We all want our students to acquire the language. We want them to understand what they hear, read stories and articles, and eventually express their own ideas in speaking and writing.
But developing literacy, the skills of reading and writing in a language, is different from acquiring the language. We need both in our classrooms. Do we understand how to support both?
When I read The Art and Science of Language Teaching, I immediately opened Chapter 13: “How can I incorporate literacy skills in the target language?”
While I was reading it, I thought about my own students.
If my students know how to read in their first language, can I assume they know how to read in Spanish? What happens when they can read the words but cannot make sense of the text? And if they know how to write in English, can I assume they know how to organize their ideas in Spanish?
Do we need to teach literacy skills in our language classes while also supporting language acquisition? If so, what does that actually look like?
That is why I invited Dr. Lara Bryfonski, a professor at Georgetown University and coauthor of The Art and Science of Language Teaching, to join me on Growing With Proficiency. Our conversation helped me see practical ways to support students literacy skills while facilitating language acquisition.
As Lara shared these strategies, I realized I was already using many of them in my classroom. What changed for me was understanding how they help students develop as readers. I can now name what we’re doing, explain why it matters, and help students use those strategies when they read on their own.
Why reading and writing need their own support
Lara began with a distinction that helped me understand what I see in class: literacy is learned. Children acquire language mainly through comprehensible input and interaction, but reading and writing require instruction and practice. When we teach in middle and high school, many times we assume that our students already have those skills in their L1 so they can transfer them to their L2 but that may not be the case all the tiems.
Let’s start saying this. Reading and writing are very complex processes. As experienced readers, we can forget how much we do when we read. We decode, predict, connect ideas, notice when something doesn’t make sense, and go back to check our understanding. We do it so quickly that we may not even realize it’s happening.
Now imagine doing all of that while also trying to make sense of unfamiliar words and language structures.
Lara explained that a student’s literacy skills and target language proficiency may be at very different levels. A student can love reading in their first language and still need help reading in the target language. Another student may be developing literacy skills in both languages at the same time.
This is where I recognized a gap in my own teaching. I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to support language acquisition. But when my students struggle reading a text or organizing their ideas to write, I sometimes find myself asking: What do they need now? Do they need more comprehensible input? Do they need to be taught explicitly something about reading or writing? Maybe both.
Before choosing a strategy, notice what students can do
Lara’s first recommendation was to get a sense of students’ existing skills. What kinds of texts can they engage with? Where do they get stuck?
The next time students read, we can pay attention to questions like these:
- Do they use the title or images to anticipate what the text might be about?
- What do they do when they encounter an unfamiliar word?
- Do they notice when a paragraph stops making sense?
- Do they go back and reread?
- Can they explain what they understood in their own words?
Comprehension questions tell us something useful. But observing how students approach the text can help us decide what to model next.
A reading strategy we can teach before, during, and after
One of the things I loved in Lara’s book was a simple framework for teaching students to make and revisit predictions. Let´s break this strategy into three moments.
Before reading: Preview and predict
Show students how to look at the title, illustrations, or other parts of the text before they begin. Ask what they think they might read about and what they already know that could help them.
The key is to name what they are doing:
“We’re making a prediction. Looking at these clues gives us a starting point for understanding the text.”
We can also provide simple comprehensible statements related to the title and image. Have students read them and predict.
During reading: Return to the prediction
Pause and ask students whether their first prediction still makes sense. What new information have they found? Do they want to change their thinking?
I like this step because students can see that a prediction is something to use. They don’t have to get it “right” on the first try.
After reading: Check the evidence
Return to those predictions one more time. Which ones held up? Which ones changed? What in the text helped students decide?
Now they are doing more than recalling what happened. They are looking for evidence and explaining their thinking.
One strategy, three opportunities to practice it. That feels manageable to me.
Give students a reason to read this text today
During our conversation, Lara kept returning to purpose: Why are students reading? What are they trying to find out?
I asked whether an open-ended question could serve as that purpose. For example, if we’re reading about a country in a specific period of time, we might look for what the text tells us about people’s lives at the time. Lara suggested that students could compare those experiences with their own.
That question gives students something meaningful to look for as they read.
I had to reflect on this because I often tell students that reading helps them acquire language. I believe that! But it doesn’t always answer their question at the moment: Why are we reading this particular text?
Sometimes our purpose is simply to enjoy a story. Other times we read to compare, learn, respond, or make a decision.
I want to make that purpose clearer to my students—and to myself.
Model what to do when reading gets difficult
We can teach more than predictions. Lara also mentioned making connections, visualizing, and using context to work through confusion.
A structured read-aloud gives us a chance to show those strategies in action. I can pause and think aloud:
“Wait, I’m not sure I understood that part. I’m going to reread it and look at the sentences around this word.”
Or I might ask:
“This new detail changes what I thought would happen. Does anyone want to revise their prediction?”
As I talked with Lara, I realized how much more I could do while reading a text aloud with my students. I can pause to model a prediction, revisit it, or show them what I do when a sentence doesn’t make sense. That helps them practice reading strategies during the reading, instead of only answering comprehension questions at the end and hoping for the best.
Questions can help us check comprehension. But if a student doesn’t understand, they also need to see what a reader can do about it.
After reading, we might ask:
- Where did you need to reread?
- What clue helped you understand a difficult part?
- Did making a prediction help you?
- What might you try next time?
Writing needs a process, too
Then we moved to writing. Lara reminded us that writing is difficult even in our first language. Students have to think about what they want to say, how to say it, and how to organize it for a reader.
I gave Lara an example I could easily imagine from my own class: we talk about pets, and then I say, “Now write a description of your pet.”
But what happens between that conversation and the finished paragraph?
Lara suggested starting with purpose and audience. Who will read the writing? What does the writer want that person to understand?
Then we can support students through the stages of writing:
- Brainstorm: List ideas, group them, or make a word map. This part can be messy.
- Draft: Let students get their ideas onto the page without expecting a polished first attempt.
- Get feedback: Find out what a reader understands and where the message is unclear.
- Revise and edit: Return to the draft with that reader in mind.
I loved Lara’s reminder that learning happens during those stages, not only when students turn in the final piece.
This reminded me of my earlier conversation with Dr. Florencia Henshaw about output. We talked about spending more time helping students brainstorm, organize, draft, and revise their writing, instead of focusing only on assessing the final product. Lara’s suggestions gave me more concrete ways to make room for that process in my class.
But how do we give feedback in a class of 37?
Of course, I had to ask about classroom reality. I’ve had 37 students in a class. I know teachers with even more. I cannot give detailed feedback on every draft every time.
Lara suggested teaching students how to provide peer feedback. That takes modeling and clear expectations. We can’t just tell students to exchange papers and assume they know what useful feedback looks like.
And peer feedback does not have to mean correcting every grammar error. A classmate can say:
- “I don’t understand this part.”
- “I know who this letter is for.”
- “I’m not sure what you want me to do after reading this.”
Lara also suggested a short checklist connected to the task. If students write a letter, peers might look for a greeting, a clear message, and a closing. Students can then consider the feedback and check suggestions they are unsure about.
As we talked, I imagined students creating posters about Spanish-speaking musicians so their classmates could choose an artist for a school event. Their classmates now have a reason to read the posters. If they cannot understand one, the writer has a reason to make the message clearer.
That example helped me see how purpose, audience, and feedback can work together.
What can we try tomorrow?
I left my conversation with Lara feeling that I could make small, meaningful changes without rebuilding my curriculum.
The next time we read, I can give students a purpose, model a prediction, and return to it after the reading.
The next time they write, I can make room for brainstorming before asking for a polished paragraph. Before peer feedback, I can teach students one useful response: “I don’t understand this part yet.”
We are already doing so much in our language classrooms, profes. We’re supporting acquisition while working with students who bring different experiences as readers and writers. Making the reading and writing processes visible is one more way we can help them grow.
🎧 Listen to my full conversation with Dr. Lara Bryfonski on Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast.
Keep listening: More conversations about writing
- Episode 57: All About Output with Dr. Florencia Henshaw, Part 2 explores the writing process, the purpose of output, assessment, and feedback.
- En español: Episode 79 and Episode 81 are my conversations with Dr. Alberta Gatti about developing the writing skills of heritage learners. Part 1 explores the goals and components of literacy; Part 2 goes further into reading, text analysis, and supported writing in class.
