Reading in English - How to motivate and engage your students

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Reading in English - How to motivate and engage
your students

• 29 May 2006
• Chinese University of Hong Kong
• B6, Ho Tim Building
• 5.00 - 700 pm

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Motivating and engaging low proficiency students

• Gertrude Tinker Sachs
• Georgia State University

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Overview

• Handouts what are they about?
• Where are we in our thinking? Understanding why
  articulating why theories that inform our views
  and actions
• Strategies and approaches
• About taking action and being proactive

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Handouts are they useful?

• Lets have a look pre-reading

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Cooperative Learning

• What it is not.
• Shoulder partners and eyeball partners number
  off please

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Lets start with you

• School level
• How would you describe your learners?
• How would you describe yourself as a teacher?
• Please put your name and school on the paper and
  turn in.

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Where do I stand?

• How do I view Hong Kong teachers?

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Major findings from research

• Children acquire the foundations of literacy
  within their native language and culture
  (Cummins, 1989 Wells, 1986 Wong-Fillmore, 1991)
• There is a social nature to literacy learning (au
  Mason, 1981 Heath, 1983 Scriber Cole, 1981
  Vygotsky, 1978)

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Major Findings

• Background knowledge plays a significant role in
  meaning making (Bruner, 1996, Goodman, 1992
  Langer, 1984)
• Reading and writing are interrelated (Clay,
  1979 Harste et al, 1984)

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Major Findings

• Becoming literate in a second language takes time
  5-7 years depending on the individual, strength
  of native literacy, type of second language
  instruction, and status of the second language
  (pg.23)
• Perez, B. (1998). Language, literacy and
  biliteracy. In B. Perez (Ed), Sociocultural
  contexts of language and literacy, pp21 -48.
  Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum.

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Creating Classroom Contexts

• Non-linear thinking
• promoting risk-taking, problem solving,
• Offering their own ideas about text
• Open classroom for the flow of ideas
• Meaningful literacy learning connected to the
  real world
• Thinking about thinking - metacognition

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Classroom Contexts

• Scaffolding linguistic and background knowledge
  connecting to what they know and have experienced
• Asking decontextualised questions will limit use
  of linguistic code ask what do you think
• Adopt an interactive stance in your teaching

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Classroom Contexts

• Set a purpose
• Students read their drafts to other students
• Respond to stories read by their teacher
• Respond to prompts
• Create some prompts from current affairs in HK,
  the region, around the world

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Reader response strategies

• What is my purpose
• Why did the author write this text what did
  s/he teach me
• What parts to I like best/least/why
• Does the text remind me of another text
  similar/different
• What would I have changed if I had written it?
• Are there parts I dont understand what can I
  do about it?

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Reference

• Kucer 1995, Guiding bilingual students through
  the literacy process. Language Arts, 72, 23.

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Response Read Pair Square

• Hong Kong is full of people
• Ah Wah
• Poems by Mike Murphy
• Activity work with slide 14 - RRT

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Reciprocal Teaching

• What is it?
• Lesson observation Grade 2 accelerated students
  in a small group
• Review handouts
• Key elements predicting, questioning,
  clarifying, summarizing
• teacher modelling, student leadership and
  responsibility, articulating processes

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Metacognition

• Understanding why we use certain strategies
• Articulating how we do things
• Working to reduce our weaknesses and increase our
  strengths by understanding what experts do
• TEACHER MODELLING is the KEY!!

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Reciprocal Teaching - Superfoods

• Select your role predictor, questioner,
  clarifier, summarizer
• Read your helpful bookmarks first

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Literature Circles

• What is it?
• DVD observation who are these learners, what
  are they doing, how are the activities
  structured?
• Article
• Look at the Highwayman Notes read quickly
• Lets look at the poem

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Extensive Reading

• Bring me three gifts Doris Jones Yang
• Article pre, during and post reading, writing,
  speaking, listening, visualising activities
• Interaction in the ERS lesson. Guidelines June
  2003, 25 (1).
• Transforming extensive reading.
• May 2001, Horizons in Education, 43.

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Dragon Boat Festival

• Activity see next set of slides
• Culturally responsive teaching
• What activities can you get your students to do?
• What did you learn?

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Shared reading experiences

• Modeling reading and motivating students
• Listening to texts read well and forming
  discussion groups
• Repeated reading, radio reading, choral reading
• Readers Theatre
• DVD Ivy Suns Coffee or Tea Drama
• Article forthcoming - TESOL publications

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Follow-up activities

• Oral response discussion, think-pair-share,
  oral reading
• Written response writing to a prompt,
  open-ended writing, journal writing, poetry
  writing
• Visual response creating a drawing/picture,
  induced imagery
• Physical response physical tableau, pantomime,
  dance and movement

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Motivating students

• How do we do it?
• Discuss
• Round Robin quiet voices
• Lucky Draw

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Purposeful Teaching

• Connecting to self
• Connecting to text
• Connecting to others
• HK/Atlanta connections

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Meaningful Teaching

• Low achieving students what is your belief?
• What can we do?
• What ideas can we use from this workshop?
• Numbered heads

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Spirit-Centred Teaching

• Our beliefs govern our teaching
• Our attitudes govern our teaching
• We work with our like-minded peers to be
  spirit-centered teachers who seek to make a
  difference despite the mandated difficulties
• Open-mindedness
• Always receptive to professional development

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Its a profound joy to be back with you thank
you!

• Gertrude Tinker Sachs
• Middle Secondary Education Instructional
  Technology Department
• Georgia State university
• P.O.Box 3978
• Atlanta, GA 30302-3978
• USA gtinkersachs_at_gsu.edu

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Workshop Feedback

• Thank you!!!