Opinion: How My California Middle School Uses Glyphs to Teach English Learners to Read
In the agricultural regions of California's San Joaquin Valley, schools like Firebaugh Middle School are surrounded by fields. But many of Firebaugh's students struggle to read that word. If they were to see 'field' on the board, they would likely pronounce it as 'filed,' a reflection of their unfamiliarity with the varied pronunciations in English.
Firebaugh's student body is 98% Hispanic, and about 30% of its 530 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders are designated as English learners. Based on diagnostic testing, administrators know many of them have limited or nonexistent phonics skills. In some cases, the students did not attend elementary school and lack the basics of literacy even in their primary language.
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter
If you think of reading as an equation with specific components, you might assume reading instruction is straightforward. But as with any equation, there are variables, and English learners have many of them, from Individualized Education Programs to a diversity of home languages that makes it difficult for teachers to find a starting point for reading instruction. Any supplemental instruction educators provide must be flexible enough to account for those individual differences.
This is hard enough at the elementary level, but in middle school, students do not merely need to know how to read; they need to know how to read well, so they can comprehend information, analyze it and synthesize it. But in most middle schools, educators likely do not have comprehensive training in supporting basic reading development. While they may have picked up some strategies, their job and focus is to teach a single subject‚ not literacy. I'm a perfect example. I was a history major, and I am credentialed in social science. I was trained to teach ancient civilizations, modern government and economics, and everything in between — but not reading.
Related
Time is also a limiting factor. At Firebaugh, students rotate through a seven-period school day. Teachers cannot adapt their schedules the way elementary educators can, making it challenging to spend extra time catching up students who are not reading at grade level.
We had attempted many approaches to improving literacy at Firebaugh. We added English language development classes. Educators tried to emphasize reading strategies and target specific students who were two or more grade levels behind in literacy. However, none of these efforts proved effective. Along the way, we realized many students needed pieces of the reading equation that we did not know they needed, such as decoding words.
Then, we discovered an unusual approach to adolescent literacy that uses glyphs as a resource to foster reading fluency and boost comprehension for English learners. The system consists of 21 glyphs, or diacritical marks, that function as a pronunciation guide for each word. These marks (think accents or umlauts) are widely used in languages other than English to aid with pronunciation and comprehension. The system indicates which letters make their usual sound, which make a different-than-usual sound and which are silent. It also denotes syllable breaks.
We implemented this glyph approach for English learners who had no experience sounding out words. In the first stage of implementation, students worked with teachers to learn the glyphs and complete core skill-building activities. In the second stage, the diacriticals — which are available for more than 100,000 words — were integrated into students' daily reading practice to build fluency and comprehension. With the markups, words like 'field' and 'filed,' for example, were no longer a problem.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Wales' papers: 'Dad died in holiday fall' and pay rise offer for teachers
Western Mail Daily Post South Wales Evening Post The Flintshire Leader South Wales Echo The Wrexham Leader South Wales Argus Abergavenny Chronicle Monmouthshire Beacon Brecon & Radnor Express Cambrian News Tenby Observer Barry and District News Penarth Times Free Press Series
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Don't let a vocal minority silence Britain's ancient church bells
There used to be a tradition that ringing church bells would drive out evil spirits. Now it's the bells that are being driven out. The latest set of chimes to fall foul of complainers are in Mytholmroyd. It's a small West Yorkshire village, best known as the birthplace of Ted Hughes. Perhaps it was the bells of St Michael's Church that inspired the late Poet Laureate to write in one of his rhymes for children about a bell's 'clang of mumbling boom'. But that clang was far from mumbling for three residents who said they were being kept awake all night by the chimes, ringing every 15 minutes. A noise abatement order imposed on the bells means they now can't be rung at all, so for the first time in 100 years they have fallen silent. There have been similar ding dongs over church bells elsewhere in the past few years: in both Witheridge and Kenton in Devon, in Helpringham in Lincolnshire, and in Beith in Ayrshire, usually by people saying that chimes through the night in these rural neighbourhoods are ruining their sleep. As someone who lives in a city, used to police helicopters overhead, ice cream vans blaring their tinny tunes, trains rattling past, and crowds of students staggering home at night under the influence of numerous intoxicants, I have to say I do find the noise of the countryside rather disturbing. Here in the city, these noises are part of a constant soundscape. In the country, there is an enveloping silence, but then you will be jolted into wakefulness by a cockerel's piercing crow, or a huge piece of farm machinery rattling past, or a herd of cattle lowing their way to milking. But a church bell chime, surely, is in a minor key compared to these other rural interruptions? For me the sound of bells is, well, music to my ears. Despite the planes flying into Heathrow over my head and the police sirens blaring outside my door, I can still hear the sound of a bell nearby, which rings regularly to mark Divine Office being said in a local monastery as well as the Angelus at noon. On Sundays, a peal of bells sounds out at a nearby church, and on weekday evenings too you can hear the ringing, as the tower captain and his team practise Plain Bob Major or Grandsire Triples or one of those other extraordinary mathematical formulas, known as changes, that make up bell-ringing. But the kind of change we don't want is something so quintessentially English as bell-ringing to disappear because after a few people make a fuss, officialdom steps in. The bells of Mytholmroyd were silenced when just three people objected – but the 1,200 residents who wanted the chimes to continue had their petition ignored. It's a growing pattern: a few complaints put an end to chimes that had been loved by communities for generations. Yet there's more at stake here than bells. It sounds a death-knell for our tradition of going with what the majority want. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Discovery of 300-Year-Old Coins May Prove $17 Billion ‘Richest Wreck in History' Has Been Found
Centuries-old coins have been found by researchers looking into the San José shipwreck, thought to be located in the Colombian Caribbean Sea The wreckage is reportedly worth approximately $17 billion The 150-foot-long Spanish galleon ship was sunk by British warships in 1708Researchers believe they have uncovered coins from a 317-year-old shipwreck, which sank in 1708, containing treasure thought to be valued at approximately $17 billion. On Tuesday, June 10, a study was published in the journal Antiquity, stating that "hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins — known as cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish — that served as the primary currency in the Americas for more than two centuries," were among the key finds amid the ongoing research into the sinking of the Spanish galleon ship, San José. British warships sank the vessel off the coast near the port city of Cartagena. As previously reported by PEOPLE in March 2024, Colombian authorities had decided to move forward with the recovery of the ship, which had a cargo full of treasure. The Times stated that the Colombian navy had identified a wreck that "appeared to be a good candidate" for the sunken ship in 2015, but noted that "its identity has not been conclusively proven." The 150-foot-long, 64-gun, three-masted ship sank with 600 men aboard while carrying 200 tons of silver and emeralds, 11 million gold coins, and porcelain pottery, Colombian Navy divers said in June 2022, according to ABC News. Only 11 individuals survived the incident. Per The Times, the sunken ship is "the richest wreck in history." The latest study, which included photos of some of the coins that had been found, stated that the wreck was situated "at a depth of 600m in the Colombian Caribbean Sea, a location that requires specialized underwater equipment for research." "The exact number of coins visible on the seabed is difficult to determine due to the dynamic nature of the site, but the cobs identified via high-resolution in situ photography conducted by a remotely operated vehicle have an average diameter of 32.5mm and probably weigh around 27g," according to the study. The results added that markings on the coins helped to identify their authenticity. An "L" indicated that they had been mined in Lima, Peru, while the presence of the number 8 represented the denomination in escudos, the highest value at the time. The coins were also marked with the letter "H', which was the mark of Francisco de Hurtado, the Chief Assayer in 1707. The study said that one coin displayed "a small pellet next to the '8', which is a mark of distinction of the cobs of this assayer." While on another, "three letters 'P. V. A.' can be seen marking the motto expression 'Plus Ultra', or 'Further Beyond' in Latin." "This motto was used on the coins as a reference to the expansion of the Spanish monarchy in the Atlantic. Finally, the year of minting is represented by three digits, 707, meaning 1707," the study tated. "The be clearly made out from the images, but on other coins from the same year and mint these bear a reference to King Philip V, the first Bourbon head of the Spanish monarchy," the study continued. "Most of the gold coins from this period come from shipwrecks." Daniela Vargas Ariza, lead researcher from Colombia's Naval Cadet School and the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said of the findings, 'This body of evidence substantiates the identification of the wreck as the San José Galleon,' per The Times. The recent study said that over the past decade, "four non-invasive campaigns" had surveyed the wreckage, "providing valuable insights into the age and provenance of artefacts found on the seabed." The study's conclusion added, "This case study highlights the value of coins as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks, particularly those from the Tierra Firme Fleet. The finding of cobs created in 1707 at the Lima Mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra Firme route in the early eighteenth century. The San José Galleon is the only ship that matches these characteristics." Spain, the United States, Bolivian indigenous groups and Colombia have all claimed rights to the shipwreck in past years. But in 2011, a U.S. court determined that the ship was the property of the Colombian state, per ABC News. The Times noted that an American salvage company, Sea Search Armada, had also claimed a share, claiming that it had located the wreck. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In 2015, then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spoke at a news conference regarding the shipwreck's initial rediscovery, telling attendees, "This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity," ABC News reported. Since it was sunk by British warships some 317 years ago, the vessel has been remarkably untouched, officials previously said. The Colombian government didn't immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. Read the original article on People