"Using Folktales From Around the World to Support Literacy"

The Challenge: When a child is new to this country, he or she has much to adjust to and learn besides academics. At the beginning of the school year, Ms. Thompson's students were unable to read or focus on a book and were scoring low on their SAT 9 test. She wanted to link these twenty-one 3rd grade English learners with an educational experience, one they could identify with and connect to while improving their literacy skills. The students represented nine different countries; most of them were from Asia.

The Solution: Ms. Thompson created a classroom library of Folktales From Around the World, a set of culturally diverse stories that are beautifully illustrated and describe people, foods, places or dress that were familiar to the students. These folktales not only eased her students' transition into the American culture, but also increased independent reading and prompted classroom read alouds. Oral discussions during and following the read alouds and teacher modeling provided the opportunity to develop meaning related to the literacy standards such as the story's main idea, its character analysis, a compare and contrast between stories, descriptions of settings and vocabulary expansion. The 3rd grade English learners also read these folktales to kindergarten classes after which they shared their personal experiences and opinions. Through reading about their own native culture, all of the children were better able to connect with the text.

Accomplishments: By year's end, students had achieved or exceeded the literacy reading standards. Scores were so high that most of the 3rd grade students were placed in a fourth/fifth grade class the following school year. This particular series of cultural folktales became so popular, that a set is now retained in the school library for students to check out. Overall, Ms. Thompson observed this learning approach had helped these children feel valued within the school setting.