1. Creating Meaning from the Written Word
Presented by Carrie Purcell and Heather Buchansky
Oxford University Press
Friday, December 4, 2009

2. Presentation Online Introduction to Reading Theory
Introduction to Intensive Reading
Research, benefits, resources
Introduction to Extensive Reading

3. Think About… Why do we read? Why do we teach reading?
What reading strategies work with your students?
What do your students enjoy about your reading lessons?

4. Second Language Reading
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” - Joseph Addison
Recently, the term ‘interactive’ has been used to describe second language reading process
Refers to the way the reader ‘struggles’ to make sense of the text

5. Second Language Reading
My Father’s Watch
In our village, there were only six good clocks. The biggest clock was in the church stram where everybody could see it. My father owned one of the others. It stood in the kitchen. He wound it every night before he went to bed.
Once a year, the clockmarret came from Winchester. He came on his horse. He cleaned the clock in the church stram first. Then he cleaned ours…
My father was a barlim and he was a busy man. When the clock had been cleaned, he always left the room. ‘Women can taddle their time with stories,’ he said, ‘but men have work to do.’ And he went back to his barl.
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6. Second Language Reading
It is likely that you used at least six types of knowledge to help you make sense of the text:
Syntactic
Morphological
General word
Sociocultural
Topic
Genre
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7. “Creating Meaning” How we read depends on what we read
(i.e. – newspaper article, information text)
Learners need to be taught to read for meaning
They must learn to read in different ways and read different texts for different purposes

8. Different types of literacies
Reading government documents
Reading signs
Reading instructions
Reading schedules
What else?...

9. Intensive Reading Overview: What is Intensive Reading?
Reading a short text with attention to detail
Performing a series of tasks to unpack the text
Completing tasks during class time
Teacher is on hand for questions and feedback

10. Intensive Reading Overview: Why Read Intensively?
To build basic reading strategies
To focus on fluency and competence in the areas of vocabulary recognition and critical thinking
What are some intensive reading activities?
Third point - discussion

11. Intensive Reading Skills
Knowledge
Vocabulary
Grammar
Idioms/collocations
Descriptions
Fact vs. opinion
Scanning for info
Survival
Organization for writing/note-taking
Comprehension
Summarizing
Revising and editing
Critical thinking/analysis
Discussions
Communication
Current issues
Making inferences
Genres
Culture
In no particular order & a starting place

12. Intensive Reading Activities
Pre-reading purpose:
Stimulate what they know about the topic
Provide them with background info they need to know
Help with vocabulary/phrases they need to know

13. Intensive Reading Activities
Pre-Reading teaching ideas:
Guess the topic of the text from heading/ illustration
Skim for topic sentence/thesis
Scan for 2-4 items of information
Predict what text will say
Ask questions that may be answered in the texts

14. Intensive Reading Activities
Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate
Chapter 1 – Reading 1
Pre-reading activities

15. Intensive Reading Activities
While Reading approaches:
1. Teacher – learner interaction activities
2. Learner – learner interaction activities
3. Text only activities
ordering paragraphs
jumbled paragraphs
note-taking
checking pre-reading activities

16. Intensive Reading Activities
While Reading teaching ideas:
Identify main/general idea
Answer questions/complete sentences
Complete a table/map/picture
Make inferences
Fact vs. opinion

17. Intensive Reading Activities
Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate
Chapter 1 – Reading 1
Vocabulary in Context
Comprehension Check

18. Intensive Reading Activities
Post-reading purposes:
Check, give feedback and follow-up work
Can/should involve other skills – writing, speaking or further vocabulary development

19. Intensive Reading Activities
Post-reading teaching ideas:
Discuss significant points in the text
Discuss/debate controversial topics/characters
Develop other skill areas
Writing
Grammar

20. Intensive Reading Activities
Creating Meaning – Upper Intermediate
Chapter 1 – Reading 1
Writing – Grammar
Page

21. Intensive vs. Extensive Reading
Overall understanding (gist)
Widespread Reading
Easy texts
Fluent reading
Infer the meaning of unknown words
Reading for pleasure
Intensive
100% understanding
Limited reading
Difficult texts
Word for word
Use dictionaries
Reading to create and analyze meaning

22. Extensive Reading Overview
Reading a long text (i.e. short book to a full length novel) for pleasure, with attention to overall meaning
Learners read on own time for enjoyment
Helps increase reading fluency
“What are the benefits of extensive reading?” (

23. Research has shown that reading for pleasure will…
Why Read?
Research has shown that reading for pleasure will…
Improve vocabulary
Improve grammar
Improve listening skills
Improve spoken fluency
Improve writing skills
Increase motivation

24. Extensive Reading Skills
Knowledge
Vocabulary
Grammar
Collocations
Descriptions
Comprehension
Summarizing
Pleasure/entertainment
Current issues
Making inferences
Moral of the story
Genres
Culture
Discussions
In no particular order…

25. Extensive Reading in the Classroom
“How can I get my students to read when they don’t read in their own language?”
Set up a novel study time in class
Read the first page(s) of a story aloud to your students
Stop at an interesting or exciting point
Begin discussion: “What comes next in the story?” Wait until next week’s novel study session to find out
Next week, continue with the story or start a new novel
After a few weeks, bring in the books …
Next week, continue with the story or start a new novel - if you would like to have a selection of extensive readings available for a novel unit, this is a good way to involve yourstudents in the selection process

26. Extensive Reading in the Classroom
How do you start an Extensive Reading programme?

27. Extensive Reading in the Classroom
Choose an appropriate level
Choose from a list of genres
Create a Book Club!
Incorporate expansion activities
Final project
Create a Book Club! – this could be your entire class or smaller groups within the class that chose the same novel

31. Extensive Reading in the Classroom
Bookworms Online Activities

32. Questions and Comments…
Thank-you for attending our presentation!
Carrie Purcell
&
Heather Buchansky