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Major - Teaching-Reading and Writing
Major - Teaching-Reading and Writing
Area: ENGLISH
LET Competencies:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the nature of reading and writing and the theoretical bases, principles,
methods, and strategies in teaching these components
2. Apply skills and strategies gained from reading and writing instruction principles and techniques
5. Application is the part of the lesson that helps readers see the relevance of learning in their own life,
or appreciate the nature of their environment and understand the significance of knowing about the
lessons discussed in the classroom. This provides a ground for making students remember and value
insights learned in the class. Reading instruction can end by:
Valuing
Appreciating
Relating lessons to own life
Linking lesson to explain real-life contexts
Responding creatively using multiple intelligence
1. The perspective or opening phase where the teacher gives a preview of the new reading lesson that
he/she will teach.
2. The simulation phase where the teacher poses a question (or questions) to get the student thinking
about the coming activity. This is used as a lead into the main activity.
3. The instruction/participation phase introduces the main activity of the reading lesson.
4. The closure phase is where the teacher attempts to get the students’ input regarding what they have
learned in the lesson that was just presented.
5. The follow-up and the final phase has the teacher using other activities to reinforce the same concepts
and introduce new ones.
What are the general instructional objectives for a second/foreign language reading program?
1. To develop an awareness of reading strategies necessary for successful reading comprehension.
2. To expand vocabulary and develop techniques for continued increase of vocabulary.
3. To develop an awareness of linguistics and rhetorical structures found in reading texts.
4. To increase reading speed and fluency.
5. To promote an interest in different types of reading materials.
6. To provide individual feedback on progress in improving reading skills.
7. To provide practice in extensive reading skills.
What are the principles for designing effective and interesting reading lessons?
1. The reading materials are interesting for the students.
2. The major activity of the reading lesson is students reading texts.
3. Activities and exercises reflect the purposeful, task-based interactive nature of real reading
(predicting, hypothesizing, and revising ideas about what was read).
4. Activities and tasks allow the learners to bring their knowledge and experiences to the reading
passage.
5. Instructional activities have a TEACHING rather than a testing focus.
6. A variety of different reading activities are used during each lesson ( to maintain interest, motivation,
and pace)
7. Lessons should be divided into pre-reading, during reading and post-reading phases.
Content-based instruction (CBI) is “…the integration of particular content with language teaching
aims.” It is based on the common underlying principle that successful language learning occurs when
students are presented with target language material in a meaningful, contextualized form, with the
primary focus on acquiring information and knowledge.
Content becomes the organizing principle; and language structures, vocabulary, and functions are
selected by the teacher that are both necessary for the content and that are compatible with it. This
contextualizes language learning for students and focuses the learner’s attention primarily on
meaning.
CBI approaches “… view the target language as the vehicle through which subject matter content is
learned rather than as the immediate object of study.” (Brinton et al., 1989, p. 5).
“When the learner’s second language is both the object and medium of instruction, the content of
each lesson must be taught simultaneously with the linguistic skills necessary for understanding it “
(Cantoni-Harvey, 1987, p. 22).
Input must be comprehensible to the learner and be offered in such a way as to allow multiple
opportunities to understand and use the language. If comprehensible input is provided and the
student feels little anxiety, then acquisition will take place.
In other words, Krashen suggests that a second language is most successfully acquired when the
conditions are similar to those present in the first language acquisition; that is, when the focus of
instruction is on meaning rather than on form; when the language input is at or just above the
proficiency of the learner; and when there is sufficient opportunity to engage in meaningful use of
that language in a relatively anxiety-free environment.
The importance of meaningful context in language teaching is also the underlying principle behind
the Whole Language Approach, commonly referred to as Natural Approach. It is a developmental
language model based on the premise that youngsters acquire language (speaking, reading, and
writing) as naturally as they learn to walk and talk, when they are invited to engage in self-motivating
activities that are stimulating, interesting, social, meaning-based, purposeful, interactive, and most of
all enjoyable. This approach is based on current research in language acquisition.
For example, the word biology can be analyzed by looking at the part bio (which means life) and logos
(which means the study of). Taken together, one could know that biology, in its simplest meaning, is a
study of life.
Find out how well you know the meaning of the following word components:
1. anthrop – _________ 11. inter -____________
2. bi, di –____________ 12. intra - ____________
3. biblio –___________ 13.mal -_____________
4. chron –___________ 14. mid -_____________
5. cosmos -__________ 15. mis -_____________
6. ex - _____________ 16. mono- ___________
7. ful - _____________ 17. phile - ___________
8. hydro -___________ 18. phobia- ___________
9. ism _____________ 19. phon - ____________
10. ist - _____________ 20. sym, syn - ________
B. Context Clue. It is an instructional approach that consists of analyzing words surrounding an unknown
word to determine its meaning. Words are not very useful when they are presented as isolated elements.
They are more functional when they appear in a meaningful context. Some of the common context clues
are the following:
1. Definition Statements
2. Synonym
3. Antonym
4. Summary
5. Examples
6. Simile
7. Apposition
8. Groupings
C. Intensive/Extensive Reading. It supplements explicit vocabulary instruction because all the words
encountered in print are impossible to include in teaching. Through this type of reading, students come to
experience words as used in wide array of reading materials.
D. Pleasure Reading. It is another way of making students read, but the materials or selection that they have
brought are for themselves or for sharing with friends and classmates. Or it may be a selection chosen by
the teacher, but for the purpose of making students develop love for reading.
(-from Farrell, T.S.C., 2002)
For Comprehension Development
1. Pre-Reading Plan
2. Previewing
3. Anticipation Guide
4. QARs – Question –Answer Relationships
5. ReQuest – Reciprocal Questioning
Procedure
Before beginning a text, discuss the topic that will be covered. Have the students share what they already
know about the topic. Find ways to relate the knowledge they have with the material that needs to be
covered.
Language Arts Social Studies
Topic: Story about snakes Topic: Climate
Ask students, What do you know about snakes? Ask students, How does climate affect
How can you tell if they are poisonous? What vegetation? What kinds of plants grow only in
snakes are common in our area? certain areas?
Science Math
Topic: Tornadoes Topic: Multiplication With Decimals
Ask students, What do you know about Ask students, When are the decimals used in
tornadoes? What do you know about everyday life (e.g. money)? If you were
thunderstorms? Are they similar? What would purchasing several items at the same price, how
you do if you were caught in a tornado? could you quickly figure out the total cost?
Assessment
Discuss each question and determine from students’ answers which students need additional information
before beginning a lesson. As the lesson progresses, continue discussion and questions to determine
students’ comprehension of the topic.
Anticipation Guide
This strategy allows students to consider thoughts and opinions they have about various topics in order to
create an interest in the material that is being covered and to establish a purpose for reading the material.
This strategy works best with topics such as literature, science, and social studies that require information in
order to develop opinions. Although subjects such as grammar and mathematics are more skill related, there
are instances in which an Anticipation Guide with modification would be useful
Procedure
Begin by listing three or more debatable statements about a topic that students are going to study. Ask the
students to identify whether they agree or disagree with the statements. Explain that the students need to read
the text carefully and see if they can find statements that support their own views. After they read the text,
discuss the original statements to see if the students maintain their original view or if they have changed their
opinion.
When constructing an Anticipation Guide, keep the following in mind:
Analyze the material and determine main ideas.
Write the ideas in short, declarative statements. Avoid abstractions.
Put statements in a format that will encourage anticipation and predictions.
Discuss reader’s predictions and anticipations before reading.
Assign the text. Have students evaluate the statements according to the author’s intent and
purpose.
Contrast the predictions with the author’s intended meaning.
Language Arts
Topic: Writing a persuasive paper
Statements: Students should wear uniforms in school.
Students should be allowed to choose whatever classes they want to take.
There should be no dress code in schools.
ReQuest
This strategy encourages students to build on previous knowledge and think about what might be important
information in the assigned reading. It also gives them the opportunity to write questions about things they
do not understand. One of the advantages to this strategy is that it breaks the text into short sections so it will
not appear overwhelming to students.
Procedure
The first step is to choose the text to be covered. Make sure students are familiar with the entire selection.
Next, haveArts
Language the students read the paragraph or short sectionSocial and Studies
have them think of questions to ask about the
Read the introduction to a story. Have students ask Read the beginning of a chapter on the
topic as they read. After the read, have students
questions about the characters, setting, and plot. ask their questions and
Fertile Crescent. Askuse
whythe textcalled
it was to answer. Next, ask
higher level
Continue questions
reading you have
short sections. prepared.
Prepare Continue
questions such reading
this.theWhat
entire selection
is known andthishave
about areaa question-answer
atas,
theDoend
youofthink
eachthesection.
characters are acting in the way from long ago? End with questions such
they should? Why or why not? What would you have as, What do you think caused this
done in this situation? What is one thing that could have culture to last throughout time?
changed the entire outcome of this story?
Language Arts
When discussing a topic such as sound waves, ask
students how they think Helen Keller learned to speak or
how Beethoven was able to compose music even after
he became deaf
Assessment
Discuss and evaluate teacher’s and student’s questions and answers. Discussions can be used to determine
students’ level of comprehension by assessing their responses after reading. Encourage responses from
students who appear off task. Students should correctly respond to 80% if the questions during a discussion.
Procedure
Before reading, ask students to brainstorm what is known about a topic. They should categorize what is prior
knowledge, predict or anticipate what the text might be about, and create questions to be answered. During
reading, have the class discuss the information, write responses to their questions, and organize the
information.
This strategy may be done on a sheet with three columns: Know, Want to Know, Learned. Guide the
instruction the first few times it is used. Modeling is effective for the initial use.
Language Arts
Know Want to know Learned
Social Studies
Topic: Ancient Egypt
Mummified people
Mapping
Mapping provides a visual guide for students to clarify textual information such as characters, setting,
problems, reactions, and outcome. This strategy allows you to visually determine students’ comprehension,
and it provides students with a strategy that they can use on their own when they are dealing with other
topics.
Procedure
Model an example of a map for students, talking through each step and having students assist in filling in the
different areas. After comprehension of this strategy is assured, have students complete various maps on their
own.
Language Arts
Characters:_______________________________________________________________
Setting: Place_____________________________________________ Time: ___________
Problem: ________________________________________________________________
Events: __________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Resolution:________________________________________________________________
Outcome: ________________________________________________________________
Social Studies
Topic: Ancient Egypt
Pharaohs medicines pyramids afterlife gods
mummification
__________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ________
__________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ________
Social Studies
Topic: States of Matter
Solids:______________________________________________________________________
Liquids:_____________________________________________________________________
Gases:______________________________________________________________________
Assessment
Evaluate students’ maps to determine level of comprehension by the percentage of correct responses.
PLAN
This is a graphic organizer in which students create a map to visually organize and better understand the
information that has been covered.
Procedure
There are four steps in this process:
[P]redict the content/structure by using chapter titles and subheadings.
[L]ocate known and unknown information. Students can indicate this by placing a __ by things they
know and a ? by things they do not know.
[A}dd words or phrases to the ? as students locate information about the topic.
[N]ote new understanding of information and use it in instruction.
Social Studies
Language Arts
PARTS OF SPEECH CULTURES OF THE WORLD
article?
noun adverb
social groups? religion?
preposition?
adjective pronoun
verb Economic political
Systems? systems?
connotation? conjunction? language
denotation?
Mat
Scienc h
WAVES e GEOMETR
Y
vibrations trough
? ?
amplitude volum area
? cres e
t
wavelength shape
? measurement s
Characteristics
? formulas ?
?
Evaluate the answers that individual students provide to the questions in their organizer.
Teaching Writing
Writing is among the most complex human activities. It involves the development of an idea, the capture of
mental representations of knowledge, and of experiences with subjects. It can be viewed as involving a
number of thinking processes which are drawn upon in varied and complex ways as an individual composes,
transcribes, evaluates, and revises (Arndt, 1987; Raimes, 1985 as cited in White, 1995).
In first language settings, the ability to write well has a very close relationship to academic and professional
success. Grabowski (1996 as cited in Weigle, 2002, p.4) notes that:
“Writing, as compared to speaking, can be seen as a more standardized system which must be acquired
through special instruction. Mastery of this standard system is a pre-requisite of cultural and educational
participation and the maintenance of one’s rights and duties.”
Brown (1994), as cited in Weigle, 2002, pp.15-16) provides the following list of characteristics that
ordinarily differentiate written language from spoken language:
Permanence: oral language is transitory and must be processed in real time, while written
language is permanent and can be read and reread as often as one likes;
Production time: writers generally have more time to plan, review, and revise their words
before they are finalized, while speakers must plan, formulate, and deliver their utterances
within a few moments if they are to maintain a conversation;
Distance: between the writer and the reader in both time and space, which eliminates much of
the shared context that is present between speaker and listener in ordinary face-to-face contact
and thus necessitates greater explicitness on the part of the writer;
Orthography, which carries a limited amount of information compared to the richness of
devices available to speakers to enhance a message (e.g. stress, intonation, pitch, volume,
pausing, etc.);
Complexity: written language tends to be characterized by longer clauses and more
subordinators, while spoken language tends to have shorter clauses connected by coordinators
as well as more redundancy (e.g. repetition of nouns and verbs);
Formality: because of the social and cultural uses to which writing is ordinarily put, writing
tends to be more formal than speaking;
Vocabulary: written texts tend to contain a wider variety of words, and more lower-
frequency words, than oral texts.
Thus, in L1 education, learning to write involves learning a specialized version of a language already known
to students. This specialized language differs from spoken language, both in form and in use, but builds upon
linguistics resources that students already posses. In this sense, one can say that L 1 writing instruction is
relatively standardized within a particular culture.
In contrast, Weigle (2002) posits that the same cannot be said of L2 writing because of the wide variety of
situations in which people learn and use second languages, both as children and as adults, in schools and in
other settings. She further emphasizes that one cannot write in L 2 without knowing at least something about
the grammar and vocabulary of that language.
Thus, the differences between L1 and L2 writing are considerable, and in particular the variety is much greater
for L2 writers than for L1 writers.
Tribble (1996, p.430) enumerates the range of knowledge that writers need to know in order to write
effectively when undertaking a specific task:
1. Content Knowledge – knowledge of the concepts involved in the subject area
2. Context Knowledge – knowledge of the context in which the text will be read
3. Language System Knowledge – knowledge of those aspects of the language system necessary for the
completion of the task
4. Writing Process Knowledge – knowledge of the most appropriate way of preparing for a specific
writing task
Writing Theories
Writing as a social and cultural phenomenon
It is important to note that writing is not solely the product of an individual, but as a social and cultural
act. Hamp-Lyons and Kroll (1997 as cited in Weigle, 2002) claim that writing is an act that takes place
within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose, and that is appropriately shaped for its intended
audience. Expanding in the social nature of writing, Hayes (1996 as cited in Weigle, 2002, p.19) states
that:
“Contrastive rhetoric, on the other hand, gained respectability when it became clear to researchers that
many aspects of writing are influenced by culture”.
Leki (1992) and Grabe (1989, as cited in Weigle 2002) point out that variation in writing in different
cultures does not reflect inherent different in thought patterns but rather “cultural preferences which make
greater use of certain options among linguistic possibilities
Cultural expectations can have a consequence for the coherence of texts – that is, the organization of a
text into meaningful whole. Coherence, as Leki (1992) notes is not an inherent quality of the text itself,
but rather comes from the accuracy of the writer’s assessment of what the reader will be able to infer
from the text.
Knowledge telling - similar to impromptu speaking which involves very little planning or
revision. This is the kind of writing which is natural and problematic. The writing of most
children and adolescents falls into this category
Knowledge transformation – involves much more effort and skill, and is not achieved
without a great deal of practice
Ferris (1998, pp.7-8) categorized the different approaches to L2 composition according to the
following four foci, each of which can be linked to a particular school of thought:
The table below presents the distinct features of the various approaches to teaching writing: