Instructional goals for reading:ULTIMATE GOAL: DISCOVERY OF NEW KNOWLEDGEaugmenting textbook readings with authentic materials,introducing new readings with interactivity to motivate and ease the comprehension process,providing activities to help students identify, to reproduce, or to interpret a text's information and messages,teaching strategies for comprehending authentic texts without reliance on a dictionary,comparing L1 and FL texts to uncover similarities and differences in approach and point of view,and recognizing that testing must reflect the teacher's learning goals and the activities practiced to achieve them.
A curriculum built around these stages is considered holistic if they involve practice that integrates various kinds of language acquisition and fills multiple cognitive demands in interlocking activities that spiral learning. For example, a pre-reading for sub-topics of a subject, an initial reading to identify how topics are described, and a rereading to modify those descriptions by inserting them into a new genre or describing them for a different audience.
A curriculum built around these stages is considered holistic if they involve practice that integrates various kinds of language acquisition and fills multiple cognitive demands in interlocking activities that spiral learning. For example, a pre-reading for sub-topics of a subject, an initial reading to identify how topics are described, and a rereading to modify those descriptions by inserting them into a new genre or describing them for a different audience.
background knowledge about the topic or the medium (e.g. what kind of a hero Batman is, and what an action movie looks like)knowledge of a genre (e.g. what information is in a movie review and what importance is attached to who writes the review and where it's published)strategies for guessing and working with uncertainty ("I don't know this term, but it has been mentioned twice so it's probably important and I'll continue reading to see if I can figure it out.")strategies for identifying cognates and other textual clues (illustrations, subtitles, etc.).
Overall, pre-reading helps studentsactivate their horizon of expectation (background knowledge, syntactic and semantic resources, cognitive strategies),take charge of their own learning, andbecome willing to tolerate ambiguity.“I can’t teach you German, but I can help you teach yourselves.”
Also be sure to mention the value of writing/ note taking while reading – Good for processing, recall
Use of L1: L1 as analyzing, cognitive tool – only if selectively usedTime constraints: tyranny of syllabus, how to fit “reading” in – depends on how to define reading; importance of authentic texts; consider bridges between areas, skillsAssessment: concern for accuracy?; test what you teach HOW you teach it;