9. How do students learn to
READ?
The best way for students to learn to read
is by reading a great deal of
comprehensible material.
10. However…
many students of English learn to read in a
slow, careful manner, relying almost
entirely on bottom-up strategies.
11. Intensive Reading
Reading texts closely
& carefully with the
intention of gaining an
understanding of as
much detail as
possible.
Reading an
instruction manual
12. Intensive Reading
Overreliance on this reading approach
makes reading slow & often painful &
tends to discourage students from doing
any more reading than necessary.
13. What do we WANT?
We want students to learn to read in a
more rapid, active way so they can reach a
breakthrough point where reading
becomes a useful & even enjoyable skill.
14. Extensive Reading
The teaching of reading through reading.
Reading becomes rewarding & enjoyable
enough to become an end in itself.
16. What’s the best way to
understand READING?
To see it as a process of active guessing in
which readers use a variety of different
kinds of clues to understand a text and to
take what they need or want from it,
generally as quickly as possible, without
intolerable investments of time and effort.
Richard Day & Jullian Bamford
17. Therefore…
There are strong arguments for actively
encouraging students to read a lot in the
target language, both in and outside the
classroom.
18. Benefits
Becoming a competent READER..
helps to consolidate the learning that
has taken place
may help to increase knowledge of the
target language through exposure to
vocabulary & grammatical structures
is an important way to learn about the
target culture
20. Pleasure
Students will be willing to read when the
benefits gained from reading overweigh
the investment of time & effort.
Motto: Reading gain, without reading
pain!
http://clubs2.scholastic.com/programs/contests.shtml
21. Reading Fluency
One important aspect of building
students’ extensive reading is training
them to read more quickly.
22. Reading Comfort Zone
Students should be reading material that
is at a slightly lower level than their
current reading ability.
23. Self-Chosen Material
Students are more likely to voluntarily
read interesting & easy materials than
those which are neither.
They should choose at least some of
their own reading material.
24. Self-Chosen Material
__________ are books of stories
published specifically for learners to get
extended exposure to English. They
have grammar & vocabulary graded to
named levels so that learners stand a
chance of successfully reading them.
Readers
Simplified readers
Language learner literature (Day & Bamford)
25. Self-Chosen Material
Build a library of suitable material. It
does not need to be large.
Persuade the school administration to
provide funds.
Shelve the books by level: basic,
intermediate, advanced.
26. Guessing
Students need to (1)______ the habit of
(2)______the meanings of (3)______
unfamiliar words or (4) ______skipping
over them.
(5)______ dictionary use to a (6)______.
Frequent dictionary stops (7)______
reading speed & tend (8)______ break
the train (9)______ thought, thus making
(10)______ less enjoyable.
27. Answer key
(1) develop
(2) guessing
(3) most
(4) simply
(5) Keep
(6) minimum
(7) slow
(8) to
(9) of
(10) reading
28. Guessing
Students ask themselves:
Can I quickly guess enough about the
word to keep going?
Do I need to understand this word?
Can I try to become comfortable not
knowing the exact meaning of this
word?
29. But…
tell the students it is ok to stop & look up
the word if they lose the train of thought
completely.
30. No Testing
Let students read, enjoy & move on,
rather than read & then have to do lots
of exercises afterwards.
Check that students have read by
having them fill out a book report.
Set up students for success.
31. Cheating
It is obviously easier if the students are
reading books you have read, but
between your knowledge of what a text
is likely to contain and the students’
report, you can usually get a sufficiently
clear idea of how well the student has
done the reading.
32. Extensive Reading
There’s a great deal of evidence that
Extensive Reading has a powerful impact
on language learning.
33. Why run a CONTEST?
Some students are simply not inclined to
read on their own, but they would read
to fulfill requirements.
Required Motivation (Warden & Lin)
39. Setting up the Contest (1)
Help students become aware of their
reading habits - good and bad - by
having them respond to a questionnaire.
40. Reading Questionnaire
What do you think a good reader does?
A good reader
( ) reads fast
( ) understands all the words
( ) makes guesses
( ) always reads carefully
( ) does other things ______
41. Reading Questionnaire
Reading in your first language
Do you like reading?
How often do you read?
When & where do you read?
What kinds of things do you read?
What do you like to read about?
42. Reading Questionnaire
Reading in English
Do you like reading in English?
How often do you read in English?
What kinds of things would you like to
read in English?
43. Reading Questionnaire
English Reading Habits
Do you read slowly?
Do you translate into Portuguese?
Do you look up unfamiliar words?
Do you read aloud?
44. Setting up the Contest (2)
Start with an all-class reading
assignment which means that all of the
students in your class read the same
book.
Teach students how to fill out the book
report.
45. Book Report Form
Directions: Print out this template. Answer
the questions. You may want to answer
some of them while you are reading your
book.
General information about the Book
Title:
Author:
46. Book Report Form
Type of Book:
( ) adventure
( ) celebrity
( ) children’s
( ) fantasy
( ) humor
( ) mystery
( ) romance
( ) biography
( ) nature
( ) science
( ) sports
( ) travel
47. Book Report Form
Main character(s):
This is a story about:
( ) courage
( ) love
( ) funny events
( ) importance of
friends
( ) jealousy
( ) happiness
( ) sadness
( ) animals
48. Book Report Form
Five words I want to remember from the
book are:
Copy sentences from the book with the
five words above:
The book was:
( ) great ( ) good
( ) ok ( ) boring
49. Setting up the Contest (3)
Indicate to students how many books
you expect them to read over a given
period.
50. Setting up the Contest (4)
Explain how students can make their
choice of what to read.
Suggest they look for books in the genre
that they enjoy.
52. Setting up the Contest (5)
Explain to the students how to handle
unfamiliar words.
53. Setting up the Contest (6)
Get the library staff to participate by
informing the students of the rules &
procedures to take out books.
54. Library Rules & Regulations
You need your library card.
You borrow books for one week.
Your library card can be renewed after
that.
You will get fined R$1,00 per day for not
returning books.
55. Setting up the Contest (7)
Put up the contest rules & regulations in
the classroom bulletin boards.
56. Content Rules &
Regulations
1. To win, a class (students & teacher) must
read the biggest number of books.
2. If a participant does not read any books,
he will automatically disqualify his class.
3. If the contest ends in a tie, the quality of
the book reports will be used to pick the
winners.
4. Participants must have a library card to
take out books from the library.
5. For each book that is read, a book report
form must be filled out completely.
57. Content Rules & Regulations
(Cont.)
6. Teachers who have more than one class
participating in the contest have to read
different books for each class.
7. Book reports must be handed in to the
Contest Coordinator who will decide on
whether or not they will be counted.
8. You will photocopy the official Book Report
Form or you may write your reports on any
paper of the same size (A4).
9. The deadline for submitting book reports
is (month/date) at (time).
58. Content Rules & Regulations
(Cont.)
10. The prize will be a
meal at a local
restaurant of
winners’ choice.
59.
60. Drawbacks
Too much paper is used for the book
reports
Some participants don’t like competing
for a prize
Limited choice of book genres
61. YOUR TURN
Which small (or large) institutional
modifications can be made to assist your
students in becoming better readers?
62. YOUR TURN
Which small (or large) instructional
modifications can you make to assist your
students in becoming better readers?
63. YOU CAN…
ask students to read a lot
set aside a few minutes as quiet reading
time
get students to fulfill requirements
be committed to vocabulary building
encourage students to become word
collectors
teach instead of test comprehension
encourage students to report back on their
readings
choose activities that reflect real-life use
64. Concluding…
“Often it is not the big things that we do in
classes that make a difference, but rather
the small things that we do, and do
consistently.”
