Blindness (Portuguese: Ensaio sobre a cegueira, meaning Essay on Blindness) is a novel by Portuguese

author Jos Saramago. It is one of his most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus
Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda. In 1998, Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and
Blindness was one of his works noted by the committee when announcing the award.[citation needed

Plot summary[edit]

Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an
unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortunes of a
handful of characters who are among the first to be stricken and centers on "the doctor's wife," her
husband, several of his patients, and assorted others, who are thrown together by chance. After lengthy
and traumatic quarantine in an asylum, the group bands together in a family-like unit to survive by their
wits and by the unexplained good fortune that the doctors wife has escaped the blindness. The sudden
onset and unexplained origin and nature of the blindness cause widespread panic, and the social order
rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the apparent contagion and keep order via
increasingly repressive and inept measures.

The first part of the novel follows the experiences of the central characters in the filthy, overcrowded
asylum where they and other blind people have been quarantined. Hygiene, living conditions, and
morale degrade horrifically in a very short period, mirroring the society outside.

Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by delivery irregularities, acts to undermine solidarity; and
lack of organization prevents the internees from fairly distributing food or chores. Soldiers assigned to
guard the asylum and look after the well-being of the internees become increasingly antipathetic as one
soldier after another becomes infected. The military refuse to allow in basic medicines, so that a simple
infection becomes deadly. Fearing a break out, soldiers shoot down a crowd of internees waiting upon
food delivery.

Conditions degenerate further as an armed clique gains control over food deliveries, subjugating their
fellow internees and exposing them to rape and deprivation. Faced with starvation, internees battle
each other and burn down the asylum, only to discover that the army has abandoned the asylum, after
which the protagonists join the throngs of nearly helpless blind people outside who wander the
devastated city and fight one another to survive.

The story then follows the doctor's wife, her husband, and their impromptu family as they attempt to
survive outside, cared for largely by the doctors wife, who can still see (though she must hide this fact
at first). The breakdown of society is near total. Law and order, social services, government, schools,
etc., no longer function. Families have been separated and cannot find each other. People squat in
abandoned buildings and scrounge for food. Violence, disease, and despair threaten to overwhelm
human coping. The doctor and his wife and their new family eventually make a permanent home in
the doctor's house and are establishing a new order to their lives when the blindness lifts from the city
en masse just as suddenly and inexplicably as it struck.

The doctor's wife[edit]

The doctor's wife is the only character in the entire novel who does not lose her sight. This phenomenon
remains unexplained in the novel. Unable to leave her husband to be interned, she lies to the doctors
and claims to be blind. At this point she is interned with the rest of the afflicted. Once inside, she
attempts to help the compound organize, but she is increasingly unable to hold back the animality of the
compound. When one ward begins withholding food and demanding that the women of other wards
sleep with them to be fed, she kills the leader of their ward. Once they escape the compound, she helps
her group survive in the city. The doctor's wife is the de facto leader of their small group, although in the
end she often serves their disabled needs.[1]

The doctor[edit]

The doctor is an ophthalmologist stricken blind after treating a patient with what will come to be called
"the white sickness". He is among the first to be quarantined along with his wife. Due to his medical
expertise he has a certain authority among those quarantined. Much of this really comes from his wife
not having gone blind; she is able to see what is going on on the ward and relay this to her husband.
When the group from his ward finally escapes they end up travelling to and staying in the doctor and his
wife's apartment. Several of the other main characters had been visiting the doctor's office when the
epidemic begins to spread.[1]

The girl with the dark glasses[edit]

The girl with the dark glasses is a former part-time prostitute who is struck blind while with a customer.
She is unceremoniously removed from the hotel and taken to the quarantine. Once inside, she joins the
small group of people who were contaminated at the doctor's office. When the car thief gropes her on
the way to the lavatory, she kicks him giving him a wound from which he will eventually die. While
inside, she also takes care of the boy with the squint, whose mother is nowhere to be found. At the end
of the story, she and the old man with the black eye patch become lovers.[1]

The old man with the black eye patch[edit]

The old man with the black eye patch is the last person to join the first ward. He brings with him a
portable transistor radio that allows the internees to listen to the news. He is also the main architect of
the failed attack on the ward of hoodlums hoarding the food rations. Once the group escapes the
quarantine, the old man becomes the lover of the girl with the dark glasses.[1]

The dog of tears[edit]

The dog of tears is a dog that joins the small group of blind when they leave the quarantine. While he is
mostly loyal to the doctor's wife, he helps the whole group by protecting them all from packs of dogs
who are becoming more feral by the day. He is called the dog of tears because he became attached to
the group when he licked the tears off the face of the doctor's wife.[1]

The boy with the squint[edit]

The boy with the squint was a patient of the doctor's, which is most likely how he became infected. He is
brought to the quarantine without his mother and soon falls in with the group in the first ward. The girl
with the dark glasses feeds him and takes care of him like a mother.[1]

The car thief[edit]

After the first blind man was struck blind in traffic, a car thief brought him home and, subsequently stole
his car. Soon after he went blind, the car thief and the first blind man re-encounter one another in the
quarantine, where they soon come to blows. They have no time to resolve their issues, though, since the
car thief is the first internee killed by the guards. He is gunned down while trying to ask the guards for
medication for his infected leg.[1]

The first blind man[edit]

The first man to go blind is struck blind in the middle of traffic, waiting at a stoplight. He is immediately
taken home and then to the doctor's office, where he infects all of the other patients. He is one of the
principal members of the first ward - the ward with all of the original internees. He is also the first to
regain his sight, when the epidemic is finally over.[1]

The first blind man's wife[edit]

The wife of the first blind man goes blind soon after helping her husband to the quarantine. They are
reunited by pure chance in the quarantine. Once inside, she also joins the first ward with the doctor and
the doctor's wife. When the ward of hoodlums begins to demand that the women sleep with them in
order to be fed, the first blind man's wife volunteers to go, in solidarity with the others.[1]

The man with the gun[edit]

The man with the gun is the leader of the ward of hoodlums that seizes control of the food supply in the
quarantine. He and his ward take the rations by force and threaten to shoot anyone who doesn't
comply. This ward extorts valuables from the other internees in exchange for food and, when the
bracelets and watches run out, they begin to rape the women. He is later stabbed to death by the
doctor's wife.[1]

The blind accountant[edit]

This man is not one of those afflicted by the "white sickness"rather he has been blind since birth. He is
the only one in the ward who can read and write braille and who knows how to use a walking stick.
Additionally, he is the second in command to the man with the gun in the ward of hoodlums. When the
doctor's wife kills the man with the gun, the blind accountant takes the gun and tries to seize control but
he is unable to rally support. He dies when one of the rape victims sets fire to the ward.[1]

Style[edit]

Like most works by Saramago, the novel contains many long, breathless sentences in which commas
take the place of periods. The lack of quotation marks around dialogue means that the speakers'
identities (or the fact that dialogue is occurring) may not be immediately apparent to the reader. The
lack of proper character names in Blindness is typical of many of Saramago's novels (e.g. All the Names).
The characters are instead referred to by descriptive appellations such as "the doctor's wife", "the car
thief", or "the first blind man". Given the characters' blindness, some of these names seem ironic ("the
boy with the squint" or "the girl with the dark glasses").

The city afflicted by the blindness is never named, nor the country specified. Few definite identifiers of
culture are given, which contributes an element of timelessness and universality to the novel. Some
signs hint that the country is Saramago's homeland of Portugal: the main character is shown eating
chourio, a spicy sausage, and some dialogue in the original Portuguese employs the familiar "tu"
second-person singular verb form (a distinction absent in most of Brazil). The church, with all its saintly
images, is likely of the Catholic variety.
Sequel and adaptation[edit]

Saramago wrote a sequel to Blindness in 2004, titled Seeing (Ensaio sobre a lucidez, literal English
translation Essay on lucidity), which has also been translated into English. The new novel takes place in
Portugal and features several of the same characters.

An English-language film adaptation of Blindness was directed by Fernando Meirelles. Filming began in
July 2007 and stars Mark Ruffalo as the doctor and Julianne Moore as the doctor's wife. The film opened
the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.[2]

In 2007 the Drama Desk Award Winning Godlight Theatre Company[3] staged the New York City
theatrical premiere of Blindness [4] at 59E59 Theaters. This stage version was adapted and directed by
Joe Tantalo. The First Blind Man was played by Mike Roche.[4][5][6]

An outdoor performance adaptation by the Polish group Teatr KTO, was first presented in June 2010. It
has since been performed at a number of venues, including the Old College Quad of Edinburgh
University during the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Shortly before his death, Saramago gave German composer Anno Schreier the rights to compose an
opera based on the novel. The libretto is written in German by Kerstin Maria Phler. Like the German
translation of the novel, the opera's title is "Die Stadt der Blinden". It saw its first performance on
November 12, 2011 at the Zurich Opera House.

This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or maternal family name is de Sousa and the
second or paternal family name is Saramago.

More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has
been translated into 25 languages.[4][5] A proponent of libertarian communism,[6] Saramago criticized
institutions such as the Catholic Church, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. An
atheist, he defended love as an instrument to improve the human condition. In 1992, the Government
of Portugal under Prime Minister Anbal Cavaco Silva ordered the removal of The Gospel According to
Jesus Christ from the Aristeion Prize's shortlist, claiming the work was religiously offensive. Disheartened
by this political censorship of his work,[7] Saramago went into exile on the Spanish island of Lanzarote,
upon which he resided until his death in 2010.[8][9]
Saramago was a founding member of the National Front for the Defense of Culture in Lisbon in 1992,
and co-founder with Orhan Pamuk, of the European Writers' Parliament (EWP).

ResearchProgramImplementation

English for Children

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[WHITE PAPER] The Importance of Oral Language for Literacy Success

Published: March 21, 2017

Erin Reeder, Content and Social Media Manager, GrapeSEED US

Julie Baxa, Senior GrapeSEED Trainer, GrapeSEED US

Oral language lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills children will develop as they enter
and progress through school. They will use oral language in all aspects of their education, in the
classroom as they connect with their peers and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into
adulthood. Having a solid foundation in oral language will help children become successful readers and
strong communicators as well as build their confidence and overall sense of well-being.

When Oral Language Skills Are Missing

In 2002, the National Reading Panel (NRP), a team appointed by George W. Bush to review and
summarize scientific evidence on reading and its implications for teaching children to read, published a
report naming five components of a reading curriculum that are essential to its success: phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency development, vocabulary development, and comprehension (National
Reading Panel, 2002).

This report set the standards for many literacy programs, especially those receiving Reading First federal
funding, which were required to follow the guidelines in the report in order to qualify for the funding
(Gamse, Bloom, Kemple, & Jacob, 2008). However, many English language arts scholars believed other
critical components, such as oral language development, had been left out (Garan, 2001; Krashen, 2001;
National Education Association, 2013).

Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, language and literacy researchers and authors of the first
chapter of the book What Teachers Need to Know About Language, tell us that, Oral language functions
as a foundation for literacy and as the means of learning in school and out (Fillmore & Snow, 2002).
However, oral language development is often missing from reading and writing programs, leaving
teachers to wonder why their students are still struggling or taking longer than expected to become
proficient speakers and readers.

While the essential components listed by the NRP all contribute to a successful literacy program, if
children do not have a solid foundation in oral language, communicating effectively and learning to read
can be a long and difficult process. Childrens speaking and listening lead the way for their reading and
writing skills, and together these language skills are the primary tools of the mind for all future learning
(Roskos, Tabors, & Lenhart, 2009).

The Challenge Presented by the Word Gap

Oral language proficiency has a major impact on students. All standardized testing in the United States is
done in academic or standard English, therefore, children whose personal language is not an academic
language are at a disadvantage. Children need to be able to speak academic oral language in order to
become successful learners and readers in the classroom while their personal language is still valued and
maintained.

In 1995, child psychologists Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley from the University of Kansas published the
results of their oral language development study (Hart & Risley, 1995). They wanted to try to determine
why preschool-aged children from low-income homes did not perform as well in school at the age of
nine as their economically advantaged peers. They recorded and analyzed the words spoken between
parents and children one hour a month over a period of two and a half years. What they found was
astonishing. By the age of three, there was a large gap between children whose parents provided rich
language experiences, such as talking to children, singing, reading, and so on, and children who grew up
with fewer languages experiences at home. Children with rich language experiences heard about 45
million words compared to the latter group of children who heard only 13 million words.
This 30 million word gap (2003) presents a problem for classroom teachers across the country in todays
high-stakes educational environment. The students are not starting out on an even playing field, and
teachers are charged with the responsibility of getting the children who are behind caught up and
reading at grade level. The good news is, just like math and science, academic oral language can be
taught.

Building a Foundation in Oral Language

Again and again research shows that repeated exposure to rich language can help children become
successful communicators, readers and writers (Simmons & Kameenui, 1998; Himmele, 2009). Educating
parents on the importance of oral language and encouraging them to communicate and read with their
children as early as possible can help prepare them for school.

Additionally, providing students with high-quality early childhood education enriched with a
supplemental program promoting oral language and literacy development can help young students
become proficient readers by third grade.

GrapeSEED is a research-based oral language acquisition and critical listening program that is helping 4
to 8-year-old students close the achievement gap in oral language. The program supplements existing
Language Arts and Literacy curricula and is proven to help students develop into proficient readers by
third grade. It is used in a variety of settings, including early childhood classrooms, Response-to-
Intervention (RTI) initiatives, Title programs for struggling learners, ESL/ELL classrooms, as well as with
subgroups of students struggling with oral language.

Oral language and critical listening is the heart of the GrapeSEED program for young learners. A focus on
building these essential skills is one of the reasons the program is so successful and sets it apart from
other literacy programs. Through carefully designed multi-sensory materials, GrapeSEED keeps children
engaged and helps them learn oral language naturally. As a result, independent research showed that
GrapeSEED students reached proficiency in speaking and reading faster than the national average (Smith
& Smith, 2014).

Reading proficiency by the end of third-grade can predict a childs success in school and in life (Donald
Hernandez, 2011). Stephen Covey, an educator and author, states that we should, Begin with the end
in mind (Covey, 1990). If we want to give our children the best chance to graduate high school and
become successful contributors to society, we must start as early as possible in their young lives. We
must give them a solid foundation in oral language to build upon.

References

Covey, Stephen (1990). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York City, NY: Free Press.

Fillmore, Lily W. & Catherine E. Snow (2002). What Teachers Need to Know about Language. McHenry,
IL: Delta Systems.

Gamse, Beth C., Howard Bloom, James J. Kemple, Robin Tepper Jacob (2008). Reading First Impact
Study: Interim Report. Retrieved from MDRC website: http://www.mdrc.org/publication/reading-first-
impact-study.

Garan, Elaine (2001). Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors: A Critique of the National Reading Panel Report on
Phonics, Phi Delta Kappan, volume 82, pp. 500-506.

Hart, B. & T. R. Risley (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American
children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Hart, B. & T. R. Risley (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American
Educator, Spring 2003, 4-9.

Hernandez, Donald (2011). Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High
School Graduation. Baltimore, MD. Retrieved from The Annie E. Casey Foundation website:
http://www.aecf.org/resources/double-jeopardy/.

Himmele, P. & W. Himmele (2009). The Language-Rich Classroom: A Research-Based Framework for
Teaching English Language Learners (pp. 3033). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Krashen, Stephen D. (2001). More Smoke and Mirrors: A Critique of the National Reading Panel (NRP)
Report on "Fluency". Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 83, pp. 119-23.

National Reading Panel (2002). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the
Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Rockville, MD;

Roskos, Kathleen A., Tabors, Patton O., & Lenhart, Lisa A. (2009). Oral language and early literacy in
preschool: Talking, reading, and writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association

Simmons, & Edward J. Kameenui. (1998). What reading research tells us about children with diverse
learning needs: Bases and basics. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Smith, Julia B., Ed.D., Oakland University & Judith M. Smith, Ph.D., University of Michigan. Effectiveness
of the GrapeSEED program with K-1-2 ESL/ELL students in Berrien Springs Public Schools (SY 2013-2014).
Seattle, WA: GrapeSEED.

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The Critical Role of Guided Oral Reading for English Language Learners

Home> Read & Publish > Journals > Other Serial Publications > Compleat Links > Compleat Links Volume
6, Issue 3-4 (October 2009) > The Critical Role of Guided Oral Reading for English Language Learners

Philomena Marinaccio-Eckel and Jaclyn Donahue discuss the process and benefits of using this strategy
to facilitate students' comprehension through oral retelling. See Judie Haynes's Communities of Practice
column, "Growing Better Readers," Essential Teacher, October 2009.
Taking an interest in students and changing strategies to adapt to their diverse needs is essential to
teaching English language learners (ELLs). When asked to complete retellings of stories, ELLs often
concentrate on story details rather than main ideas, thus resulting in a loss of meaning of the story. We
(a professor of literacy and a graduate student) collaborated to research, plan, and implement an
effective approach to improving meaningful reading for ELLs.

This is the story of Jaclyn's approach to teaching metacognitive strategies to ELLs in hopes of improving
their oral reading comprehension. Her second-grade classroom was located in an urban school in
southeast Florida, in the United States. The school served a population of culturally and ethnically
diverse students. Ethnicity demographics show that this school had double to triple the number of
minorities compared to state averages. Because "the instructional needs of ELLs are as diverse as the
languages they speak at home, the literacy levels they have attained, and the sociocultural backgrounds
they bring to classroom" (Boyd-Batsone, 2006, p. 3), Jaclyns school provided the perfect setting for
investigating effective reading practice for ELLs.

Guided reading experiences provide a powerful context for beginning reading instruction. This small-
group reading approach allows teachers to scaffold, model, and discuss independent reading strategies
guided by student needs. Reading is a covert process actively controlled by readers to create meaning
from text, and the practice of readers thinking about their thinking while engaged in the reading process
is known as metacognition (McKeown & Gentilucci, 2007). Strategic readers use metacognition when
they read for understanding, recognize when they do not comprehend, and use fix-up strategies. Guided
modeling provides the scaffolding that allows students to see and practice monitoring skills (Lapp,
Fisher, & Grant, 2008) and metacognitive strategies. Metacognitive strategies include questioning,
thinking aloud while performing a task, and making graphic organizers (e.g., story maps) to scaffold
understanding (Flavell, 1987).

In her classroom, Jaclyn was required to use basal reading materials. Basal readers are reading
textbooks adopted for unified instruction across school districts. Current federal legislation has created
a back-to-the-basics climate in many U.S. classrooms, which has resulted in students reading from
sequential, skill-oriented textbooks comprising stories based on strict readability levels rather than
interest and experience. Utilizing basal readers shows little regard for students' prior experiences and
oral language proficiency.

Students truly engage in the reading process when books are at the appropriate reading level and when
they are able to make connections between their lives and books. Yet ELLs are often required to read
about topics that do not consider their diverse interests and experiences. Embedding guided reading in
the context of basal stories recognizes the external demands of administrators and the internal needs of
students that influence whether a teaching approach is appropriate.

In guided reading lessons, teachers not only model strategies but transfer the gradual release of
responsibility for pre-, during-, and postreading strategy use to students. Jaclyn modeled metacognitive
strategies focused on activating prior knowledge to encourage students to make predictions and
connections before reading, asking questions to encourage reading for meaning and monitoring active
reading during reading, and retelling stories focusing on main ideas to increase comprehension.

In the prereading stage, Jaclyn modeled how to activate prior knowledge and preview a text. Students
learned to understand the concept of activating prior knowledge by previewing a story; reading a title;
and making text-to-life, text-to-self, and text-to-text connections before reading. The process of sharing
reflections about the meanings of the text and applying the thoughts of authors to their own lives helps
students develop their abilities to interpret text and make meaningful connections (Boulware &
Monroe, 2008). Students became more interested and involved during guided reading lessons because
they really enjoyed sharing their personal connections with Jaclyn and their peers. When ELLs activate
their prior knowledge, it helps them integrate new information into an existing conceptual framework
that facilitates long-term memory and transfer of information to new concepts (Suits, 2003).

The ability to answer literal questions is no longer sufficient evidence of literacy. Instead, students must
be able to think critically about texts. In the during-reading phase, Jaclyn modeled literal, inferential, and
critical questioning as well as self-questioning to emphasize reading for meaning. Asking "think-aloud"
questions before, during, and after reading provided a scaffold for students' reading experiences. Asking
questions at key points in the story taught students to monitor their understanding of the story and to
be active readers. Postreading questions taught students critical thinking skills about how to apply new
knowledge and how to go beyond what they learned from the text in order to create new
understandings. Students were encouraged to think of questions after reading to challenge the teacher
and their peers. Jaclyn monitored and assessed students' ability to ask questions during their
independent reading time, when they used think-aloud to demonstrate mastery of this strategy.
Bookmarks helped students stay engaged by redirecting them back to the text in order to answer
questions.

Postreading is the one phase of the reading experience with which teachers have typically been least
concerned. This is due to traditional reading approaches that followed an "assign and tell" approach to
reading whereby comprehension is judged solely by students' answers to oral questions (Vacca & Vacca,
2008). Jaclyn modeled postreading strategies that deepened students' understanding of texts through
retellings. Students' retelling of what they read is an especially useful indicator of comprehension.
Observation and analysis of students' renditions of story events reveals their ability to distinguish
between details and main ideas. Many ELLs have trouble comprehending because they are so intent on
remembering each and every detail that they are not able to see the overall meaning of the text. Jaclyn
used story maps to teach internal text structure. At reading tables and students' desks, bookmarks and
charts of a story map and think-aloud prompts provided visual aids that helped students scaffold before,
during, and after reading and maintain focus and motivation.

This approach to reading was extremely successful in improving the ELLs' reading achievement for
several reasons. Small-group instruction was the ideal context for modeling metacognitive strategies,
which prepared ELLs to read expository as well as narrative texts. Student grouping and teacher
approach and strategy use provided scaffolds that allowed ELLs to read on grade level even when their
instructional reading levels were below those of their peers.

One of the most important outcomes was improving ELLs' independence in reading by developing their
metacognitive skills. Students took ownership of the reading strategies that were modeled.

Implementing this approach to reading instruction was also especially informative in regard to the
importance of activating prior knowledge for ELLs. Sufficient attention to this principle is essential to
success for students at risk. Failure to make this connection can become an insurmountable barrier to
concept mastery (Rockwell, 2007). Students learned to make connections between the text they read at
home and at school and to relate it to their own lives. Activating prior knowledge also assisted students
in developing other comprehension skills such as making inferences, drawing conclusions, and making
predictions.

Guided reading for ELLs is a useful instructional tool for teachers because student needs (including
reading ability and second language development) should inform instruction. Whole-group teaching
makes teacher observation of individual student needs almost impossible. Teachers can and should
tailor instruction to meet the diverse needs of each student, and guided reading helps teachers do so.

Reader's Theater: Oral Language Enrichment and Literacy Development for ELLs

By: Kristina Robertson

ELLs can benefit from Reader's Theater activities in a number of ways, including fluency practice,
comprehension, engaging in a story, and focusing on vocal and physical expression. Kristina Robertson
offers a number of approaches to Reader's Theater with ELLs in this article.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. Alfred Hitchcock

One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride, which is based on the novel by William Goldman. For
those of you haven't experienced this classic, the movie begins with a little boy who is sick and home
from school, and his grandfather, who offers to read the boy a fairy tale that he had enjoyed when he
was young. The boy isn't very interested at first, but soon realizes that he has nothing better to do, and
agrees to at least hear the beginning. The story that follows, of course, is an enchanting tale filled with
unforgettable characters and exciting plot twists. Despite his best efforts to resist getting drawn in, by
the end, the boy is begging his grandfather to finish the story and even admits that he would be ready to
hear it all over again if his grandfather returns with the book the next day.

What resonates with me in the movie is the experience of a child falling in love with a good story. While
that experience is magical in its own right, it's also an important part of becoming a strong reader.
Engagement is a critical piece of building reading and comprehension skills and plays an important part
in reading motivation as well.

When English language learners (ELLs) read, they may have difficulty engaging with a story if:

they lack the background knowledge to understand the plot, setting, and characters

they have not had much practice "putting themselves in the story"

they only get one or two opportunities to read a text before the class moves on to something new.

ELLs can benefit greatly from having opportunities to read a text many times because this helps them
develop fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. One way to reread a text while keeping it interesting
for students is through Readers' Theater. In a Readers' Theater activity, students read stories that have
been scripted like a play, and they act out the story together. Students may practice their parts several
times before acting the story out in front of the class, which gets them thinking about their characters
and the plot in a focused way. Rather than using elaborate props, costumes, or scenery, students can be
encouraged to use vocal, facial, and physical expression to engage with the script and their character.

As students continue their repeated readings of the script, they are improving their reading skills and
comprehension. They also will have the opportunity to practice speaking skills, such as pronunciation,
inflection, expression, and varied volume. Since the activity is meant to practice reading, students don't
need to memorize their lines, which keeps the spotlight on the reading practice, not the performance.

Reader's Theater offers ELLs an opportunity to completely immerse themselves in a story, and it gives
students the chance to think about how engaged readers interact with print, such as by seeing pictures
in their heads very similar to watching a movie or play. Teachers can help ELLs make this connection
by explaining how they can visualize the plot in their heads while they read and as they practice bringing
stories to life.

Reader's Theater has something for all students, regardless of their language level. Beginning English
speakers can have a small role with one or two short sentences, or if the student is at the "silent
period," he or she can be assigned a non-speaking role such as an animal character. The more advanced
a student's speaking skills are, the more the student can focus on improving expression and clarity in
their role.

Transcript of Oral Language and Fluency

Oral Language and Fluency

Reading Fluency and Oral Language Defined

Reading Fluency - Reading fluency builds a bridge between word recognition and reading
comprehension. Fluent readers dont have to concentrate on decoding the words and can concentrate
on the meaning of the text. ("Reading Fluency")

What is the relationship between oral language and learning to read and write?

1.Children cannot learn to read or write words that they do not know. Children who have heard more
words have a higher oral vocabulary, which later plays a role in their ability to read. The development
of oral language is an ongoing natural learning process. Children observe oral communication in many
contexts home, preschool, prekindergarten, and begin to develop concepts about its purposes They
then can use this oral language to enhance their ability to write and read fluently. ("Oral Language")

How Powerful Is That Relationship?

The relationship between reading fluency and oral language has two parts. The first being the words,
and the roles that they play are vital to comprehension. The second part is that the vocabulary and how
it supports fluency as a result of increased decoding ability the translation of text. (Shanahanon, and
Lonigan)
What implications for literacy teaching does this relationship have?

- Oral language is the foundation on which reading & writing are built.

- This implies that a student with a strong sense of phonemic awareness is better equip to learn how to
read/write.

- Oral language is also directly related to reading comprehension.

("Oral Language", http://www.eduplace.com/marketing/nc/pdf/fw_p04-10.pdf)

Methodology

Erin Pitts

John Bolling

Evan Johnson

Oral Language - Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a
large vocabulary (usually at least 10,000) together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through
or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. ("Vocal
Language")

Echo Reading

-Echo reading is a good way of modeling and helping students to develop fluency in speech and reading

-Invites immediate practice

-Concentrate on how fluent reading sounds and feels rather than decoding the words

Repeated Oral Reading

-Repeated oral reading is a wonderful way of developing fluency

-Hearing the text again and again helps the students hear the way the words sound and the overall
comprehension of the topic

Progressive Stories

-Related to repeated oral reading

-Scaffolds on the information that the students have heard previously

Poetry, Songs and Chants

-Practices rhythm, cadence, expression and prosody

-Acting out stories can help develop rhythm and cadence

Methodology Source

Robertson, Shari. "Connecting Reading Fluency and Oral Language for Student Success." The ASHA
Leader. ASHA, 14 Apr 2009. Web. 23 Aug 2013.
<http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2009/090414/f090414a1.htm>.

Bibliography

"Reading Fluency." Learning Rx. Learning Rx, n.d. Web. 23 Aug 2013.
<http://www.learningrx.com/reading-fluency.htm>.

"Vocal Language." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 28 May 2013. Web. 23 Aug 2013.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_language>.

"Oral Language." Bridge W. N.p.. Web. 23 Aug 2013.

<http://www.bridgew.edu/library/cags_projects/mmaurano/OralLanguage.htm>.

Shanahanon, Timothy, and Christopher Lonigan. "The Role of Early Oral Language in Literacy
Development."Language Magazine . Language Magazine. Web. 23 Aug 2013.
<http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=5100>.