This presentation sums up theoretical information and practical activities about reading comprehension, creative writing and dramatization used in Primary School and Kindergarten Želiarska 4, Košice in Slovakia.

1. Reading, writing and drama
at Primary School and Kindergarten
Želiarska 4, Košice

2. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
• The trainer for the course was doc. RNDr.
KATARÍNA KIMÁKOVÁ, CSc. from Pavol Jozef
Šafárik University in Košice. She teaches
didactics of biology, deals also with reading
comprehension and uses writing for
understanding natural sciences in a creative
way.

3. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension

4. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
Three main points of the course:
1. The framework for critical thinking – EUR
– EUR is an abbreviation derived from Evocation,
Understanding and Reflection
– Evocation - what do the students already know
about the topic?
– Understanding – students are looking for
information related to their assumptions and
predictions
– Reflection – what have the students found out?

5. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
Three main points of the course:
2. INSERT (Interactive Notating System for Effective
Reading and Thinking)
– Evocation e.g. by brainstorming
– Understanding by INSERT: students read a text
and they mark the text using 4 marks:
√ I know it
+ It is new for me
- I know it differently
? I would like to know more about it
– Reflection: Students draw a chart with four
columns and they fill it with marked information

6. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension

7. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
Three main points of the course:
3. Free writing
– can be used for evocation before reading or
learning about a topic
1. students get a few keywords
2. their task is to write a story
3. they write whatever comes to their mind
4. they are not allowed to put down a pen
5. they don‘t stop and don‘t erase anything
6. a few students present their stories

8. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
Three main points of the course:
3. Conceptual maps for reflection (sorting
information)

9. Course for teachers
about reading comprehension
Other methods
• Reading
– Reading from author‘s chair
• Writing
– Writer workshop
– Argumentative essay
– Cinaquin

10. Course for teachers
about reading in English
• The trainer for the course was Mgr. Slávka
Ilavská. She was previously an English teacher,
today she works for Oxford University Press
in Slovakia. She organises workshops
for English teachers and shows them the
newest and the best practices for teaching
English.

11. Course for teachers
about reading in English

12. Course for teachers
about reading in English
• Intensive reading means reading short texts at
school with deeper understanding. We focus
on grammar or new vocabulary.
• Extensive reading means reading longer texts
usually at clubs or at home. It is crucial to
understand the main points, not necessary to
translate each unknown word.

13. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Intensive reading
• Activities before reading
– Skimming – very quick reading of main ideas
– Scanning – very quick reading concentrating on one
or few specific information
– Teaching the new vocabulary in advance (not more
than 7 – 10 words)
– Brainstorming – the quantity of words is important
– Why are we reading?
– Prediction according the pictures and titles

14. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Intensive reading
• Activities during reading
–Working with dictionaries
–Time axis – put the texts in the correct order
–Charts – who, what, when, where, why, how

15. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Intensive reading
• Activities after reading
–Writing a short message about it to the teacher
–Pantomime or drama
–Selfie
–Interview

16. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Intensive reading
• Testing → understanding, spelling and grammar
– Closed exercises
True/false
a, b, c – choose the right answer
Matching
– Open exercises
Gap filling
Short answer
Open ended

17. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Extensive reading
• required reading or “forbidden reading“?
• reading and fluency come together
• how to choose a book: according to age,
language level, student‘s choice, enthusiasm
of the teacher
• how to read a book: look the book through,
what do we think will happen in the book,
general understanding, note down vocabulary

18. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Extensive reading
•Recycled story: noun – verb – adjective – adverb→ new story
• Continuing stories
• Discussion
• Brainstorming
• Venn diagram
• Carroll diagram
• Projects
• padlet.com
• prezi.com
• Acrostic
• Reading circle

19. Course for teachers
about reading in English
Children with special needs – dyslexia
• We should suggest the student to use a piece
of white paper in a shape of the letter L to
hide the rest of the text.

20. European day of languages
First grade
• Presentation in English
about four seasons and
song
• Task with cards about
autumn in five participating
languages and about flags
• English vocabulary about
autumn
• Spelling
• Group work – creating
three-lingual dictionaries

21. European day
of languages
Second grade
• Each class prepared a short
presentation about one
participating country of the
project Flip & Movie.
• Power Point presentation
• Songs
• Food
• Drama
• Quiz ...

22. European Day of
Languages

23. Survey
Questions
1. What is your favourite
book, that you have
read in Slovak?
2. What is your favourite
book, that you have
read in English?
3. Who is your favourite
character from a book
and can be a good
example for you?

24. Survey
Results:
• First grade (1. – 4. class)
– Bendová, Krista: Opice z našej police (Monkeys
from our shelf)
– Brezina, Thomas: Klub záhad (Crusel Club) and
Tigrí tím (Tiger-Team)
• Second grade (5. – 9. class)
– Harry Potter is the most read book among them
and also his character is very inspiring

25. Night at school – first grade

26. Night at school – first grade
Program:
1. Quiz about fairy tales
2. Puppet tales
3. Making puppets from paper
4. Drama with puppets
5. Making fairy lanterns
6. Pumpkin carving
7. Looking for ghosts at the school yard
8. Fairy tale disco with masks from fairy tales

27. Night at school – second grade
• Reading The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe) by C. S. Lewis in
English – shortened version

28. Night at school – second grade
• Students were divided into 7 groups, each
group was reading two or three shortened
chapters of the book
• They talked about it with a native American
speaker Jeff, who is a friend of the school
• Each group presented his reading by a short
drama (shadow, puppet, pantomime, classic)
• Characters were presented on a carnival
• Workshop, Acrostic, watching the film ... a lot
of fun

29. Night at school – second grade
• Pictures

30. Creative writing
Practising creative writing according to these
steps
1. choose a character that you would like to be
2. describe it shortly
3. write a new story about him/her
4. put some ideas in the story from your future
plans
5. tip: face a problem in your story and solve it
in a creative and interesting way

31. Thank you for your attention