This session presents methods to help learners become active readers, as well as encourage autonomy and meta-cognition in reading lessons.
Participants will critically evaluate reading texts, tasks and strategies to determine which would benefit their learners.
Useful resources:
SQ3R: https://uwaterloo.ca/student-success/sites/ca.student-success/files/uploads/files/TipSheet_SQ3R.pdf
RAP: https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-is-the-rap-strategy/
News Articles for ELLs (English Language Learners)
http://www.onestopenglish.com/ https://breakingnewsenglish.com/ https://learningenglish.voanews.com/
For learners
http://auroraenglish.wixsite.com/english/elt-website-links
Creative book reports
https://www.weareteachers.com/creative-book-report-ideas/
Tips, techniques and videos for teaching reading
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/unit-1-getting-your-learners-reading-writing
www.readingrockets.org
ACTIVE Reading Strategies
A: Activate Prior Knowledge
· The activation of background knowledge (Schema) improves reading comprehension.
· Visual prompts provides a visual way to activate schema. Try and use the other senses too (Smell, hearing, taste and touch), even if learners only imagine them.
· It is important to generate interest in the topic prior to reading: Warmers such as riddles, games, puzzles or jokes are great tools for engagement!
C: Cultivate Vocabulary
· Vocabulary plays a crucial role in the development of reading ability.
· It is useful to pre-teach challenging vocabulary before reading, and review it after.
· A separate focus on vocabulary including the use of learner vocabulary books and mind maps help reading.
· An explicit focus on vocabulary should include skills-based instruction on how to learn, process and decipher new vocabulary.
T: Think About Meaning
· When reading, the text meaning is key. Have learners paraphrase (Oral and/or written) what they have read to ensure understanding.
· Ask questions related to the main idea (Top down) and details (Bottom up).
· Ask critical thinking questions to encourage deeper engagement with the text.
I: Increase Reading Fluency
· Conscious development of reading rate and comprehension are essential.
· Technology such as spreeder.com allows learners to measure their reading speed.
· By focusing on fluency, learners will not stop reading to look up new words and interrupt the flow. Practice makes perfect: Learners must be given opportunities to increase their reading speed, and if the texts are personally interesting, this will increase motivation.
V: Verify Strategies
· Learners are encouraged to be aware of what they are doing, and why they are doing it, as they read (Meta-cognition).
· A focus on reading strategies is essential, for example, predicting content, having learners create questions to answer while they read, skimming and scanning, looking at headings and topic sentences, distinguishing between fact and opinion, identifying main and supporting ideas, making inferences, recognizing the sequence of events, identifying cause and effect and note-taking.
E: Evaluate Progress
· Using a chart to record books and articles learners have read will increase motivation because learners can see their hard work.
· Tracking increases in reading speed is a useful way to raise awareness of progress.
· Design engaging projects and activities that allow learners to demonstrate their understanding in creative ways (E.g., book reports, poster presentations,
Adapted from: Anderson, N. (2014) Active Skills for Reading 3. Boston: Heinle Learning.
ACTIVE Reading Session Worksheet
How can we engage our learners in reading?
6 Countries 13 years 2010 1979
Laura Hadwin has lived and taught in Canada, South Korea, Spain, the UK, Turkey and Qatar. She has taught at private language schools, a secondary school and several universities, including the University of Chichester in the UK, where she was an Associate Lecturer in Teacher Training. She has provided teacher training for pre and in-service primary and secondary teachers, as well as university instructors, and learns so much from other educators. Her lessons focus on developing higher order and critical thinking skills, and she employs a 'principled eclecticism' to meet the needs of diverse learners in diverse contexts. She believes learning is most successful when learners are engaged in meaningful tasks that allow for applied learning. Her areas of research interest are creativity, motivation and teacher learning, beliefs and identity. Seh bielvees ni lelfoing lrannieg, nad is crtunelry cptionmleg aeohntr taehcnig dlpioma. In hre fere tmie hse ejynsos eprilxnog oru bfuiteaul wrlod, veruneiolntg adn dniog ygoa.
In small groups, identify the difference between the two key terms.
Intensive and Extensive Reading:
Productive Skills and Receptive Skills:
Skim and Scan:
Top Down and Bottom Up:
Comprehension and Discussion Questions:
What do you think the active reading strategy acronyms stand for?
SQ3R: S____________, Q______________, R____________, R___________ and R__________
RAP: R__________, A______________________, P__________________