Literature Review: Domain C “English Learners and Reading Comprehension: Text

Organization in History”

Marissa Jadrosich-Forgét

National University: TED 690 Capstone Course

Professor Daniel Weintraub

 Abstract:

This is literature review on the article titled English Learners and Reading

Comprehension: Text Organization in History by Phyllis Goldsmith and Tuyen Tran Ph.D. This

article discussed how teachers can support English learners and struggling readers in reading

historical primary and secondary sources. I choose this article because reading is one of the

most important skills in understanding history and learning the content and being able to

support my students in reading is essential for them to be successful.

 Teaching history is a reading intensive class. Students are expected to read and

comprehend both primary and secondary sources. In some cases, these texts, are difficult to

understand and if you are a struggling reader or English Language is not your primary language,

this makes learning history more difficult. This paper will review one teaching strategies that

will help support students who are struggling readers or English Learners within a history

classroom.

Today, English Learners are not segmented into their own classes, they are integrated

into the general education learning population, so because of these English learners must have

access to mainstream instruction to ensure long-term academic success. Additionally, the

common core standards in English language are built on an EL student’s ability to understand

the content, as well as, the language. The goal of these students is to ensure that when

graduate from the program, they are proficient in academic language. One reading strategy

that the author proposes will not only support English learners in reading comprehension, but

will support any student. This strategy is called “Text Organization Instruction.” The author

states that “When students learn language structures to analyze and connect information and a

discipline’s methodology for constructing arguments. As a result, students become better

reader of history texts” (Goldsmith, 2012, pg. 57). To do this, students need to be able to

recognize word pattens by identifying signal words. This helps students identify transitions in

sentences, which means they are able to find important statements or facts within a passage.

By finding these signal words, students will be able to start and see connections in what they

are reading.
 The article focuses on one strategy for teachers to support their students using this

method. First, teachers should start the lesson by framing a historical question. This will help

structure the lesson and the reading. It gives students a point of reference when trying to read

or trying to complete classroom activities. Next, teachers need to pick an appropriate text.

There are two things that teachers need to look for. Does the historical document have more

than one organizational pattern in a single passage? Does the historical document have the

correct information that students are required to learn? (Goldsmith, 2012, pg. 58). These two

things are super important in the process of having students read and comprehend the text.

“Given this, decoding the structure of a text is a critical first step towards understanding the

main ideas of a text. Secondly, teachers should select sources that support their lesson’s

content goals. . . each source’s content should significantly add to students’ understanding”

(Goldsmith, 2012, pg. 59). This means that careful selection of the text is imperative for

student success.

How can this be implemented into classrooms? The practice of annotating text works

well for helping students be able to read and comprehend the text. This is important, because

the annotations help students find the cause and effect relationships within the reading

passage and it helps give students the foundation of what the text means. Second, being able

to use graphic organizers will help students organize the text and put information into distinct

categories. Answer keys “are useful conceptual roadmaps for the activity (and the lesson) and

by completing the student work in advance, teachers can preview whether the activity has

sufficient language support, builds content knowledge, and answers the historical investigation

question” (Goldsmith, 2012, pg. 60-61). Creating a key will help teacher evaluate student
responses to see how to plan instruction to support student learning. This evaluation of

student responses is super important, because a teacher will be able to evaluate how well they

comprehended the text and what activities moving forward would best support their ability to

continue to help English language development and to support reading of historical text.

This ability to support student learning is essential for student success. Learning history

is reading intensive, and this strategy will help all readers in the classroom comprehend

historical text. Using text organization reading strategies will result in English learners and

struggling readers to be more successful in the classroom. It is important to note that this is

only one of the reading strategies that is mentioned and to get additional strategies to support

these students, the author recommends the California History-Social Science Project.
 Reference

Goldsmith, P., and Tran, T. (2012). English learners and reading comprehension: text

organization in history. Social Studies Review. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-

com.nuls.idm.oclc.org/docview/1034979947/447DD2D973884270PQ/6?accountid=253

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