UNIT 10 TEACHING READING
B. Methods in Teaching Reading
The first reading method is called Choral Reading Method, or frequently called “unison reading.” Choral method provides many opportunities for repeated readings of a particular piece, and gives practice in oral reading. Choral reading is particularly suitable to poetry and rhymes. There are four principles for selecting materials that are planned to read in chorus or together. The principles are:
a. Try to take short selection of stories or poems.
b. Select the material that every student can read easily.
c. Look for something with an attractive title that will make imaginations work.
d. Select a poem or story that will come alive when it’s read aloud, words with charming sounds, contrast of some sort that can be interpreted, mood that can be improved through verbal interpretation or dialogue that draws personality.
To prepare, each student reads the whole selection
that is going to be chorally read.
One can read it aloud with the other person following along silently. Then the readers read the piece together. A few repetitions are necessary to fix the piece in the students’ thought.
Next comes the hottest part. An almost infinite number of possibilities exist for choral reading. Try to decide on the most fitting voice elements to strengthen the sense of the selection.
Dissimilarity is the key. Use one or two simple classifications for the voices for example, high and low, as well as strong and soft.
a. Here are just a few of the possible strategies.
b. Alternate slow and fast lines, stanzas, or paragraphs.
c. Alternate loud and soft lines.
d. Alternate low and high voices.
e. Emphasize key words and phrases by reading them in a louder or softer voice.
f. Pause for a specified number of silent “beats” before the students join in and continue reading.
g. Clap or make a certain sound at the end of certain lines, stanzas, or paragraphs.
Choral reading is like improvisational affected behavior. The significance in choral method is that it is a amusing way to put into practice reading. Pleasure can easily be found during the practice. Don’t worry about the excellence!33 2. The Paired Reading (PR) Method
The paired reading was formerly used by parents with their children at home. But because of its advantages, the use of this method then was modified to broader area. It has also been utilized by schools to conduct classroom action research or to train tutors to read with students on a regular basis in natural settings. The technique allows the students to be supported while reading texts of greater complexity levels than they would be able to read individually.
Evaluation studies show that students involved in paired reading, on the average, make three times the normal progress in reading accuracy and five times the normal progress in reading comprehension. This method has been shown to be successful with students at all levels of skill and ability, ranging from the students in special class for slow learners, to students who are beyond average in reading skills competence. Studies indicate an increase in reading fluency, comprehension and accuracy.
In addition, research indicates that students find the method easy to use, and feel they become competent readers as a result of paired reading.
33 http://www.d21.il.us/dep_instr/langarts/parentinfo/
a. At the first Reading Session
1) Make an agreement on reading times
2) Make also an agreement about starting signal 3) Teacher/lecturer reviews how the method works b. Before Reading
1) Student pick up reading materials and can exchange among them as they like
2) Find a comfortable place that far away from distractions c. Reading in Duet
1) Always start by reading together
2) It is wise to have non-critical correction of errors works:
if a student makes an error, the tutor only says the word and the student repeats it
d. Reading Solo
1) Student and lecturer agree on a solo reading signal 2) Praise the student when the signal is used
3) Tutor continues to offer assistance and commend during solo reading
e. Return to Duet Reading
1) Tutor corrects student’s error (gives word and student repeats it).
2) Return to duet reading until the students hear the signals of reading solo.34
f. “Talk”
Try to always relax and discuss what the students have read 3. PORPE Method
Reading is an intensive process in which the eye quickly moves to assimilate text. Very little is actually seen accurately. It is necessary to understand visual perception and eye movement in order to understand the reading process.
34 www. paired_rdg_method.html
Comprehension is the purpose for reading. Without it the reader is wasting his time because he is not processing and remembering the text. It is vital to the education of student to implement strategies to develop reading comprehension skills.
Student with literacy problems who do not receive help are in danger of becoming adults with limited employment opportunities and other life challenges.
There are a variety of steps that you can take to assist your student with reading comprehension. For example: with using PORPE Method. PORPE is a method to study textbook materials in which the students create and answer essay question. It can be a time-consuming process, but it is an excellent means for preparing for essay exams. There are five steps in this learning strategy.
Those steps are: Predict, organize, rehearse, practice and evaluate:
a. Predict: After reading the chapter, predict possible essay questions from the information contained in the text. In the arrangement of these questions, the students should evade questions that begin with “what,” “who” or “when” and do not include analysis. Some key question words are “explain,”
“discuss,” “criticize,” “evaluate,” “contrast” and“compare”
b. Organize: few days before the exam, the organization of information is needed to answer the predicted questions. The organization can be done by outlining or by other methods such as mapping. Main concepts and supporting details to answer the questions are highly recommended to be summarized. The more information is organized, the more advantage can be taken to arrange the practice answers.
c. Rehearse: Recite aloud the information and examine the students memory. Reciting aloud must be performed because the more senses that are involved in forming the memory, the better understanding the students will get. This step helps students to place the key ideas, examples, and overall organization in students’ long-term memory.
d. Practice: In practicing, the students’ answer the students’
predicted essay questions from memory. The students can draft an outline of the essay or organize a complete answer.
e. Evaluate: Evaluate the students’ work by asking the following question: Do I have enough clear examples? Is my answer complete, truthful, and suitable? Is there anything I should study before taking the exam?35
4. KWL Method
In recent times, an instructional method known as K- W-L, developed by Ogle (1986) has been implemented in classrooms. Students’ prior knowledge is activated by asking them what they already know; then students set goals focusing on what they want to learn; and after reading, students discuss what they have studied. Students apply higher-order thinking strategies which assist them to build meaning from what they read and help them examine their progress toward their goals. A worksheet is given to every student that includes columns for each of these activities. KWL is aimed to be an exercise for a study group or class that can direct the students in reading and understanding a text. The students can adjust it to working alone. The method is formed of only three stages that reflect a worksheet of three columns with the three letters. The three stages is intended to discover the following information; A. what the students Know B.
what the students Will/Want to know C. and what the students Learned .
a. K stands for Know. This first stage occasionally astonishing:
Think first what the students understand about the topic and make a list about that. This activity constructs knowledge of the new material. Build a scaffold to support it. Think of it as a pre-reading inventory.
35 http://www.arc.sbc.edu/porpe.html
• Brainstorm!
Before looking at the text, think of terms, phrases, or keywords about the topic, either in the students class or in a study group.
• Record these in the K column of the students chart until the students cannot think of more.
• Engage the students’ group in a discussion about what the students wrote in the K column.
• Organize the entries into general categories.
b. W stands for Will or Want. The second stage is to list a series of questions of what the students want to know more of the subject, based upon what the students listed in K.
• Preview the text’s table of contents, headings, pictures, charts etc. Discuss what the students want to learn
• List some thoughts on what the students want, or expect to learn, generally or specifically. Think in terms of what the students will learn, or what do the students want to learn about this.
• Turn all sentences into questions before writing them down. They will help the students focus the students’
attention during reading.
• List the questions by importance.
c. L stands for Learned. The final stage is to answer the students’ questions, as well as to list what new information the students have learned. Either while reading or after the students have finished.
• List out what the students learn as the students read, either by section, or after the whole work, whichever is comfortable for the students.
• Check it against the W column, what the students wanted to learn
• Create symbols to indicate main ideas, surprising ideas, questionable ideas, and those the students don’t understand!
d. Expand this exercise beyond K W L:
We can add an H to make this method complete. H stands for How. By adding this, we can learn more. This H can be done by easily by posing new questions about the topic. The questions my form: “How can I learn more or answer questions not answered in my worksheet. These include other sources of information, including: organizations, experts, tutors, websites, librarians, etc. Below is the sample K-W-L-H
e. How Does It Work?
- On the chalkboard, on an overhead, on a handout, or on students’ individual clean sheets, three/four (the last is optional) columns should be drawn.
- Label Column 1 K, Column 2 W, Column 3 L, Colum 4 H (Additional)
- Before reading (or viewing or listening), students fill in the Know column with words, terms, or phrases from their background or prior knowledge. If the teachers are having them draw on a topic previously learned, then the K column may be topic-related. But if the topic is something brand-new, and they don’t know anything (or much) about it, teachers should use the K column to have them bringing to mind a similar, analogous, or broader idea.
- Then have students predict what they might learn about the topic, which might follow a quick glance at the topic headings, pictures, and charts that are found in the reading. This helps set their purpose for reading and focuses their attention on key ideas.
- Alternatively, you might have students put in the middle column what they want to learn about the topic.
- After reading, students should fill in their new knowledge gained from reading the content. They can also clear up misperceptions about the topic which might have shown up in the Know column before they actually read anything. This is the stage of metacognition.36
5. SQ4R Method
This SQ4R Method is extremely useful for students who want to be organized and effective while studying. Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Record, and Review are the steps of SQ4R. The steps below will walk you through them.
a. Survey
The chapter should be skimmed and scanned by students.
The goal of surveying the chapter is to acquire a basic sense of the chapter's content, structure, organization, and plan. The "big picture" of the chapter provides a framework for the primary ideas, which will aid in holding the specifics together later. Look at
- Titles, headings, and subheadings
- Caption under pictures, charts, graphs or maps - review questions or teacher-made study guides - Introduction and conclusion
- Bold or italicized print
- First and last sentences in paragraphs - Summary and Footnotes
After surveying the entirely text, the next is to focus to a particular information in a particular place in the writing. Survey
36 Ogle, D.M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570.
each chapter. Survey a chapter assignment before the students actually read it. Survey should tell the scope of the content, how different topics are organized, and what the author’s purpose and point of view are. The chapter survey will also give the students sufficient background information for class notes.
• Read the chapter title
• Read the chapter objectives.
• Read the chapter summary or review.
• Read the major headings and subheadings.
• Read the visual aids.
• Read the italicized and/or underlined words and terms.
Try also to survey the illustrations. Our society is visually oriented; authors and publishers are well aware that effective use of illustrations in textbooks is more necessary than ever.
Illustrations can literally replace hundreds of words and convey a message more dramatically and quickly than a comparable section of text. Formats range from equations, theorems, and formulas to tables and graphic illustrations.
b. Question
Having students develop questions gives them a purpose for reading. Reading for specific purposes positively influences comprehension (Narvaez in Santa, Havens, and Valdes, 2004).
Setting a purpose also aids the student in recalling information.
Developing questions prior to reading results in spontaneous attempts to answer the questions based on information already known, increased concentration and attention while reading to find an answer to the question, and increased comprehension due to the mind in its attempt to find an answer to the question.
Before beginning to read, students should turn each title and subtitle into a question. Practice will make this skill automatic (Richardson & Morgan). For example, if they are reading part of a chapter called “Functions of Word Formation Processes,” the
teacher should lead the students to ask themselves, “What are the functions of Word Formation Processes?”
c. Read
Reading promotes an active search for answers to the specific questions that students have developed. It forces the student to concentrate for better comprehension and aids in lengthening attention span (Richardson & Morgan, 1997). Students should read each section of the text to answer questions that were developed in the step above. If a word meaning is not clear through its use in the selection, reread. If it is still unclear, underline the word or jot it down and look it up when students finish reading. ? Question in mind: What is the writer’s purpose?
What is he trying to get the reader to think or do? Is he giving facts or his opinions? ? Look for answers to the questions that have been developed in mind. ? Reread captions under pictures, charts, graphs, or maps. ? Note all the underlined, italicized, or bold printed words or phrases. ? Study graphic aids. ? Reduce the speed for difficult passages. ? Stop and reread parts that are not clear.
d. Recite
Recite the main ideas, in other words, aloud or to the students, after finishing a page. Check the comprehension and make sure the students have the correct information. Do the same for the major points after reading each section or chapter. By reciting what the students’ read, the students are able to see how much information the students absorbed, areas the students didn’t understand and need to review, and answers to the questions the students generated for the students. If the students cannot answer the questions, go back to the material and reread.
e. Record
Marking the textbook increases understanding of the material for the present and future reference. The process of selecting and marking requires the students to find the main ideas. Later, when the students evaluate the text for exam purposes, the students will find that the textbook markings and highlights enable the students to grab the essential points without having to read whole paragraphs and chapters again. Write down the central points for the chapter or section in the notebook. Do each assignment before class. This will prepare the students to take part in class discussions which will, in turn, help the students memorize the material the students have read and to put it into mind.
Underlining key words and sentences will make those items stand out in the mind. Summaries enable the students to write a brief outline of a section in other words. Expand the students own system of reading. Use whatever facilitates the students retention of the material and works best for the students. The students might use the following: a double underline for main ideas and a single underline for supporting points; a bracket to enclose several consecutive lines that are important, rather than underlining all of them; or a box or circle around key terms. Use other words.
Marginal notations and summaries should be in other language so the students can readily recall the original material as the students review. Using the text in this manner enables the students to extract all that the book has to offer the students in a learning situation, now and in the future. The students will be able to use the texts for review in later softwares in the same field or in a related field, thus reducing the need to re-read the material. The students will reap the most benefit from reviewing the notes in the text, rather than being distracted by notes the students may find written by some other person in a used text.
f. Review
Regular review times should be included in the classroom as an effective method for information retention. Regular reviews assist students in remembering more knowledge, hence altering the nature of exam preparation. Preparing for an exam might include a review of familiar information and rehearsal tactics such as trying old tests, rather than relearning material that has been lost since students haven't looked at it since reading or writing it down. As the course progresses, the amount of content to review grows, while the amount of time required to review prior material decreases. Students should review their outlines and notes and be prepared to relate what they have learned in their own terms.
Students should look for connections in the content. If they are unable to do so, the teacher may need to demonstrate how to look for relationships to the students. Students should practice recalling key ideas and minor points to test their memory.37
C. Three General Strategies for Reading