Support the teaching of reading with technology
Updated: Apr 21, 2021
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Outline
●The teaching of reading – an overview
●Using e-resources for teaching reading – some examples
●Challenges in teaching of reading and how might technology help
Developing fluency
Promoting extensive reading
Teaching of reading-an overview
1.Knowledge needed for effective reading
Knowledge of language
Knowledge of the topic
Knowledge of text types and text structures
2.The process of reading
Bottom-up: individual words → sentences → paragraphs → main ideas in the text
Top-down: use background knowledge to predict what will be in text
Interactive: interaction occurs across different knowledge areas and skills rapidly and simultaneously as we read
3. Reading levels of texts
3 reading levels: independent, instructional and frustration
4. Readability of texts
What affects the readability of a text: difficulty level of language, knowledge demands, and whether support for reading is available
At instruction level, a text can be comprehended by the reader with support. The reader may not have enough knowledge of the content and language but the reader still knows 95% of the words.
5.Knowledge of genres and text structures
Narrative, recount, information report, description, procedural, persuasion, discussion
6.Teaching of reading entails (≠) teaching of reading strategies
Reading strategies: what a reader does deliberately to better understand, learn from and remember what one reads
Pre-reading activities: to get students ready both cognitively and affectively to read a text
While-reading activities: activities that students do themselves as they are reading and actions that you do to assist them
Post-reading activities: to encourage students to think deeply/ critically about or to respond to what they have read through speaking, writing, drama, etc.
7.The ultimate goal of teaching reading→ students can read to learn and for enjoyment on their own
Why teach comprehension strategies?
●Comprehension strategies are a means to an end-- students’ understanding, learning from and enjoyment of reading materials and the fostering of higher-order thinking. Students’ motivation to read improves when they enjoy and understand what they read deeply.
●Not all students can benefit from strategy instruction. They need to attain a certain level of reading fluency to have the cognitive resources to try out and monitor their strategy use. For weaker students, aim at reading fluency first.
9 key comprehension strategies (Graves et al. 2011)
Establishing a purpose for reading
Using prior knowledge
Asking and answering questions
Making inferences
Determining what is important
Summarising
Dealing with graphic information
Imaging and creating graphic representations
Being metacognitive
Definitions
(Establishing a purpose for reading) to identify the purpose for a particular reading situation and read in a way to accomplish that purpose (e.g. to find some specific info, to read for pleasure)
(Using prior knowledge) to purposefully use prior knowledge to set up expectations of what one will encounter in a text
(Asking and answering questions) to pose questions prior to reading and then attempt to answer those questions while reading in order to ensure reading is an active process
(Making inferences) to infer meanings by using information from the text and one’s knowledge of the world to fill in bits of info not explicitly stated in the text
(Determining what is important) to understand what one reads and make judgements about what is and what is not important
(Summarising) to first determine what’s important and condense it in own words
(Dealing with graphic information) to understand when, how and why to examine visual aids which accompany a text to make optimal use of them.
(Managing and creating graphic representations) to improve comprehension by creating visual representations of text
(Being metacognitive) to actively monitor one’s reading and take appropriate strategies as needed.
Using e-resources for teaching reading
Setting questions to improve comprehension
Mr Lee goods in Ontata. He is a shifter. He bads on the Atatno. He nices to bad by car.
●Where does Mr Lee good?
●What is Mr Lee?
●Where does Mr Lee bad?
●How does he nice to bad?
Mr Lee lives in Tai Po. He is a teacher. He works on the Hong Kong Island. He goes to work by car.
●Where does Mr Lee live?
●What is Mr Lee?
●Where does Mr Lee work?
●How does he go to work?
Using questions to improve students’ comprehension
1.Questions involving synthesizing information from different texts/ sections of a text.
2.Questions of inference.
3.Questions of evaluation.
4.Questions of personal response.
5.Questions concerned with how writers’ craft.
Practise setting comprehension questions which go beyond literal meaning.
1.Set up an educator account.
2.Set up a library and share your library with your students.
3.Set comprehension questions which help to improve your students’ comprehension.
Sample post-reading questions which promote higher-order thinking
Recalling: What was Suzie Gump obsessed with?
Understanding: Why do you think everyone suddenly wanted nothing?
Applying: What are some things which might be expensive but useless?
Synthesizing: Do you think Otis has changed in any way by the end of the story?
Evaluating: Do you think it’s a good idea to make Tubby Portobello go away?
Elaborating: What do you think is the funniest part of the story?
Creating: What if Otis had not made Tubby Portobello go away? What might have happened?
Interpreting: How did Otis feel when he made Tubby Portobello go away?
Thinking metacognitively: Did you understand all the words/ expressions in the story? If you didn’t, what might you do to deal with them?
The importance of reading fluency
●The ability to read most words in context quickly, accurately, automatically and with appropriate expression and phrasing (i.e. prosody). (Cunningham 2009).
●Fluency is critical to reading comprehension.
●“If text is read in a laborious and inefficient manner, it will be difficult for the child to remember what has been read and to relate the ideas expressed in the text to his/ her background knowledge.” (The National Reading Panel 2000, p.11)
Why does prosody matter?
Not only can prosody reflect a reader’s understanding of linguistic features (e.g. sentence structures) and text features (e.g. punctuation), it can also reflect aspects of meaning (e.g. emphasis of key words, intentions and emotions of the characters).
Ways to support reading fluency (Kuhn 2009)
Principles:
Model expressive reading.
Provide sufficient support and a great deal of practice.
Emphasize appropriate phrasing
Three approaches to fluency instruction:
Echo reading: A teacher chooses a section of a text to read aloud. Students’ role is to listen and follow along when it’s their turn to read.
Choral reading: T and Ss simultaneously read a text aloud. Students’ role is to mimic you.
Partner/ Paired reading: Ss work in pairs to read aloud and provide feedback/ encouragement to each other.
Creating opportunities for building reading fluency
Determining importance→ first step to summarising
Think about the topic. What is the author mainly writing about? What is the author’s purpose?
Examine the title, headings, subheadings, pictures and bold print.
Search for topic sentences and main idea statements.
What do we think is the most important idea?
If we can’t find a clear main idea statement, we need to invent one.
Do check whether the other ideas support the main idea we found/ invented.
Effective rules for summarising
Delete trivial/ irrelevant/ redundant info.
Provide a superordinate term for members of a category.
Find and use generalisations the author has made.
Create your own generalisations when the author has not provided them.
(Brown and Day, 1983, as cited in Graves et al., 2011, p. 333)
Let’s practise summarising
An activity to help students synthesize and summarise what they have learned after reading biographies. Students might sit in small groups to use the cubes they made to prompt their summaries and share with one another.
Examples of technology-supported reading activities
Jigsaw reading with Google doc
Independent while-reading on Padlet
Consolidating key story elements with a QR treasure hunt
Personal response activity using Nearpod
Promoting extensive reading
One-on-one interview
●Learn about your peer’s reading habits and preferences. Then identify three books that your peer might enjoy based on the interview results.
●Interviewer: ________________ Interviewee: __________________
●Do you like to read? Why or why not?
●Are you reading anything for fun at this time? What is it? Why do you like it?
●Do you have any favourite authors and titles? Why are these your favourites?
●Is there a certain kind of text that you prefer--books, magazines, fiction, non-fiction, or some other format?
●How do you choose what to read when you go to a library or bookstore?
●What do you do if what you are reading is too hard/ too easy for you?
●What makes a good reader?
Interview form
Information about quality books and films
Kids and Family Reading Report 2019
HKEAA’s SBA recommended titles
Young Post’s SBA page
Award-winning children’s films and TV programmes
Book reviews, recommendations and awards
Recommended resources/ reading on teaching of reading strategies
●Useful online resources
○Seven strategies to teach text comprehension
○Reading strategies checklist
○Templates of different graphic organisers (text diagrams)
○Anchor charts to support the teaching of reading strategies
●Recommended readings
○Cameron, S. (2013). Teaching reading comprehension strategies: A practical classroom guide. Rosedale, Auckland, N.Z.: Pearson.
○Graves, M. (2011). Teaching reading in the 21st century : Motivating all learners (5th ed.). Boston, Mass. ; Hong Kong: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. (Chapters 10 & 11)
○Guthrie, J. T., & Cox, K. E. (2001). Classroom conditions for motivation and engagement in reading. Educational Psychology Review, 13(3), 283-302.
○Stricklin, K. (2011). Hands‐On Reciprocal Teaching: A Comprehension Technique. The Reading Teacher, 64(8), 620-625.
Recommended resources/ reading on promoting extensive reading
Useful online resources
●Cover to cover: Comparing books to movies
●Engaging learners in extensive reading
●Kids and Family Reading Report 2019
●Literature Circles
●The Novella. Why it’s a great extensive reading resource for English language students.
Recommended readings
●Day, R. & Robb, T. (2015). Extensive Reading. In D. Nunan & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Language learning beyond the classroom (pp.3-12). Routledge.
●Kreft, A., & Viebrock, B. (2014). To Read or not to Read: Does a Suitcase Full of Books do the Trick in the English Language Classroom?. CLELE Journal, 2 (1), pp.72-91. Retrieved from http://clelejournal.org//wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kreft-Viebrock-final_correct-page-numbers.pdf
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