Reading Strategies

Teachers must choose their strategies (but shouldn't use more than 2 at a time) based on their aims, activities and teaching methods. Moreover, the activities should fit the student's level, meaning, the tasks should not be too difficulshou t nor too easy. At the same time, students should the strategy practical and useful, but not only for language learning purposes, but for a guide variety of fields of their interest. In addition, teachers ought to make an awareness of the existence of such strategies, so that learners can choose what strategies to use, while learning. The whole aim for this is for student's to be able to apply their strategy knowledge, in an un-familiar field, and make it familiar, with what they already know. Last, but not less, students should be able to evaluate themselves, so they will notice what strategies are really using.

Reflection:

It was a total surprise for me to know that we, as teachers, should openly talk about the learning (or reading) strategies with students. I thought it was more like a subconscious learning, that the teacher should teach without saying 'today we are going to learn some reading strategies. This is, in all, new for me.

Reading at Intermediate and advanced level

In intermediate and advanced levels the teacher will guide students to become independent and gain certain domain on comprehension skills. When using textbooks, it will be up to the teacher to set up the appropriate aims, depending on the groups demanding. Along with the aims, come the methods, which would be determined by same aims the teacher has developed.

Reflection:

As with everything, the teacher has the hard task of deciding the aims, and the methods. Subsequently, the teacher should be able to choose carefully the texts, aims, methods, materials she/he uses in order to achieved her/his initial aims. And more important, to be able to fallow up, in order to achieved learning objectives. Certainly, having clear aims will facilitate teachers work. Now the thing is, being able to set clear, down to earth aims.

Teaching and student's age

Reading is a complex multi-skills process, therefore children will learn, among other things, to read critically. To do so, teachers ought to let children to answer questions openly, and discard the yes or no questions; because children do think critically. The reading material must be wide varied, so children will have the open possibility to choose what they want to read. We also have to have in mind that in real life situations we read for different purposes and with this comes the way in which we read a text. For this student need to learn or domain certain skills, but they will only be helpful in the measure they practice.

Reflection:

As we have mention before, in a second language course or class; in Mexico, is almost impossible to have the right amount of English books. But now imagine French books? Italian books? One thing is certain; reading is not being promoted in our schools, moreover critical thinking or reading is not even an option. Is sad to say, but of course it helps us to see our reality, and focus our goals towards a better educations, because we can make a difference by becoming excellent teachers.

Reading at elementary level

Reading is a complex multi-skills process, therefore children will learn, among other things, to read critically. To do so, teachers ought to let children to answer questions openly, and discard the yes or no questions; because children do think critically. The reading material must be wide varied, so children will have the open possibility to choose what they want to read. We also have to have in mind that in real life situations we read for different purposes and with this comes the way in which we read a text. For this student need to learn or domain certain skills, but they will only be helpful in the measure they practice.

Reflection:

As we have mention before, in a second language course or class; in Mexico, is almost impossible to have the right amount of English books. But now imagine French books? Italian books? One thing is certain; reading is not being promoted in our schools, moreover critical thinking or reading is not even an option. Is sad to say, but of course it helps us to see our reality, and focus our goals towards a better educations, because we can make a difference by becoming excellent teachers.

Extensive and intensive reading

Extensive Reading

Extensive reading means non- stop enjoyable reading. But not just reading for pleasure, but reading because it's so easy to do so, and you just enjoy doing it.

Now, in order for students to develop their extensive reading skills they need to be provided with the right materials, this means the teacher should teach them how to enjoy reading by choosing the right material readings, which means easy, understandable and enjoyable for theudents. There are also, some extensive reading materials that have been specially written for this purpose and have reading levels that matches student's reading level.

With this the need of an extensive reading programme seems so obvious, here are the steps to get it done:

1. Setting up a library
2. Teacher's enouraging students
3. Extensive reading tasks

Intensive Reading

Reading intensively is reading for specific purposes. Teachers while teaching intensive reading, according to Harmer have these role models:

1. Organiser, explain student's the purpose of their reading and give clear instructions of what they are supose to do.
2. Observer, students need their space to read, but the teacher should observe their performance from a distance.
   
3. Feedback Organizer, when student's have finished the tasks, teachers should check their performance, in order to be able to give feedback.
4. Prompter, when students have finished reading teachers can prompt students in order to clarify texts issues, and make some conscious knwoledge of what they have read.

Nevertheless, if students ask for the meaning of unknown words the teacher should have in mind the following:

• Time limite, you can set your own time limit to look for answer.
• Word/phrase limit, you can answer only certain number of questions.
• Meaning consensus, this is activity that involves team work, each team member help each other and talk about the unknown words, and decide which words they need to look in the dictionary in order to understand the text.

Reading sequences

Intensive reading sequences are useful when you want students to practice specific skills like reading for specific information, or reading for general understanding, comunicative purposes. Reading sequences usually involves more than one reading skill. Teachers must guide students while doing the activities, by asking them to identify the topic, main ideas, or to look for specific information, depending on the skills tha are being promoted.

Reflection:

I found extensive reading my favorite so far. I like the idea of helping students to develope their love, passion, curiosity, and concern about reading. Of course you need to teach them how look read for specific purposes and develop other skills, but of course you can give a greater input while using extensive reading as your basic tool, and the intensiveness of reading can come later on, when the students feel already bond to books and new information.

Interesting blog

Problems and Solutions

As we have seen before, there are certain aspects that make a text dificult for the reader, here we will talk not only about these problems, but about it's solutions as well.

The problems that students encounter while reading in a second language are often the encounter with unknown words, and the long sentences that contain these many strage words, which make almost impossible for the students to make any sense of the texts. At this point, students will feel disencouraged to keep reading, and will think of how much they don't know, instead of ganing confidence in their reading.

For these the author claims these solutions:

• Pre-teaching vocabulary

• Extensive reading

• Choose the right topics

• Create Interest

• Activate schemata

• Vary topics and genres

• Testing and teaching

• Appropiate challenge: i + 1, not too easy not too difficult.
  

• Manufactoring success

• Agreeing on a purpose

Reflection:

Providing student's with the right material is usually a problem and not to mention the sense of failure that students might perceived from their school activities and readings. Therefore, teachers must fallow up this easy, but effective solutions. You want your student's to feel that they are learning, that they can read, that they know enough, not the other way around.

Take them step by step, hand to hand, and they will respond.