Creating Meaning from the Written Word

1. Creating Meaning from the Written Word Presented by Carrie Purcell and Heather Buchansky Oxford University Press Friday, December 4, 2009

2. Presentation Online • Introduction to Reading Theory • Introduction to Intensive Reading • Research, benefits, resources • Introduction to Extensive Reading • Research, benefits, resources

3. Think About… • Why do we read? • Why do we teach reading? • What reading strategies work with your students? • What do your students enjoy about your reading lessons?

4. Second Language Reading “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” - Joseph Addison • Recently, the term ‘interactive’ has been used to describe second language reading process • Refers to the way the reader ‘struggles’ to make sense of the text

5. Second Language Reading My Father’s Watch In our village, there were only six good clocks. The biggest clock was in the church stram where everybody could see it. My father owned one of the others. It stood in the kitchen. He wound it every night before he went to bed. Once a year, the clockmarret came from Winchester. He came on his horse. He cleaned the clock in the church stram first. Then he cleaned ours… My father was a barlim and he was a busy man. When the clock had been cleaned, he always left the room. ‘Women can taddle their time with stories,’ he said, ‘but men have work to do.’ And he went back to his barl.

6. Second Language Reading It is likely that you used at least six types of knowledge to help you make sense of the text: • Syntactic • Morphological • General word • Sociocultural • Topic • Genre

7. “Creating Meaning” • How we read depends on what we read (i.e. – newspaper article, information text) • Learners need to be taught to read for meaning • They must learn to read in different ways and read different texts for different purposes

8. Different types of literacies • Reading government documents • Reading signs • Reading instructions • Reading schedules What else?...

9. Intensive Reading Overview:What is Intensive Reading? • Reading a short text with attention to detail • Performing a series of tasks to unpack the text • Completing tasks during class time • Teacher is on hand for questions and feedback

10. Intensive Reading Overview:Why Read Intensively? • To build basic reading strategies • To focus on fluency and competence in the areas of vocabulary recognition and critical thinking • What are some intensive reading activities?

11. Knowledge Vocabulary Grammar Idioms/collocations Descriptions Fact vs. opinion Scanning for info Survival Organization for writing/note-taking Comprehension Summarizing Revising and editing Critical thinking/analysis Discussions Communication Current issues Making inferences Genres Culture Intensive Reading Skills

12. Intensive Reading Activities Pre-reading purpose: • Stimulate what they know about the topic • Provide them with background info they need to know • Help with vocabulary/phrases they need to know

13. Intensive Reading Activities Pre-Reading teaching ideas: • Guess the topic of the text from heading/ illustration • Skim for topic sentence/thesis • Scan for 2-4 items of information • Predict what text will say • Ask questions that may be answered in the texts

14. Intensive Reading Activities Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate Chapter 1 – Reading 1 Pre-reading activities

15. Intensive Reading Activities While Reading approaches: 1. Teacher – learner interaction activities 2. Learner – learner interaction activities 3. Text only activities • ordering paragraphs • jumbled paragraphs • note-taking • checking pre-reading activities

16. Intensive Reading Activities While Reading teaching ideas: • Identify main/general idea • Answer questions/complete sentences • Complete a table/map/picture • Make inferences • Fact vs. opinion

17. Intensive Reading Activities Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate Chapter 1 – Reading 1 Vocabulary in Context Comprehension Check

18. Intensive Reading Activities Post-reading purposes: • Check, give feedback and follow-up work • Can/should involve other skills – writing, speaking or further vocabulary development

19. Intensive Reading Activities Post-reading teaching ideas: • Discuss significant points in the text • Discuss/debate controversial topics/characters • Develop other skill areas • Writing • Grammar

20. Intensive Reading Activities Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate Chapter 1 – Reading 1 Writing – Grammar Page 18 - 25

21. Extensive Overall understanding (gist) Widespread Reading Easy texts Fluent reading Infer the meaning of unknown words Reading for pleasure Intensive 100% understanding Limited reading Difficult texts Word for word Use dictionaries Reading to create and analyze meaning Intensive vs. Extensive Reading

22. Extensive Reading Overview • Reading a long text (i.e. short book to a full length novel) for pleasure, with attention to overall meaning • Learners read on own time for enjoyment • Helps increase reading fluency • “What are the benefits of extensive reading?” (http://www.oup-bookworms.com/successful-reading.cfm?qid=2)

23. Why Read? Research has shown that reading for pleasure will… • Improve vocabulary • Improve grammar • Improve listening skills • Improve spoken fluency • Improve writing skills • Increase motivation

24. Knowledge Vocabulary Grammar Collocations Descriptions Comprehension Summarizing Pleasure/entertainment Current issues Making inferences Moral of the story Genres Culture Discussions Extensive Reading Skills

25. Extensive Reading in the Classroom “How can I get my students to read when they don’t read in their own language?” • Set up a novel study time in class • Read the first page(s) of a story aloud to your students • Stop at an interesting or exciting point • Begin discussion: “What comes next in the story?” Wait until next week’s novel study session to find out • Next week, continue with the story or start a new novel • After a few weeks, bring in the books …

26. Extensive Reading in the Classroom • How do you start an Extensive Reading programme? • http://www.oup-bookworms.com/top-tips.cfm • http://www.extensivereading.net/er/start.html

27. Extensive Reading in the Classroom • Choose an appropriate level • Choose from a list of genres • Create a Book Club! • Incorporate expansion activities • Final project

31. Extensive Reading in the Classroom Bookworms Online Activities http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/bookworms/?cc=global

32. Questions and Comments… Thank-you for attending our presentation! Carrie Purcell carrie.purcell@oup.com & Heather Buchansky heather.buchansky@oup.com