COURSE OUTLINE
COMPLETE HANDOUT
COMPLEMENTARY NOTES
PAST/TRIAL QUESTIONS
THE COURSE SEGMENTS
UNIT 1:THE CONCEPT AND BENEFITS OF READING AND WRITING
UNIT 2:THEORIES AND MODELS OF READING
UNIT 3:COMPONENTS OF READING AND WRITING APPROPRIATE FOR JHS LEARNERS
UNIT 4:STAGES OF READING AND WRITING DEVELOPMENT
UNIT 5:APPROACHES FOR TEACHING JHS READING AND WRITING
UNIT 0NE
THE CONCEPT AND BENEFITS OF READING AND WRITING
READING
Reading is defined as a cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning. Reading is an active process of constructing meanings of words. Reading with a purpose helps the reader to direct information towards a goal and focuses their attention.
TYPES OF READING
Skimming
It’s reading so fast or speedily through a text. That's looking for the gist or overview of the text. Skimming may help in order to know what the text is about at its most basic level. You might typically do this with a magazine or newspaper and would help you mentally and quickly shortlist those articles which you might consider for a deeper read. You might typically skim to search for a name in a telephone directory. You can reach a speed count of even 700 words per minute if you train yourself well in this particular method. Comprehension is of course very low and understanding of overall content very superficial.
Scanning
Scanning is used when a specific piece of information is required, such as a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase, is required. The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has located what he was searching for. It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory or even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching.
Picture yourself visiting a historical city, guide book in hand. You would most probably just scan the guidebook to see which site you might want to visit. Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentences and is used to get just a simple piece of information. Interestingly, research has concluded that reading off a computer screen actually inhibits the pathways to effective scanning and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy comprehension of texts. Something students sometimes do not give enough importance to is illustrations. These should be included in your scanning. Pay special attention to the introduction and the conclusion.
Intensive Reading
Intensive reading is the type of reading that involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. It’s a kind of reading for academic or professional work in order to capture something.
You need to have your aims clear in mind when undertaking intensive reading. Remember this is going to be far more time consuming than scanning or skimming. If you need to list the chronology of events in a long passage, you will need to read it intensively.
This type of reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps them understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context. It moreover, helps with retention of information for long periods of time and knowledge resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term memory. This is one reason why reading huge amounts of information just before an exam does not work very well. Students tend to do this, and they undertake neither type of reading process effectively, especially neglecting intensive reading. They may remember the answers in an exam but will likely forget everything soon afterwards.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading involves reading widely for pleasure or aquire more knowledgeable to guide your life. Because there is an element of enjoyment in extensive reading it is unlikely that students will undertake extensive reading of a text they do not like. It also requires a fluid decoding and assimilation of the text and content in front of you. If the text is difficult and you stop every few minutes to figure out what is being said or to look up new words in the dictionary, you are breaking your concentration and diverting your thoughts.
STRATEGIES OF READING
SQ5R is a reading technique and stands for Survey, Question, Read, Respond, Record, Recite, and Review. So let’s discuss what these actually represent.
Survey:
• Before you start reading your text, say a textbook chapter, you want to survey the text. This means skimming through the chapter, reading the introduction and conclusion first, if available, looking out for definitions and parts of the text highlighted in bold. Also, pay attention to drawings and graphs illustrating the text. This will give you an idea of what ideas and themes will be important.
Question:
After identifying the main topic of the text, and before actually reading it, ask yourself questions about the topic. Essentially, you will ask yourself what you want to find out about the items identified in the survey. As you have not read the text yet, your understanding might be too limited to ask specific questions. Instead, focus on broader themes and questions to guide your reading.
Read:
In the next step, you will get to actually read the text. Don’t be afraid to break it down into more digestible sections if needed. Depending on where you are studying you might also want to read the text out loud.
Respond:
After reading and learning about the themes, think back to the questions you asked yourself at the beginning. Respond to them and apply what you have just read.
Record:
In the next step, you will get your pen and paper out and underline, scribble, take notes - whatever works for you. You’ll use the text as a tool to record your understanding of the topic.
Recite:
Without looking at your notes or the text, go over what you have learned and try to reproduce the content - explain to someone else or to yourself what the text covered. When you do this for the first time, you might not remember all the crucial information. You will go over the text until you feel comfortable with the material learned.
Review:
After completing these steps, go over the text again and skim through it. Ideally, try to find someone to explain the material to. At this point, you might want to go over your notes as well to fill in any missing information or to edit them in a way that will make them more accessible for later revision etc.
THE SIMPLE VIEW OF READING
The simple view of reading is a scientific theory that a student's ability to understand written words depends on how well they sound out (decode) the words and understands the meaning of those words. Specifically, their reading comprehension can be predicted by multiplying their skill in decoding the written words by their ability to understand the meaning of those words. It is expressed in this equation:
Decoding (D) x (Oral) Language Comprehension (LC)= Reading Comprehension (RC)
The parts of the equation are:
(D) Decoding: the ability of the student to sound out or decode the written words using the principles of phonics (e.g. /k - æ - t/= cat).
(LC) language (listening) comprehension: the ability of the student to understand the meaning of the words (as if they had been spoken out loud).
(RC) Reading comprehension: the ability of the student to understand the meaning of the written words.
To be clear, all of this can be done while doing silent reading.
The equation tells us the following:
· If students can decode (i.e. sound-out) the words accurately (so they make sense) and understand the meaning of those words, they will be able to understand the written words (i.e. reading comprehension).
· If students can decode the words accurately, but do not understand the meaning of the words, they will not have reading comprehension. (e.g. A reader who can decode the word “etymology” but does not know what it means, will not achieve reading comprehension.)
· If students cannot decode the words accurately, yet understands the meaning of those words, they will not have reading comprehension. (e.g. A reader who knows what a tyrannosaurus rex is, but cannot decode the words, will not achieve reading comprehension.)
· To ensure their students are able to comprehend what they read, teachers and tutors need to be sure their students can decode the words and understand the meaning of those words.
It is important to note that the equation has a multiplication sign not an addition sign, so reading comprehension (RC) is not the sum of the decoding ability (D) plus the language comprehension ability (LC). Instead, when one element is strong a weak result in the other area will significantly reduce the reading comprehension score (e.g. .25 (D) x 1.00 (LC)= .25 (RC)). And, if that same student improves in that weak area, it will result in an equivalent improvement in the reading comprehension score (e.g. .50 (D) x 1.00 (LC)= .50 (RC).
Researchers tell us that, while the equation may be simple, learning to read is not so simple. Beginning readers can already understand spoken language. The task, then, is to gain the same understanding from print. This requires decoding skills and language comprehension. For many students, learning to efficiently decode is only achievable with proper instruction, feedback and practice in phonics; and language comprehension is a “multidimensional cognitive activity” that requires adequate content knowledge.
The simple view of reading was originally described by psychologists Philip Gough and William Tunmer in 1986 and modified by Wesley Hoover and Philip Gough in 1990; and has led to significant advancements in our understanding of reading comprehension.
WRITING
Writing is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. Generally, we write using a pen/pencil (handwriting) or a keyboard (typing). With a pen/pencil we usually write on a surface such as paper or whiteboard. A keyboard is normally attached to a typewriter, computer or mobile device. Voice recognition programs allow those who can't see or use their hands to have their thoughts transcribed. To write clearly it is essential to understand the basic system of a language. In English this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting.
A writer may write for personal enjoyment or use, or for an audience of one person or more. The audience may be known (targeted) or unknown. Taking notes for study purposes is an example of writing for one's self. Blogging publicly is an example of writing for an unknown audience. A letter to a friend is an example of writing for a targeted audience. As with speaking, it is important to consider your audience when writing. There are many different styles of writing, from informal to formal.
TYPES OF WRITING
Expository Writing
The word expository contains the word expose, so the reason expository is an apt descriptor for this type of writing is that it exposes, or sets forth, facts. It is probably the most common writing genre you will come across throughout your day. In an expository piece, a topic will be introduced and laid out in a logical order without reference to the author’s personal opinions.
Expository writing sets forth facts. You can find it in textbooks, journalism (except opinion or editorial articles), business writing, technical writing, essays, and instructions.
Expository writing can be found in:
Textbooks Journalism (except for opinion and editorial articles) Business writing Technical writing Essays Instructions
All of these kinds of writing are expository because they aim to explain and inform.
The municipal government of Happyville unanimously approved the construction of sixty-two miles of bike trails in 2017. Made possible by a new tax levy, the bike trails are expected to help the city reach its sustainability and clean air goals while reducing traffic and congestion. Eighteen trailheads with restrooms and picnic areas have been planned at a variety of access points. The city expects construction to be complete in April 2021.
Because this paragraph supplies the reader with facts and figures about its topic, the new bike trails, without offering the author’s opinion on it, it is expository.
Descriptive Writing
The aim of descriptive writing is to help the reader visualize, in detail, a character, event, place, or all of these things at once. The author might describe the scene in terms of all five senses. Descriptive writing allows the writer a great deal more artistic freedom than expository writing does.
Descriptive writing evokes images through rich description. You can find it in fiction, poetry, journal writing, and advertising.
Descriptive writing can be found in:
Fiction Poetry Advertising Journal and diary writing
The children pedalled leisurely down the Happyville Bike Trail, their giggles and whoops reverberating through the warm spring air. Sweet-scented wildflowers brought an array of colour to the gently undulating landscape, tempting the children to dismount now and then so they could lay down in the spring, soft grass.
Through description, this passage paints a vivid picture of a scene on the new bike trail.
Persuasive Writing
The aim of persuasive writing, or argumentation, is to influence the reader to assume the author’s point of view. The author will express personal opinions in the piece and arm him- or herself with evidence so that the reader will agree with him or her.
Persuasive writing aims to sway the reader toward the author’s point of view. It is used heavily in advertising, and can also be found in opinion and editorial pieces, reviews, and job applications.
Persuasive writing can be found in:
Advertising Opinion and editorial pieces Reviews Job applications
The bike trail is the glittering gem of Happyville’s new infrastructure. It winds through sixty-two miles of lush landscape, dotted by clean and convenient facilities. If you haven’t experienced the Happyville Bike Trail yet, ditch your car and head outside! Could life in Happyville get any more idyllic?
A number of statements in this paragraph are opinion rather than fact: that the bike trail is a glittering gem, that the facilities are clean and convenient, and that life in Happyville is idyllic. Clearly, the author’s aim here is to use these depictions to persuade readers to use the bike trail.
Narrative Writing
The purpose of narrative writing is to tell a story, whether that story is real or imaginary. Pieces in a narrative style will have characters, and through the narrative, the reader learns what happens to them. Narrative writing can also include dialogue.
Narrative writing tells a story. It can be found in fiction, poetry, biographies, human interest stories, and anecdotes.
Narrative writing can be found in:
All types of fiction (e.g., novels, short stories, novellas) Poetry Biographies Human interest stories Anecdotes
As I cycled down the trail, I heard children giggling and whooping just around the bend. I crested a small hill and coasted down the curving path until I found the source of the noise. Three little girls sat in the grass by a big oak tree. They were startled to see me, and I smiled kindly to put them at ease.
“What cha doing?” I asked.
“Nothing,” they chirped in unison.
In this passage, the author sets the scene on the bike trail from his or her own point of view (which is referred to as narrating in the first person). Using both description and dialogue, the story that takes place is laid out in chronological order.
Understanding Your Purpose Empowers Your Writing
Simply puzzling out which of these four types of writing best suits your purpose and adhering to it can help you write more efficiently and effectively.
IMPORTANCE OF READING AND WRITING
Critical thinking
The growth of digital media as a source of information has reduced the ability of children to critically evaluate the information they are exposed to, says Professor Patricia Greenfield, director of the Children's Digital Media Center at UCLA. Critical thinking skills are crucial in helping students achieve more than a cursory understanding of any topic and help them form their own opinions. Reading requires a person to think and process information in a way that watching television may not. The more you read, the deeper your understanding becomes of what you are reading and its application. Greenfield tells parents to encourage their children to read and should read to their children. Developing writing skills can help you strengthen your ability to make reasoned arguments on a variety of subjects, which is useful in school and on the job.
Improved Communication Skills
Improving your reading and writing skills also goes hand in hand with developing your communication skills. The more you read and write, the more you broaden your vocabulary and are able to articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others. Increasing your ability to communicate also helps make you a better worker or student.
More Opportunities
Studies show that people with advanced reading and writing skills have more opportunities in school and professionally than those who do not develop these skills. Children who are avid readers will often find school more appealing. Literary readers are more likely "to engage in positive civic and individual activities--such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising" than non-readers, according to the NEA study.
Quenching Curiosity
My brain is already running around with different ideas and thoughts. Reading allows me to focus my brain for a bit on certain topics I find interesting. This may just be me, but it gives me some downtime for my brain despite it being an engaging activity. Writing also allows me to put my messy thoughts into a more coherent piece that I can use to further refine ideas or share them with others.
Perspective
Reading has given me the perspective of others in different careers, times of their lives, or simply the perspective of a different century. I’ve been able to put myself in someone else’s shoes through a book or through any written piece of work and I’ve been able to learn from them. This ability has allowed my brain to think more creatively and openly about possibilities at work, in school, in my home life, and any other facet of my life. Writing has also given me this ability to a lesser degree but writing forces me to think from my reader’s perspective and imagine what they are thinking or how a sentence may come off to them.
Challenging Myself
Lastly, reading and writing have given me more challenges (but good challenges) than anything else. Reading a book on a topic I am 110% completely unfamiliar with has challenged me to really think through the topic and put pieces together to stitch the book together. Writing has also forced me to become a better writer but also work on something that is not my strongest asset.
UNIT TWO
THEORIES AND MODELS OF READING
THEORIES OF READING
So far, there are three main theories which explain the nature of learning to read. First, the traditional theory, or bottom-up processing, which focused on the printed form of a text. The cognitive view or top-down processing enhanced the role of background knowledge in addition to what appeared on the printed page. Third, the metacognitive view, which is based on the control and manipulation that a reader can have on the act of comprehending a text, and thus, emphasizes the involvement of the reader’s thinking about what he is doing while reading.
1. THE TRADITIONAL BOTTOM-UP VIEW
The traditional bottom-up approach to reading was influenced by behaviorist psychology of the 1950s, which claimed learning was based upon “habit formation, brought about by the repeated association of a stimulus with a response” and language learning was characterized as a “response system that humans acquire through automatic conditioning processes,” where “some patterns of language are reinforced (rewarded) and others are not,” and “only those patterns reinforced by the community of language users will persist” (Omaggio 1993, 45-46). Behaviorism became the basis of the audio-lingual method, which sought to form second language “habits” through drilling, repetition, and error correction.
Today, the main method associated with the bottom-up approach to reading is known as phonics, which requires the learner to match letters with sounds in a defined sequence. According to this view, reading is a linear process by which readers decode a text word by word, linking the words into phrases and then sentences (Gray and Rogers, cited in Kucer 1987). According to Samuels and Kamil (1988: 25), the emphasis on behaviorism treated reading as a word-recognition response to the stimuli of the printed words, where “little attempt was made to explain what went on within the recesses of the mind that allowed the human to make sense of the printed page”. In other words, textual comprehension involves adding the meanings of words to get the meanings of clauses (Anderson 1994). These lower level skills are connected to the visual stimulus, or print, and are consequently concerned with recognizing and recalling.
Like the audio-lingual teaching method, phonics emphasizes on repetition and on drills using the sounds that make-up words. Information is received and processed beginning with the smallest sound units, and proceeded to letter blends, words, phrases, and sentences. Thus, novice readers acquire a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially build toward comprehension ability. Having mastered these skills, readers are viewed as experts who comprehend what they read.
The bottom-up model describes information flow as a series of stages that transforms the input and passes it to the next stage without any feedback or possibility of later stages of the process influencing earlier stages (Stanovich, 1980). In other words, language is viewed as a code and the reader’s main task is to identify graphemes and convert them into phonemes. Consequently, readers are regarded as passive recipients of information in the text. Meaning resides in the text and the reader has to reproduce it.
The ESL and EFL textbooks influenced by this perspective include exercises that focus on literal comprehension and give little or no importance to the reader’s knowledge or experience with the subject matter, and the only interaction is with the basic building blocks of sounds and words. Most activities are based on recognition and recall of lexical and grammatical forms with an emphasis on the perceptual and decoding dimension.
This model of reading has almost always been under attack as being insufficient and defective for the main reason that it relies on the formal features of the language, mainly words and structure. Although it is possible to accept this rejection for the fact that there is over-reliance on the structure in this view, it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension to take place. To counteract over-reliance on form in the traditional view of reading, the cognitive view was introduced.
2. THE COGNITIVE VIEW (TOP-DOWN PROCESSING)
In the 1960s a paradigm shift occurred in the cognitive sciences. Behaviorism became somewhat discredited as the new cognitive theory represented the mind’s innate capacity for learning, which gave new explanatory power to how humans acquired their first language; this also had a tremendous impact on the field of ESL/EFL as psycholinguists explained “how such internal representations of the foreign language develop within the learner’s mind” (Omaggio, 1993: 57).
Ausubel (cited in Omaggio, 1993: 58), made an important distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning. An example of rote learning is simply memorizing lists of isolated words or rules in a new language, where the information becomes temporary and subject to lose. Meaningful learning, on the other hand, occurs when new information is presented in a relevant context and is related to what the learner already knows so that it can be easily integrated into one’s existing cognitive structure. A learning that is not meaningful will not become permanent. This emphasis on meaning eventually informed the top-down approach to L2 learning, and in the 1960s and 1970s, there was an explosion of teaching methods and activities that strongly considered the experience and knowledge of the learner.
These new cognitive and top-down processing approaches revolutionized the conception of the way students learn to read (Smith, 1994). In this view, reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the reader brings to the act of reading. In this sense, reading is a dialogue between the reader and the text which involves an active cognitive process in which the reader’s background knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Reading is not a passive mechanical activity but purposeful and rational, dependent on the prior knowledge and expectations of the reader. It is not merely a matter of decoding print to sound but also a matter of making sense of written language (Smith, 1994: 2). Goodman (as cited in Paran, 1996), accentuated that reading is “a psycholinguistic guessing game, a process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, make new hypotheses, and so forth.”
SCHEMA THEORY
Another theory closely related to top-down processing called schema theory also had a major impact on reading instruction. It describes in detail how the background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task and illustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is crucial to deciphering a text. The ability to use these schemata, or background knowledge, plays a fundamental role in one’s trial to comprehend a text.
Schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help a reader make sense of new experiences. Smith (1994: 14) calls schemes the “extensive representations of more general patterns or regularities that occur in our experience”. For instance, one’s generic scheme of an airplane will allow him to make sense of airplane he has not previously flown with. This means that past experiences will be related to new experiences, which may include the knowledge of “objects, situations, and events as well as knowledge of procedures for retrieving, organizing and interpreting information” (Kucer, 1987: 31). Anderson (1994: 469) presents research showing that recall of information in a text is affected by the reader’s schemata and explains that “a reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that gives an account of the objects and events described in the message”. Comprehension is the process of “activating or constructing a schema that provides a coherent explanation of objects and events mentioned in a discourse” (Anderson, 1994: 473). For Anderson and Pearson (1988: 38), comprehension is the interaction between old and new information. They emphasize: “To say that one has comprehended a text is to say that she has found a mental ‘home’ for the information in the text, or else that she has modified an existing mental home in order to accommodate that new information”. Therefore, a learner’s schemata will restructure itself to accommodate new information as that information is added to the system (Omaggio, 1993).
Content and formal schemata
Schema theorists differentiate formal schemata (knowledge about the structure of a text) from content schemata (knowledge about the subject matter of a text), and a reader’s prior knowledge of both schemata enables him to predict events and meaning as well as to infer meaning from a wider context.
Formal schemata refer to the way that texts differ from one another; for example, a reading text could be a fictional work, a letter to the editor, or a scientific essay, and each genre will have a different structural organization. Knowledge of these genre structures can aid reading comprehension, as it gives readers a basis for predicting what a text will be like (Smith 1994). For example, if a reader knows that the typical format of a research article consists of sections subtitled Introduction, Theoretical Basis, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, that knowledge will facilitate their interaction with the article and boost comprehension. On the other hand, if he is not familiar with this formal schema, teaching it to him could lead to improved reading ability with lasting and beneficial effects.
Content schemata refer to the message of the text. One’s familiarity with the content will make more productive and efficient. As Anderson (1994: 469) explains, “a reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that gives an account of the objects and events described in the message”.
Activating and building schemata
Since the reader plays a fundamental role in the construction of meaning, his age, gender, experience, and culture are important considerations for teachers who want to select readings that will motivate their students. Anderson (1994) notes that when readers cannot locate a schema that fits a text, they may find it incomprehensible. In some cases, readers may not have a schema that is significant to the text, or they may need help to activate the pertinent schema to be able to comprehend the text. In such cases, it may not be possible for the reader to understand the text, and the teacher must be ready to engage in “building new background knowledge as well as activating existing background knowledge” (Carrell, 1988: 248). In parallel with this, Bransford (1994) points out that difficulties in comprehension may be caused by the lack of background knowledge presumed by the text, and he sees the responsibility of instructors as being twofold: to activate preexisting schemata and to help students to integrate isolated “parcels” of knowledge into a schema or to build a new one.
If the texts to be read contain a cultural context that is different from the student’s, the issues of formal and content schemata become even more important. McDonough (1995), explains that, to a higher extent, this is the reason why ESL and EFL students find it difficult to read in a second language with texts that contain cultural assumptions of the target culture. They may lack the culture-specific background knowledge necessary to process the text in a top-down manner. His reports on several studies demonstrate how people outside a given culture may misunderstand events with unfamiliar cultural connotations. (Students from different cultural backgrounds taking standardized tests which assume common schemata for will also face the same problem.)
Applying schema theory to L2 reading
Based on the aforementioned ideas, it is obvious that in order to teach reading effectively, the teacher’s role to activate and build schemata is paramount. To achieve it, he should in advance select texts that are relevant to the students’ needs, preferences, individual differences, and cultures in order to provide meaningful texts so the students understand the message, which entails activating existing schemata and helping build new schemata. Then, after selecting the text, he needs to do the three stages of activities proposed by Wallace (1992) to activate and build the students’ schemata. (1) Pre-reading activities, in which the teacher have students think, write, and discuss everything they know about the topic, employing techniques such as prediction, semantic mapping, and reconciled reading. The objective is to make sure that students have the relevant schema for understanding the text. (2) During-reading activities, in which the teacher guide and monitor the interaction between the reader and the text. One important skill teachers can impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize information and record their reactions and opinions. (3)Post-reading activities which facilitate the chance to evaluate students’ adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that “readership” must be respected as long as the writer’s intentions are addressed (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Post-reading activities focus on a wide range of questions that allow for different interpretations.
While schema activation and building can occur in all three stages, the pre-reading stage deserves special attention since it is here, during the students’ initial contact with the text, where their schemata will be activated.
Pre-reading activities
Pre-reading activities are aimed to activate existing schemata, build new schemata, and provide information to the teacher about what the students know. In their report on the positive effect various pre-reading activities had on reading comprehension, Chen and Graves (1995, 664), define them as “devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’s schemata”. Various activities and materials can help the teacher introduce key vocabulary and reinforce concept association to activate both formal and content schemata. Formal schemata will be activated by employing devices such as advance organizers and overviews to draw attention to the structure of a text. The content schemata will be activated by using various pre-reading activities to help learners brainstorm and predict how the information fits in with their previous knowledge.
One of the most important pre-reading activities proposed by schematic theorists is the prediction. According to Goodman (1988: 16), a prediction is important because “the brain is always anticipating and predicting as it seeks order and significance in sensory inputs”. Smith (1994, 19–20) defines prediction as “the prior elimination of unlikely alternatives”. According to him, predictions are questions the readers ask the world and comprehension is receiving the answers. He emphasizes that it is the prediction that makes skilled readers effective when reading texts that contain familiar subject matter. “Prediction brings potential meaning to texts, reducing ambiguity and eliminating in advance irrelevant alternatives. Thus, we are able to generate comprehensible experience from inert pages of print” (Smith 1994, 18).
Another pre-reading activity is previewing, where students look at titles, headings, and pictures, and read the first few paragraphs and the last paragraph; these activities can then help students understand what the text is about by activating their formal and content schemata and making them familiar with the topic before they begin reading in earnest. Semantic mapping is another pre-reading activity that Carrell, Pharis, and Liberto (1989: 651) describe as a useful way to pre-teach vocabulary and to “provide the teacher with an assessment of the students’ prior knowledge or schema availability on the topic”. This activity asks students to brainstorm about the reading topic as the information is displayed on a graphic “map.” As students make associations, the map becomes a thorough summary of the concepts and vocabulary that they will encounter in the reading. It can also help build schemata and vocabulary that students do not yet possess. Again, it is important to know something about the students so the selected texts contain the type of material that is likely to be familiar and interesting to them.
Reutzel (1985) proposes another type of pre-reading activity called reconciled reading lesson, which reverses the sequence presented by many textbooks where the text is followed by questions. Instead, the teacher develops pre-reading questions from the questions that appear at the end of the reading. Smith (1994) criticizes comprehension exercises presented at the end of a reading because they are like memory tests. He argues that using prior knowledge efficiently contributes to fluent readers, and he believes that there is a reciprocal relationship between visual and non-visual (prior knowledge) information; the more the readers have of the latter, the less they need of the former. Although not all the post-reading questions can be easily turned into pre-reading ones, this strategy can be invaluable to activate schemata.
3. THE METACOGNITIVE VIEW
According to Block (1992), there is now no more debate on “whether reading is a bottom-up, language-based process or a top-down, knowledge-based process.” It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge on readers. Research has gone even further to define the control executed by readers on their trial to understand a text. This control is what Block has referred to as meta-cognition.
In the context of reading, meta-cognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Strategic readers do not only sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, and make new hypotheses while reading. They also involve many activities along the process of reading, whose stages can be divided into three, i.e. before reading, while reading, and after reading. The activities the readers involve before reading are to identify the purpose of the reading, identify the form or type of the text. In the second stage (while reading), they think about the general character and features of the form or type of the text—such as trying to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details toward a conclusion, project the author’s purpose for writing the text, choose, scan, or read in detail, make continuous predictions about what will occur next based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous stages. Finally, in the last stage, they attempt to form a summary, conclude, or make an inference of what was read.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF READING
After discussing the ideas and concepts presented in the three reading theories, let’s see how they are implemented in the tips for helping learners develop their reading competence proposed by Vaezi (2006). The tips are arranged in three sections which are parallel with the three consecutive reading stages: before reading, during reading, and after reading (Wallace, 1992).
Pre-Reading Tips
Before the actual reading act on a text starts, some points should be considered for making the reading process more comprehensible. First, teachers should ensure that the words and grammatical structures in the texts to read are familiar to the learners. Suppose the texts have unfamiliar words, they could be introduced in pre-reading activities focusing on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words. Second, teachers need to make certain that the topics of chosen texts are in accordance with the learners’ age range, interests, sex, and cultural background. If they are not, necessary background information should be provided to the reader to facilitate comprehension. Assigning the class members to brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know are recommended to conduct this activity.
The followings are some activities teacher can use during the pre-reading stage. These activities do not necessitate a long time to conduct. But, they are very effective to overcome the common urge to start reading a text closely right away from the beginning.
Teacher-directed pre-reading, which is directed to explain some key vocabulary, ideas in the text, and the text type. In this approach, the teacher the information the students will need, including key concepts, important vocabulary, and appropriate conceptual framework are directly explained. The reason for introducing the text types is that texts may take on different forms and hold certain pieces of information in different places. The students’ familiarity of the text types they are reading will develop their understanding of the layout of the material. Such familiarity will, in turn, enable them to focus more deeply on the parts that are more densely compacted with information. Paying attention to the author’s name and the year of publication, if applicable, may even help the reader in assuming the text meaning.
Interactive activities, in which the teacher leads a discussion by drawing out the information students already have and interjects additional information considered to be necessary to an understanding of the text to be read. The teacher can also overtly link the students’ prior knowledge and important information in the text.
Reflective activities, which is directed to guide the students to realize the purpose and objective for reading a certain piece of written material. This can be done at the initial stages, but this strategy can be left to the students when they have become better readers. For example, the students may be guided to ask themselves, “Why should I read this text? What benefits can I get after finished reading this? Their awareness of the purpose and goal to read, later—in during-reading activities—will enable them to determine the correct skill(s) to employ: skimming, scanning, reading for details, or critical reading.
During-reading tips
The activities carried out in during-reading stage include taking notes, reacting, predicting, selecting significant information, questioning the writer’s position, evaluating, and placing a text within one’s own experience. Due to the fact that most attention is often paid to dictionaries, the text, and the teacher in English reading classes, these processes can be the most complex to develop in a classroom setting,. To encourage active reading, the teacher is recommended to let the students to practice the followings are tips.
Making predictions: Students should be guided to master the skill to predict what is going to happen next in the text because it is necessary to enable them to integrate and combine what has come with what is to come.
Making selections: Proficient readers are more selective in what to read.
Integrating prior knowledge: To facilitate comprehension, the schemata activated in the pre-reading section are required to be called upon.
Skipping insignificant parts: The more proficient a person reads, the more he will concentrate on important pieces of information and skip unimportant pieces.
Re-reading: Students should be made aware of the importance of re-reading to increase their comprehension.
Making use of context or guessing: encouraging students to define and understand every single unknown word in a text is necessary. They should also be taught to use the context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Breaking words into their component parts: To read more efficiently, students should analyze unknown words by breaking them into their affixes or roots. Such analysis can help them guess the meaning of a word so that they do not need to consult a dictionary and keep the process of comprehension continuing.
Reading in chunks: To read faster, students should practice reading groups of words together. Such an act will also improve comprehension.
Pausing: Good readers do not read with the same speed from the beginning to the end. At certain sections, he will pause to absorb and internalize the material being read and sort out information.
Paraphrasing: Some parts of texts might need to be paraphrased sub-vocally to verify what it means.
Monitoring: Good readers always check their understanding to evaluate whether the text or its reading is meeting their goals.
After-reading tips
Post-reading activities are essentially determined by the reading purpose and the information type extracted from the text. According to Barnett (1988), post-reading exercises first monitor students’ comprehension and then lead them to a deeper analysis of the text. In the real world, the reading is not directed to summarize a text content or to memorize the author’s viewpoint. The true goal of reading is to see into the author’s mind or to engage new information with what one already knows. To let the students check the information they did not comprehend or miscomprehended, holding a group discussion is recommended.
Vaezi (2006) accentuated that post-reading can stage generally take the form of these activities: (1) discussing the text: written/oral, (2) summarizing: written/oral, (3) making questions: written/oral, (3) answering questions: written/oral, (4) filling in forms and charts (5) writing reading logs (6) completing a text, (7) listening to or reading other related materials, and (7) role-playing.
MODELS OF READING
RUMELHART'S AND MCCLELLAND'S INTERACTIVE MODEL (1977/81)
Components
Sources of orthographical, lexical, syntactic and semantic information. Mental synthesiser of mental processes and message center.
Process
It emphasizes flexible processing and multiple information sources, depending on contextual circumstances, showing that the perspective of the way information is processed lies in the field of reading.
The processing of the text and its final interpretation are influenced by orthographic, lexical, semantic and syntactic information. All these factors join together as a synthesizer of mental processes which, through the message center, accepts keeps and distributes information according to its needs.
The message center has several functions. It stores information received in the short term memory; it opens up to the different sources for data analysis; and confirms, denies, takes out or adds to the hypothesis of the corresponding subject areas, according to the results of the analysis. The procedure keeps going until the 'supposed' right decision is reached.
The message center ensures that a bidirectional relationship is maintained between the levéis. Although the high level processes in this model depend on the knowledge acquired at the lower levies, the first enables speed in recognition and assimilation of the second.
Therefore the processing of information occurs in both directions that is bottom-up and top-down.
In short, the mind activates individual features (letters, groups of letters, context, syntax, semantics, topic, previous knowledge, etc.) to select the meaning and word comprehension. When the activation of different sources increases, the lexis which is not affected by any of the sources is blocked and only one or two words reach awareness level.
The process is quicker than the conscious experience. The automatism of the processing allows concentration on comprehension more than on active selection or word prediction.
- Comments
This model was devised to overcome the deficiencies of linear models which transmit information in one direction only without allowing information from a higher level to affect that of a lower level. The authors indicate five factors of the reading process which can be explained by this mutual influence.
The first deals with the fact that more letters can be learnt in a period of time if they appear in a common word, eg. 'Classroom', than if they are disordered and do not make a proper word, eg. 'mclosrsao', (Huey 1908/1968), or if you try to learn the letters of a nonsense word, but arranged in a conventional way, i.e. 'pertangle', compared with the same letters arranged in a non-conventional manner, eg. 'rtlnaeepg', (Miller, Bruner and Postman 1954). It shows that, although letter recognition is a typical lower level information process, some mechanism must be activated on letter perception to grasp both the lexis and the orthography contained in higher levéis. It can also explain why we Spaniards, for instance, tend to be better and faster at learning languages with Latin roots rather than languages of Saxon origin.
The second refers to the syntactic effects on word perception. When we fail to recognize a word, there is a strong tendency to substitute it with another which maintains the same syntactical function in the sentence (Kolers 1970; Weber 1970).
The third considers the influence that semantic knowledge exerts on word perception.
Various experiments show that, compared with disordered words, i.e. 'dbrae, ttberu, rtodoc, usnres', word orders are more easily formed when they are semantically related, eg.'bread-butter, doctor-nurse', than if they are not, eg. 'bread-doctor, nurse-butter' (Meyer, Schvaneveldt and Ruddy 1975), or that the recognition of a word is faster if parts of the sentences in which it appears are given, rather than if the word is shown in isolation (Tulving and Gold 1963).
The fourth, refers to the way that ambiguity is minimized in the syntactic perception of words if we have the context in which they belong. In 'they are eating mushrooms', the issue of whether 'eating' refers to the action of eating, verbal function, or to a type of mushrooms', a noun attributive function, is deduced better in a wider context, such as
'What are these people doing? They are eating mushrooms' or ' What type of mushrooms are they? They are eating mushrooms'.
The fifth states that the interpretation of what we read depends on the context in which the segment of language is included. For example, if we interpret the word 'tree' in:
A number of operations may be carried out on trees. Two binary trees may be joined to an additional node, which becomes the root of a larger binary tree, with the original trees or sub trees. Trees have a number of applications in computing. We would take the meaning as being in a computing context. On the other hand, in:
A number of operations may be carried out on trees. After cutting down, trees are usually pruned, peeled and left drying. Then they are taken to factories to build furniture, doors, windows or boxes. The term refers to the tree as being a wood producer. The meaning, then, is not taken from the individual segment we are processing, but from the environment that surrounds it. From all of this we can infer that orthographic, lexical, syntactic and semantic information affects our perceptions. In each case, higher level knowledge affects the analysis of the lower one. Therefore, all these sources of knowledge influence the processing and final interpretation of the text.
According to Rumelhart, this is how information from sources converges in the mind, where it is accepted, retained and allocated according to needs. The information received is temporarily stored, ready for use when required by one or more of the other sources. For example, lexical knowledge may require back-up information in order to check, spell or just for syntax. By means of this interaction, higher level stages can influence lower level ones.
GOODMAN'S PSYCHOLINGUISTIC MODEL (1970-88)
The factors that play a part in the reading process are optical, perceptual, syntactic and meaning. Each fuses with the following one to be able to arrive at the meaning as soon as possible, which is constantly the reader's goal.
Factors of the Reading Process in Goodman’s Model
From a psycholinguistic point of view, that is, interdisciplinary science concerned with how language and thought are interrelated, the information that the model uses comes mainly from the analysis of oral errors ('miscue' analysis) and is characterised by belonging to the spatial symbols (sounds - letters), to the arbitrary structure of language (grammar and syntax) and to the semantic system of memory (concepts and conceptual structures).
Process
The reader follows a constant attention cycle in the building of meaning through the following steps:
Starting and recognition. The brain identifies the graphic sample in the visual field and starts reading. If there are any interruptions (graphs, illustrations, etc.), the phase will start again.
Prediction. The brain is constantly anticipating and predicting because it is always searching for order and meaning in the sensorial stimuli.
Confirmation. If the brain is predicting, it also has to verify its predictions. Therefore with every new stimulus, it checks whether or not its expectations were correct.
Correction. The brain rest
Ending. The brain will cease the reading activity for the following reasons: the text ends, the activity is not productive, little meaning is derived from the text, the meaning does not interest the reader or is not appropriate for the purpose intended, etc. In any case, the ending stage is an option open at any moment.
Although the steps have an intrinsic sequence, by means of which prediction precedes confirmation and confirmation precedes correction, the same information can be used to confirm previous predictions, and to create new ones.
During the process, short-circuits can appear, which impedes being able to obtain a meaning when reading the text through. This is due to use of the wrong strategies, which are acquired by the individual or through poor teaching, such as spelling out unknown words to oneself, matching written and spoken codes without assigning them any meaning, recognising of deep and surface structures without getting the meaning, etc. The result is the acquisition of a fragmented meaning as opposed to the ideal of complete understanding.
Comments
The model is based on an exhaustive collection of data which the author uses to support and evaluate it. Known as 'Reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game', it is characterised by its procedural preferences which allow the reader to rely on the structures of semantic and syntactic knowledge, minimising its dependence on graphics and sounds associated with it.
Readers do not need to use all the textual clues to achieve understanding; in fact, the better the prediction, the less textual ‘confirmation required (Goodman 164). According to this view, the meaning of written language is reconstructed by using the grapho-phonemic, syntactical and semantic systems of language. In short, then, the process followed by the reader is to:
· search for the most direct way to find meaning
· use strategies that reduce uncertainty
· select keys to interpretation
· use his conceptual and linguistic knowledge
Although Goodman (1981) refuses to class his model as being top-down, renown theoretical writers classify it as being conceptual, where higher level processes interact with lower ones and direct the flow of information across them. In this way, an L2 reader becomes an active partipant in the reading process, when he makes and confirms predictions, making use of his existing knowledge of the different linguistic levéis (graphophonemic, syntactical and, above all, semantic).
The model does not prevent the reader from going from symbol to meaning through sound, but it admits that the intermediate stage of using sound can be eliminated when one has become perfectly familiar with the graphic/sound relationship or by means of the educational process.
Goodman uses the term 'decodification' to describe what the reader does when he turns a graphemic or phonemic element into meaning, as opposed to those who state that it is equivalent to translating graphemic into phonemic, which is called 'recodification' because both oral and written language are codes. In this way, the transformation can either be direct, from grapheme to meaning, or go through an intermediate stage, from grapheme to meaning through phonemes.
In short, Goodman's model is unique (infinite macro-model), psycholinguistic (interaction of language and thought), sociolinguistic (working in a social context) and global (it addresses every stage of the reading process).
LABERGE & SAMUELS'S SERIAL MODEL (1974-77)
Components
The elements of the process are visual memory (visual traits, letters, syllables, words, group onwards), phonological memory (sound of the syllables, words, group of words) and the semantic memory (meaning of words and of groups of words).
Process
The reader activates the corresponding codes in order to recognize and link together the components and the field in a hierarchical pattern. Visual perception, the first level of processing, provides the base for the following one, the recognition of letters; this, in turn, is a base for the syllabic integration stage and so on, until the whole text is semantically processed.
The components of each field are analytically processed from lower to higher levies in every component and field, that is, bottom-up and from left to right (figure 3), giving rise to automation when the processing of one or more of the components becomes clear for the reader.
According to the diagram, the meaning is built upwards, without having a functional dependence in the opposite direction. Thus, the speed of processing the words would be unaffected by the syntactic or semantic processing.
The authors analyse in detail the sequential processes which take part in visual, phonological and semantic perception, assigning them different functions. In the first one, they join together the graphic and letter codes, syllables, words and groups of words; in the second, the phonetic codes of syllables, words and groups of words; in the third, the codes of word meaning and groups of words.
- Comments
The exacting nature of the structural elements does not imply that the model is inflexible; on the contrary, depending on the texts and the reading skills of the individual, the linking process can vary in each case and cause jumps (automatisms) if the reader does not require these elements during the activity of mental processing.
In my view, the expert reader tends to skip the visual perceptive processes as soon as possible, although in reality they serve as an intermediate stage in many circumstances.
For example, if the reader finds an unknown word he may need to activate the visual and phonological codification stages before reaching the semantic level.
In conclusion, LaBerge and Samuels state that learning the reading skills is a process of automating the visual, phonologic and semantic levéis. In this way, a beginner reader keeps his attention on the lower levéis, but with practice the majority of these become automatic, thus freeing the attention and allowing for more intensive concentration on semantic and interpretative levies.
The model was revised by Samuels himself in 1977, admitting that the original linear conception would allow interactions between stages of different levies. This modification brings it nearer to the interactive types of model.
COMPENSATORY MODEL (STANOVICH 1980/84)
Components
These are the same as in the previous one, supplemented with a compensatory mechanism.
Process
For the serial models, the processing of reading tends to represent the flow of information in a series of discrete stages; at each stage, the input is transformed and the non- registered information goes to the next one to be transformed and re-coded again. The sequence of processing is, then, bottom-up, from the input of data up to codification at higher levéis.
Due to lack of feedback, these models do not explain what sort of mental mechanism allows the further processing of the stages when a gap appears in a lower stage. This is why it is difficult to explain with these models, for example, the effects of context in the sentence or the role of possessing background knowledge of the subject, which are both variables that facilitate the recognition of words and their meaning.
Models in favour of top-down processing consider the reading process to be interactive. The reader simplifies textual information to check his hypothesis and predictions; reading is conceptually driven by the higher level stages, typically final processing stages, interacting with previous sequences for these operations. Moreover, high level stages seem to drive and direct the process by doing the most difficult work.
Therefore, top-down models begin with hypothesis and predictions and try to verify them by moving down to the written stimuli, while bottom-up processes base the processing on an analysis of lower stimuli.
Both ideas have limitations. I have already mentioned some of these in connection with bottom-up procedures; with regard to top-down models, it can be said that if the reader does not have previous knowledge of the topic in a text, he will not be able to generate predictions; or that, even if someone is a good reader and able to generate them, if it takes longer to predict than generate words, he will opt for reading. Hence, though the beginning of reading can be explained by lower level word recognition, top-down models do not provide a precise description of behaviour involved in advanced reading.
Stanovich tries to bring in his interactive-compensatory model to solve this problem.
A key concept in his theory is that "... processes at any level can compensate for deficiencies at any other level." (Stanovich 1980: 36). In this way, if there is a deficiency in a lower stage, the reader will try to compensate for it by means of higher level knowledge structures. For the poorer reader, who experiences difficulty in word recognition and in speed of reading, but with a good knowledge of the subject he is reading, top-down processing can provide him with the information he needs.
On the other hand, if the reader has little trouble in recognizing the words but lacks knowledge of the subject, he may find it easier to use bottom-up processing to help him. Stanovich states that the interactive models allow the synthesis of a norm based on the information which is simultaneously received from various sources of knowledge. The compensatory assumption states that a lack of any type of knowledge leads to a dependence on the others, without considering which level they belong to in the hierarchy of processing (Grabe 1988). Therefore his model is interactive in that any stage, independently of its position in the system, can communicate with another; and it is compensatory because any reader is able to make use of the knowledge source which is the best developed for his purposes, when other sources which are less familiar to him are more difficult to use, even if they are normally the more common ones.
In addition, it incorporates the concept of the initiation of the activation process by means of which, when reading, it is possible to have words which are already in one's mind automatically at one's disposal when they have a very cióse semantic relationship.
This sort of activation, since it is automatic, does not require any attention, therefore it is a contextual factor that the reader does not control.
- Comments
In short, I think that Stanovich's contribution to reading models explains, from a theoretical point of view, the apparent anomaly that in certain circumstances, some lower level readers are more sensitive to textual difficulties than good readers. If the determinants were, for instance, a poor source of lexical and/or orthographic knowledge as opposed to syntax and semantics, the reason for good readers being less aware of contextual effects could be due to having less knowledge about sources of lower level processing.
EYE MOVEMENT MODEL (JUST AND CARPENTER 1983-1987)
- Components
These authors take the following elements into account in the description of their model:
a) Patterns of eye movement.
b) A computer program to measure reading time.
c) Statistical techniques of multiple regression, where the dependent variable is the length of looking time and the independent one is the consideration of the number of syllables, frequency, semantic value, integrative value, etc. (up to seventeen).
d) The presuppositions of immediacy (the reader tries to extract the most out of each word, interpreting it immediately, though at times they are only provisional guesses) and the one of the mind-eye (the eye focuses attention on a word until it is completely processed, so that the duration of the looking process reflects the time taken by the cognitive processes. Only the words projected in the folic area by means of the retina are processed; the words reflected in the corner of the eye are not semantically processed).
e) Long term memory: this retains the reader's general knowledge about orthography, phonology, syntax, semantics, discourse structures, situational schemata, etc.
f) Short term memory: this has a limited capacity; it retains the representations activated during the execution of the-operations involved in the reading process.
Process
Readers are exposed to a text and stop at every word with a meaning, they seldom skip over words. The length of looking time is very variable because it is sensitive to the underlying cognitive processes.
Due to the limitations of the short term memory, it processes the information in cycles.
Each cycle begins with a visual movement to the next word of the text and this continues while looking is focused, which is the amount of time necessary to process the word in all the possible levies. These levies are:
· Word coding and lexical access.
· Syntactic coding and semantic determination.
· Integration of clauses.
· Construction of sentences.
- Comments
The authors construct a wide-ranging model that overcomes some of the limitations in Rumelhart's model and shows that the duration of time spent looking at the words of
a text is extremely sensitive to linguistic parameters of several levéis of processing.
The computer automatically registers the amount of time spent reading long or new words, or those used to expand linguistic units, integrative sentences in paragraphs, or paragraphs in a discourse, and it is shown to be longer than the time taken for words that are not displayed by these characteristics. In particular, the ending words of both clauses and paragraphs and those appearing for the first time are the ones that require a larger amount of processing and looking time.
The seventeen independent variables used, corresponding to all the levies of processing, explain 72% of the variance of the duration of looking times. Some critics say that many of the variables are interrelated and that it is not possible to separate their effects.
With a very new methodology and background, Just and Carpenter produce their model by using a computer program, READER, in their 1987 publication. This model is able to operate at the described processing levies and mime the patterns of eye movements.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING READING MODELS
Although we do not have a pattern at our disposal to evalúate them, four parameters can be identified to classify current reading models. These are:
· The scientific paradigm in which they appear,
· Their defining categories,
· The experimental factors from which they come, and
· How well they match the features of a good model.
The influence of science
The scientific philosophy at the time when they appear is essential in the configuration of the model.
Those which appeared prior to the 60s are said to be behaviourist, and they try to describe how stimuli and answers are associated (the printed text and the response to its recognition), and do not pay much attention to the reaction of the individual's mind during this process; in contrast, those which appeared after the 60s are concerned with the mental processes (memory, attention, etc.) that play a part in the reading process, according to cognitive psychology.
However, classification remains difficult. The mentalist character of the models exposed here sometimes shows signs of previous scientific views such as in the case of LaBerge and Samuels's serial-analytical model, and at other times, displays the advances of the new cognitive paradigm of computational processing of information, as in the case of Just and Carpenter's 'READER'.
Defining Categories
There is no general agreement regarding the theoretical categories that define a reading model. DeBeaugrande (1981) has mentioned up to sixteen which describe them; Moshental (1984) adds environmental factors which help to define every specification of the model more precisely. Some of the more salient categorizations would be: the type of processing (serial/parallel, bottom-up, top-down), memory (abstract, constructive, reconstructive, operative, long term), socio-politic-cultural factors, the contribution of statistics and logic, the áreas that the model refers to, etc.
Underlying Experimental Factors
There are at least four main spheres likely to have an influence on the information of the experimental phase. These are: age and knowledge of the individuals concerned, activities they wish to accomplish, materials they use and the context of the study (class, type of school, laboratory, etc.). A change in any of them can alter the results of the study and, consequently, the author's view of the process.
Therefore, their range constitutes a key factor in the assessment process. Questions to be answered are:
· Does the model describe initial reading as much as fluent reading?
· Does the description of the model prove to be useful both for multiple tasks and aims?
· Does the model describe the comprehension of words in the comprehensive model?
· Is it valid for different materials and contexts? etc.
It is inferred from the possible answers that none of the current models can satisfy all these requirements; so it is necessary to undertake a careful study of each one and weigh up their potential.
Conditions of a Good Model
We can identify three conditions:
· That they are able to summarise the past,
· Have an understanding of the present, and
· Can predict the future.
A model satisfies the first condition when it synthesises large amounts of relevant information produced about it in the past.
The second condition requires that in spite of the complexity that usually accompanies any phenomenon, the model aids understanding by eliminating secondary aspects and showing clearly how its basic components interrelate and function.
It fulfils the third one if it enables the formulation of verifiable hypotheses. Throughout history, there have been models that have failed because they did not go beyond previous hypotheses, eg. that the earth was believed to be fÃat and that it was at the centre of the universe. Checking the models will help us to eliminate useless information and keep valid items for current and future investigations.
These circumstances indicate that most reading models are subject to constant revision, as stated for some of the cases already mentioned; it is frequent that the authors themselves, in successive studies, have modified some of their previous views. For example, LaBerge and Samuels, who produced a strictly linear model at the beginning, where the higher level stages were unable to influence lower ones, admit in their 1984 publication that interaction between the different stages of their model is, in fact, possible.
UNIT THREE
COMPONENTS OF READING AND WRITING APPROPRIATE FOR JHS LEARNERS
COMPONENTS OF READING
PHONICS
Phonics is the connection of different sounds with different letters, or different groupings of letters. For example, the letter‘s’ gives an /s/ sound, but adding an ‘h’ gives the different sound of /sh/.
IMPORTANT OF PHONICS AS COMPONENT OF READING
Phonics forms the nuts and bolts of the reading process. It allows students to connect arbitrary symbols on a page to verbally expressed language. Even if a child has no understanding of what a word means, they will still be able to phonetically sound it out.
Phonics also develops students’ ability to ‘read by sight’, i.e. register whole words at a glance without sounding out each individual letter. Even within an unfamiliar word, students will be able to quickly sight-read phonic patterns (e.g. ‘however’ as a whole might be new, but ‘how’ and ‘ever’ will be sight words).
Both of the above developments translate to reading fluency. Students are able to read much faster and more efficiently without having to stop and process the letters each time they are confronted by a new piece of vocabulary.
WAYS TO TEACH PHONICS FOR READING
There are different approaches to phonics instruction, but these activities will suit any classroom.
1. Rhyming games: Any activity that requires students to rhyme words will develop their phonic understanding. This might be writing a poem as a class or mixing and matching pairs of rhymed words.
2. Flexi words: Have students break down a word into its individual phonemes, each of which go onto a decorated piece of card. Students then attach the phonemes (in order) to an elastic band. Stretching out the band will separate the phonemes and helps students to view a slow sounding out of the word. Relaxing it will reveal the word as it appears in regular speech.
3. Phonics hopscotch: Draw hopscotch but substitute the numbers with graphemes (the letters representing phonetic sounds). Students have to jump between the different letters as they hear them from a teacher or partner.
4. Guess the word: Students write down a set of 5 words, then place them in the middle of the table. The teacher or nominated student then has to pick a word and give clues (e.g. “it ends with -ig”) while the others guess what it is.
5. Word mix up: Put individual graphemes on separate cards, and then task students with manipulating them to create as many words as possible.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Phonemic awareness is an understanding of how individual phonemes (consonant or vowel sounds) can be manipulated and arranged to create words. This may sound similar to phonics, but there is a difference. Phonics concerns letter–sound knowledge, whereas phonemic awareness refers to sound–word knowledge. Phonemic awareness is therefore aimed on auditory understanding, as opposed to words on a page.
Why is phonemic awareness an important component of reading?
English is written using an alphabetical system, where every letter corresponds to an individual phoneme. This might sound obvious, but it’s not the case in other languages where characters represent whole syllables (e.g. Japanese) or even whole words (as with certain Chinese characters).
This means that students need an awareness of phonemes themselves before they can make sense of words on a page. For example, to read the word ‘cat’ aloud, students have to know what the phonemes /c/, /a/, /t/ sound like when put together. And it’s not easy either — phonemes have to overlap and flow together to form fluent speech.
For this reason, studies have identified phonemic awareness as the best early indicator of a student’s reading potential. It sets the stage for phonics, and virtually every other component of literacy.
WAYS TO DEVELOP PHONEMIC AWARENESS FOR READING
1. Phoneme isolation: Students identify individual phonemes in words, e.g. “What is the first sound in ‘boat’?” (/b/)
2. Phoneme identity: Students identify the common sound in different words, e.g. “Tell me the sound that is the same in ‘bike’, ‘boy’, and ‘bell’.” (/b/)
3. Phoneme categories: students identify the word with the odd sound in a sequence, e.g. “Which word does not belong? Bus, bun, rug.” (rug)
4. Phoneme blending: Students listen to a sequence of separately spoken sounds and combine them to form a recognizable word, e.g. “What word is /s/ /k/ /u/ /l/?” (school)
Phoneme deletion: Students find the word that remains when a specified phoneme is removed, e.g. “What word do we get when we remove /s/ from ‘smile’?” (mile)
VOCABULARY
Vocabulary is the range of words a student is able to understand and use in context. More of a toolbox than a skill, students’ vocabularies grow as they read and are introduced to new words.
Why is vocabulary an important component of reading?
You can only take meaning from words you understand. Students with broader vocabularies are more confident when reading challenging or unfamiliar material. When they encounter unknown words, they can figure it out based on context clues or resemblance to familiar pieces of vocabulary.
You can grow students’ vocabularies with regular reading in and out of the classroom.
WAYS TO DEVELOP A STRONGER VOCABULARY FOR READING
1. Word of the day: Create a daily roster for students to share a newly discovered or unusual word with the class. They could explain the word by providing an original definition, acting it out, or compiling a list of synonyms.
2. Creative writing: Compile all the ‘words of the day’ gathered over the week and then task students with writing a story that uses as many new words as possible. This ensures they learn how to use new vocabulary in context.
3. Class glossary: When reading a text or studying a topic, compile a list of unfamiliar words, and assign them to students. Each student must create a glossary page with a definition, pronunciation guide, sentence example, mnemonic (memory aid), and an image representing the word.
4. Opposites attract: Assign each student a card with a new word and its definition. They then have to find and pair up with a classmate who has a word with the opposite meaning.
5. Vocab bookmarks: Have students design and create a bookmark with a space to write down any new words they discover while they read. Laminate them so students can reuse them with a dry-erase marker.
FLUENCY
Fluency is the ability to read with speed, understanding, and accuracy. Yet it’s more than information extraction — it’s the skill that allows us to ‘follow’ a text, picture its descriptions, and hear the auditory expression of words in our heads even when reading silently.
Why is fluency an important component of reading?
Fluency is what lets students feel the ‘flow’ of a text. Struggling readers, for example, read aloud in a jerky, clipped fashion as if a new sentence begins with every word. Others might be oblivious to the shifting tone and pace of a text, reading it in a steady monotone with no expression. In both cases, the process of reading becomes painful and awkward — even if students can successfully decode individual words.
Fluency and comprehension are closely tied. A student cannot fully understand the meaning and ideas behind a text without the ability to read it fluently.
WAYS TO DEVELOP READING FLUENCY
1. Teacher modelling: regularly reading aloud to students serves as a model for reading fluency. Be expressive and vary your pace so that students get a sense of the flow. If possible, have students read along with their own copy of the text, so they can link it to the words they hear aloud.
2. Phrase identification: Take a single sentence and read it aloud while students refer to the written version. Ask them to identify distinct phrases with an underline by listening carefully to the pauses. Can they separate the sentence into groups of words that run together? Model it first to give students a clear idea.
3. Choral reading: Read a short text aloud to your students, and then have them read it aloud in unison. Matching the flow and pace of the group develops fluency.
4. Paired reading: Having children read aloud to one another encourages them to develop the expression and flow needed for fluency. Pair students of different ability levels for more powerful learning, but make sure the disparity is not too great.
5. Use audiobooks: Audiobooks paired with text allow students to link the words on the page with fluent and expressive reading. You can find engaging audio titles in the Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress Library, which contains over 2500 student eBooks.
COMPREHENSION
Comprehension is a student’s understanding of the information being imparted by a text, such as:
Who, what, when, where, ideas and meanings.
Why is comprehension an important component of reading?
Comprehension allows students to draw meaning and information from a text, and it also transforms reading from a purely functional activity into one that inspires thought and feeling.
WAYS TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR READING
1. Drawing: Ask your students to draw or paint a scene from a written text. This encourages them to imagine the concrete details being represented by the words themselves.
2. Questioning: Follow up reading time with open-ended questions that prompt students to think deeply about the text. For example, if reading a narrative, you might ask students how a character changed over the course of a story, or how a central problem influenced the action.
3. Encourage reflection: Ask students for their opinions on the text in order to encourage deeper reflective thinking about the ideas. For example, you might ask what emotions were evoked by a setting, or whether a character’s actions were right or wrong.
4. Make connections: Encourage students to make connections to their own lives and other texts that they have read. Weave this into your discussion or questioning after reading in order to link comprehension with real-world concepts your students can relate to.
5. Make reading a habit: The more students read the more confident and astute their comprehension skills will become.
COMPONENTS OF WRITING
1. CENTRAL IDEA
This element of good writing involves focusing on a clear, manageable idea, argument, or thesis around which to organize your material. It includes selecting subordinate ideas that support and reinforce your central idea.
Checkpoints:
· Purpose or central idea is sufficiently limited for meaningful discussion.
· Central idea is clearly stated, normally in the opening.
· All subordinate ideas relate clearly to the central idea.
2. ORGANIZATION
This element of writing has to do with coherent arrangement of material. It involves keeping the reader oriented to the central and subordinate ideas. Good organization is logical and sequential. It guides the reader between divisions of the material.
Checkpoints:
· Introduction orients the reader to the central idea and the line of reasoning.
· Material is arranged in a logical and coherent sequence; subordinate ideas are effectively identified.
· Transitions are clear and helpful.
· Conclusion or closing summarizes the argument, emphasizes the central idea, and leaves the reader with a sense of completion.
3. SUPPORTING MATERIAL
Explanations, examples, statistics, and quotations make the ideas and information presented meaningful and memorable for the reader. In exposition, the role of supporting material is to clarify; in argument, to persuade.
Checkpoints:
G Examples are relevant, specific, detailed, sufficient, and persuasive.
G Quotations support the argument.
4. EXPRESSION, WORD CHOICE, AND POINT OF VIEW
Language is clear, specific, accurate, and appropriate to the audience, purpose, and material.
Variety in sentence structure and length creates emphasis.
Checkpoints:
· Word choice is clear, specific, accurate, unassuming, and free of clichés and misused jargon.
· Sentences are free of wordiness and ambiguity.
5. SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND PUNCTUATION
This element of good writing counts only when it’s wrong. Fair or not, your reader will notice your spelling, grammar, or punctuation only when you make a mistake.
Checkpoints:
· Spelling, including technical terms and proper names, is correct.
· Correct words are used to convey the intended meaning.
· Generally accepted rules of grammar and syntax are followed, including
Pronoun/noun agreement, subject/verb agreement, appropriate verb tense, pronoun case, possessive forms, parallel construction, etc.
· Punctuation, particularly comma placement, reflects standard usage.
· Copy is free of mechanical errors and mistakes in proofreading
UNIT FOUR
STAGES OF READING AND WRITING DEVELOPMENT
STAGES OF READING
Stage 0: Pre-Reading
Stage 0, otherwise known as pre-reading or “pseudo-reading,” includes children ages 6 months to 6 years. In this stage, children often “pretend” to read, meaning they can recognize signs and stories previously read to them on a page and can therefore point them out and exhibit an understanding of the content. Children master this stage by being read to by a parent, guardian, teacher or other adult and through interactive, dialogic reading.
Stage 1: Initial Reading and Decoding
Stage 1 typically includes children ages six and seven, or children in 1st grade and the beginning of 2nd grade. In this stage, children develop the skills necessary to interpret the relationships between written words and spoken words. Children in this stage begin to learn letter-sound relationships (phonics), and to read simple text containing phonetically regular words. Generally this happens through direct instruction. At the end of this stage, children can usually read up to 600 different words.
Stage 2: Confirmation and Fluency
Children in Stage 2 are generally 7-8 years old and can read easy, familiar texts by using basic decoding, sight vocabulary and context clues. Children can develop and acquire new reading skills through advanced reading instruction and by listening to others read at higher levels.
Stage 3: Reading for Learning the New
Stage 3, which is made up of Phase A and Phase B, describe children ages 9-13. Phase A includes intermediate children in grades 4-6 and Phase B includes middle school/high school children in grades 7-9. In this stage, children read in order to gain ideas and knowledge, and to experience new feelings and attitudes as a result of what they read. Children in Phase A are typically still more efficient at learning through listening comprehension over reading comprehension, but by Phase B are equally proficient in both.
Stage 4: Multiple Viewpoints
Stage 4 includes individuals ages 15-17 who demonstrate reading skills in a broad range of subjects with a variety of different viewpoints.
Stage 5: Construction and Reconstruction
Stage 5, includes adults, age 18 and up, who read for their own purpose, gain knowledge and integrate new knowledge with prior experiences. They can read quickly and efficiently.
WHAT ARE WRITING SKILLS?
Writing skills include all the knowledge and abilities related to expressing ideas through the written word. The ability to clearly communicate ideas through writing is in high demand for employers in any industry. Well-written documents, emails and posts can persuade customers to purchase a product or convince investors to partner with a company.
Technical knowledge about writing conventions, style guides and formatting for different situations are also an important part of writing skills. Knowing what situations call for different styles of writing and being able to set an appropriate tone over text are both important writing skills that any person can use at work.
WHY ARE WRITING SKILLS IMPORTANT?
Writing skills are important because they allow people to get a point across without being physically present. Many employers get their first impression of future employees through the writing skills they display in their resume, cover letter and email communications.
Writing skills influence the quality of your work and how others perceive your professionalism, which can have a direct effect on your ability to get an interview and excel at work. Writing skills are transferrable, so developing a strong understanding of writing processes allows you to maintain clear communication and accurate documentation in any workplace.
EXAMPLES OF WRITING SKILLS
Professional writing is a complex process that involves different skills for planning, drafting and editing. Great writers must be able to quickly learn new concepts and translate ideas into original content.
Some areas of writing are highly specialized and require extensive knowledge in a single area, like scientific or legal writing. Others use broad soft skills to relate to an audience through creative writing or blogging. Some of the best writing skills include:
· Research
· Outlining
· Editing
· Reading comprehension
· Time management
Research
Research allows writers to find accurate information and best practices related to writing in a particular style or about a particular piece of content. Writers often have to write about subjects that they are not familiar with, so finding quality sources quickly is an important skill.
Outlining
Outlining is creating a plan for the structure and flow of a piece of writing. Good writing needs to have a logical structure in order to make sense to a reader. Your ability to organize sentences and paragraphs in the most compelling way influences how others perceive you and understand the point of your writing.
Editing
After writing the first draft of your piece, you need to be able to edit. From checking an email for spelling errors to re-writing a grant proposal, all writing should undergo some level of editing. Editing involves reading your own writing from another perspective and considering how well it suits your goals. When editing your own work, think about your word choice and tone, removing any irrelevant phrases.
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension skills help you respond to prompts, reply to messages and learn about new content. People use reading comprehension skills to assess the tone and main idea of a piece of writing. Having good reading comprehension also helps you edit your own work by determining if your point comes across from the perspective of a reader.
Time management
Time management is key when writing anything beyond a simple message or email. You should be able to spend your time efficiently when writing and accurately plan for how long it will take to write and edit your piece. Many writers over-edit their work and end up wasting time without improving the quality of their writing, so a good writer must recognize when to step away from a piece of writing.
IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS
While some people are naturally talented at writing, anyone can develop their writing skills over time. Once you understand the different types of writing skills, you can focus on how you use them in the workplace and improve over time. Identify your strongest writing skills and develop strategies to improve those skills to a professional level:
· Take grammar quizzes.
· Know your audience.
· Read your writing aloud.
· Vary your sentence structure.
· Practice daily.
· Read regularly.
Take grammar quizzes.=
Even the most experienced writers have trouble with grammar, and taking grammar quizzes or playing games online is a great way to hone your knowledge of spelling and sentence structure.
Know your audience
Practice writing one prompt for different audiences and notice how your tone shifts. Before you begin writing, consider what your audience values and how you can use your word choice and sentence structure to appeal to them.
Read your writing aloud
Read your writing aloud during the editing process to catch any errors that you might not have noticed otherwise. Reading aloud also helps you hear any awkward phrasing and get an idea of your overall tone and effectiveness.
Vary your sentence structure
As you write, try to vary your sentence structure to give your writing rhythm. A mix of short and long sentences with different literary devices can keep the reader interested and create a natural flow that guides them through your writing.
Practice daily
Even if you don't have to write every day at work, practice writing in some way every day. Focus your time on the types of writing where you most need to improve. Give yourself writing prompts and challenge yourself to try out different skills.
Read regularly
One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read a variety of writing styles daily. The more exposure you have to quality writing, the better you will be able to produce great writing yourself. Reading helps you understand how to apply the writing skills you have learned.
UNIT FIVE
APPROACHES FOR TEACHING JHS READING AND WRITING
APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING
A. PHONETIC APPROACH
Many of us were taught to read and write by starting with the sounds of letters. We would repeat consonants or vowel sounds until the letter and the sound were well associated in our minds. Educators call this a phonetic approach. In this approach memorizing the shape of the letter and its sound is the first activity that must take place in the learner's brain. This approach has been around for so many years, that many people are convinced that it is the only way that reading can be taught.
In many literacy primers, learners are introduced to the symbols for each unit of sound in their language. Some primers begin with individual letters (a, b, c, d) while others introduce consonants and vowels together to form syllables (ba, be, bi, bo, bu). These units of sound are called "phonemes" taken from the Greek word "phone" which means sound. Hence the name "phonetic" refers to the sound of written symbols. The phonetic approach focuses on teaching learners to recognize the written symbol for each phoneme or sound. In some literacy primers, the learners study each phoneme one by one before they learn to read and write words. For example, in Nepali language, school children are expected to learn 36 consonants and 12 vowels so that they can read a matrix chart that shows all the ways consonants can be joined with vowels. The following chart shows just a few of the phonetic symbols that must be mastered in Nepal before beginning to read and write words. The matrix helps the learner recognize the different syllables that can be formed to represent sounds such as ka, kaa, ki, ki i, or gyan, gyaan, gyin, gyiin.
Once learners have mastered the syllables, they are taught to form words, and then to form sentences with words. Finally the learners read a passage from the primer that uses the words they have learned to identify. Phonetic primers usually start with easy words and symbols and then slowly introduce more difficult words and sentences. Often rather useless sentences are created to help the learners practice the symbol and sound connections. (For example, "The cat sat on the mat.") When learners assume that they must work through so many confusing symbols and sounds, you can see why the Nepali \-vomen who wanted a sewing class were discouraged by the idea that they must learn to read and write first. In the phonetic approach, learning starts with the smallest parts of language and adds the pieces together until the learner understands how to decode every symbol to read or write a message. This method often doesn't work very well when people are not familiar with books and printed words. The symbols are too abstract and have no meaning in the lives of people who have not had opportunities to see others using the symbols to read and write. Notice on the following chart that the phonetic approach focuses on mastering separate parts of language before introducing organized language that contains meaningful information. Some educators refer to the phonetic approach as moving from the part to the whole.
Many people who come from non- literate homes or villages do not easily make the connection between ritually memorizing symbols and using those symbols to communicate with others through writing. Children from literate homes often do better in schoo1 because they know from the very beginning how they will eventually use these symbols. They have seen their family members reading and writing these symbols on regular basis. Adults who live and work in an oral culture may only see written words in their children's school books or in government documents. The written words represent another world that is not necessarily connected to the world they live and work in every day.
Like the women in the sewing class, people want to gain information, knowledge and directions, but it is not always clear what role reading and writing will play. The phonetic approach used by itself delays the learning process for some people by starting with pieces of language rather than a whole meaningful message. For adults who want to direct their learning toward a certain goal this approach can feel like a tunnel with no light at the end. Thus, when they are offered literacy classes, they simply refuse to join, saying, "Half of my life is already gone, why do I need to learn to read and write? I have sent my children to school, they will learn to read and write."
For many of the adults who drop out of literacy programs, the phonetic approach does not offer the flexibility to connect their literacy lessons to a personal goal or familiar information. However, it is still necessary for learners to recognize the symbols and sounds of written language. Phonetics activities need to be integrated with other literacy approaches. As an isolated approach, phonetics is not very effective. The strategies in Section II introduce many ways to connect literacy activities to the lives and interests of the learners. Strategy# 11 includes ways to learn letters, words and spelling through meaningful activities rather than the repetitive drills of symbols and sounds usually associated with the phonetic approach.
B. KEY WORD APPROACH
As educators became dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of the phonetic approach, they began to analyze the learning process. Paulo Frere, the author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, developed a clear analysis of the problem. He believed that people needed to learn to read the world as well as the word. This meant that they should discuss and analyze the world of their own lives and learn to read and write words that are full of meaning from their own experience. He taught that adult learners are not empty vessels waiting for the teacher to fill them with knowledge from books. They have their own knowledge and understanding which can be brought to the literacy class. His goal was to teach literacy in a way that people could use reading and writing as tools to analyze and change their world.
The key word approach, which is based on these concepts, stems with issues or problems from people’s daily lives and organizes literacy lessons based on learning to read and write key words and sentences associated with these issues. Many programs throughout the world have adapted these ideas and are using a key word or key sentence approach in adult literacy classes.
In the key word approach, problems or ideas are introduced to the learners through showing a picture, telling a story, or dramatizing an event. Presenting important issues to the class in this way generates many responses such as interest, anger, debate, hope, ideas, humor, etc. If a picture is used, the learners begin by looking at the picture and talking about how it is related to their lives and how it impacts what they want to do in the future. Stories, dramas and other things can also be used to start the discussion. As this approach depends on activities and discussion, it is more effective when learning in a small group. The discussion connects learning to people's experience and provides motivation for using reading and writing skills to solve the problems of daily life.
The key word approach builds on the belief that discussion reinforces skills of listening and speaking which help learners prepare mentally for reading and writing. Discussing the issue orally builds learners' confidence in their own knowledge and experience. When they approach the task of reading, they do not come with an empty mind waiting for the printed page to teach them what to think. They have demonstrated that they have important knowledge from life experience that brings meaning to the symbols on the page. Once they are mentally prepared to read, the key word is introduced. They learn to read the word with help from the facilitator.
Then the keyword is broken into syllables and the learners create new words by mixing and matching the syllables. Some programs encourage the learners to identify their own key words or sentences which the facilitator writes down for them to study. The facilitator then develops reading and writing activities together with the learners. This approach will be discussed in more detail in Section II.
Other programs use a primer with pre-planned pictures and keywords followed by exercises and readings that have been researched and developed by experts. Look at the exan1 pl e in the appendix (pp. 6 3-64) from the facilitator guidebook for Nepal's national literacy program to see how various activities are used to teach syllables, words, and sentences. In this example, the keyword ispaani (water). It will be broken into two syllables, paa and ni. Learners repeat these two syllables until they recognize them. Next the learners are introduced to a discovery chart where they learn more words by combining the new syllables with ones they have learned in previous lessons. For example, the syllables used in the sample lesson are:
pa paa pi
na naa ni
ka kaa ki
ma maa mi
Learners combine the syllables from this chart to create new words, for example, kaa + na = kacma (eat). Gradually they learn to put words together into sentences and to read a story.
Although the key word approach breaks the words into syllables and teaches sound and symbol relationships, it is a big change from the phonetic approach. This approach stairs with a discussion of meaningful issues and introduces key words related to the lives of the learners.
After the phonetic reading and writing activities, the learners return to discussing the problems and talk about ways they can take action to improve their lives. The following chart lists the various elements of the key word approach and shows how it surrounds instruction on the parts of language with whole ideas and relevant information.
The KEY WORD APPROACH starts by discussing real-life problems before introducing words and syllables. It also connects literacy to taking action in real-life situations.
The main strength of the key word approach is that it uses topics that are meaningful to people's lives. The approach builds on people's existing knowledge through discussion of issues before introducing written words, phonetic information and literacy skills. The example from the Nepal facilitator guidebook shows how the learners are engaged in the various activities of listening, thinking, and discussing the very relevant topic of water.
However, in application, many educators have found that the key word approach runs into the same problems as the phonetic approach when the learners move from discussing the key words to working with the syllables. When inexperienced facilitators use the discovery chart, it reminds them of how they learned to read with the phonetic approach in school. Many of them slip back into the comfortable routine of drilling the phonemes ka, kha, ma, etc. for the major portion of their class. The facilitator guidebook for the Nepal primer encourages facilitators to use games and other activities rather than drills to learn the parts of language. But many still find it easier to drill.
In the Nepali primer, each lesson includes a list of words created from the letters and syllables learned in previous lessons. Unfortunately, many of these words are not familiar to learners who speak limited Nepali as their second language. When the new words have no meaning for them, the learners fall into the trap of mind! Easily repeating sound and symbols.
Thus the less desirable aspects of the phonetic approach gain power over the discussion of impo1iant issues and the learning of meaningful words. When this happens, the literacy class also finds it difficult to achieve the original goal of their literacy lessons-taking action on real life problems.
The central purpose of the discussion in the key word approach is to help people identify common problems and plan activities to solve the problems as a group. The keyword approach is most effective for helping a group to take action when the words are chosen from issues or problems that come from the community of the learners. However, when the key words and problems are pre-established in a book, the learners and facilitator are often more motivated to move on to the next lesson rather than to use their reading and writing skills to so I’ve a local problem.
Finally, the key word approach is most effective if it is developed locally rather than nationally. For example, literacy workers in the di verse regions of Nepal discovered that key words and pictures cannot be standardized for the whole country. Because a single primer was being produced for everyone, materials developers became concerned that the book must introduce each letter of the alphabet in a systematic order. As a result, key words were sometimes chosen for their syllables or letters rather than for their usefulness or relevance for learners' lives in various parts of the country. Furthermore, the country is so diverse that some of the key words became meaningless and the pictures were not even recognized in some regions. Literacy workers in many areas learned from experience that literacy materials must be based on local knowledge, interests and issues if they are to be successful.
Many literacy workers throughout the world as well as in Nepal are realizing that they cannot rely on a centrally produced primer to meet all of their needs. They are recognizing that literacy workers in each region or ethnic community must have the skills to identify local key words and to create materials in local languages or dialects. For this reason, the strategies provided in Section II focus on how to develop local materials.
C. WHOLELANGUAGEAPPROACH
The whole language strategies are introduced in this manual to help you connect the process of learning to read and write with local needs, interests and resources. Whole language is not a specific method. It is a philosophy of education that describes how we view language, literacy, teaching and learning. Its major assertion is that language is "whole." This means that if we take it apart to focus on letters, lists of words or grammar patterns, we lose the essence of what language is. Reading should not be taught as the isolated skill of connecting symbols and sounds. Learning to read must also be connected to life experience, meaningful activities and the learner's goals through discussion, speaking, listening, and writing.
Who le Language was chosen as the name of this reading approach because it is based on all aspects of language learning. Listening, speaking, thinking, remembering, reading, and writing take place together in this approach. All of these aspects are interrelated and interactive with each other. People develop language skills by exchanging infom1ation with others about their own experiences and ideas. Reading and writing are social activities just like listening and speaking. If we work on al 1 of these skills together, we can learn more effectively.
Whole language is based on the learners' knowledge of the language they already speak.
In the first lessons, the facilitator invites the learners to say something that can be written down.
The learners create the meaning and the structure of their first sentences orally. The facilitator then helps them understand how the written language is made by helping them see and read their own words in writing.
Many people have a very narrow definition of literacy. They see it as a personal skill that is used by schooled individuals. But literacy is a social skill as well as a personal skill; people participate in reading and writing activities together. At a minimum, there are two people involved ina literacy activity- a writer and a reader. For example, someone writes a letter and sends it to someone who reads it.
But often many people are involved in a simple reading and writing activity. For example, when a man dictates a letter to his son, the man composes the letter and his son acts as scribe.
Which one is creating the letter? The letter may be sent to a relative who reads it out loud to his whole family. Both literate and non-literate people participate in interpreting and discussing the meaning of the message. The ability to read and write extends our ability to think and talk and listen. Literacy provides one more way to communicate with others.
The skill for reading and writing does not begin with the letters of the alphabet. It begins with the desire to get information, send messages, record knowledge and develop ideas. The preparation for literacy begins when people begin to participate in activities that rely on written materials. They recognize the importance of saving a document. They ask someone to write a message for them. They listen to someone read a newspaper. In some families where there are many literacy activities, children may often learn to read without ever being directly taught. They pick it up by watching, listening and imitating others.
The skill for reading and writing does not begin with the letters of the alphabet.
It begins with the desire to get information, send messages, record knowledge and develop ideas.
The people who developed the whole language approach got their ideas from observing how children picked up literacy skills from their environment. Ken Goodman, one of the creators of the whole language approach, identified the conditions for learning to read and write that are listed on the next page.
WHOLE LANGUAGE SEES LITERACY AS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY
Literacy learning is easy when the following social conditions exist:
-- Reading materials are chosen by the learner.
-- The reason to read and write is real and natural.
-- The information to be read is whole, not just parts of words.
-- The process for reading is· sensible.
-- The information is interesting.
-- The information and process of reading are relevant.
-- The ideas and words belong to the learner.
-- Reading and writing are part of a real event.
-- Reading and writing have social utility.
-- The learner has a purpose for reading and writing.
-- Written information is accessible to the learner.
-- The facilitator gives the learners power to use their own ideas and skills to make a written text.
APPROACHES | STRENGTHS | MISSING |
Phonetic | -- sound-symbol connection | -- experience of the learners -- discussion -- reading and writing for meaningful communication -- action |
Key Word | -- thinking, speaking and listening as the foundation for reading -- discussion for group action and social change -- sound-symbol connection
| -- development of writing skills |
Whole Language | --reading and writing in a meaningful context -- based on learners' knowledge of oral language -- use of local materials -- development of writing skills -- based on learners' needs, interests, skills, and progress | -- discussion for group action |
APPROACHES TO WRITING/ WRITING PROCESS
A PRODUCT APPROACH
This is a traditional approach, in which students are encouraged to mimic a model text, which is usually presented and analyzed at an early stage. A model for such an approach is outlined below:
Stage 1
Model texts are read, and then features of the genre are highlighted. For example, if studying a formal letter, students' attention may be drawn to the importance of paragraphing and the language used to make formal requests. If studying a story, the focus may be on the techniques used to make the story interesting, and students focus on where and how the writer employs these techniques.
Stage 2
This consists of controlled practice of the highlighted features, usually in isolation. So if students are studying a formal letter, they may be asked to practise the language used to make formal requests, practising the 'I would be grateful if you would…' structure.
Stage 3
Organisation of ideas. This stage is very important. Those who favour this approach believe that the organisation of ideas is more important than the ideas themselves and as important as the control of language.
Stage 4
The end result of the learning process. Students choose from a choice of comparable writing tasks. Individually, they use the skills, structures and vocabulary they have been taught to produce the product; to show what they can do as fluent and competent users of the language.
A PROCESS APPROACH
Process approaches to writing tend to focus more on the varied classroom activities which promote the development of language use: brainstorming, group discussion, re-writing. Such an approach can have any number of stages, though a typical sequence of activities could proceed as follows;
Stage 1
Generating ideas by brainstorming and discussion. Students could be discussing qualities needed to do a certain job, or giving reasons as to why people take drugs or gamble. The teacher remains in the background during this phase, only providing language support if required, so as not inhibiting students in the production of ideas.
Stage 2
Students extend ideas into note form, and judge quality and usefulness of ideas.
Stage 3
Students organise ideas into a mind map, spidergram, or linear form. This stage helps to make the (hierarchical) relationship of ideas more immediately obvious, which helps students with the structure of their texts.
Stage 4
Students write the first draft. This is done in class and frequently in pairs or groups.
Stage 5
Drafts are exchanged, so that students become the readers of each other's work. By responding as readers, students develop an awareness of the fact that a writer is producing something to be read by someone else, and thus can improve their own drafts.
Stage 6
Drafts are returned and improvements are made based upon peer feedback.
Stage 7
A final draft is written.
Stage 8
Students once again exchange and read each other's work and perhaps even write a response or reply.
A SUMMARY OF THE DIFFERENCES
Process-driven approaches show some similarities with task-based learning, in that students are given considerable freedom within the task. They are not curbed by pre-emptive teaching of lexical or grammatical items. However, process approaches do not repudiate all interest in the product, (i.e. the final draft). The aim is to achieve the best product possible. What differentiates a process-focused approach from a product-centered one is that the outcome of the writing, the product, is not preconceived.
Process writing | Product writing |
· Text as a resource for comparison · Ideas as starting point · More than one draft · More global, focus on purpose, theme, text type, i.e., reader is emphasized · Collaborative · Emphasis on creative process | · Imitate model text · Organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves · One draft · Features highlighted including controlled practice of those features · Individual · Emphasis on end product |
UNIT SIX
READING AND WRITING PROBLEMS OF JHS LEARNERS
JHS LEARNERS READING AND WRITING PROBLEMS
LACK OF VOCABULARY
Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process, and contributes greatly to a reader's comprehension. A reader cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words mean. Students learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. Other words are learned through carefully designed instruction.
HOW TO HELP
With the help of parents and teachers, kids can overcome vocabulary limitations that affect their reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.
What kids can do to help themselves
· Find books to read on your own. The more you read, the more new words you'll see, and the more you'll learn about the words.
· Look ahead in textbooks to learn new vocabulary and concepts before your teacher goes over the section in class.
· Keep a list of key vocabulary and transition words.
· Practice telling stories using the words first, then, and finally.
What parents can do to help at home
· Engage your child in conversations every day. If possible, include new and interesting words in your conversation.
· Read to your child each day. When the book contains a new or interesting word, pause and define the word for your child. After you're done reading, engage your child in a conversation about the book.
· Help build word knowledge by classifying and grouping objects or pictures while naming them.
· Help build your child's understanding of language by playing verbal games and telling jokes and stories.
· Encourage your child to read on his own. The more children read, the more words they encounter and learn.
What teachers can do to help at school
· Help build language skills in class by playing oral and written word exercises and games.
· Teach students about the important, useful, and difficult vocabulary words before students read the text. This will help them remember the words and improve comprehension.
· Offer students many opportunities to encounter target vocabulary words beyond the context in which they are taught.
· Have students use taught vocabulary words often and in various ways both orally and in writing so they are better able to remember the words and their meanings.
· Teach vocabulary via explicit instruction and also through independent readings.
· Help students learn to use context clues to determine the meanings of words. Teach them that some context clues are more helpful than others and provide examples of helpful and less helpful clues.
· Read to your class each day. When the book contains a new or interesting word, pause and define the word for your students. After you're done reading, engage your students in a conversation about the book.
· Engage your students in conversations every day. If possible, include new and interesting words in your conversation.
· Explicitly teach the meanings of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
· Draw students' attention to common roots in a variety of words (for example, the similar roots and meanings of the words vision, visual, visible, invisible) and lead a discussion of the meanings of the words and how they tend to be used.
LACK OF FLUENCY
Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.
Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.
How to help
With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.
What kids can do to help themselves
· Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it.
· Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs.
· Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.
What parents can do to help at home
· Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading.
· Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills.
· If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:
o Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours
o Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times
o Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases
· Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.
· Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.
· Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.
What teachers can do to help at school
· Assess the student to make sure that word decoding or word recognition is not the source of the difficulty (if decoding is the source of the problem, decoding will need to be addressed in addition to reading speed and phrasing).
· Give the student independent level texts that he or she can practice again and again. Time the student and calculate words-correct-per-minute regularly. The student can chart his or her own improvement.
· Ask the student to match his or her voice to yours when reading aloud or to a tape recorded reading.
· Read a short passage and then have the student immediately read it back to you.
· Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion, such as sadness or excitement, to emphasize expression and intonation.
· Incorporate timed repeated readings into your instructional repertoire.
· Plan lessons that explicitly teach students how to pay attention to clues in the text (for example, punctuation marks) that provide information about how that text should be read.
Reading comprehension disorder is a reading disability in which an individual has trouble understanding the meaning of words and passages of writing. Sometimes, a reading comprehension disorder is diagnosed by specialists as specific reading comprehension deficit (S-RCD).
Some students with reading comprehension disorder have trouble learning to read and pronounce words, but grasping meaning from text is their main challenge.1 However, many students with this learning disability are fluent readers who just have trouble understanding what they are reading. If your child is able to read a passage out loud but can't tell you much about it afterward, they might have specific reading comprehension deficit.
Strategies To Help A Child With Reading Comprehension Disorder Include:
· Pre-reading tasks and exercises
· One-on-one reading instruction
· Graphic organizing of written passages
· Oral language training: Children who received such training, which includes lessons in vocabulary, figurative language, and listening skills, had an overall improvement in their ability to comprehend written language
LACK OF BASIC GRAMMAR
Understanding the proper use of grammar not only helps your child read and understand written and oral material, it also helps them to communicate more clearly. As your child moves into higher grades, having the tools of proper grammar and punctuation becomes even more important. They will be required to communicate effectively on a variety of topics. For instance, if they are asked to write a book report, they will need to be able to communicate their thoughts on the subject, as well as, their perception of author’s intended meaning. Without the solid foundation, this will be challenging for them.
How to Help
The ability to communicate clearly is essential for success. So, what can you do if you feel that your child is falling behind? First, you should always model good grammar in your child’s daily life. Encourage them to correct mistakes that they make so that they become more comfortable with saying what they mean. For instance, instead of ‘me want that’, they should use ‘I want that’. Reading together is another way to build language strength. Lastly, consider the benefits of an after-school enrichment program, such as Math Genie, to further your child’s language skills. Math Genie gives your child the opportunity to learn in a fun environment while receiving the personal attention that they need. At Math Genie, they will be able to build that solid foundation in the language arts and confidence in their communication skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.
LACK OF CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AND ORGANIZATION
UNIT SEVEN
ASSESSING READING AND WRITING IN THE JHS
TYPES OF READING ASSESSMENT TOOLS AND THEIR USES
FLUENCY IN READING
While the National Reading Panel's definition of fluency as the ability to read text with accuracy, appropriate rate, and good expression (NICHD, 2000) is widely accepted among fluency researchers, these experts continue to debate the more subtle aspects of fluency (Stecker, Roser, and Martinez, 1998; Wolf and Katzir-Cohen, 2001). However it is defined, this much is certain: Fluency is necessary, but not sufficient*, for understanding the meaning of text. When children read too slowly or haltingly, the text devolves into a broken string of words and/or phrases; it's a struggle just to remember what's been read, much less extract its meaning. So it's important that teachers determine if their students' fluency is at a level appropriate for their grade. If not, how should it be developed? If a student is appropriately fluent for her grade level, how does a teacher help maintain that student's fluency? And, how does a teacher make these determinations? This process begins with assessments of the component pieces of fluency: prosody, accuracy, and rate.
The exact role of expression and phrasing — or prosody — in fluency and comprehension has not yet been determined, but it certainly is one element that signifies whether or not a student is truly a fluent reader. To measure the quality of a student's reading prosody, some educators rely on the four-level scale first developed for the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading (Daane, Campbell, Grigg, Goodman, and Oranje, 2005). This scale focuses on the level of skill a student demonstrates in phrasing and expression while reading aloud (see below). After listening to an individual student read aloud, the educator rates the student's reading according to the level that best describes the student's overall performance.
National Assessment of Educational Progress Fluency Scale | ||
Fluent | Level 4 | Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrase groups. Although some regressions, repetitions, and deviations from text may be present, these do not appear to detract from the overall structure of the story. Preservation of the author's syntax is consistent. some or most of the story is read with expressive interpretation. |
Fluent | Level 3 | Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some small groupings may be present. however, the majority of phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present. |
Non-Fluent | Level 2 | Reads primarily in two-word phrases with some three- or four-word groupings. Some word-by-word reading may be present. Word groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to larger context of sentence or passage |
Non-Fluent | Level 1 | Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may occur but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax. |
A checklist developed by Hudson, Lane and Pullen (2005, p. 707) provides a more detailed assessment of a student's prosody:
1. Student placed vocal emphasis on appropriate words.
2. Student's voice tone rose and fell at appropriate points in the text.
3. Student's inflection reflected the punctuation in the text (e.g., voice tone rose near the end of a question).
4. In narrative text with dialogue, student used appropriate vocal tone to represent characters' mental states, such as excitement, sadness, fear, or confidence.
5. Student used punctuation to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.
6. Student used prepositional phrases to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.
7. Student used subject-verb divisions to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.
8. Student used conjunctions to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.
Although most researchers consider prosody important, the subjectivity of judging students' prosody makes it a difficult component of fluency to study. Many researchers have focused on the more easily quantifiable components of fluency (rate and accuracy) and, therefore, some basic questions about prosody — like what should be expected in second grade versus sixth grade — have not been answered. Nevertheless, students' prosody is an extra piece of information for making instructional decisions. When students' speed and accuracy are at appropriate levels, reading with proper phrasing, expression, and intonation should be the next goal.
To measure students' oral reading speed and accuracy, researchers have developed a simple and very brief procedure that uses regular classroom texts to determine the number of words that students can read correctly in one minute. To obtain a words-correct-per-minute (WCPM) score, students are assessed individually as they read aloud for one minute from an unpracticed passage of text.
To calculate the WCPM score, the examiner subtracts the total number of errors from the total number of words read in one minute. An error includes any word that is omitted, mispronounced, or substituted for another word. Words transposed in a phrase count as two errors (e.g., reading "laughed and played" instead of "played and laughed"). Each time a word is read incorrectly it is counted as an error. Words read correctly that are repeated more than once, errors self-corrected by the student, words inserted by the student that do not appear in the text, and words mispronounced due to dialect or speech impairments are not counted as errors. They do, however, impact the final score since they slow the student down and, therefore, reduce the number of words that are read correctly in one minute (Shinn, 1989).
If the passage is randomly selected from a text or trade book, an average score should be taken from readings of two or three different passages to account for any text-based differences. If standardized passages are used (in which the text has been carefully controlled for difficulty), a score from a single passage may be sufficient (Hintze and Christ, 2004). Standardized passages can be found in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-DIBELS (Good and Kaminski, 2002), the Reading Fluency Benchmark (Read Naturally, 2002), or Edformation's AIMSWeb materials.
To determine if the student's score is on target, the examiner compares it to the oral reading fluency norms (see Screening, Diagnosing, and Progress Monitoring: The Details). My colleague Gerald Tindal and I (2006) developed these national norms for grades one to eight by analyzing data that were collected using the procedures just described with over 200,000 students from 23 states. It's critical to understand that a WCPM score can be an alarm bell, a canary in a coal mine. If the WCPM is very low, the student is not sufficiently fluent and an intervention is merited. However, a low WCPM score may be the result of weak fluency skills or other reading weaknesses, for example, in decoding, vocabulary, sight words, etc.— so administering some diagnostic assessments may be necessary to determine exactly what type of intervention a student needs.
EARLY READING DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
Diagnosing a child’s reading ability is essential to providing effective instruction. By accurately determining a child’s reading strengths and weaknesses, a classroom teacher can develop an instruction strategy that best serves the child’s needs.
ERDA provides a comprehensive diagnostic tool that measures the five research-based building blocks of reading at kindergarten through third grade.
ERDA diagnoses understanding of phonemic and phonological awareness through a series of subtests that assess the child’s ability to hear sound units in spoken language: phonemes, rhymes (kindergarten only), rime, and syllables. A child’s understanding of phonemes occurs when the child first identifies the missing phonemes in a series of given words and then omits given phonemes from another series of words. The understanding of rimes is assessed by a child being asked to say a word with a targeted sound (rime) omitted—say “ball” without /all/. A child’s proficiency with syllables is assessed by instructing the child to say a word with a targeted syllable omitted—say “playful” without /ful/.
Letter recognition and pseudo word decoding are subtests that assess understanding and the use of the alphabetic principle. In kindergarten and grade one, ERDA assesses letter recognition by showing children a letter and then asking them to point to the letter or say the letter name. Syllable assessment is administered for kindergarten through grade three and uses a format similar to the one used in diagnosing phonemic awareness. Pseudo word decoding is administered in grades one through three. The child is provided with a list of pseudo words, which the child is asked to pronounce as quickly and as accurately as possible.
Word reading and passage fluency subtests at all grades, and RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming)-letters, RAN-words, and RAN-digits at grades two and three, assess automaticity and fluent reading. Word reading is assessed by presenting the child with a list of words that are read aloud. Passage fluency is assessed by listening to the student read aloud a series of brief, grade-appropriate narrative and informational passages. The passages are in ascending order of difficulty and scored for time and accuracy. Scores are also converted to one of the following reading levels: independent, instructional, or frustration. The RAN subtest predicts a student’s response to reading instruction.
Seven different subtests are used to assess vocabulary. For example, receptive vocabulary is assessed by showing a student a set of pictures, saying a word, and asking the student to point to the picture that represents the word. Other indicators of the student’s vocabulary are also provided by an assessment of synonyms, word opposites, word definitions, and multiple meanings of words.
ERDA employs three types of reading comprehension to accurately diagnose a student’s comprehension skills: word items, sentence items with target words in context, and passage items. Word items at the kindergarten and first-grade level assess comprehension by having the student read one or two words and then point to a picture that correctly reflects what the word or words are describing. Sentence items with target words in context require the student to read aloud a sentence composed of high-frequency words and, in some instances, respond to a comprehension question. ERDA assesses reading comprehension by having the student read aloud functional, narrative, and informational passages and then answer different types of comprehension questions about the passage. ERDA also assesses listening comprehension. Table 1 summarizes the assessments used at each grade level for each component of reading measured by ERDA.
Reading Component | Grade K | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 |
Concept of Print | Observation Checklist | Observation Checklist |
|
|
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Phonemes Rhyming Syllables | Phonemes Rimes Syllables | Phonemes Rimes Syllables | Phonemes Rimes Syllables |
Phonics | Letter Recognition | Letter Recognition Pseudo word Decoding | Pseudo word Decoding | Pseudo word Decoding |
Fluency | Passage Fluency Target Words in Context | Passage Fluency Target Words in Context Word Reading | Passage Fluency Narrative Informational Target Words in Context Word Reading RAN-Digits, Letters, Words, and Words and Digits | Passage Fluency Narrative Informational Target Words in Context Word Reading RAN-Digits, Letters, Words, and Words and Digits |
Vocabulary | Receptive/ Expressive | Receptive/ Expressive Word Opposites | Receptive/ Expressive Word Opposites Synonyms Word Definitions | Receptive/ Expressive Multiple Meanings Synonyms Word Definitions |
Comprehension | Story Retelling Reading Comprehension | Listening Comprehension Reading Comprehension | Listening Comprehension Reading Comprehension | Listening Comprehension Reading Comprehension |
SIMPLE WAYS TO ASSESS THE WRITING SKILLS OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
A teacher's first responsibility is to provide opportunities for writing and encouragement for students who attempt to write. A teacher's second responsibility is to promote students' success in writing. The teacher does this by carefully monitoring students' writing to assess strengths and weaknesses, teaching specific skills and strategies in response to student needs, and giving careful feedback that will reinforce newly learned skills and correct recurring problems. These responsibilities reveal, upon inspection, that assessment is clearly an integral part of good instruction. In their review of the existing research on effective instruction Christenson, Ysseldyke, and Thurlow (1989) found that, in addition to other factors, the following conditions were positively correlated to pupil achievement:
· The degree to which there is an appropriate instructional match between student characteristics and task characteristics (in other words, teachers must assess the student's prior knowledge and current level of skills in order to match them to a task that is relevant and appropriate to their aptitudes);
· The degree to which the teacher actively monitors students' understanding and progress; and
· The degree to which student performance is evaluated frequently and appropriately (congruent with what is taught).
Assessment, therefore, is an essential component of effective instruction. Airasian (1996) identified three types of classroom assessments. The first he called "sizing-up" assessments, usually done during the first week of school to provide the teacher with quick information about the students when beginning their instruction. The second type, instructional assessments, are used for the daily tasks of planning instruction, giving feedback, and monitoring student progress. The third type he referred to as official assessments, which are the periodic formal functions of assessment for grouping, grading, and reporting. In other words, teachers use assessment for identifying strengths and weaknesses, planning instruction to fit diagnosed needs, evaluating instructional activities, giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress. Simple curriculum-based methods for assessing written expression can meet all these purposes.
Process, product, and purpose
Curriculum-based assessment must start with an inspection of the curriculum. Many writing curricula are based on a conceptual model that takes into account process, product, and purpose. This conceptual model, therefore, forms the framework for the simple assessment techniques that follow.
Simple ways to assess the process
The diagnostic uses of assessment (determining the reasons for writing problems and the student's instructional needs) are best met by looking at the process of writing, i.e., the steps students go through and strategies they use as they work at writing. How much planning does the student do before he or she writes? Does she have a strategy for organizing ideas? What seem to be the obstacles to getting thoughts down on paper? How does the student attempt to spell words she does not know? Does the student reread what she has written? Does the student talk about or share her work with others as she is writing it? What kind of changes does the student make to her first draft?
In order to make instructionally relevant observations, the observer must work from a conceptual model of what the writing process should be. Educators have reached little consensus regarding the number of steps in the writing process. Writing experts have proposed as few as two (Elbow, 1981) and as many as nine (Frank, 1979). Englert, Raphael, Anderson, Anthony, and Stevens (1991) provided a model of a five-step writing process using the acronym POWER: Plan, Organize, Write, Edit, and Revise. Each step has its own substeps and strategies that become more sophisticated as the students become more mature as writers, accommodating their style to specific text structures and purposes of writing. Assessment of the writing process can be done through observation of students as they go through the steps of writing.
Having students assess their own writing process is also important for two reasons. First, self-assessment allows students an opportunity to observe and reflect on their own approach, drawing attention to important steps that may be overlooked. Second, self-assessment following a conceptual model like POWER is a means of internalizing an explicit strategy, allowing opportunities for the student to mentally rehearse the strategy steps. Figure 1 is a format for both self-observation and teacher observation of the writing process following the POWER strategy. Similar self-assessments or observation checklists could be constructed for other conceptual models of the writing process.
Figure 1. Using a five-step conceptual model for student and teacher observation of the writing process | |||
POWER Looking at How I Write | |||
My Comments | Teacher Comments | ||
Plan | |||
I chose a good topic | Yes | No | |
I read about my topic | Yes | No | |
I thought about what the readers will want to know | Yes | No | |
I wrote down all my ideas on a "think sheet" | Yes | No | |
Organize | |||
I put similar ideas together | Yes | No | |
I chose the best ideas for my composition | Yes | No | |
I numbered my ideas in logical order | Yes | No | |
Write | |||
I wrote down my ideas in sentences | Yes | No | |
When I needed help I… | | | |
Edit | |||
I read my first draft to myself | Yes | No | |
I marked the parts I like | Yes | No | |
I marked the parts I might want to change | Yes | No | |
I read my first draft to my partner | Yes | No | |
I listened to my partner's suggestions | Yes | No | |
Rewrite | |||
I made changes to my composition | Yes | No | |
I edited for correctness | Yes | No | |
I wrote the final draft in my best writing | Yes | No | |
Simple ways to assess the product
An effective writing process should lead to a successful product. A writing product fulfills its communicative intent if it is of appropriate length, is logical and coherent, and has a readable format. It is a pleasure to read if it is composed of well-constructed sentences and a rich variety of words that clearly convey the author's meaning. When various conceptual models of writing are compared side by side (Isaacson, 1984) five product variables seem to emerge: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Too often teachers focus their attention primarily on surface features of a student's composition related to the mechanical aspects of writing, or conventions. A balanced assessment should look at all five aspects of a student's writing. The following are simple methods for assessing each product variable. In some instances quantifiable measures are used; in others, qualitative assessments seem more appropriate.
Fluency
The first writing skill a teacher might assess with a beginning writer is fluency: being able to translate one's thoughts into written words. As concepts of print and fine motor skills develop, the student should become more proficient at writing down words and sentences into compositions of gradually increasing length. The developmental route of very young writers involves trying to understand what written language is about as they look at books, become aware of environmental print, and put pencil to paper (Clay, 1982). Then children try to relate their experiences in writing using invented spelling. As they begin to construct little stories they explore spelling patterns and develop new language patterns. Clay (1979, 1993) recommends a simple rating scale for emerging writing skills that focuses on language level (from only letters to sentences and paragraphs), message quality, and directional principles (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Rating a child's early attempts at writing (Clay, 1993) |
Language Level |
Record the highest level of linguistic organization used by the child: |
Message Quality |
Record the number for the best description on the child's sample: |
Directional Principles |
Record the number of the highest rating for which there is no error in the sample of the child's writing: |
A simple curriculum-based measure of fluency is total number of words written during a short writing assignment. When fluency is the focus, misspellings, poor word choice, and faulty punctuation are not considered. Attention is only directed to the student's facility in translating thoughts into words. A baseline of at least three writing samples should be collected and the total number of words counted for each. For the purpose of evaluation, this total can be compared with those of proficient writers of the same age or grade level. However, total words may be used best in monitoring the student's progress, comparing performance with his or her own previous fluency.
A resulting IEP objective might be written like this: After a group prewriting discussion with the teacher, Daniel will write original narrative compositions of [40] words or more. A rough guideline for setting the criterion can be established from research reported by Deno, Mirkin, and Wesson (1984) and Parker and Tindal (1989):
· If the total number of words is less than 20, aim for doubling it by the end of the school year.
· If the number of words is between 25 and 30, aim for a 50% increase.
· If the number of words is between 35 and 45, aim for a 25% increase.
· If the number of words is greater than 50, choose another objective.
Content
Content is the second factor to consider in the writing product. Content features include the composition's organization, cohesion, accuracy (in expository writing), and originality (in creative writing). General questions the classroom teacher can ask regarding a composition's organization include:
· Is there a good beginning sentence?
· Is there a clear ending?
· Is there a logical sequence of subtopics or events?
· Cohesion questions include:
o Does the writer stick to the topic?
o Is it clear what words like it, that, and they refer to?
o Does the writer use key words that cue the reader to the direction of the discourse (First… , Then… , Therefore… , On the other hand… )?
· Originality is assessed through questions like:
· Did the writer attempt humor?
· Did the writer present a unique point of view?
Analytical scales are the best way to lend some objectivity to evaluation of content. One can choose from a general rating scale, appropriate to almost any writing assignment, or one tailored to a specific genre or text structure. Spandel and Culham (1993) developed an analytical trait scoring guide for six aspects of writing, three of which address content: Ideas and content, organization, and voice. (Voice refers to the author's own unique personality, style, and honesty reflected in the writing.) Each of these traits is scored on a five-point scale. For example, organization is scored using the following guidelines:
· 5 The organization enhances and showcases the central idea or storyline. The order, structure or presentation of information is compelling and moves the reader through the text.
· 3 The organizational structure is strong enough to move the reader through the text without undue confusion
· 1 The writing lacks a clear sense of direction. Ideas, details or events seem strung together in a loose or random fashion-or else there is no identifiable internal structure. (Spandel & Culham, 1993)
To promote agreement between raters, each of the guidelines above is further defined by specific criteria (or rubrics). A rating of 3, for example, requires these attributes:
· The paper has a recognizable introduction and conclusion. The introduction may not create a strong sense of anticipation; the conclusion may not tie up all loose ends. Sequencing is usually logical, but may sometimes be so predictable that the structure takes attention away from the content.
· Pacing is fairly well controlled, though the writer sometimes spurts ahead too quickly or spends too much time on details that do not matter.
· Transitions often work well; at other times, connections between ideas are fuzzy.
· The organization sometimes supports the main point or storyline; at other times, the reader feels an urge to slip in a transition or move things around. (Spandel & Culham, 1993)
A composition that is somewhat better organized than described by the guidelines for 3 but does not quite fit the descriptors for 5 would receive a rating of 4. Similarly, a rating of 2 falls between the descriptors for 1 and 3.
Analytical scoring guidelines such as these are used in many state writing assessments. There are two limitations to scales such as these. First, teachers must spend many hours learning the rubrics and discussing student compositions in order to establish any degree of integrater reliability. Second, these scales may not be sensitive enough to measure growth in students with emerging literacy skills who are unable to achieve a rating above 1 or-at the most-2.
For many students, writing instruction begins with smaller units of discourse, such as a paragraph. Welch and Link (1992) recommended an informal paragraph assessment that focuses on each of a paragraph's three parts: topic sentence, supporting sentences, and clincher sentence (Figure 3). Each part can receive a point for its existence, its form (grammatical correctness), and its function (relevance to the topic). Both topic sentence and clincher sentence can earn only one point for each of the three criteria, but up to three supporting sentences can be scored for existence, form, and function. This scale could be used to evaluate almost any kind of paragraph.
Figure 3. Informal assessment of a paragraph composition | ||||
Saguaro Cactus The large cactus you see in pictures the desert is saguaro cactus. The Squaro cactus is very painfull if you toutch it. But it isn't as painful as being stabbed with a knife. It is against the law kill saguaros in the desert. I have seen som with about therty arms. | ||||
TOPIC SENTENCE: | ||||
Existence | 1 | | | (A topic sentence was written, but it was not grammatically correct.) |
Form | 0 | | | |
Function | 1 | | | |
SUPPORTING SENTENCES: | ||||
Existence | 1 | 1 | 1 | (Scored on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sentences.) (The 3rd sentence does not support the topic. The 4th is not grammatical.) |
Form | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
Function | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
CLINCHER SENTENCE: | ||||
Existence | 0 | | | No clincher sentence was written. |
Form | 0 | | | |
Function | 0 | | | |
TOTAL POINTS EARNED | = | 9 | | |
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE | = | 15 | | |
TOTAL POINTS EARNED TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE | X | 100 | = | 60% |
Writing instruction for students with special needs also may focus on specific text structures. An example of a structure-specific scale is one that Isaacson (1995) devised for evaluating factual paragraphs written by middle school students (Figure 4). Isaacson's scale reflects the conceptual definition of fact paragraphs taught to the students: (a) A fact paragraph has more than one sentence; (b) The first sentence tells the topic; (c) All other sentences are about the topic; (d) Sentences tell facts, not opinions; and (e) The most important information is given first. Judgments of factual accuracy and fact vs. opinion make the scale specific to factual paragraphs.
Figure 4. Analytical scale for factual paragraphs | |||
Content | |||
Does the first sentence tell the topic? | | 0 | 1 |
Are all the other sentences about the topic? | | 0 | 1 |
Do the sentences tell about facts, not opinions? | | 0 | 1 |
Are the facts accurate? | 0 | 1 | 2 |
0 = Some facts are clearly inconsistent with source material | | | |
| | | |
Is amount of information sufficient? | | 0 | 1 |
0 = Very little information given to reader or information is of trivial nature | | | |
Is information presented in logical order? | 0 | 1 | 2 |
0 = Random or stream-of-consciousness order | | | |
Is the most important information or main idea first? | | 0 | 1 |
TOTAL SCORE | ____/ 9 | ||
Harris and Graham (1992) provided another example of a structure-explicit measure for assessing the inclusion and quality of eight story elements in stories written by students with learning disabilities: introduction of the main character, description of the locale, the time in which the story takes place, a precipitating event (or starter event), the goal formulated by the character in response to the starter event, action(s) carried out in an attempt to achieve the goal, the ending result, and the final reaction of the main character to the outcome. Each story element receives a numerical score for its inclusion and quality of development. The validity of the scale was demonstrated by its correlation with Thematic Maturity scores on the Test of Written Language and holistic ratings of story quality (Graham & Harris, 1986).
A resulting IEP objective for content might read: Using a story map, John will plan, write, and revise a story which includes a description of the character, setting, problem or goal, two or more events, and conclusion. (A story map is a planning sheet that prompts students to think about and write down their ideas concerning the character, setting, and other components of a good story before they write.)
Conventions
In order to fulfill the communicative function of writing, the product must be readable. Writers are expected to follow the standard conventions of written English: correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar and legible handwriting. Consequently, even if the message is communicated, readers tend to be negatively predisposed to compositions that are not presentable in their form or appearance. Teachers traditionally have been more strongly influenced by length of paper, spelling, word usage, and appearance than by appropriateness of content or organization (Charney, 1984; Moran, 1982).
Counting correct word sequences is one quantitative method of measuring and monitoring students' use of conventions. Correct word sequences (CWS) are two adjacent, correctly spelled words that are grammatically acceptable within the context of the phrase (Videen, Deno, & Marston, 1982). Capitalization and punctuation also can be considered within the sequence. To calculate the proportion of CWS:
1. Place a caret (^) over every correct sequence between the two words that form the sequence.
2. Place a large dot between every incorrect sequence. Place dots before and after misspelled words.
Example: o my ^ dog o chasd o the ^ ball^.
3. The first sequence is not comprised of two words but marks how the sentence was begun. (Sentence beginning to first word my is marked as an incorrect sequence because the M is not capitalized.) The last sequence is the last word to period, question mark, or other appropriate ending punctuation.
4. To control for length of composition either (a) time the writing sample for 3 minutes (the student may continue writing after a mark is made indicating the last word written in the 3-minute period) and/or (b) divide the number of CWS by the total number of sequences (correct and incorrect), which gives the proportion of CWS.
Proportion of correct word sequences, however, does not in itself pinpoint specific concerns about the student's spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, or handwriting. The diagnostic function of assessment will only be met if the teacher also notes the student's strengths and weaknesses as in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Diagnostic analysis of conventions | ||
About Sell My Cow I go to the Ranch at 5:30 in morning. I Ride my Horse with My Dad. get my Cow in the Barn. I Leave My cow and Calf. My DaD gave Shot to Calf. We took My Calf to Downtown. My fReind ride my horse. My horse is Black. My freind have red horse. But I need my cow to Born in feB 1st 1992. I am sell my Cow to calf for town But I have fun in Ranch in town. But I Like my money Back to for sell my Calf. But I need money Back to me. My Dad Siad no money back now Wait to little to me. | ||
Convention | Strengths | Errors |
Spelling | Almost all words spelled correctly | Reversals in vowel combinations: ie/ei (friend), ai/ia (said) |
Capitalization | Begins all sentences but one with uppercase letters. | Irregular use of uppercase where not required and even in middle of words. Month ("feB") not capitalized. |
Punctuation | Correct ending punctuation in every sentence but one. Use of colon for time (5:30). | No comma in date (feB 1st 1992) or before the word but in compound sentence. |
Grammar | Simple sentences are grammatically correct. | Inconsistent use of past tense. Missing articles ("My DaD gave Shot to Calf.") Problems with gerunds ("am sell"/am selling). |
Handwriting | Legible. Good spacing and alignment. | |
Like the other assessments discussed in this article, these methods can be useful for instructional planning. A resulting IEP objective addressing conventions, for example, might read: Using a 4-step editing strategy, Kevin will reread his composition checking for correct capitals, punctuation, spelling, and overall appearance, writing a final draft with 2 or less mechanical errors.
Syntax
As discussed previously, a child's early attempts at writing move from writing single words to writing word groups and sentences (Clay, 1993). Beginning writers often produce sentences that follow a repeated subject-verb (S-V) or subject-verb-object (S-V-O) pattern. The composition in Figure 5 was written by a ten-year-old female deaf student. The beginning of the composition reveals this typical repetitious pattern to a certain degree in its first few sentences: "I go… I Ride my Horse… [I] get my Cow… I Leave My cow…" A more mature writer will vary the sentence pattern and combine short S-V and S-V-O sentences into longer, more complex sentences.
Powers and Wilgus (1983) examined three parameters of syntactic maturity: (a) variations in the use of sentence patterns, (b) first expansions (six basic sentence patterns formed by the addition of adverbial phrases, infinitives, and object complements, and the formation of simple compound sentences), and (c) transformations that result in relative and subordinate clauses. Adapting Power and Wilgus's analysis of patterns suggests a simple schema for evaluating the syntactic maturity of a student's writing:
· Fragment : A group of words that does not make a complete sentence
Examples: His old shirt. Nina and Fred too.
· Level 1 Repetitious use of a single pattern (simple sentences)
Example: I like my horse. I like my dog. I like my kitty. I like to feed my kitty.
· Level 2 Use of a variety of simple sentence patterns.
Examples: I have a new toy. (S-V-O) It is big. (S-Vbe -Adj) It came in the mail. (S-V-PP)
· Level 3 First expansions: (a) addition of an adverbial or gerund phrase, or (b) the making of a compound sentence by combining two simple sentences with the word and.
Examples: Our baby sitter sleeps all the time. To go faster, we push it. I ate the cookie and my brother ate the candy bar.
· Level 4 Complex sentences (transformations in which one sentence is embedded within another as a subordinate clause)
Examples: The man wants to live where there is no pollution. Since John was late, we had to start without him.
Seldom does a student write sentences at only one level of syntactic maturity. One determines a syntactic level by analyzing all the sentences in the sample and summarizing them according to the type most often used. Occasionally one might characterize a student's syntactic level as being a transitional Level 2/Level 3 or Level 3/Level 4.
A resulting IEP objective for syntax might read: Daniel will plan, write, and revise a descriptive paragraph using mature sentences, at least half containing embedded clauses or adverbial phrases.
Vocabulary
The words used in a student's composition can be evaluated according to the uniqueness or maturity of the words used in the composition. Both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to evaluate vocabulary. Quantitative methods include calculating the use of unrepeated words in relation to the total number of words, such as Morris and Crump's (1982) corrected type-token ratio. A simpler classroom-based method of looking at vocabulary is to simply make note of words used repetitiously (over-used words) as well as new and mature words the student uses.
Example: Over-Used Words: New Mature Words
· awesome
· inspiring
A resulting IEP objective for vocabulary might read: Diana will revise her expository compositions, substituting at least five over-used words (e.g., is) for more interesting action words.
Taking into account the purpose
Being skilt just knowing how to perform some andut also knowing when to perform it and adapt it to varied circumstances (Resnick & Klopfer, 1989, p. 4). Being a skilled writer requires knowing how to employ the writing process across a range of writing tasks and adapt the process to the specific purpose for writing.
Instruction often begins with story structures because they represent the genre most familiar to children. Children also use and depend upon narrative as their principal mode of thinking (Moffett, 1983). However, several educators (Hennings, 1982; Sinatra, 1991; Stotsky, 1984) have emphasised descriptive and expository text structures that relate more closely to real-life writing tasks.
Different purposes for writing call for different text structures. Writing a story calls for a narrative text structure that includes a character, setting, problem, etc. Writing about one's beliefs calls for a persuasive text structure that includes discussion of the problem, statement of belief, two or three reasons for the belief, facts and examples that support the reasons, etc.
Assessment of writing skills, therefore, should take into account a variety of purposes and text structures. Purposes and genres to consider include: personal narrative (my trip to the state fair), story narrative, descriptive, explanation of a process (how to give your dog a bath), factual report, letter, compare-contrast (compare the Allegheny Mountains with the Rocky Mountains), and persuasive.
Summary
Simple curriculum-based assessments can be used to assess the writing process and products of students with learning disabilities, as well as take into account purpose. The assessments recommended in this article also adequately fulfill the purposes of assessment as discussed at the beginning of the article: identifying strengths and weaknesses, planning instruction to fit diagnosed needs, evaluating instructional activities, giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress. A teacher might use these methods at the beginning of the year to do a quick sizing-up of student instructional needs. The process checklist in Figure 1 gives the teacher important diagnostic information about the strategies a student does or does not use when writing.
A quick assessment of product variables from the first two or three writing assignments also gives the teacher important diagnostic information about skill strengths and weaknesses. The teacher then should use the initial assessment to identify instructional targets. Some students, for example, may do pretty well at planning their composition, but do little in the way of effective editing. Other students may have creative ideas, but need considerable work on conventions. Some students may do pretty well with writing stories, but need to learn how to write factual paragraphs.
All classroom-based assessment should involve the student. Self-assessment helps students take ownership for their own writing and helps them internalize the strategies they are learning. The teacher's feedback should be given judiciously: generous in the encouragement of ideas and improved skills, but cautious in correction. Corrective feedback should only focus on those few skill targets that have been addressed in instruction.
Simple classroom-based methods also can be used to monitor student performance and report progress. Figure 6 is an assessment summary sheet that could be used to give a profile of a student's skills across a variety of writing purposes and genres. In an assessment portfolio the summary sheet would be accompanied by representative samples of a student's writing with both the student's and teacher's evaluations. After an initial assessment of student strengths and weakness across fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary, the teacher would not necessarily need to monitor all the product factors, just those that focus on the student's greatest challenges and priority instructional objectives.
Figure 6. Assessment summary sheet | |
Writing Portfolio Summary | |
Student: | Teacher: |
Date: | Genre: |
Fluency | |
Number of Words | |
Approximate Time | |
Content | |
Structure (Beginning, middle, end; story schema or other text structure) | |
Cohesion (Adherence to topic; use of key words) | |
Originality (Unique point of view; attempts at humor) | |
Conventions | |
% Correct Word Sentences | |
Spelling Problems, punctuation or capitalization errors, grammar, other | |
Syntax | |
% Fragments | |
Level 1 (simple repeated) | |
Level 2 (simple varied) | |
Level 3 (expansions) | |
Level 4 (complex) | |
Vocabulary | |
Unique/Mature Words | |
Please could you please help me with this topic.
ReplyDeleteTopic: Assessing JHS Reading and Writing
1.Meaning of assessment in detail explaination
2. How to assess readings in the JHS classroom
3. Types of reading assessment with detail explaination.
4. Forms of reading assessment with detail explaination
5. Strategies/ tools for assessing reading with explaination
6. Assessing writing in the JHS classroom
7. Basics for writing assignment with explaination.
8. Strategies for Assessing writing
9. Why do we assess reading and writing
10. Suggestions for effective assessment of writing
11. Conclusion
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