TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING Prepared by: Rachelle I.

Torreon PRE-READING The pre-reading stage attempts to: (1) improve students interest in the topic, and motivate them; (2) provide some predicting/guessing activities for the reading passage; (3) make use of students background knowledge about the topic; (4) prepare the students for the context of the reading passage; and (5) build a bridge between the reading passage and the learners background knowledge, and interest. In pre-reading activities, students are asked to: (a) find answers to given questions based on text; (b) give their personal opinion about the topic; and (c) predict the continuing text. In critical pre-reading activities, students can be asked to consider: (a) the reason the author is writing about the topic; (b) the whole range of ways to write a particular text; and (c) the generating of their own list of questions. (Varaprasad, 1997) 1. Concept Map/ (Brainstorming)

NUTRITION

2. K-W-L Plus (Ogle, 1986) K What you KNOW) W (What you WANT to know) L (What you have LEARNED)

3. Anticipation Guide Another type of anticipation guide asks students to place a checkmark next to those statements with which they agree. For example, ___a) Heroes are always courageous. ___b) There are many acts of courage in a war. ___c) A barber can be courageous. ___d) Courage always involves sacrifice.

4. Purpose-setting activity Focus students thinking by setting purposes to guide their reading. An example follows. "Beowulf" is a long poem about a legendary hero who battles evil. Like all heroes, Beowulf represents the values admired by his society. Think about the qualities of modern heroes and the kinds of enemies they battle. Use the chart that follows to record phrases that describe todays heroes. As you read, decide if Beowulf displays any of the qualities you listed. Heroic Enemies Abilities Virtues Deeds

(Applebee, Langer, Hynes-Berry, & Miller, 1992, p. 21) 5. Vocabulary activity 6. Think-Pair-Share: This strategy allows students to respond to a text or a key question about a text by first thinking and jotting down their individual responses. The students then share and talk about their responses with a partner. Finally, partners share their responses with a group or the class. Think-Pair-Share helps students clarify their ideas and insights. DURING-READING This stage aims to improve: (1) students understanding of the writers purpose, the language structure and the logical organization in the reading text; (2) developing and helping comprehension for the reading text content; (3) helping students use their own inferring and judging abilities; (4) reminding the students of the importance of vocabulary for contextual clues for meaning and guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words; (5) helping students make use of cross-cultural elements; (6) helping students develop their linguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge; (7) learning to generalize on the issue under discussion; (8) reading consciously; (9) skimming (looking for general information); and (10) scanning (looking for specific information). 1. Think-aloud The teacher explicitly models for the students the thinking/reading process one might go through as one reads. 2. Response Journals Students need practice in thinking through literary texts as they read. Keeping a journal in which they respond to the literature in terms of what they think or how they feel about what they are reading gives students and teachers insights into how students are building meaning as they read. A doubleentry journal allows students to jot notes, quotations, and comments as they read (i.e., their initial response) on the left side of the page. After having read and possibly reread a text, they can write more extensive responses on the right side of the page. 3. Guided Reading Procedure After a purpose for reading has been set, students read an assigned selection to remember as much as possible. Next, they brainstorm everything they can remember, individually or with a partner. They check the text for additional information and correct any inaccuracies. Finally, they organize their recollections into an outline or semantic map.

4. Group Reading Strategy All students read a common selection. Students are divided into groups. Designated responsibilities for each group are as follows: Group 1: Rephrase the article in your own words. Group 2: Identify questions that you would like to ask the author. Group 3: Elaborate on the implications/consequences of the authors position. Group 4: What assumptions is the author making? Evaluate these assumptions. Group 5: What information does the author present and what more would you like to know? (Paul, 1993, p. 11) 5. ReQuest (Reciprocal Questioning) Students and teacher read a pre-determined section of text. Students pose questions to the teacher. The teacher responds by modeling thought-provoking questions in return. Students continue the question-asking process with the teacher and each other using additional pre-determined sections. 6. Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) Examine the first portion of a selection and make predictions about topic or plot. Silently read the first portion, stopping at a pre-selected place just prior to an important event. Confirm or modify first predictions. Continue using various pre-selected stops. For example:

(Vacca & Vacca, 1996, p. 219. Used with permission of Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc.) POST-READING The aims of post-reading work are the following: (1) to help students use their acquired knowledge in similar reading; (2) to help them integrate their reading skills with the other language skills: listening, speaking and writing; (3) to help them integrate with the foreign culture; (4) to make use of key words and structures to summarize the reading passage; (5) to extract the main idea of a paragraph or a reading text; (6) to interpret descriptions (outlining and summarizing); and (7) to make use of classroom games for reading.

1. Response journals: Students jot down responses, reactions, thoughts, and ideas in their
journals, which may be subsequently shared.

2. Literature circles: Students form small, temporary groups to read and discuss a text (often a
novel). To assist students, Daniels (1994) recommends that roles be assigned to define student responsibilities, and to help students focus their reading and prepare for their discussions. A group of four, for example, might include the following:

a collector (who is responsible for ensuring that each group member has an opportunity to contribute to a list or "collection" of questions about the text) a facilitator (who is responsible for facilitating the discussion and ensuring that each group member has an opportunity to respond to the collection of questions and to highlight additional key ideas from the text) a scanner (who is responsible for locating and recording key passages that group members discuss) a representative (who is responsible for representing visually or graphically key passages and quotations that group members discuss).

These roles can be rotated among group members and, as students become more comfortable with literature circles, adapted to suit the groups needs. 3. Paired response: In groups of two, students read, react, and discuss a text by exchanging thoughts in writing. o o o o o o Both students read the same selection. Students individually select a quote, passage, or line from the reading that they find significant or meaningful and record the quotation in Column I of their own journals. Students then write personal thoughts, feelings, and reactions about the selected quotation in Column II of their own journals. The partners exchange journals. In Column III of the partners paper, each student responds to the writing of his or her partner. The journals are returned to each partner. In Column IV, the students respond to the comments that their partner wrote in Column III. Partners discuss their comments and experience. Column I: Quotation Column II: Your comments Column III: Column IV: Your partners Your reaction comments to partners comments

4. Readers Theater: Students form a group to prepare a dramatic reading of a scene. They sit or stand at the front of the classroom or in a staging area and read aloud their scripts to capture the tone, significance, and drama of the passage(s) which they have chosen. 5. Role play: Students play characters roles and dramatize incidents or illustrate issues from the selection. 6. Authors chair: A student assumes the role of the author and responds to questions from the teacher and other students.

7. Storyboards: Students create a script based on events taken from a selection. They
transform these characters into "stick figures" and describe the use of camera shots, angles, special effects, and dialogue. 8. Mapping: Students visually portray relationships in text by drawing graphic organizers to represent connections between characters, events, or ideas. 9. Art-related activities: Students create an artistic representation (e.g., pencil sketch, painting, collage) to communicate character, theme, or other significant aspect of the selection.

References:

Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (2nd ed.). Madison: International Reading Association. Saskatchewan Education. (1998). English Language Arts 20: A Curriculum Guide for the Secondary Level. Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Education.