Week 5. 10 Reading Comprehension Strategies

10 Reading Comprehension Strategies All Students Need

Why Addressing Reading Comprehension Is Necessary

by Melissa Kelly

Updated January 16, 2019

Here are ten (10) effective tips and strategies that teachers can share with students to improve their comprehension of a text.

01 of 10

Generate Questions

A good strategy to teach all readers is that instead of just rushing through a passage or chapter,  is to pause and generate questions. These can either be questions about what has just happened or what they think might happen in the future. Doing this can help them focus on the main ideas and increase the student's engagement with the material.

After reading, students can go back and write questions that could be included in a quiz or test on the material. This will require them to look at the information in a different manner. By asking questions in this way, students can help the teacher correct misconceptions. This method also provides immediate feedback.

02 of 10

Read Aloud and Monitor

While some might think of a teacher reading aloud in a secondary classroom as an elementary practice, there is evidence that reading aloud also benefits middle and high school students as well. Most importantly, by reading aloud teachers can model good reading behavior.

Reading aloud to students should also include stops to check for understanding. Teachers can demonstrate their own think-aloud or interactive elements and focus intentionally on the meaning “within the text,” “about the text,” and “beyond the text” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006) These interactive elements can push students for deeper thought around a big idea. Discussions after reading aloud can support conversations in class that help students make critical connections.

03 of 10

Promote Cooperative Talk

Having students stop periodically to turn and talk in order to discuss what has just been read can reveal any issues with understanding. Listening to students can inform instruction and help a teacher to can reinforce what is being taught.

This is a useful strategy that can be used after a read aloud (above) when all students have a shared experience in listening to a text.

This kind of cooperative learning, where students learn reading strategies reciprocally, is one of the most powerful instructional tools.

04 of 10

Attention to Text Structure

An excellent strategy that soon becomes second nature is to have struggling students read through all the headings and subheadings in any chapter that they have been assigned. They can also look at the pictures and any graphs or charts. This information can help them gain an overview of what they will be learning as they read the chapter.

The same attention to text structure can be applied in reading literary works that use a story structure. Students can use the elements in a story's structure (setting, character, plot, etc) as a means of helping them recall story content.

05 of 10

Take Notes or Annotate Texts

Students should read with paper and pen in hand. They can then take notes of things they predict or understand. They can write down questions. They can create a vocabulary list of all the highlighted words in the chapter along with any unfamiliar terms that they need to define. Taking notes is also helpful in preparing students for later discussions in class.

Annotations in a text, writing in the margins or highlighting, is another powerful way to record understanding. This strategy is ideal for handouts.

Using sticky notes can allow students to record information from a text without damaging the text. Sticky notes can also be removed and organized later for responses to a text.

06 of 10

Use Context Clues

Students need to use the hints that an author provides in a text. Students may need to look at context clues, that is a word or phrase directly before or after  a word they may not know.

Context clues may be in the form of:

Roots and affixes: origin of the word;

Contrast: recognizing how word is compared or contrasted with another word in the sentence;

Logic: considering the rest of the sentence to understand an unknown word;

Definition: using a provided explanation that follows the word;

Example or Illustration: literal or visual representation of the word;

Grammar: determining how the word functions in a sentence to better understand its meaning.

07 of 10

Use Graphic Organizers

Some students find that graphic organizers like webs and concept maps can greatly enhance reading comprehension. These allow students to identify areas of focus and main ideas in a reading. By filling in this information, students can deepen their understanding of the author's meaning.

By the time students are in grades 7-12,  teachers should allow students to decide which graphic organizer would be most helpful to them in understanding a text. Giving students the opportunity to generate representations of the material is part of the reading comprehension process.

08 of 10

Practice PQ4R

This consists of four steps: Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, and Review.

Preview has students scan the material to get an overview. The question means that students should ask themselves questions as they read.

The four R's have students read the material, reflect on what has just been read, recite the major points to help learn better, and then return to the material and see if you can answer the questions previously asked.

This strategy works well when coupled with notes and annotations.

09 of 10

Summarizing

As they read, students should be encouraged to stop periodically stop their reading and summarize what they have just read. In creating a summary, students have to integrate the most important ideas and generalize from the text information. They need to distill the important ideas from the unimportant or irrelevant elements.

This practice of integrating and generalizing in the creation of summaries make long passages more understandable.

10 of 10

Monitor Understanding

Some students prefer to annotate, while others are more comfortable summarizing, but all students must learn how to be aware of how they read. They need to know how fluently and accurate they are reading a text, but they also need to know how they can determine their own understanding of the materials.

They should decide which strategies are most helpful in making meaning, and practice those strategies, adjusting the strategies when necessary. 

Week 4. ( 課文) 如何在英語課堂上使用歌曲

Week 4

How to use songs in the English language classroom

By Adam J. Simpson 

( https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-language-classroom )

What makes for a successful song-based lesson? Adam Simpson, second-time winner of the British Council’s Teaching English blog award for his post on conditionals (written with Paul Mains), explains.

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of the learner.

Planning for the use of songs in class

The process of selecting a song is one of the most difficult aspects of using music in a lesson. Here are some things you probably need to think about to ensure you get the right song.

Carefully examine what it is you want your class to learn in the lesson

Is this going to be a lesson focusing on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or a particular topic? I once used ‘You’re so vain’ by Carly Simon to introduce a text that looked at vain people. In another lesson, I used ‘In the air tonight’ as it uses the present perfect continuous tense. Whatever your focus, remember that this doesn’t necessarily place a limit on what you can do with the song. For instance, you might wish to use the song in question to exemplify a particular verb tense, and structure your lesson accordingly, but you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to look at those interesting idioms in the lyrics!

Think about the language level of your class

The language level of your class will determine not only which songs you can use, but also what other activities – such as games or written exercises – you will use to develop the lesson. Lower levels will become extremely frustrated with fast-delivered lyrics, for instance, while simple repetitive lyrics might not be interesting for more advanced-level learners.

1.      How old are your learners?

2.      Are there any specific cultural issues regarding the make-up of your class?

3.      What kind of access do you have to the song?

Six steps for making a song the focus of your class

My intention here is to provide a basic outline you can use with any song. Remember, these are just suggestions so make sure to keep the profile of your learners in mind.

1. Listen to the song

2. Ask some questions about the title

3. Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics

4. Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar

5. Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions

6. Round things off with some creativity

Week 3. ( 課文) 用影片學英文

Week 3. Learning a Language through Video

Hopefully, Marianna Pascal’s video gave you some insight into how attitude affects learning and how having the proper attitude can facilitate your communication skills. As she says, students sometimes try to make things too complicated, get stuck searching for the perfect word, or lack confidence and are afraid to try to communicate.

If you are motivated, there are lots of great free resources for you to try to help you improve your English ability. This lesson will introduce four sites that can give you hours of practice on improving your listening and vocabulary skills. In addition, you may learn something about science, history, education, and different cultures.

The Voice of America website has videos with tapescripts, vocabulary lists, learning strategies, and quizzes. You can click at the top of the page to try Beginning Level, Intermediate Level, or Advanced Level.  In addition, at the far right, there is a Video button you can click to get to 1-minute Video lessons that introduce vocabulary, phrases, and idioms.

TED has numerous videos that are generally at an intermediate or advanced level.  When you go to the website, you can click on Watch at the top and you will see a drop-down menu. You can choose TED Talks or TED-Ed Videos.  If you click on TED Talks, you can then search by topic or language. If you choose Chinese, it will show you a list of talks that have Chinese subtitles and tapescripts.  If you click on TED-ED Videos, you will find shorter videos developed by educators, many with Chinese subtitles. 

The British Council Learn English website has a section called Skills, where you can click on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.  It also has a menu for Grammar, Vocabulary, and Business English practice.  At the top of the page there are links especially for kids and teenagers.  There is a way to set the interface to Chinese, but most of the time that just translates the basic intro to the activities. The English videos and exercises are all-English.

Finally, you can try ESLVideo, which has a menu with choices of Level, Songs, Pronunciation, and Grammar. Most of the videos will have transcripts and quizzes. 

While it may be intimidating and challenging at first, you will soon get used to using these all-English websites.

Week 2. 學習單字的應用軟體

Week 2. 學習單字的應用軟體

Learning Vocabulary: Quizlet and how to use it

Video Link:  

1. https://classroom.google.com/u/1/c/NDA0Njk4NTA2MjVa/a/MzcwOTUyNjM0NjZa/details

2. https://classroom.google.com/u/1/c/NDA0Njk4NTA2MjVa/a/MzcwOTUyMjc5NTha/details

 

Learning a language is hard work. To be successful, you need to develop some strategies that fit with your goals, you need to have determination, and you need to make practicing it a part of your daily life.  There are various ways to think about language learning. You hear people talk about the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. You also hear your teachers talk about improving your vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. This lesson is going to focus on vocabulary and how you can learn words by using apps, specifically, Quizlet.

Perhaps you have classmates or friends who read through a dictionary trying to memorize vocabulary. Maybe you know people who keep lists of words, studying the vocabulary whenever they have free time. If this works for you, that is great. While memorizing lists of words in isolation may work for some people, it is recommended that you try to learn vocabulary in context. In other words, when study vocabulary, it might be more beneficial for you to study words in sentences.

The old-fashioned way is to make flashcards where you write the Mandarin word for ‘apple’ on one side of the card and the English word ‘apple’ and ‘noun’ on the other side of the card. For this kind of vocabulary, this may be sufficient. However, once you start learning higher level vocabulary, especially more abstract words, you may want to change the way you make your cards. As many Taiwanese have trouble with bored vs. boring, you could make some cards that have ‘This movie is boring. I’m bored.’ on one side and the Mandarin on the other side. You could make multiple sets of cards with similar uses to drill the difference. You could write ‘This lecture is boring.’; ‘How do you like the book (you’re reading)? It’s boring.’; ‘This game is boring.’; ‘I’m bored. Do you want to play basketball?’

Besides using the vocabulary in sentences, another key point is to try to use the words as you might use them in daily life. Often times textbooks and tests use vocabulary in sentences in ways that are not natural-sounding or the way people usually use the words in daily life. When you learn or practice something in a daily life context, you will be more likely to remember it and maybe even use it in your daily life one day!

Take a look at the videos about Quizlet and try to play around with the computer version or smartphone app.  It is probably better to make your own set or cards or search for cards that other people have already prepared on your computer. You can try the different ways to practice the vocabulary on the computer and with the app. Through the different functions, you can practice vocabulary as well as listening, spelling, typing, and reading.