comprehension  Students read multiple passages from different genres  Students develop fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, as well as background

Step 6: Speaking & Writing  Students use the content from the passages they have just read to write  Students learn to write summaries, stories and many different story structures

Key Points  All seven steps build upon each other for a complete lesson in reading, writing, speaking and listening  Challenge Text and Challenge Writing are included in the program  Language! focuses on academic language

Bibliography  Greene, J.F. (2009). Language! Focus on English Learning. Sopris West Educational Services.