The Language Experience Approach (LEA) Part 2 of 2

LEA ACTIVITIES

NATURE WALK - Go for a 10-15 mins walk in the garden or outdoors. Observe the surroundings. What do you hear, see, smell and feel? After the walk or stroll, talk about the experience. Write them in sentences, then read it aloud to yourself or to others.

My Favorite Things - Choose pictures of the things you like from old magazines. Cut them out. Paste each picture on a clean sheet of paper. Tell a partner why you like these things. Write it down once you are done sharing with your partner. Put them together to form your book of favorite things.

Wordless Picture Book - Tell the story of a wordless picture book using your own words to a partner. Write a sentence for each page of the book on a separate page.  Have your partner read what you have written down. Talk about the experience of telling and writing the story.

In Your Own Words - What is your morning routine? What activities do you do in a day? Write them down or draw it. Turn to your partner and talk about routines and activities you do. Listen to your partner as he/she talks about her schedule.

Before Going to School - List down the things you do before going to school. Draw the most important to you. Write the reasons why and read it aloud to your partner. Compare your work and discuss.

After LEA Activities

1. Identify relevant words in the written output.

2. Make a list of these words in a WORD WALL. As an extension, make a dictionary form these words.

3. As a reader, identify sentences that struck you from the works of your classmates/co-participants.

4. In a group, discuss reasons why you found the sentences meaningful.

5. As an extension activity, go to the library and look for:

a. Magazines about nature or the environment;

b. A book on scrapbook making;

c. Wordless Picture Books;

d. Posters, brochures or infographics on time management;

e. A book that has a poem or stories about school and friends in school.

Remember these basic principles of LEA as postulated by Roach Van Allen (1964), one of the proponents of LEA.

What I can think about, I can say.

What I can say, I can write.

I can read what I have written.

I can read what others have written for me to read.

Listen. Speak. Read. Write!

Sources:

The Literacy Bug, June 2018 Retrieved

https://www.theliteracybug.com/using-the-language-experience-approach/

Harker, W. John. The Language Experience Approach. 

http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/viewFile/7380/5310

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) Part 1 of 2

“...the language experience approach (LEA) is a whole language approach that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal experiences and oral language. It effectively helps develop learners' print awareness, since learners see the direct connection between images and words. It effectively connects known vocabulary and new vocabulary with print words, since the experience and image(s) correlate with words in the written caption(s).” 

The Literacy Bug, June 2018 Retrievedhttps://www.theliteracybug.com/using-the-language-experience-approach/

Using LEA in the classroom for group and one-on-one sessions has many benefits. It allows teacher and students to discuss experiences and to have these written down would automatically familiarize students with the structure of language and the dynamics of using them. From speaking about experiences, listening to responses and writing these down, students learn reading skills along the way. In LEA, students engage in the communication of their experiences, there is a deeper connection to content making learning more meaningful.

The Language Experience Process

Before and During the Experience

1. Establish a common experience.

2. Pay attention to this common experience and how language (vocabulary) is used and documented (organizers, journals, cards, digicams, social media, etc.)

3. Be aware of instructions that take place and how discourse is built from the common experience.

After the Experience

1. Display and show evidences of learned vocabulary, new, old and how it is constructed through graphic organizers (mind maps, flow charts, semantic maps).

2. Review how sentence structures and cycles manifest in students documented writing.

3. Provide feedback on their writing that will help improve and enhance reading and writing skills.

4. Repeat the reading of newly constructed texts and observe how memory further shapes of improves the telling or writing of the experience.

5. Use newly constructed texts and vocabulary for further study.

Extending the Experience

1. Find an opportunity to link new readings to the common experience, for example, poems, magazine articles, social media posts, advertisements and flyers.

2. Provide a connection of these readings to writing activities.

3. Reflect on select areas of the experience and activities with students. 

4. Record these reflections by keeping them in a learning portfolio.

STARS in a Teachers' Workshop

As a writer of children's stories, I am always thrilled to know when teachers use my books for classroom teaching and in workshops with peers and colleagues. Teacher Marose Lagunsad sent me these photos late in August showing me how she rallied a group of teachers to read my early reading series, Start Right Reading Series Kindergarten Level, using it as a spring board for Picture Walk.

Picture Walk is a reading comprehension strategy that builds decoding skills, comprehension and literature appreciation among readers. When teachers are engaged in doing an activity that they can use in the classroom, it is likely that they will try it out in their classrooms too. Thank you, Teacher Marose for the support!

One of the books in the series, Zoo Bee Doo, tells the story of a girl who got lost in the zoo.

The Start Right Reading Series Kindergarten Level is a learning package for Kindergarten learners. It has 12 books, a teaching manual and parents' guide for classroom and home school instruction.

The Start Right Reading Series (Gagatiga and Solina-Wolf, Lampara Books 2014) is available at the booth of Lampara Books currently on sale at the 38th Manila International Book Fair, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City.

Book Project Preview: Start Right Reading Series for Grade 1 Learners

The Philippine Literary Festival 2015

Check the website for the full program: http://www.philippineliteraryfestival.com/