Murdoch's Path by Juliette Horatia Ewing
In a second grade RTI large group class, we read an Irish folktale entitled Murdoch's Path by Juliette Horatia Ewing. The book was written at a 3rd grade level and the book was read aloud to the class. The book is a traditional Irish folktale about a boy who takes a wrong turn and ends up dancing with fairies and is richly rewarded for his good manners. A selfish shoemaker also goes down the path seeking riches and tries to trick the fairies which results in the shoemaker being tricked himself.
Most of the second grade students are of Hispanic descent and are from Mexico. The students were not very familiar with fairies but a few had seen the popular Disney version of "Peter Pan" and knew who Tinkerbell was. I built off of that schema and related the fairies in the folktale to Tinkerbell.
To further activate students' schema, I displayed pictures of the fairies from the story and explained how they are magic, can play tricks on people and cast spells. Students were not familiar with the words "spells" so I used the synonym tricks such as magic tricks. I then activated their schemas relating spells to witches. I knew the Spanish word for witch so I used the Spanish translation, "bruja". Students nodded heads and said, "oh yeah!". By that time I had activated the students' schema and created a picture of the concepts they would encounter in the text.
In order to give the students an idea of the setting, I showed them where Ireland was on a map. I explained that this is the country where St. Patrick's Day originated. I pulled up the history of St. Patrick's Day on the internet and gave a brief summary of why we celebrate it in the United States. I related it to Cinco de Mayo which is a Mexican holiday we celebrate here and St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday we celebrate because we have many people who immigrated from Ireland.
I also discussed the folktale genre and had students brainstorm other folktales. We talked about the elements of the genre and how there is always a lesson or "theme". The students were encouraged to try to figure out the lesson of the folktale at the end of the story.
We stopped to discuss unfamilar vocabulary and previewed words that might be difficult. I modeled vocabulary strategies such as word structure, apposition, and context clues. Previewing the text and anticipating concepts students may get confused with, as well as having knowledge of Mexican culture, helped me activate students' schema and insure students were comprehending the text.
Casey at the Bat
Written By Ernest Lawrence Thayer, circa 1888
Casey at the Bat is a famous poem that is one of the hallmark pieces of intermediate elementary and Jr. High language arts curriculum. The struggle with poetry for ELL's is the figurative and often archaic language that even native English speakers are unfamiliar with. With such antiquated idiomatic phrases such as, "springs eternal in the human breast;", "With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone", and "We'd put up even money now" English language learners struggle with poetry.
Explicit and direct vocabulary instruction prior to reading the poem is critical to insuring comprehension of text. All students benefit from learning what vocabulary such as visage, melancholy, and haughty mean. Some advanced students may be able to infer the meaning of these words but the level of effort it would take to decipher the text would not allow enough brain power to figure out the larger concepts of the poem.
Many of the students at my school are not familiar with baseball. The students primary sport of interest is soccer. To activate schema, I would play a short video of a baseball game showing a player up to bat. I would describe the basic elements of baseball and have students find pictures in sports magazines or use the internet to explore the concept of baseball.
Since the poem was written in 1888, I would show students pictures of baseball uniforms of that era and the type of clothing the fans might have worn. I would also bring realia such as a baseball mit, a baseball and bat to have the students touch and see. I might even take the kids outside to play an inning of baseball.
I would do extensive modeling and think-alouds as I scaffolded the language and vocabulary of the poem for my ELL's. I would have students draw pictures of what they are visualizing as I read the poem to assess understanding of the poem. Students would have access to thesauri, online dictionaries and Spanish-English dictionaries to clarify unfamiliar words.
There are many ways to extend the lesson depending on students' language levels and level of scaffolding necessary for the learners. Ultimately, if the students are able to visualize as they read poetry, they will comprehend it. So often ELL's get hung up on the figurative language but if the teacher models by thinking aloud, scaffolding, and clarifying prior to the lesson and during the lesson, students will activate schema and comprehend the text.
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