Programs and Projects
Leading from Behind: Language Experience in Action
INTRODUCTION:
Language Experience is a strategy to develop and reinforce
reading and writing by using a learner’s personal experiences
and natural language. In this approach, the students themselves
initiate experiences through projects and other resulting interactive
activities. In their authentic language, students dictate their
experiences to the teacher who translates their story into written
English. With this documentation as a basic material for reading
and writing instruction, the teacher helps the students see the
connection between what they signed and what was written. The teacher
uses this language experience to develop new vocabulary, comprehension,
and the basics of English grammar. At the Laurent Clerc National
Deaf Education Center, Language Experience is one of the nine
areas of the literacy program.
OVERVIEW:
The Role of the Educator is:
- to model the writing and the thinking aloud process;
- to develop writing skills and introduce different writing genres
through mini-lessons;
- to promote rereading as a strategy for students to remember
what they are writing about;
- to develop purpose of writing and writing for an audience;
- to demonstrate appropriate writing conventions.
The Observers Will See:
- students and teacher thinking aloud about their experience
while writing about it;
- the teacher modeling the translation of students’ signs
into an appropriate written version;
- students rereading what they have dictated
- students documenting their language experience through pictures
and written compositions.
 top
HOW IT WORKS:
The Process:
1. Students initiate the experience. There are many topics
the teacher can use to identify topics for Language Experience activities.
For example, at the Clerc Center, there are community meetings that
children and teachers attend to discuss the issues and problems
that affect them and the school. During these meetings, students
ask questions to bring up their concerns. The teacher takes a question
and concern and develops a lesson with the students.
2. Students and teacher document that experience. Students
and teacher draw pictures or use digital or Polaroid cameras throughout
the experience. Taking pictures and writing in a log helps document
the experience.
3. Teacher translates the students’ expressions in sign
language into written English. Often students take all of the
pictures and decide what happened first, second, third, and so on.
The students collaboratively recount the events while the teacher
writes what is said. The teacher regularly signs each sentence back
to make sure it is correct.
4. Students and teacher use the text for reading instruction.
Students use a thesaurus to learn new words or use a cloze activity
to focus on specific words. Then the teacher makes additional small
copies of the text for everyone to share with friends and families
and to read again and again during the year.
Schleper, David. 2002. Leading from Behind: Language Experience
in Action. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University, Laurent
Clerc National Deaf Education Center.
How to Record a Language Experience:
(Schleper, 2002)
- Ask students to sign what they are learning.
- Act as a scribe and write in English what is signed.
- Sign back to the students to make sure they agree with the story
that was written down.
- “Think aloud” to demonstrate processes to students.
- Relate the complexity of the text to the language level of
the students.
- Let the students contribute drawings or other art to enhance
the writings.
- Use mini-lessons to focus on specific language or reading skills.
top
CLASSROOM APPLICATION:
(Schleper, 2002)
- Leslie Brewer’s sixth-, and eighth grade students became
interested in making Indian bread during their unit on Native
Americans. Brewer incorporated Language Experience strategies
to help the students through the process. She began by reading
April: A Pueblo Storyteller by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith to
the students. Then the students researched how the Indian bread
was made. After reading the directions, the students developed
a list of questions. As they went thought the process of making
Indian bread, the students found the answers to their questions.
Then the students dictated how to make Indian bread in American
Sign Language to Brewer who documented the information on chart
paper. She also used it to do an extended vocabulary lesson and
the students were also able to use the documentation to make their
own book about the process.
- Barbara Kaufman’s first-, second-, and third-grade students
planned to attend a play entitled James and the Giant Peach.
To help the students understand the play, Kaufman read the picture
book of the same title. After that, they watched the movie version,
and then the play. The students dictated what they understood
from each of the versions. Kaufman in turn wrote what they signed
on chart paper for each of the three versions. Unfortunately,
several pages of the book got torn so they held a class meeting
to figure out what to do. In the process of solving this problem,
they again used Language Experience to document a real life experience.
Sample Projects By Our Students:
Joshua Is Moving by the Integrated
Pre-Kindergarten Class
Mock Election by Team 1/2/3
The Franciscan Monastery by
the Sophomore Team
top
MATERIALS & RESOURCES AT THE CLERC CENTER:
Workshops:
Leading from Behind: Language Experience in Action
is a workshop
offered for classroom teachers, parents, dorm staff, and other language
educators. This workshop provides an introduction to using Language
Experience in a student-centered classroom. It is designed primarily
for classroom teachers and other educators, but parents and dorm
staff will find it of interest as well. It is conducted in a highly
interactive style so that participants are well prepared to use
Language Experience when they return to their respective schools
and programs.
Literacy – It All Connects is a workshop that introduces
Language Experience approach as one of the nine strategies on which
the Clerc Center literacy program is based. For more information
contact the Training
and Professional Development office.
Manual and Videotape:
Leading from Behind: Language Experience in Action
is a videotape
and manual developed under the guidance of David Schleper, the
Literacy Coordinator at the Clerc Center.
A GOOD PLACE TO START:
Helms, L. L., and David R. Schleper (2000). “Language Experience:
Fun Projects After School, Including Writing.” Odyssey,
1(3), 13-16.
Nelson, Olga G. and Wayne M. Linek (1999). Practical Classroom
Applications of Language Experience: Looking Back, Look Forward.
Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Whitesell, Kathleena M. (1999). "Langauge Experience. Leading
from Behind." Perspectives
in Education and Deafness.
SUPPORTIVE RESEARCH AND DESCRIPTIVE LITERATURE:
Dixon, Carol (1990). Language Experience Approach to Reading
(And Writing) : LEA for ESL. Prentice Hall.
Nelson, Olga G. and Wayne M. Linek (1999). Practical Classroom
Applications of Language Experience: Looking Back, Look Forward.
Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Schleper, David (2002). Leading from Behind: Language Experience
in Action. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University, Laurent
Clerc National Deaf Education Center.
WEB RESOURCES:
An
art lesson using LEA
Digital
Language Experience Approach
The Language
Experience Approach and Adult Learners
The
Language Experience Approach and Adult Learners
The
Language Experience Approach in a Dual Language Program
LEA
and Hearing-Impaired Students
LEA Revisited…
Personal Narratives in Adult L2 Literacy Instruction
A
Method to Reach Reluctant or Struggling Readers
Principles
and Practices of Language Experience
Technology
and LEA
Three Approaches
to Teaching Reading
Using
a Language Experience Approach Activity
What
is the Language Experience Approach?
top
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Beyond Reading and Writing : Inquiry, Curriculum, and Multiple
Ways of Knowing. Urbana, Ill. : National Council of Teachers
of English, c2000.
Butler, D. A. Rooms to Grow : Natural Language Arts in the
Middle School. 2nd ed. Durham, N.C. : Carolina Academic Press,
c1998.
Combs, M.Readers and Writers in Primary Grades: A Balanced
and Integrated Approach. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J. :
Merrill, c2002.
Critiquing Whole Language and Classroom Inquiry. Urbana,
Ill. : National Council of Teachers of English, c2001.
Ewoldt, Carolyn & Hammermeister, Frieda. (Oct 1986). “The
Language-Experience Approach to Facilitating Reading and Writing
for Hearing-Impaired Students.” American Annals of the
Deaf. 131(4), pp. 271-274.
Fisher, B. Joyful Learning in Kindergarten. Rev. ed. Portsmouth,
NH : Heinemann, c1998.
Hall, M. The Language Experience Approach for Teaching Reading:
A Research Perspective. International Reading Assoc. 1978.
Halliday, M. A. K. Construing Experience Through Meaning: A
Language-Based Approach to Cognition. Cassell Academic, c1999.
Language Experience Approach: Abstracts from the ERIC database.
Language Experience Forum [newsletter] / ed. by Christine
A. McKeon. Contact: Jacqueline K. Peck; 4690 Young Rd., Stow, OH
44224; 330-672-0613; Fax: 330-672-3407; jPeck@kent.edu
Making Justice Our Project : Teachers Working Toward Critical
Whole Language Practice. Urbana, Ill. : National Council of
Teachers of English, c1999.
Mikkelsen, N. Words and Pictures : Lessons in Children's Literature
and Literacies. Boston : McGraw-Hill, c2000.
Moomaw, S. 1948-. More Than Letters : Literacy Activities for
Preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade. St. Paul, MN:
Redleaf Press ; Distributed by Gryphon House, c2001.
Moustafa, M. Beyond Traditional Phonics : Research Discoveries
and Reading Instruction. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1997.
Nelson, O. G. and Linek, W.M. Practical Classroom Applications
of Language Experience: Looking Back, Look Forward. Boston:
Allyn & Bacon, c1999.
Pavelka, P. Making the Connection : Learning Skills Through
Literature (3-6). Peterborough, N.H. : Crystal Springs Books,
c1997.
Perspective
in Education and Deafness. Washington, D.C. : Pre-College
Programs, Gallaudet College, Volume 17, Number 5 (May/June 1999).
Pike, K. New Connections : An Integrated Approach to Literacy.
2nd ed. New York : Longman, c1997.
Searfoss, L. W. Developing Literacy Naturally. Dubuque,
Iowa : Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co., c1998.
Sedgwick, F. Writing to Learn : Poetry and Literacy Across
the Primary Curriculum. London ; New York : Routledge, 2000.
Springer, M. The Watershed Whole-Learning Activities Book.
Columbus, Ohio : National Middle School Association, c1998.
The Toughtful Reader. 3rd ed. Fort Worth, TX : Harcourt
College Publishers, c2002.
top |
