Learning Log: Outside the classroom

        Reading Aloud in the Classroom         

          Students do not learn to read by reading aloud. A person who reads aloud and comprehends the meaning of the text is coordinating word recognition with comprehension and speaking and pronunciation ability in highly complex ways. Students whose language skills are limited are not able to process at this level, and end up having to drop one or more of the elements. Usually the dropped element is comprehension, and reading aloud becomes word calling: simply pronouncing a series of words without regard for the meaning they carry individually and together. Word calling is not productive for the student who is doing it, and it is boring for other students to listen to.

                There are two ways to use reading aloud productively in the language classroom. Read aloud to your students as they follow along silently. You have the ability to use inflection and tone to help them hear what the text is saying. Following along as you read will help students move from word-by-word reading to reading in phrases and thought units, as they do in their first language.

            Use the "read and look up" technique. With this technique, a student reads a phrase or sentence silently as many times as necessary, then looks up (away from the text) and tells you what the phrase or sentence says. This encourages students to read for ideas, rather than for word recognition.

Assessing Reading Proficiency

                Reading ability is very difficult to assess accurately. In the communicative competence model, a student's reading level is the level at which that student is able to use reading to accomplish communication goals. This means that assessment of reading ability needs to be correlated with purposes for reading.

Learning Log: Outside the classroom

          I’m weak about reading because sometimes I don’t know about vocabulary and procedure to reading. I want to practice about reading so, I find and reading the technique about reading.

Reading Techniques

  1. Preview

  2. Question

  3. Take notes

  4. Summarize

  5. Review and reflect

            First of all, Preview the text to be read by skimming it. Skimming is the technique of allowing your eyes to travel rapidly over a page, stopping here and there to register the main idea. When skimming, you should follow the procedure below, adapting it to your purpose

Read the title.

Note the writer's name.

Note the date and place of publication.

Read the first paragraph completely.

Read sub-headings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.

            As you read, pick up main ideas, key words (words that tell you who, what, when, where, how many, and how much), and transition markers (words like 'however', 'alternatively', 'additionally', and so on), which suggest the direction of ideas in the text.

            Next, Question, Effective reading is active reading. To turn reading from a passive into an active exercise, always ask questions. To do this, you must be clear about the purpose of your reading. If you are reading a text which you will be critiquing in detail, your questions will be different from those you would ask if you were reading a number of texts for background information. If you are gathering material for an essay, formulate some tentative ideas about the approaches you might take, modifying them as you accumulate material.  During the preview, note as many questions as you can about the content. For instance, turn headings into questions and try to anticipate possible answers the writer may offer. Always actively look for connections and relationships. Look at the ways ideas are structured and developed.  The object of the preview and questioning steps is to determine the writer's thesis, that is, her/his main idea and purpose in writing. As you read, list all the words about which you are uncertain; look them up in the dictionary and write down their definitions.

            Third, Take notes Some reasons for taking notes are:

to maintain attentiveness as you read,

to focus your attention,

to familiarise yourself with primary and secondary material on a given subject,

to analyse the assumptions and rhetorical strategies of the writer,

to provide you with a summary of the material.

            Some hints for taking notes:

Always record bibliographical details of the text from which you are taking notes.

Write on one side of the paper only.

Leave a wide margin for comments and cross-references.

Use headings, subheadings, and diagrams.

Keep notes brief but full enough to still make sense to you in six months' time. Make sure they're legible.

Forth, Summarize, A summary is a collation of your notes, recording the main points the writer makes. Making a summary from your notes has two main benefits. It allows you to test yourself on your understanding of the material you have been reading - sometimes it is only when you try to put the writer's ideas into your own words that you uncover difficulties. It provides you with a compact account of the text for further reference.

The last, Review and reflectTo capitalise fully on the time you've spent reading an article or chapter, it's important to review and reflect upon what you've read. This enhances your understanding and helps you to commit important facts and ideas to your long-term memory. Here are some review and reflection exercises you may find useful:

            Test your understanding of the material by trying to answer your preview questions without referring to your notes.

            Write down the meaning and usefulness the material has for understanding other concepts and principles. Indicate what other ideas the material substantiates, contradicts, or amplifies. Evaluate the text in terms of its informativeness, soundness of argument, relevance, and so on. If you are gathering material for an essay or report, decide which points you want to use and think about how you can use them.

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