Reading

Education 6305

Reading

• For many of you, reading at the college level is an entirely new experience. You've been reading for 12 years or more in school and for pleasure, but academic reading can be overwhelmingly difficult for those whose skills are less than excellent. In K-12 reading, the focus is often on the concrete aspects of the text, the facts, what is easily visible on the page, and writing about reading requires only that you regurgitate basic information.

• College reading, on the other hand, requires meta-cognition, the ability to orchestrate your own learning. You need to think about how your learning style interacts with the text you are reading, and perhaps change your reading strategies to meet the challenges of that text.

Comprehension

• Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a writing.

• Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.

• Many educators in the USA believe that children need to learn to analyze text (comprehend it) even before they can read it on their own, and comprehension instruction generally begins in pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten. But other US educators consider this reading approach to be completely backward for very young children, arguing that the children must learn how to decode the words in a story through phonics before they can analyze the story itself

Teaching Reading Comprehension

• The U.S. National Reading Panel conducted a comprehensive literature search on teaching reading comprehension. They concluded that (1) vocabulary knowledge, (2) reading comprehension instruction based on reading strategies, and (3) practices were critical to effective reading comprehension teaching.

• One strategy for reading comprehension is the technique called SQ3R. This stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. In order to get an understanding of the text, you should survey the chapters. This consists of quickly looking at the title, headings and any subheadings. Look at any end of chapter questions as well. While surveying, you ask questions about the topics you have scanned, such as, "What did my teacher say about this chapter?"

• The next thing is to begin reading. In a chapter book, you would read the majority of the words. In a textbook, just read quickly for the key words. There are words seen in the chapter questions, teacher made questions and in the titles or subtitles of the chapter.

• After reading a portion or section of the book, recite what you have read out loud. By orally summarizing what you just read it helps to cement the content in your memory.

• The last technique is top review what you have read again. By writing down key facts from the chapter and reviewing it, you will better understand the information. You can also check the website "Study Guides and Strategies"

Reading Strategies

• There are four variables to be considered when learning how to read more successfully: the reader, the text, the strategies, and the goal. Characteristics of the reader include reading skills, interest in the topic, physical factors such as sleepiness or hunger. The text varies in type (novel, science, play, psychology, etc.) and difficulty. Some reading is easy and moves along quickly, while other reading is quite dense and perhaps even tedious, packed with information. The next factor, strategies employed by the reader, makes all the difference. The goal of this handout is to give you a larger repertoire of reading strategies, to help you read less and get more out of it. The final consideration is the purpose. Why are you reading this text, and what do you want to get out of it?

Strategies

• Read sitting up, with a good light, at a desk or table. • Keep background noise to a minimum. Loud rock and roll music will not make you

a better reader. • The same goes for screaming kids, talking roommates, television or radio. Give

yourself a quiet environment so that you can concentrate on the text. • Keep paper and pen within reach. • Before beginning to read, think about the purpose for the reading. Why has the

teacher made this assignment? What are you supposed to get out of it? Jot down your thoughts.

• Survey the reading. Look at the title of the piece, the subheadings. What is in dark print or stands out? Are there illustrations or graphs?

• Read the introduction and conclusion, then go back and read the whole assignment. Or read the first line in every paragraph to get an idea of how the ideas progress, then go back and read from the beginning.

• Scan the entire reading, then focus on the most interesting or relevant parts to read in detail.

Strategies

• Pay attention to when you can skim and when you need to understand every word. • Write as you read. Take notes and talk back to the text. Explicate (explain in detail) and mark up

the pages. Write down what interests or bores you. Speculate about why. • If you get stuck in the reading, think and write about where you got stuck. Contemplate why that

particular place was difficult and how you might break through the block. • Record and explore your confusion. Confusion is important because it's the first stage in

understanding. • When the going gets difficult, and you don't understand the reading, slow down and

reread sections. • Break long assignments into segments. Read 10 pages, then do something else. Later, read the

next 10 pages and so on. • Read prefaces and summaries to learn important details about the book. Look at the table of

contents for information about the structure and movement of ideas. Use the index to look up specific names, places, ideas.

• Translate difficult material into your own words. Create an alternative text. • Answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

Strategies

• Answer these question in your own words: What's the author talking about? What does the author want me to get out of this?

• Read the entire piece, then write a one paragraph or one sentence summary. • Transcribe your notes in the book or handwritten notes into more formal notes on the

computer. Turn your first notes into a list of ideas or a short essay. • Review the ideas in the text after you finish reading. Ask yourself questions to determine what you

got out of the reading. • Mark up the text, bring it to class, and ask questions about what you don't understand. • Post an email to the class Mailing List and ask for responses from the teacher and fellow students. • Consult another source. What does another author have to say on the same topic? • Disagree with the author. Become a devil's advocate. Remember, you don't have to believe an idea

to argue about it. • Think about the text in three ways. 1. Consider the text itself, the basic information right there on

the page. (This is the level of most high school readers and many college students.) 2. Next think about what is between the lines, the conclusions and inferences the author means you to draw from the text. 3. Finally, go beyond thinking about the text. What creative, new, and different thoughts occur as you combine your knowledge and experiences with the ideas in the reading?

Vocabulary

• A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.

Types of Vocabulary

• Reading vocabulary• A person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when

reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three.Listening vocabulary

• A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice.

• Writing vocabulary• A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing.

Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user.

• Speaking vocabulary• A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech. Due to

the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures.

Vocabulary Growth

• Initially, in the infancy phase, vocabulary growth requires no effort. Infants hear words and mimic them, eventually associating them with objects and actions. This is the listening vocabulary. The speaking vocabulary follows, as a child's thoughts become more reliant on its ability to express itself without gestures and mere sounds. Once the reading and writing vocabularies are attained – through questions and education – the anomalies and irregularities of language can be discovered.

• In first grade, an advantaged student (i.e. a literate student) knows about twice as many words as a disadvantaged student. Generally, this gap does not tighten. This translates into a wide range of vocabulary size by age five or six, at which time an English-speaking child will know about 2,500–5,000 words. An average student learns some 3,000 words per year, or approximately eight words per day.

• After leaving school, vocabulary growth reaches a plateau. People may then expand their vocabularies by engaging in activities such as reading, playing word games, and participating in vocabulary programs

The importance of a vocabulary

• An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication.

• Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.

• Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary.

• A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary.

Memorization

• Although memorization can be seen as tedious or boring, associating one word in the native language with the corresponding word in the second language until memorized is considered one of the best methods of vocabulary acquisition. By the time students reach adulthood, they generally have gathered a number of personalized memorization methods. Although many argue that memorization does not typically require the complex cognitive processing that increases retention (Sagarra & Alba, 2006), it does typically require a large amount of repetition. Other methods typically require more time and longer to recall.

Planning a Lesson

• A key aspect of effective teaching is having a plan for what will happen in the classroom each day. Creating such a plan involves setting realistic goals, deciding how to incorporate course textbooks and other required materials, and developing activities that will promote learning.

Set Lesson Goals

• Lesson goals are most usefully stated in terms of what students will have done or accomplished at the end of the lesson. Stating goals in this way allows both teacher and learners to know when the goals have been reached.

Goals

• Identify a topic for the lesson. The topic is not a goal, but it will help you develop your goals. Identify specific linguistic content, such as vocabulary and points of grammar or language use, to be introduced or reviewed. Identify specific communication tasks to be completed by students. Identify specific learning strategies to be introduced or reviewed in connection with the lesson. Create goal statements for the linguistic content, communication tasks, and learning strategies that state what you will do and what students will do during the lesson.

Best Practices in Reading

• Read aloud to students daily

• Independent reading

• Use of trade books, picture books, magazines

• Student choice of reading material

• Teacher modeling skills and strategies

• Content area reading

• Use of higher level questions

• Use of Critical and Creative thinking

Reading Stages

• The first stage of development is the pre-reading stage. The responsibility of the teacher is to encourage reading interest with enjoyable experiences and activities, with an emphasis on oral expression. The principal goal at this stage is to ensure that the learner is socially, mentally, emotionally and physically ready to learn to read. Spatial development is important at this stage.

Examples

• Telling stories: reading stories with lots of expression, in order to capture the attention of the children. The teacher asks questions about what is going on in the story as the reading goes along, to make sure that they understand the meaning of the story.

Beginning Reading

• At this stage of development, the learner must acquire an ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet, but not to memorize them. Is accomplished by varying the types of techniques used to teach the alphabet. The modern approach is that children learn the alphabet in a literature context. A card with a picture of an apple on it and the letter ‘a’ helps to give meaning to the sound ‘a’.

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• A child is ready to read after having comfortably mastered the alphabet and having had lots of exposure to, and familiarity with, a variety of texts, such as books, charts, pictures, signs, etc. e goal at this beginning stage is to develop reading habits that continue to promote reading as an enjoyable activity. In order to reach this goal, students must begin to identify words that have similar beginnings and endings. Some phonetic practice begins at this stage, taught within the context of the text, such as the consonants in rhymes and jingles. New words are introduced and taught through phonetics and written activities. e pupils’ vocabulary is the basis for the materials produced in the classroom. Words are recognized as a whole and their relationship in combinations. Modeling at this stage of development can even include peer models, who may demonstrate a task or activity in front of the class, and the class then imitates the action.

Developing Reading Fluency

• The third stage of reading development is reading fluency. At this stage of development, the pupil is prepared to identify words that he or she cannot pronounce and find the pronunciation independently, read simple stories and feel comfortable learning new concepts. Pupils begin to use context clues, using information in the story to guess the meaning of certain unknown words or ideas. Materials need to be very diverse.

Literacy No Child Left Behind

• Federal Early Reading First Initiative, Title I, Part B, Subpart 1“Early Reading First, part of the president's [President George W. Bush] ‘Good Start, Grow Smart’ initiative, is designed to transform existing early education programs into centers of excellence that provide high-quality, early education to young children, especially those from low-income families. The overall purpose of the Early Reading First Program is to prepare young children to enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills to prevent reading difficulties and ensure school success.”

Literacy No Child Left Behind

• Federal Reading First Initiative, Title I, Part B, Subpart 2“Reading First is a focused nationwide effort to enable all students to become successful early readers. Funds are dedicated to help states and local school districts eliminate the reading deficit by establishing high-quality, comprehensive reading instruction in kindergarten through grade 3. Building on a solid foundation of research, the program is designed to select, implement, and provide professional development for teachers using scientifically based reading programs, and to ensure accountability through ongoing, valid and reliable screening, diagnostic, and classroom-based assessment.”

Books for children

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

• The Doorbell Rang

• If You Give a Moose a Muffin

• The mitten

• The Napping House

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Where the Wild Things Are

Web sites to look at

• www.booksintheclassroom.com

• www.isu.edu

• www.rif.org