Teaching Reading and Writing Strategies

Teaching Reading and WritingStrategies Lore Tulasiewicz let202@exeter.ac.uk

Vocabulary Strategies • We can often understand the main points of a text even when we don’t understand every word. • Strategies: • Leave out unimportant words • Try to guess the meaning of an unknown word from the context. • Use the dictionary only when nothing else works

Skipping Words(Leaving them out) • School Lunches Around the World • We usually have stew or some other kind of meat and mashed potatoes. • Do your students know what a stew is? • Do they know the meaning of mashed? • If not, does it matter?

Guessing Strategies • When I was a child we were very poor. But my father had a few things he was very proud of. His greatest fastam was a watch he becked from his grandfather. He kept it in a dimp in his desk and only brought it out on tachial days.

How can you work out the meaning? • His greatest fastam: • must be a noun = grammar knowledge the father was proud of it/must be something special = knowledge of the world • becked • must be a verb he got it from the grandfather/ to inherit • A dimp: noun/part of a desk= drawer • tachial: before a noun/adjective - ‘special’ days

To guess unknown vocabulary a reader uses ‘knowledge of the world’ = top-down processing • grammar/word knowledge = bottom-up processing

Reading is an active process • When reading a text a reader is constantly changing between top-down and bottom-up processes

How can we help students to use these strategies to understand a text? • Pre-reading: Tasks to activate prior knowledge/introduce keywords • Preview: Look at title/pictures • Reading Tasks: • skimming/scanning • Not just questions: complete a table/reorder pictures

Pre-reading tasks • To activate knowledge • Create interest • Activate language - Keywords

Questions before reading the textActivate world knowledge • 1. Where was Jane walking? • 2. What did she hear behind her? • 3. What was the necklace made of? • 4. What did the thief steal (two things)? • 5. What did the thief do next?

The story • Jane was walking down the street. It was late and very dark. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her. She was afraid. It was a thief. He took her gold necklace, her bag and ran away.

PicturesWorld knowledge and vocabulary • Preparing a text about healthy living What does he usually eat? What does he like doing? What does he usually eat? What does he likedoing?

Keywordsactivate vocabulary • Pet shop • Pets • Happy • Excited • Scared

Pre viewing

Reading of the Text Tasks - Questions • Next week John and his family are going to go to Australia. They will sleep in a hotel. They are going to go swimming and sightseeing. • 1. Where is John going to go next week? • 2. Where will he sleep? • 3. Are they going to go swimming?

Do all questions check understanding? • They saw the zickish gambilong flabling in the rista. • What was the gambilong like? • What was he doing? • Where was he doing it?

Reading Tasks - ScanningIf a task is easy – text can be more difficult • What time does Jenny get up? • What time does she go to bed? • Why is her mother worried? • Jenny wants to do well in school and she is working very hard. She hopes to go to university and study medicine. Her days start at 5 o’clock in the morning and finish at 12 midnight, every day, seven days a week.

World Records • Read and complete the table The woman with the longest hair lives in Guangxi Province China. Her name is Xie Qiuping. When her hair was measured in 2004 it was 5,62 m long. Her hair has not been cut since 1973, when she was 13 years old.

Reading Task - Skimming Friday • a) On Saturday afternoon Mr Smith had to do a lot of shopping. • b) Monday morning Mr Smith was back in his office. He was very tired. • c) Friday, 5.15 o’clock at last. Mr Smith went home. • d) Saturday morning Mr Smith was washing the car. • e) Sunday afternoon Mr Smith was working in the garden. • f) Sunday morning he washed the dishes. His wife watched TV. Monday

Writing – Product or Process? Traditional Writing Tasks: Grammar/Vocabulary exercises Answering questions Homework

Product Writing • The teacher is interested in the output: grammar/spelling • The student maybe mainly interested in the mark. • For example • He go to the store. 1 • They buys a role toilet ^ paper. 0 • They eat chipps. 1 • 2/6

Process Writing • Create interest: communicative tasks • Pre-writing tasks • Help while writing: students can learn strategies/what ‘good’ writers do • Mark not just grammar, also communication

Process Writing Tasks • In real life • We write for a reader • We have a reason for writing/a purpose

Process writing taskscommunicative • Students have a map and decide where they live. Then they write a letter to a friend inviting him/her to a party at their house. The task is to describe the route so that the partner can find their house.

Other communicative Tasks • Write a description of an alien/a monster – ask a partner to draw it • The alien’s name is Aldi. He is small. He has two big eyes. His body is green. He likes eating grass. Aldi

Pre Writing Taks • Help with • Ideas • Structure • Language

Mindmap Food Date Spring Festival Cleaning Family

Model She has big eyes. She looks serious She has medium length hair He has short hair. She is wearing a red jacket. He is wearing a blue school uniform. He has small eyes. I think he is funny.

Poetry - Chinese Poems HSÜ KAN • A wife’s thoughts, III • Since you, sir, went away, • My bright mirror is dim and untended. • My thoughts of you are like flowing water, • Will they ever have an end? The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse

‘I like’ poem • Pattern Icecream I like chocolate. I like strawberry. I like vanilla, but I don’t like banana I like …………. I like …………. I like …….. But I don’t like …….. From: Writing simple poems V.Holmes/R.Moulton Cambridge 2001

Writing in Class Group writing: Jigsaw writing

Marking for communication • Dear Mark, • We come Londen Mondey. Very tired. • Whether rein. See meny things, casle,cherches. Fud not so well. Sosages and potates. Go back nekst wik. Bye, bye • Peter

Teaching Reading and Writing Strategies