1. Principles to Practice in Teaching Reading
Jennifer Bixby
Joe McVeigh
CATESOL
Santa Clara, CA
April 24, 2010

2. Jenny
Joe

3. Who are you ?

4. Schema
building

5. What
are your top
3 principles
for teaching reading?

6. Principles
of teaching
reading: an
overview

7. Our main sources
a b c d.

8. a. b. c. d. 1. 2. 3. 4. Paul Nation Neil Anderson Cheryl Zimmerman
Bill Grabe
a b c d.

9. 1. Develop word recognition skills

10. 2. Move from sentence-level to discourse-level processing

11. 3. Develop lessons structured around
pre during and post-reading activities

12. intensive and extensive
4. Use both
intensive and extensive
reading

13. 5. Increase reading speed
Rate

14. 6. Focus attention on vocabulary development skills

15. 7. Explicitly teach strategies

16. 8. Develop and maintain motivation

17. 9. Move towards learner autonomy

18. Principles
of teaching
reading: an
overview

19. How readers construct meaning

20. Bottom-up processing

21. Bottom-up processing
Starting from sounds and letters to make meaning
Identifying words and structures
Focus on vocabulary, grammar, organization
Can include text features such as title, subtitles, text types

22. Top-down processing

23. Top-down processing
Comprehension resides in the reader
Reader uses background knowledge and makes predictions
Teacher focus is on meaning-generating activities (Anderson 2008)

24. Interactive processing

25. Interactive processing
Readers use bottom-up and top-down processes simultaneously
Higher and lower-level processes influence each other (Hedgcock & Ferris, 2009)

26. Bottom up, top down, or interactive?
Schema-building to activate background knowledge
Learn new words before reading
Study how passive voice is used in a story.
Underline a grammar structure or verb tense
Read for overall meaning, not stopping for unfamiliar words
Write a paragraph using information from two different texts.

27. Principle: Develop lessons structured around
pre during and post-reading activities

28. Pre-reading activity:
Schema building

29. Pre-reading activity:
Previewing the text

30. Preview the Reading
You are going to read a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) webpage from a health Website about the flu. FAQ sheets state commonly asked questions about a topic, followed by the answers. What symptoms of the flu do you know?
Flu FAQ Flu season is coming! Are you prepared? Here are answers to your questions!
What is the flu?
The flu, short for influenza, is a virus that passes easily from person to person. Every year, millions of people miss work and school because of the seasonal flu. Seasonal flu exists worldwide. Usually the flu season is in the winter months, but in warm climates, the flu occurs during the rainy season.
What are the symptoms of the flu?
The symptoms of the flu include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. These symptoms usually show up quickly, developing within three to six hours of exposure to the virus. With the flu, you may start the day feeling fine, only to end up feeling terrible a few hours later.
What’s the difference between the flu and a cold?
Both are respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. Although the symptoms can be similar, flu symptoms are more severe and include a high fever and body aches. Cold symptoms include a runny or stuffy nose and a cough. You may have a slight fever with a cold, but in general, cold symptoms are milder and only last about seven days. The flu can last up to two weeks. It is much more likely to develop into a serious illness and require hospitalization.
fatigue: great tiredness
respiratory: related to breathing
stuffy: blocked, making it hard to breathe
(from McVeigh & Bixby, in press)

31. During-reading activity:
Keep an important question in mind

32. During-reading activity:
Re-read to find details

33. Post-reading activity: Critical analysis and evaluation

34. Post-reading activity: Critical analysis and evaluation
In which lines of the reading does the author give factual information?
In which lines does the author give her opinion? What clues tell you it is her opinion?

35. Post-reading activity: Reflection and integration

36. Post-reading activity: Reflection and integration
Do you agree with the author that technology is bad for human relationships? Why or why not?
Write a paragraph giving your own opinion about the topic. Use quotations from the text to support your ideas.

37. Principle: Focus attention on vocabulary development skills

39. How many words are in a large dictionary?
65,000
90,000
115,000
267,000

40. How many words are in a large dictionary?
65,000
90,000
115,000
267,000

41. How many words does a native speaker know?
5,000
10,000
20,000
40,000

42. How many words does a typical native speaker know?
5,000
10,000
20,000
40,000

43. How many words does a native speaker know?
5,000
10,000
20,000
40,000

44. How many words does a language learner need to know?

45. How many words does a language learner need to know?
“A very large number.” (Nation 2001)

46. What level of reading vocabulary is fun, challenging, or frustrating for students?

47. What level of reading vocabulary is fun, challenging, or frustrating for students?
98% of words fun
95% of words challenging
<90% of words frustrating

48. Vocabulary Development Activities
Using a dictionary
Recognizing word forms
Identifying affixes and roots
Understanding collocations
Guessing meaning from context

49. Not all vocabulary words are created equal

50. Word frequency 1st 1000 words 70% 2nd 1000 words 80%
Academic word list 88-90%
Other

51. Types of vocabulary High frequency words Academic words
Low frequency words
Technical words

52. Checking on the vocabulary level
Use a vocabulary profiler such as this one at the English Centre at the University of Hong Kong

53. Vocabulary Profiler Results
Frequency Percentage
words %
words %
AWL words %
Off-list words %

54. Vocabulary Profiler Results
: a about accept addition after agree agreement allow also always an and are as at bad be because bills both broke brothers build business businesses but buy by car cared carried change child children college color could couldn counting course day describe didn difficult dollars done each easy enjoy enjoyed enough escape even every everything expected fact families family. . .
: afford arguments baby clothes customer customers ducks during dusting exactly fun hated holidays hungry ice lesson lessons lot lots lucky nice parents proud rabbits restaurant salary shelves shop sweeping worried
AWL: adult appreciate communicate eventually jobs
Off-list: budget chutney dusty feeding london menu pakistan shy talents teenager untrained woodworking yelling

55. Principle: Explicitly teach strategies

56. Strategy: Monitor comprehension

57. Filling in a graphic organizer
Traditional journalism
Citizen journalism

58. Monitor comprehension: underlining

59. Interactive processing

60. Questions

61. Oxford University Press
Q: Skills for Success
Oxford University Press
2011

62. Thanks to the many photographers on Flickr who provided their photos under a Creative Commons license
Woman reading by subway Simon Carrasco
Pen and writing Nadia Badaoui
Top down convertible “emdot”
Strategies “noagh”
Speed Dan DeChiaro
Scaffolding Kevin Dooley
Scaffolding Cezary Borysiuk
Refrigerator words Joshua Barnett
Question mark Ethan Lofton
Q Thomas Bower
Bottom up Judith Green
Spaghetti recipe Jakob Montrasio
Bearded man reading Ulisse Albiati
Boy on bicycle “woodleywonderworks”

63. Thanks to the many photographers on Flickr who provided their photos under a Creative Commons license
Processor Karl Ludwig Poggemann
Principles “sarahg”
Pink flowers Eduardo Deboni
Woman w magnifying glass Mike Kline
Written list sunshinecity
Keyhole Sean McGrath
Jumbled Type Pink Sherbet Photography/D Sharon Pruitt
Highlighted book “rocknroll guitar”
Handwritten script “pareeeica”
Interactive Cameron Russell
Divers Robert S. Digby

64. www.joemcveigh.org/resources Thank you !
Download copies of handout and PowerPoint slides (minus copyrighted materials) at
Thank you !