REACHING OUT TO RELUCTANT READERS

1. REACHING OUT TO RELUCTANT READERS A B.Ed course on materials design for Teen Novels Fontys College of Education Tilburg

2. In This Talk • The idea • The theories • The students • The input • The feedback • The output • The idea

3. The Idea Issues in a Teen Reading Course for Pre-Service teachers: • reading both classics and modern books • materials design • clear links to pre-service and in-service practice • Lots of varied input for maximum learning • The Assessment Angle (validity) • The ‘Shareware’ Angle (workload) Focus on working towards the production of web-based worksheets during the course.

4. Theories • The learners are increasingly screen- and image-oriented draw them in by using images and media • Make sure to connect with interests and level of the learner • But also try to ‘stretch’ them a bit: the theory of the Zone of Proximal Development

5. Theories • To lead the learner to the Zone of Proximal Development one should: • Make tasks that allow the learner to add his very own input to the product • The task must be relevant, should be easy enough to enable learners to do the task but hard enough to make sure something is learned • The task must be logical and structured

6. Our Students • The full time students are just out of their teens • The magazine of choice for this level of learners is Donald Duck, the majority are not great readers themselves • The part time students are often adults, some have taught for years sprinkling of native speakers • The difference shows in the products (which gives a range)

7. The input: the site • The site offers far more than just a framework for the lessons: it provides the input of books, approaches and ideas, and is adaptable. • Books: classics and modern (themes) • Approaches: media, most importantly book + film, also documentaries • Ideas: not just sample worksheets, but also book reports

8. The Site Explored 1 • The site can be found at http://www.fontys.nl/lerarenopleiding/tilburg/engels/JLAVO2009/Index.htm

9. The Input: the books • The classics: Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind In The Willows, The Railway Children, The Wizard of Oz – tie –in with cultural awareness • Modern classics: Harry Potter, Rumble Fish, The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Catherine Called Birdy • But also documentaries in which people talk enthusiastically about teen reading

10. The Input: Books for Boys

11. The Input: Books for Boys

12. The Site Explored 2 • Links to sites with information on teen novels. • Links to sites with ideas for book reports • Examples of so-called ‘generic’ worksheets which are applicable to many books.

13. The Input: The School Story

14. The Output: the Worksheets

15. Feedback: • Teachers at schools who worry about the decline of reading generally say this helps, but: • It is a lot of work for one teacher • The worksheets ‘have a ‘sell-by’ date • What are the assessment criteria?

16. Feedback: Suggestions • To answer the questions on the previous slide: • Exchange and share! Best medium is the site but Gmail works, too • Adapt ideas. Take a worksheet and tweak it. • Add to the ‘generic’ worksheets. • Make a scoring grid for writing, language, inventiveness, convincing answers etc.

17. Thank you, feel free to use the worksheets, and please send us new materials to put up FOR LARGE FILES PLEASE MAIL TO CAREL.BURGHOUT@GMAIL.COM FOR QUESTIONS PLEASE MAIL TO C.BURGHOUT@FONTYS.NL