JELL: Journey into English Language Literacy

Welcome to the Journey into English Language Literacy.  The JELL program provides teachers with oral language and early English literacy lessons.  The lessons are especially beneficial for English language learners whose native language is Spanish and recommended for Kindergarten through 1st Grade.  Daily lessons are provided for 32 weeks of instruction.  There are three sections to the lesson. 

Section 1 begins with a review of Spanish-English letter and sound correlations.  In addition, concepts such as the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, colors, and parts of speech are included. 
 

Section 2 includes an oral language activity related to a thematic unit.  The oral language activity may be rapid naming, divergent naming, convergent naming, describing, naming antonyms, synonyms and/or analogies. 

Section 3 includes lessons related to the process of reading a book to the students.  Vocabulary words are selected and the program includes the simple definitions in English and Spanish.  Comprehension questions are also included. The selected books follow a thematic unit and are typically available in Spanish and English.  It is beneficial for the students to have listened to the Spanish translation of the story prior to reading the book in English.

 

The JELL lessons are direct and explicit. Students will learn how Spanish is similar to English.  They will have opportunities to expand their oral language skills and expand their world knowledge.  The program provides a systematic method for improving the early English language and literacy skills of English language learners.  The journey into English language and literacy acquisition will be a smooth one.