Unit 1

Sharing Experiences Reflecting on Reading

Unit Outcomes This unit is intended to allow teachers: - to consider the aims and objectives of providing reading instruction - to reflect on the nature of the reading instruction that they provide their pupils, and - to consider the role and purpose of reading aloud.

Unit Overview ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY 1: 2: 3: 4: Discussing the listening/speaking lessons Why Teach Reading? Thinking about our Teaching Some Thoughts about Reading Aloud

Timing ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY 1: 2: 3: 4: 30 20 40 60 minutes minutes minutes minutes

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ACTIVITY 1: Discussing the listening/speaking lessons Objective To reflect on classroom experiences based on listening and speaking lessons conducted.

Suggested Instructional Sequence

1. Ask teachers to form groups of three or four. Get them to share their
classroom experiences based on the following guidelines: Did the activities engage the pupils in a meaningful way? How? Were the pupils able to carry out the activities consider the appropriacy of the activities, the clarity of instructions given, etc. Which activity did the pupils enjoy most, why? How would you improve on what did not work well?

2. Carry out a whole discussion of this activity.

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ACTIVITY 2: Why Teach Reading? Objective To consider the aims and objectives of providing reading instruction to upper primary pupils Materials Teachers Module Suggested Instructional Sequence

2. Inform teachers that apart from preparing pupils for the examinations, there
must be other reasons why we provide reading instruction to our pupils.

3. Ask teachers to form groups of three or four. Get them to think of the
4.

5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

reasons why we provide reading instruction. Display the aims of teaching reading as stated in the syllabus / curriculum specifications on a slide. Emphasize that one of the aims is to teach our pupils to be effective, independent readers. Ask teachers to compare their reasons with those on the slide display. Display these questions on a slide and get teachers to discuss them in their groups. To what extent is the reading instruction that we provide able to meet our objective of making our learners effective and independent readers? What are the challenges we face when attempting to do this? Get teachers to share their views in a whole class discussion. Make the point that the purpose of this activity is to make teachers more overtly aware of the aims and objectives of providing reading instruction. They have to make an effort to ensure that the skills that they impart to their pupils will assist them in becoming effective, independent readers.

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ACTIVITY 3: Thinking about our Teaching

Objective To reflect on the nature of the reading instruction that teachers provide their pupils Materials Teachers Module Suggested Instructional Sequence (a)

1.

Inform teachers that they are going to read the descriptions of how two teachers carry out their reading lessons. 2. Ask teachers to read and prepare an outline of the activities that each teacher carries out in her class. Get teachers to compare their outlines with those of their partners and make any modifications necessary. 3. Get teachers to form groups of four and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each teachers instruction. Remind teachers that they have to justify their answers. 4. You may pose questions such as the following to help them. What do you like about Miss Ho / Miss Faridahs teaching? Why do you like it? What do you think she could do better? Which of these do you practice in your own reading class? 5. Conduct a whole class discussion to allow teachers to share and justify their views. Note Reading aloud plays a prominent role in Miss Hos lesson. There is a lot of testing in the lesson. She doesnt teach or show pupils how to arrive at answers. Also, she is quick to provide answers when pupils face difficulty. Miss Faridahs lesson has three distinct stages. Each stage of the lesson sees pupils meaningfully engaged in a variety of activities. More importantly, each of the activities helps to promote better comprehension of the text read. (b)

1. 2. 3. 4.

Inform teachers that good readers have certain distinctive behaviours. If we want to assist our readers to become effective and independent readers, we need to help them develop these behaviours. Get teachers to complete the questionnaire individually. When they have completed the questionnaire, ask teachers to consider which of these behaviours they would like to develop among their pupils. Get them to identify obstacles to doing this. Conduct a whole class discussion to enable teachers to share their responses.

Note Some teachers may like to know how they have performed on the scale. Ask them to award 2 points for a Very Often; 1 point for a Sometimes and 0 points for a Never. Ask them to sum the scores for each item. The maximum score is 24 you are doing everything a teacher can to foster effective reading behaviours among your
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pupils. The minimum score is 0 theres a lot of room for improvement in your reading instruction.

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ACTIVITY 4: Some Thoughts about Reading Aloud

Objective To consider some of the issues related to the role and purpose of reading aloud in reading comprehension instruction Materials Teachers Module Suggested Instructional Sequence

1.

Ask teachers to recall where and when they heard or observed someone read aloud? Point out that reading aloud is rare and serves a specific purpose news readers, etc. 2. Ask teachers to read the extracts and then to discuss the questions that follow in groups of four. 3. Carry out a whole class discussion of the answers to the three questions. 4. Highlight the following points about: a. reading aloud Its purpose is to help learners improve their reading fluency pronunciation, reading rate, ability to read in meaningful chunks, reading with the correct stress and intonation, ability to pause at the correct places and to read with appropriate expressions. Less fluent readers need assistance in developing reading aloud or reading fluency. However, this is done separately and not as part of the reading comprehension lesson. Reading fluency is best developed with texts that are familiar to the learners. There should also be an adult or a peer who provides feedback to the reader. b. silent reading

Reading fluency helps good readers to read and understand texts. Reading fluency is important for silent reading. Good readers are able to read quickly in meaningful chunks, with the correct stress and intonation, pause at the correct places and read with appropriate expressions.

In reading comprehension, the emphasis is on assisting pupils to understand and interpret the text. Pupils are expected to be able to carry out the various reading comprehension skills by employing the various reading strategies.

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