Easy Winter Reading Comprehension Idea for Elementary ESL Students

Developing reading stamina and comprehension skills in your ESL students is an important part of their journey to fluency in their second language. However, it can be daunting trying to choose the right book. How to cater to each student's language proficiency? Perhaps you have a student who comes from a place where the language does not use the latin alphabet. That's exactly the situation I was in! I had a student from Ukraine, which is how I stumbled upon this sweet winter story, "The Mitten." Read on to find out how you can use this book and my scaffolded worksheets in your Elementary and/or ESL classroom!

This adorable Ukrainian folktale (adapted by Jan Brett) is just the right size for ESL Newcomers. It's not too long and it has a really cute topic: a boy loses a mitten and all the animals in the forest climb inside to be cozy and warm. Here is the link to the Read Aloud on Youtube in case you don't have the book. Jan Brett's adaptation of the story includes precious drawings of the animals that help struggling or novice learners understand the plot and sequence.

My "The Mitten" product first introduces ESL students to key words from the story. The worksheet asks students to write the vocabulary words after reading the vocabulary cards. (I recommend doing this as a whole group before reading the story). You can do this by showing them the included vocab cards with pictures before you actually listen to the book. This will help them comprehend more of the story. I brought in as much realia as I could, or I acted out words like "lose" and "sneeze".

Next is a comprehension worksheet for after you read the story. The worksheet asks students key questions about the book.

Some examples of the questions are the following:

• Who has two white mittens?

• Who makes the mittens?

• How many animals go inside the mitten?

• Do you prefer to wear mittens or gloves in the winter?

The reading comprehension questions come with TWO versions so that you can easily differentiate among learners. Different reading levels or ESL levels? No worries. The modified copy of the worksheet provides language support and is multiple choice.

The next activities include a sequencing task, so show that the students understood the order of the story, and a writing task where they build sentences using the vocabualry they learned.

This product also comes with mitten drawing/coloring pages that you can use for an additional activity.

Try out this sweet folktale and let me know how the worksheets serve your learners! Click HERE if you would like to purchase the worksheet set on TPT.