"What Is the Meaning of 'Of'"? The Reading Struggles of African-Born Immigrant Children

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Understanding Intruction, Motivation, and Learning in Literacy

Abstract

This paper describes a small reading intervention program, in the form of participatory action research, which was conceived for African-born, elementary level immigrant children. The twofold purpose of the intervention was to: (1) uncover the challenges of being from a non-reading culture and being taught by a teacher from a reading culture, and (2) propose ways these challenges could be minimized. The chapter describes noticing strategies – punctuation discovery, sentence recall, copying, word dictation, etc.—that were used to develop basic reading and writing skills of the participants. The chapter concludes with a call on educational leaders to sponsor reading immersion programs for newcomer students, preferably taught by qualified immigrant educators, to ensure that these students’ school integration process assures success.

Authors

• Immaculee Harushimana, Lehman College - CUNY

• Shirley N. Mthethwa-Sommers, Nazareth College