A. Developing concept background, if needed. What concepts-new ideas, new
places, different cultures, etc. - will be contained in the story? Will the
children's experiences enable them to understand the story? If not, the teacher must
develop the children's understanding of this component.
B. Introducing the New Vocabulary:
The teacher should teach new vocabulary words and/or words in the story which may;
cause the children difficulty. The following sequence for this aspect has been found to be
profitable for teaching sight vocabulary to most children (including those who are poor
readers).
1. Present the word clearly written in manuscript.
2. Pronounce the word for the children, making sure he/they look(s) at the word as
it is pronounced.
3. Ask the children to pronounce the word, again being sure the child(ren) look(s)
at the word when it is pronounced.
4. Present the word in written sentence context and have the child(ren) read the
sentence aloud and "find" the word by
underlining or otherwise identifying the word within the sentence.
5. Orally present the word in another teacher made sentence.
6. Have the child(ren) make a sentence using the word. Record
(in writing) this sentence. Have the child(ren) look at the sentence and read it
aloud. Then have the word located and again underlined.
7. Do the above 6 steps for each word taught.
8. After teaching the words, present the words at random to check on how well the
child(ren) has/have learned the words.
Note: Simply placing vocabulary words on
the chalkboard and having children look them up in a dictionary is not an effective
technique for teaching sight vocabulary.
C. Creating interest in the story:
Relate the child(ren) to the story: involve him/them in the story. Capitalize on
experiences--real, desired, or imagined. For example the story may be about a
circus. Although a child may never have seen a circus he may want to see one, and could
imagine what it would be like to go.
II. Directed Silent Reading:
In most instances silent reading of the material should precede oral reading
activities. The time allocated for silent reading will depend on grade level ~ the reading
skills of the children being taught. In general, for reading skills in the primary grade
levels, story segments should take from three to four minutes to read. At intermediate
levels and higher the story segments may be longer, and, in some instances, may
involve reading the whole story in a single, silent reading segment. Usually the following
two procedures should be a part of the directed silent reading.
TEACHING A DIRECTED READING LESSON
A. Establish a purpose for silent reading:
The teacher tells the child(ren) how much to read and provides guide questions:
example: "Read pages 10, 11, and ,12 and find two things; "How did Sammy find
his dog?" and "How many puppies did she have?"
B. The teacher stands by to give help for any words causing difficulty. The
important aspect here is to give aid quickly in such a manner as not to disrupt a child's
comprehension.
III. Comprehension check and skill building:
A. This involves expanded discussion after the story has been read in full.
Building empathy for characters, critical reading skills, appropriate literary skills (but
not asking for the moral of the story), "realness" of characters and so would be
developed at this point.
B. Simply filling in worksheets or answering worksheet-type questions as a
regular routine is not sufficient.
IV. Rereading with another purpose
This is not simply having children read by turn (round robin reading). Instead
have the child(ren) locate the answers to specific, questions, (aids in developing
skimming skills) and read aloud the sentence giving the answer (provides diagnostic check
for applying word attack skills being taught). Again, if a child does not know a
word when he reads orally, tell him., We do not want to interrupt comprehension. There
are, of course, other valid reasons for oral reading: dramatizing the story, especially
one with a lot of dialogue, reading funny parts, sad parts, scary parts, etc.
V. Word Recognition Skill Building:
The words the children did not know in the silent or oral
reading would be taught at this point, if they are of utility. That is, will the
child(ren) encounter the word(s) often enough to make it worth learning? Word
recognition skills (2 or 3) would also be taught at this point. However, a general, very
profitable rule of thumb: no more than 10 minutes time should be spent on any single skill
concept as, short a blends, digraphs, etc. Two or three different skills may be taught
during this segment so long as they are dissimilar enough that one skill concept is
not likely to be confused with another.
VI. Enrichment or follow up activities:
The primary emphasis should be on fun associated with a reading activity. It need
not be directly related to the story just read. Skill games, puppetry,
dramatization, anticipating outcomes beyond the end of the story, listening to the story
on tape, reading to the child(ren) are but a few worthwhile enrichment activities.
Note: All aspects of this model need not
be taught on the same day, especially when the teacher is working with a group of
children. In most instances, a tutor in a one-to-one setting would use all six steps.
However, enrichment and skill building activities (steps V and VI) should be a regular
feature of the reading lesson. There may be a need to re-teach certain skills to specific
students.
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