This was one of the Power Point Presentations used at the August 2010 English A CESEC workshop I facilitated in Belize City to an audience of over fifty-five teachers.

1. Reading Comprehension Sections I, II, III, IV of Paper 2 Paper I 60 M.C. items 1

2. 2

3. How do you read? What strategies do you use? 3

4. 4 Report from the National Research Council U.S.A.,1998

5. 5 U.S.A.: Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000

6. 6 In 2005, Australian Government

7. 7 In 2006, British Government

8. 8 So…why do our students need to read?

9. 9 Some reasons for reading: 1. For Testing

10. 10 2. For competency in other subject areas

11. 11 3. For a broader base of knowledge

12. 12 4. For usefulness in a world replete with non-fiction literature

13. 13 5. For creation of a deeper understanding of self and others

14. 14 6. For enjoyment and appreciation of literature (fiction) Am reading. Go away.

15. Key Beliefs to Teaching Reading Successfully Teachers, not programs or strategies, are the critical element in a student’s success. Teachers must understand a student’s particular issues and choose teaching strategies that will push students forward. The goal of reading is comprehension. 15

16. Key beliefs to Teaching Reading (continued) 3. Comprehension is a complex, abstract activity. It can be taught. There are no “magically good” readers. 4. No matter what level of students we teach, no matter how weak or how strong, it is our responsibility to teach them. 16

17. Diagnosing Students Reading Comprehension weaknesses. You are the doctor here. Open This Box/Student: Student brings socio-economic complexes plus own reading experiences- good or bad 1. Your Teaching Experience 2. Education 3. Your training 4. Your compassion 17

19. Making predictions

20. Seeing causal relationships

21. Comparing and contrasting

22. Drawing conclusions

23. Questioning the text

24. Summarizing 18

25. Independent Reader versus Dependent Reader Independent Reader: Monitors her understanding of a text Chooses appropriate strategies necessary to comprehend difficult text Able to make the invisible process of reading mostly visible Dependent Reader: May be able to sound out/decode a passage, but not able to make sense of it Appeals to teacher for help Lacks interest to complete long or difficult texts 19

26. Schema Connections Schema: the combined knowledge that students already have; connecting reading to what you know. Three types of schema connections: text to self, text to text, and text to world. 20

27. Why do good readers make schema connections as they read? Increases their interest level in the text Helps them to relate to characters Increases “reading stamina” Helps them remember what they read Shows them that they DO have a base knowledge/core group of experiences that they can draw from Forces them to ask questions Learn to listen to others 21

28. Teach the students schema by: Explaining concept of schema to them, and the three types of schema Make sure students understand the benefits of schema connections. 3. Model how I make schema connections. Use “think aloud” method. 22

29. Teach students schema (continued) 4. Give students time to practice. Students are expected to make at least ONE schema connection in pairs, groups or as a class. 5. Continue to demonstrate , ask students about, and expect students to make schema connections as they read primary texts 23

30. Teaching students schema (continued) 6. Apply schema connections elsewhere, e.g. to movies, book to movie, et cetra 7. Introduce students to short non-fiction articles related to themes in book 8. Remind students to highlight or underline with a purpose as they read 24

31. Teaching students schema (concluded) 9. Ask students to compare books to popular songs or to think about what songs are related to what is happening in the book and WHY 25

32. Alternative Methods for introducing Schema Adopt mantra- “what does this remind me of?” Ask students to list everything they know about a given subject. 26

33. Alternative methods for introducing schema (continued) 3. Work on K-W-L charts with students 4. Activity: give generalized statements related to themes in text- ask students to take a stand and explain WHY in two sentences 27

34. Alternative methods to teaching schema (continued) 28

35. REVIEW: 29

36. 30

37. 31

38. Form groups of four to teach the following reading comprehension strategies given four minutes: 1. clarifying 2. Comparing & Contrasting 3. Inferencing 5. Predicting 7. Questioning the text 9. Evaluating 11. Determining what’s important as students read 12. SQ4R method 4. Make connections to prior experience 6. Summarizing 8. Visualizing 10. Understanding Textual Features 13. Synthesizing information to create new thinking 32

39. 33

40. Home Work for Tuesday & Wednesday: Bring one innovative teaching method or technique you have created or used. Prepare for a debate on the following three propositions for Wednesday: 34

41. Propositions for debate: Be it resolved that teachers should specialize as lower form orupper form teachers. Be it resolved that teachers teach to CSEC exam instead of teaching to course. Be it resolved that CSEC is still important to Belizeans. 35