Using the Language Experience Approach With English Language Learners

Denise Nessel is an associate of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA), where she focuses on teaching reading and writing as thinking processes in grades K-12. She has worked as a secondary English teacher, elementary reading specialist, reading clinician, university professor, district-level curriculum supervisor, co-director of a statewide staff development project, curriculum manager at educational software companies, and consultant to schools around the country and abroad. Nessel has conducted numerous workshops and demonstration lessons for teachers and administrators and has served as a consultant and writer for educational publishers and multimedia firms. She has written several books and classroom resources for teachers and a number of articles for professional journals. Carol N. Dixon has worked as a reading clinician, university professor and administrator, and consultant to schools and universities around the country and abroad. In her role as a university faculty member, she directed a reading clinic and an MA in Reading/Reading Specialist Credential Program for 20 years. She has conducted numerous workshops and demonstration lessons for classroom teachers and has made numerous presentations at scholarly conferences in the United States and internationally. She has written or co-authored books and journal articles as resources for teachers, as well as over 50 research-based articles for professional publications. In her current work, she focuses on classroom research that investigates the teaching of reading and writing as thinking processes, particularly to English Language Learners.

Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction to the Language Experience Approach 1. The Value of LEA for English Language Learners: An Overview 2. Reading From Experience for Beginners 3. Reading From Experience for Intermediate Students 4. Reading From Experience for Advanced Students 5. Vocabulary and Word Recognition in an LEA Program 6. Writing in an LEA Program 7. Putting It All Together Appendix A: LEA and State Standards References Index

"Nessel and Dixon show teachers how to effectively support English language development by using the Language Experience Approach." -- David E. Freeman and Yvonne S. Freeman, Professors of Literacy, ESL, and Bilingual Education "Provides teachers the tools they need to use this natural way of helping English Language Learners. The Language Experience Approach makes language and language arts accessible to the students in need of basic skills." -- Roberta E. Dorr, Associate Professor of Education "Offers K-12 teachers in ESL a basic instructional method for meeting students at their different levels and helping them use listening skills to build reading skills. An outstanding approach ESL teachers will relish." -- The Bookwatch, July 2008