Monday, February 19, 2007

What model is best : comprehension driven ?

If skills driven is not the best, what about comprehension driven? Here are some ideas our reading circle had about comprehension driven reading instruction.

Read from adult oriented, everyday life. Use samples such as job applications, letter to child's school, bus schedule, diary/journal. Read about current events; news, war, celebrities, interests. Use newspaper to point out sentence structure. Use dictionary to encrease vocabulary. Journal writing can be used to stress and extend decoding skills.

Encourage writing and having student share own work by reading back. Discuss reading.

Find main idea and topic sentences. Explore differenct styles of writing.

Visualize the story. Draw pictures.

Any more ideas?

What about an integrated approach?

Does an integrated approach work best for teaching reading? Can we combine basic reading skills and comprehension skills in our classroom.

Focus has to be individual- a part of the whole, but explore separately.
Second language learners- Read for comprehension and explore vocabulary and grammar knowledge
Native English speakers- Look for issues of comprehension due to lack of focus. Discuss main ideas in paragraphs. How to build vocabulary.
Higher levels- When reading fiction: explore the writers strategies or styles.

Focus on letters/meaning/vocabulary can produce results to improve confidence and encourage further reading.

Combine functional reading (what a student does to get by in the everyday) with skills based instruction.

This seems to be the hardest to write about. Anything we left out?

What model is best for teaching reading:skills driven, comprehension driven or an integrated approach?

What is the best model for teaching? Which model was used when you learned to read? How do you spend your time teaching? How would you like to spend your time?

Some thoughts on Skills-Driven Model:

Need to build skills: phonics, blending, correlate sounds and symbols, syllabication, vocabulary, word families, use rules such as "ing always says 'ing' ring, sing, ding.

You can work on this by playing games, writing sentences, writing essays and working with family at home. Also, write stories and read them back. Explore mistakes learned during language class. Use charts and movements for memorizing letter sounds. Flash cards to help memorize sounds and sight words. Cooperative reading with partners. Repetitive reading.

These are adult learners.
How do you approach teaching letter sounds?
Adults already know a lot, use what students already know and build on those skills.

Building skills is essential to reading. Are there any tips or ideas we left out?

What do you want from the reading circle?

At our reading circle, we came up with some ideas about what we were looking for.

  • new research
  • new techniques
  • from a student's viewpoint, "where do we start"
  • comprehension-- how do you teach that?
  • software?
Any other ideas?