Reading as a Process Selecting Texts for reading

Teaching reading

Plan:

1. 
   Reading as a Process
   

2. 
   Selecting Texts for reading
   

3. 
   Tips of teaching reading
   

4. 
   Activities for improving reading
   

Reading is a complex interaction between the text, the reader and the purposes for reading, which are shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge and experiences, the reader’s knowledge about reading and writing language and the reader’s language community which is culturally and socially situated.

The reading process involves 5 stages:

• 
  Prereading
  
• 
  Reading
  
• 
  Responding
  
• 
  Exploring
  
• 
  Applying
  

Throughout the reading process readers use a variety of strategies, sometimes multiple strategies at once, to help them make meaning from a text. (Interview with Lynn Marsden).

-Reading Strategies

-Activating prior knowledge

-Predicting

-Visualizing

-Questioning

-Drawing inferences

-Finding important/main ideas

-Summarizing

-Synthesizing

-Monitoring comprehension

-Evaluating

Stage 1: Pre-reading

Pre-Reading Strategies Include:

-Activating Background Knowledge

-Setting purposes for reading

-Making predictions and previewing a book

-Going on a Picture Walk

-Making a KWL map

-Questioning and making predictions about a story

Stage 2: Reading – Responding and Exploring

There are a variety of ways to engage students in the reading process. A balanced approach provides the necessary teacher support for reading.

-Modeled reading (reading aloud to students)

-Shared reading

-Guided reading

-Independent reading

During reading a number of strategies are used to help students develop comprehension skills. By way of example, view the guided reading video clips and observe how a variety of strategies are employed at various stages of the reading process by both the teacher and student.
Selecting Texts for reading

Texts need to be developmentally appropriate and interesting for students. The more students can relate to the information, the more likely they are to engage. You can start with a survey in the beginning of the unit about student interests and try to pair their interests with standards based on topics you need to cover.

You'll also want to choose a text in their zone of proximal development. This area of difficulty is the sweet spot of learning. You don't want to choose a level that they are already comfortable with, as this won't provide opportunities for growth. But, a text that is far above their reading level will only end in frustration and disengagement.

The zone of proximal development is the perfect area of difficulty

zone of proximal development. A text in the zone of proximal development is something that is a little more challenging than what they can already do, but still in their reach to comprehend with support. As mentioned earlier, it's important to look at data to decide on the zone of proximal development for your students.

Each student may have a different zone as well. Some tools are available to teachers to choose the same reading, but select different grade levels. The difficulty of the text and vocabulary goes down, but your students are still getting the same information. Another choice is to use the same reading for all students, but provide scaffolding, a technique used to support students while giving them the same difficulty of work. This might be bolding vocabulary words, providing a vocabulary list, giving checklists for reading strategies, or modeling annotation.

Pre-Reading Strategies

Getting students excited before you start reading increases engagement when students actually need to read. Start by getting students involved by accessing their prior knowledge. You can ask them what they already know about a topic, or show them a video clip about the topic to get them excited. For example, a scientific text on ecosystems might be challenging, but an opening clip of carnivorous grasshoppers might help them buy in.

Pre-teaching vocabulary is another important strategy. What challenging words are students likely to encounter upon reading? Can you go over some of them beforehand and then reinforce the definition with the reading? Students can also make their own vocabulary lists as they read to take ownership of their learning.

Stages of development of reading

Literacy is not something that just happens. One does not wake up literate nor does one become literate in the same way that one learns to walk. It is not intuited from the environment nor is it simply a matter of physical maturation. Literacy learning requires instruction and practice, and this learning occurs across discrete stages. The following notes explore the five stages of reading development as proposed by Maryanne Wolf (2008) in her book Proust and the squid: the story and science of the reading brain. These five stages are:

the emerging pre-reader (typically between 6 months to 6 years old);

the novice reader (typically between 6 to 7 years old);

the decoding reader (typically between 7 - 9 years old);

the fluent, comprehending reader (typically between 9 - 15 years old); and

the expert reader (typically from 16 years and older).

Please explore, and also visit the Stages of Literacy Development page for a more detailed discussion. Before we begin with the stages, there are two preliminary notes to make.

Preliminary Note1: “As every teacher knows, emotional engagement is the tipping point between leaping into the reading life ... An enormously important influence on the development of comprehension in childhood is what happens after we remember, predict, and infer: we feel, we identify, and in the the process we understand more fully and can’t wait to turn the page. The child ... often needs heartfelt encouragement from teachers, tutors and parents to make a stab at more difficult reading material.” (Wolf, 2008, p 132)

“Without an affective investment and commitment, our words become unintelligible and empty; with that commitment words begin to show other manners of signification beyond the realm of literal meaning and correspondence.” (Krebs, 2010, pg 138)

Preliminary Note #2: Across this lengthy period of development, leaners are required to consolidate certain skills only to encounter new challenges. The one rule that applies equally is as follows: “Experts [agree] that readers, no matter which reading philosophy is followed, have to practice, practice, practice.” (You Need /r/ /ee/ /d/ to Read). There is no better way to exemplify this than in the following anecdote from Maryanne Wolf's book Proust and the squid: the story and science of the reading brain.

“I do not remember that first moment of knowing I could read, but some of my memories - of a tiny, two-room school with eight grades and two teachers - evokes many pieces of what the language expect Anthony Bashir calls the ‘natural history’ of the reading life. The natural history of reading begins with simple exercises, practices, and accuracy, and ends, if one is lucky, with the tools and the capacity to ‘leap into transcendence.’”
Tips of teaching reading

No child is ever too old to be read to and reading to a child is the most powerful tool to teach our children the beauty of language, the lilt of grammar, and the meaning of the text.

Beyond all this, when we read to children, we are modeling the love of story and language, compelling us to learn how to read.

For young kids, this can be an essential and enjoyable time of engagement.

Don’t read in a monotone.

Do different voices for different characters, narrate parts of the story to sound funny or suspenseful or exciting to help kids grasp these different themes.

This makes it much more interactive and fun for kids.

Auditory and kinaesthetic learners, who process information better when they are listening to it and interacting with it, respectively, can benefit from these interactive narrations.

Visual learners, meanwhile, are better at translating information into mental pictures.

By reading to them engagingly, you can help exercise their imaginations and inspire a love for reading.