Developing+Writting+Skills


 * __ DEVELOPING READING AND WRITTING SKILLS. __**

**__ About our Unit. __** Developing Reading Skills requires, from the part of the Teachers, being aware of successful strategies necessary to be a good reader. We plan a lesson that fits inside the theme of writing and understanding fiction narrations where children will be able to understand simple description of characters, dialogues and structures and should be able to analyse the characteristics that a person should have when living in community. The goal is make them followed the readings and acting out. For accomplish that we start working and reviewing the oral skills that they have worked in the previous themes, working from the previous knowledge. We plan a five lesson unit build from the end. The last one usually is the leading activity for the unit and the previous ones develop the knowledge to arrive there. As teachers our challenge is to make the subject attractive and develop interest for reading. ** Some of the Unit resources. More resources clicking the image: **



Due to imagine how we try to develop reading and writing skills through fiction narratives I have added the procedure of the leading activity in our unit “Deep Deep Under the sea”: ** 1. ** The teacher takes the book and introduces the story by showing the title page; having the the children create predictions. With this they also try to get them to see the structure of the book, Title page, index…Regarding the title page, the teacher also asks some close questions with double answer. So that gives the students the chance of an easy interaction by practising and developing their private language trough their public language. Showing the title page ** à ** create predictions; see the structure of a book. Affect displayers and facial expression when turn the page ** à ** create predictions, catch the attention. Close questions with double answer ** à ** chance of an easy interaction (Public and private language) ** 2. ** The teacher narrates the story characterising the characters and identifying the parts of the story using verbal and non-verbal language; and modulating different pitch, intonation, changing the rhythm, stress paten, eye contact, face expression, illustrators and emblems, for the story comprehension. So that will make the pupils follow the structure, different moments of the story, differentiate characters, the main moment of the story, the resolution problem moment… While the teacher explains the story they ask the students again some close questions with double answer or yes no questions so as to encourage them to participate in a more comfortable way. Narrate, characterising ** à ** Comprehension different moments and character of the story. ** 3. ** The teacher does the casting and gives all the children a part in the narration. The teacher puts the students in pairs. They can put the advanced with the ones that have more trouble to make them help each other. The pupils are going to share and do the character at the same time. ** 4. ** Each pairs join another four pairs, read the narration and dramatize the story with the figures and the little theatre. With this the teacher tries the students to deeply understand their own character and the whole story at the same time. The teacher supervises the activity and encourage the students to characterize the characters changing their voice, following a rhythm, showing happiness or anger or moving their bodies. Dramatize ** à **Understanding the rolls, working their language and body language ** 5. ** All the pairs that represent Monkey join together and the next of the pairs make the same. They will dramatize the story by themselves, using their own body. The teacher suggests a couple of illustrators for each group of animals and explain them when they have to do it. The students read the text together with the teacher's help and do their illustrator at the suitable moment. **__ Useful information for the teacher: __** **__ 1. __****__ Article: __** **__ Contemporary Understanding of the Reading Process and Reading Strategies Used by ESOL Learners While Reading a Written Discourse. __**

** The interactive model of reading ** __To overcome the problems the readers may encounter while reading in L2 and to properly achieve fluency and accuracy in reading, an effective solution would be created if foreign language readers relied on a symbiosis of top-down and bottom –up strategies. Hence, the interactive process assumes that skills acquired at different levels of language competence are best interactively available to process and interpret the written discourse.__ As Eskey (1988) claims, fluent reading entails both skillful decoding and relating information to prior knowledge. __It seems therefore reasonable to add that readers become good decoders and interpreters of texts gradually but surely only when they are familiar with both lower- level processes, to name just a few, translation of written code or morphological processing and higher –level processes including activation of schemata or influence of attitude, motivation and reader interest__ ** The primary reading strategy classification ** When talking about reading strategies, it is considered necessary to introduce the basic reading strategies (RS) classification. Much research has been done to identify and classify reading strategies in English language teaching (ELT) and it should be added that the study of successful learners in the learning process considerably contributed to gathering data regarding the most frequent actions taken by foreign language learners. According to numerous studies that have been carried out on reading strategies and their influence on success in reading comprehension, there is a general consensus that the two contrastive groups identified by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) are the most basic orientation in the division of RS. The authors based mainly on cognitive psychology and used expert opinions and theoretical analysis of language tasks like reading comprehension. Their classification included the following types of strategies: The same author, namely O’ Malley (1985: 561) tries to attach more importance to the second group by adding that: //“learners devoid of metacognitive approaches are learners without direction or opportunity to review their progress, accomplishments and future direction “ .// Such a primary role for the metacognitive strategies over the cognitive ones in the reading process has been shown in many studies on academic reading in L2. They indicate __that metacognitive strategies play an important role in helping students plan and monitor their comprehension while reading__ ** The schema theory ****. **
 * 1) ** COGNITIVE STRATEGIES **, which deal with actual information, how to obtain it, inferring or deducing meaning from context, using dictionaries and grammar books, retaining information through memorization, repetition or mnemonic tricks.
 * 2) ** METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES **, which refer to self management, setting objectives, monitoring and self-evaluation are regarded by O’Malley as more significant to learners as they involve thinking about the learning process and planning for learning.

Apart from the cognitive model that influenced the current understanding of the reading process, it appears that the concept of schema may also contribute to clarifying a reading action. Generally speaking, schema theory is concerned with knowledge particularly with the way knowledge is represented in our minds and the importance of prior knowledge to learning something new. This theory is based on the belief that //“every act of comprehension involves one’s knowledge of the world as well “// (Anderson et al. in Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983: 73). Therefore, it can be stated that readers develop an interpretation of text through the interactive process of //“combining textual information with the information a reader brings to a text “// (Widdowson in Grabe, 1988: 56 ), as was shown in the above diagram. The same reasoning may be supported by Ausubel who in his work entitled Educational Psychology (1968) puts forward the substantive approach: //“If I had to reduce all educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly”.// ** To read more about this: ** ** - Article: Contemporary Understanding of the Reading Process and Reading Strategies Used by ESOL Learners While Reading a Written Discourse: **[|http://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug09/mart02.htm#C8] **__ 2. __****__ The essential of language teaching __**__. __

that can help students read more quickly and effectively include
 * Strategies **

** Instructors ** can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in several ways. When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language. ** Reading **** to Learn ** Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in multiple ways. > When reading to learn, students need to follow ** four basic steps: ** To read more about this:  - **The essential of language teaching:** [], []
 * ** Previewing: ** reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
 * ** Predicting: ** using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
 * ** Skimming and scanning: ** using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions
 * ** Guessing from context: ** using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
 * ** Paraphrasing: ** stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text
 * By modelling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.
 * By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.
 * By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.
 * By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.
 * ** Reading **** to learn the language: ** Reading material is language input. By giving students a variety of materials to read, instructors provide multiple opportunities for students to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and discourse structure as they occur in authentic contexts. Students thus gain a more complete picture of the ways in which the elements of the language work together to convey meaning.
 * ** Reading **** for content information: ** Students' purpose for reading in their native language is often to obtain information about a subject they are studying, and this purpose can be useful in the language learning classroom as well. Reading for content information in the language classroom gives students both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading.
 * ** Reading **** for cultural knowledge and awareness: ** Reading everyday materials that are designed for native speakers can give students insight into the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying. When students have access to newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, they are exposed to culture in all its variety, and monolithic cultural stereotypes begin to break down.
 * 1) ** Figure out the purpose for reading. ** Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate reading strategies.
 * 2) ** Attend to the parts of the text ** that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory.
 * 3) ** Select strategies ** that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning.
 * 4) ** Check comprehension ** while reading and when the reading task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies.