Developmental Reading 1

THEORIES ON TEACHING READING

I. The Top-Down Approach

Main Ideas/
phrases words
themes ideas details

 Also known as inside-out model, concept-driven model, and whole-to-part model, uses the meaning given by the
reader to the text.
 Emphasizes what the reader brings to the text
 Says reading is driven by meaning
 Proceeds from whole to part
 (Frank Smith) Reading is not decoding written language to spoken language. It does not aim to process each
word or letter, and it does not derive meaning from the text.
 Reading is a matter of bringing meaning to print

Features:

1. Readers can comprehend a selection even though they do not recognize each word.
2. Readers should use meaning and grammatical cues to identify unrecognized words.
3. Reading for meaning is the primary objective of reading, rather than mastery of letters, letters/sound
relationship and words.
4. Reading requires the use of meaning activities than the mastery of series of word-recognition skills.
5. The primary focus of instruction should be the reading of sentences, paragraphs, and whole selections.
6. The most important aspect about reading is the amount and kind of information gained through reading.

II. The Bottom-Up Reading Model

Ideas/ Main
words phrases themes
details ideas

 Also known as part-to-whole model, considers the importance of the written or printed text as it brings about
reading.
 Emphasizes a single direction
 Emphasizes the written or printed texts
 Reading is driven by a purpose that results in meaning.
 Readers rely on their knowledge of language to recognize linguistic elements for the construction of meaning.
 (Leonard Bloomfield) Reading starts with the understanding of the code. Analysis of the code helps in getting
easily the meaning of the text. Writing only records speech.
 (Emerald Dechant) Reading starts with the processing of the smallest linguistic unit, and moves gradually to
putting together the smaller units, which result in recognizing and understanding the higher units.
 (Philip Gough) Developing a considerable range of habitual responses to a specific set of patterns suggests ability
to learn to read.
 (T. McCormick) Positive recognition of every word through phonemic encoding results from processing letter-by-
letter visual analysis. In reading, we apply lexical, syntactic, and semantic rules to the phonemic output which
itself has been encoded from print.

III. Interactive Reading Model

 This is the combination of the two models, the top-down and the bottom-up.
 Readers interact with both phonics and text.
 It selects the strong points of both models and integrates them in learning to read.
 (Emerald Dechant) Meaning is constructed by the selective use of information from various sources, without
relying on onyone set order. These sources may be graphemic, phonemic, morphemic, syntax and semantics. All
levels of processing are used although the reader can rely on one source at a given time.
 Developmental Reading 1

LITERARY APPRECIATION SKILLS

 Literature narrates the exploits or adventures of the immortals and the supernatural beings who thrill us with
their incredible powers.
 Literature relates all these things through its elements such as poetic language, tone and mood, character,
setting, plot, and theme.

1. Poetic language

 Words or phrases that conjure up vivid pictures in your mind, that appeal to your emotions, or that
communicate ideas beyond the literal meanings of the words.
 Images appeal to the senses of sight, touch, and hearing although the majority of images are visual.

E.g. (“Triumph of Charis” – Ben Jonson)

Have you seen but a bright lily grow,

Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of snow
Before the soil hath smutched it?
Have you felt the wool of the beaver?
Or swan’s down ever?
Or have smelt of the bud o’ the brier?
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
Oh so white! Oh so soft! Oh so sweet is she!
 Figurative language goes beyond its usual meaning.
 It is not to be taken literally.
 The many types of figurative language are called figures of speech.

E.g.
Simile: The moon, like to a silver bow new-bent in heaven. (Shakespeare)
Metaphor: All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. (Shakespeare)
Personification: I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky:
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass-
O wind, a –blowing all day long
O wind, that sings so loud a song! (Stevenson)
Hyperbole: Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun! (Robert Burns)

2. Tone and Mood

 The attitude that a writer takes toward a subject is tone. It may be angry, bitter, humorous, nostalgic, or serious
 Feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader is mood. It may be joyful, quiet, optimistic, or sad.

E.g. (from “David Copperfield” –Charles Dickens)

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a gloomy-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she
greatly resembled in face and voice, and with very heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose. She brought
with her two uncompromising hard black boxes, with her initials on the lids in hard brass nails. When she paid the
coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon
her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite. It seemed that there had never been such a metallic lady altogether as
Miss Murdstone was.
Question: What is the attitude of Charles Dickens to Miss Murdstone? What details suggest the tome of the
description of Miss Murdstone?

3. Character

 The people or animals who take part in the action of fiction and even poetry are characters.
 The writer’s use of characterization techniques helps in giving you an impression of the characters.
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 These techniques may be physical description, the words and actions of the characters, the reactions of other
characters to the individual, and the character’s expression of her own thoughts and feelings.

E.g.
At half-past four he rang up Dora and broke the news to her. He wouldn’t be home till late.
“Are you sure you’ll be home at all?” she said coolly.

4. Setting

 The time and place of the action comprise the setting of a literary work.
 In most stories, it serves as a backdrop in which the characters interact.
 In others, it is used to reveal character, help develop plot, and create mood.

5. Plot

 It is the arrangement of events in a short story.

 Its most important elements include the conflict, the climax, and the resolution.
 Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces.
 Climax is the point at which the conflict is greatest.
 The resolution is the outcome of the conflict.

6. Theme

 Theme is the main idea of a literary work.

 To determine the theme, you need to consider all the elements of literature although most writers reveal the
theme through characters.
 For instance, Sophocles, in Oedipus the King, suggests the idea that “man has become an emancipated
individual with a free will who cannot excuse his deeds by blaming fate, the gods, or oracles.” When Oedipus
failed in preventing the fulfillment of the oracle, he imposed punishment on himself by depriving himself of his
eyesight.