Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jkelly80]

I was recently railroaded into teaching an afternoon class at another school in my district for SMOE. When I got there we were told we'd be teaching a test-prep class consisting entirely of reading.

No joke. I'm sure there's thousands of Korean English teachers, all of whom are much more qualified to teach reading than myself, and yet here we are. I've pretty much focused on communicative activities throughout my undergrad study and while teaching with SMOE, so I have no clue how to squeeze 48 lessons out with just reading.

I went and picked out a reader Facts and Figures, it looks pretty good but I'm pretty stumped as to where to begin. Does anybody have any tips/websites/strategies for keeping 15 eleven year-olds focused on reading for twelve weeks?

[the_beaver]

Have them buy graded readers, read them in class, write journals about them afterwords.

During class, while they're reading, you read over the journals for content and make a comment or two.

This kind of thing comes from the new buzz in EFL -- extensive reading. Research indicates that it's a pretty good thing.

[jkelly80]

[KYC]

Does it matter what you teach them? Or what the students read?

I used the reading comprehension I downloaded from the GEPIK esnips website. It contained short stories followed by easy questions that they can write the answer to, or write them in the form of crossword puzzles, or somethign similar. My kids enjoyed them and it gave me 40 minutes of peace and quiet while I graded their test papers.

[marckot]

I taught reading classes for a long time and used the following system successfully

I made use of Longman's or Penguin's abridged novels. You know the kind where they reduce a classic story into 60 pages. There were loads of books to choose from and a variety of levels. You posted that you already hve a book so see if you can combine this plan with your reader.

I gave reading as homework. You must look at the level of your students to determine how many pages are enough for homework. When the students came to class I gave them a 5 minute class test on the pages they had to read for homework. Simple content questions to test whether they understood what they read.

Then we had a class discussion where we talked about the topic, characters and anything else related to what they read. If there were difficult parts in the book we reread them in class and checked pronunciation, grammar, meaning and so forth...

This worked really well for me.

[jkelly80]

Thanks.
The budget only allows for one book, and it's already been bought. I think we need to stick with the text, unless I can find some kind of pdf books.

I'm really wondering for general strategies about pre-reading, post-reading, strategies, etc. I think this book is decent but I have absolutely no idea how to structure a lesson around a text beyond some really basic ideas from a coursebook from two years ago.

Also, the Gepik pages on ensips either don't exist anymore or have had their files wiped, unless there's something I've missed. Too bad, that was good stuff.

[ddeubel]

If you are going to do journals, make sure you give them specific things to write about. I have a pile of reading response questions in the Mediafire resources on EFL Classroom 2.0 (under the file Reading).

Also use graphic organizers so they can detail characters, story line, details etc.... EFL students need these kinds of supports.

I would also just have them doing some retelling and rewriting of their reading (make their own pocket book version of the book - with their own drawings or make a comic retelling of the book). Retelling is a powerful way for students to both comprehend the story and also gain valuable speaking practice.

Of course, they can also share books and have reading circles. Ive also in the past had students design quizzes for each book. Then other students would have to read them and complete the student made quiz.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Scott in Incheon]

The reading circles are a good idea...there are organizers on the net which assign each of the members a role eg leader, drawer, connector, questioner...things like that.

You can look for reading projects on the net that are used with other texts and simply steal the different activities for your class.

Also you can look into metacognitive reading strategies. These are reading strategies that are used with at-risk readers in the States and Canada. They are mostly centered around getting students to interact with the text. The one that I remember mostly clearly now is Question and Predict where the students make a series of questions they want answered from the next part of the story and a prediction about what is going to happen next.

These strategies are really important as most students never get any instruction in how to read better past skimming and scanning.

You can also do some speed reading exercises as they will help students on tests. The slower you read the less you understand; there is a minimum reading speed needed for a clear understanding of the text.