Teaching reading for young learners
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 |
| Teaching English |
I came across this article from BBC entitled: Reading and elementary learners, recently as I was on the Facebook. It is not something new, rather something that ESL teachers have been doing all this while. I take it as a refresher and a reminder on the importance of teaching this skill systematically.
There are issues teachers need to address in order to conduct a successful reading class. Bear in mind that teaching reading involves hard work and it need to be done systematically over a period of time. Consistency in techniques is very important, as it will gives the confidence to the young readers because they know what to expect and what is being expected of them. Variation in task however, is encourage as we need to inject the element of fun and avoid boredom.
Teaching reading should start with the question, "How to select reading materials?" The answer lies in our pupils, we need to:
- Identify their reading level: elementary, intermediate or advance
- Get to know their interest, hobbies
Once we know that, we can look around for print materials or if some of you would prefer, the internet. In fulfilling the national curriculum, I would rather browse through the selection from the books provided by the ministry for literature. The books are colorfully illustrated, embedding children's theme and the vocabularies are suitable for my pupils.
Once we have decided on the materials, we can plan our lesson accordingly. One reading material can be use many times in different tasks. For example, a reading task about Cinderella, can be use to introduce new vocabulary, understanding how to use the vocabulary or applying their new vocabulary in different context. I would prefer to use Bloom Taxonomy in teaching reading. This is to maximize the use of one reading material into increasing their reading skill. Once you have decided on recycling the material, the lesson plan must be constructed accordingly.
Planning a reading lesson. What to do?
A reading lesson must consist of three parts. Some teachers just like to label Step 1,2 and 3 or presentation, practice and production. However, as I look around the labels are the only difference. The execution is more or less the same. The three parts are:
- Pre-reading
- While reading
- Post reading
In discussing these reading parts, there are many issues surrounding it for example time allocation. I went to a reading pedagogy course and the facilitator suggested pre-reading activities that can last for a week! However, I think it's better to allocate appropriate time for pre-reading, and match it with the other two stages.
Other issues such as the coherency of the activities, the degree of difficulty and the suitability of activities in each part in increasing reading skill.
To illustrate these steps, I will use Pamela Rushby's Tidy Your Room, Tanya!
Other issues such as the coherency of the activities, the degree of difficulty and the suitability of activities in each part in increasing reading skill.
To illustrate these steps, I will use Pamela Rushby's Tidy Your Room, Tanya!
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| Tidy your room, Tanya! by Pamela Rushby (the book cover) |
Pre-reading
- Use the book cover to prompt the pupils. The things they can see, the characters. They can guess what the book is all about.
- Introduce the vocabulary that u find difficult and solicit meaning by prompting their pre-requisite knowledge (the word in the mother tongue)
- Tell a short story almost similar to the one in the book. Change the character to yourself, so they will feel the story is relevant to them although it is written in English by a foreigner.
- Bring in realia, and act out part of the story and ask them to guess, and then saying the answers are in the book.
- Comparing a tidy room and a messy room. Ask them to find an object in both pictures.
While reading
The next step is to actually read the book. I would prefer to do the reading in section. In Ms. Rushby's book, Tanya was scolded by so many people in her family for not tidying her room. This is the section I am talking about. It is no point reading the whole book during one class although it is just a thin book. What we do with the material is more important.
During this step, we can:
- Teach or reinforce dictionary skills.
- Use vocabulary map, learning to use word in different contexts.
- Story chain, Listing one sequence after another. For weaker learners, teacher can jumble the series of events and ask the pupils to rearrange and rewrite them.
- Scanning for main ideas.
- Identifying grammar items. For example past tense verbs, past tense sentence.
- Teacher can do Total Physical Response (TPR) activity such as asking them to clap when they hear the vocabulary highlighted, or act out the verbs in the story when the teacher reads.
Post reading
For me there is a fine line between while reading activities and post reading activities. The activities used for both stages can be recycle and use accordingly. This is where the issue of coherence that I mentioned earlier come to play.
To embrace the Bloom Taxonomy of learning, I would prefer the activities during the post reading stage would be slightly difficult. The activities we can do:
- Role play. Acting out the characters in different context. For example, mother is looking for something and the room is messy.
- Imagining that you are the thing Tanya's been looking for. Your feelings of being left behind in a messy room.
- If the activities done in section, you can ask the pupils to draw Grandma's face, before she is angry, when she is angry. Or you can ask them to draw the layout of the room and predict where is Tanya's lost item.
- Relate the story's morale value in their context. Universal truth.
- They can suggest ways on keeping tidy. Bring out the decorator in them. How to keep small things, bigger things. More than once I asked them to do an exhibition on "how to?" The pupils love it because they get all the attention they want and they feel valued and appreciated.
Conclusion
I love reading and I want my pupils to understand and feel the enjoyment from it. I also want them to realize that there are many ways to interact with a text. By interacting, we can increase our reading skill, nurture our thinking and broaden our horizon.
With this I share one of the reading lesson done in the classroom based on the book. It incorporates the elements of shared culture and putting it into our context. It is a broad and abstract concept for young learners to understand but it was worth the try. I find the lesson enjoyable although it was a little ambitious, but I can see from their faces they enjoyed it too.
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