Designing Effective Reading Activities

1 1 TESOL, Denver March 26, 2009 2 Designing Effective Reading Activities 3 4 Jennifer Bixby Joe McVeigh 5 [email protected] [email protected] 6 7 Selecting appropriate reading materials 8  Student needs 9  Student interests 10  Student reading level 11  Course goals 12 13 Intensive and extensive reading 14 15 Vocabulary development 16 17 General guidelines and principles for activities 18  Teaching vs. testing 19  Bottom-up and top-down processing 20  Comprehension vs. strategy development 21 22 Activity prompts and response types 23  Multiple choice 24  Fill in the blank 25  Matching 26  Sequencing 27  Completing a table 28  Completing a graphic organizer 29 30 What makes an effective activity? 31  Clear and transparent 32  Doable 33  Motivating and engaging 34  Appropriate to stage in the process 35  Linked to goal of lesson 36 37 Pre-reading activities 38  Schema building 39  Previewing 40  Predicting 41  Skimming 42  Identifying genre 43

2 3 Bixby & McVeigh p. 2 44 Activities for use during reading 45  Keeping questions in mind 46  Note-taking or underlining 47  Completing graphic organizers 48  Monitoring comprehension 49  Timed reading for building fluency 50 51 Post-reading activities 52  Comprehension 53  Critical analysis and evaluation 54  Summarizing or paraphrasing 55  Task-based output 56  Reflection and integrated activities 57 58 Varying the task 59 Putting it all together 60 Questions 61 62 Bibliography 63 Anderson, N. J. (1999). Exploring second language reading: Issues and strategies. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. 64 Anderson, N. J. (2008). Practical English language teaching: Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill. 65 Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213–238. 66 Coxhead, A. (2006). Essential of teaching academic vocabulary. Boston: Thomson Heinle. 67 Crandall, J. (1995). Some guidelines for writers of ESL reading textbooks. In Byrd, P. (Ed.), Material 68 writer’s guide (pp. 79–94). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. 69 Day, R. R. & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge: 70 Cambridge University Press. 71 Day, R. R. (Ed.) (1993). New ways in teaching reading. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. 72 Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (2001). Reading for academic purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL teacher. In 73 Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd. Ed.) (pp. 187–203). 74 Boston: Heinle & Heinle. 75 Grabe, W. & Stoller, F.L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. London: Longman. 76 Grabe, W. (2008, March). Ten good ideas for teaching L2 reading. Paper presented at the meeting of 77 Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, New York, NY. 78 Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. 79 Mikulecky, B. S. (1990). A short course in teaching reading skills. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 80 Nation, I. S. P. (2008). Teaching vocabulary: Strategies and techniques. Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning. 81 Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. Oxford: Heinemann. 82 Wallace, C. (2001). Reading. In Carter R. & Nunan, D. (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to 83 speakers of other languages (pp. 21-27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 84 Zimmerman, C. B. (2009). Word knowledge: A vocabulary teacher’s handbook. New York: Oxford 85 University Press.

4 Download an electronic copy of this handout and of the PowerPoint slides at www.joemcveigh.org/resources. 5 Bixby & McVeigh p. 3

86 Working in a family’s business 87 88 Most small businesses are owned by families. The children in these families sometimes 89 work in the family business. In these stories, three people describe childhood experiences 90 with their family business. 91 92 My father owned a farm and garden supply store1. My three brothers and I worked 93 at the store after school and on Saturdays. I loved watering the plants, feeding the baby 94 ducks and rabbits, and dusting the shelves. I learned about my father as I watched him 95 with customers. He was always kind and friendly, and he showed respect to each person. 96 It was a business, but he cared about his customers. 97 When I was about 12 years old, a lucky thing happened to me. A customer 98 couldn’t pay his bills, and he owed my father hundreds of dollars. Instead of money, he 99 gave my father a horse. My father wasn’t very happy, because our family didn’t have 100 much money and he couldn’t afford to accept a horse instead of money. In addition, the 101 horse wasn’t worth as much money as the man owned my father. But my father knew 102 that his customer couldn’t pay the bill. My father took the horse and made an agreement 103 with me. I could have the horse, but after one year, we would sell it. The poor horse was 104 hungry and untrained, but I loved him and trained him to be a very nice horse. 105 After a year, I thought that my father would allow me to keep the horse, but he 106 reminded me that we had an agreement. Even though it broke my heart to sell the horse, I 107 knew our family didn’t have the money to keep a horse. My father showed me the 108 importance of keeping an agreement. I also learned about treating customers with respect. 109 Lucy, Florida 110 111 When I was a child, I helped in my father’s woodworking business2. I was only 7 112 years old when my father started the business, but he expected me to work in the shop. At 113 first, I just had easy jobs, such as sweeping the floor. By the time I was 10 years old, I 114 was working every day after school and full-time during the summer.

6 1 A store that sells small animals, animal food, and equipment for farming and gardening. 7 2 A business that makes items from wood such as bookcases or drawers.

8 Download an electronic copy of this handout and of the PowerPoint slides at 9 www.joemcveigh.org/resources. 10 Bixby & McVeigh p. 4

115 I hated the hot, dusty work, but my father paid me a small salary. When I was in 116 high school, I was proud that I had my own money to pay for my clothes and to buy my 117 own gas for my car. I felt independent and was free to spend my own money. 118 The most important lesson I learned was the lesson of hard work. I saw that my 119 father worked very hard to build his business from nothing. I also saw that my father was 120 very proud of his business. I carried this lesson with me when I went to college. My first 121 years of college were very difficult, but I knew that eventually, with hard work, I would 122 succeed. 123 Sam, California 124 125 When I was young, my family moved from Pakistan to London. My parents 126 started a restaurant. While other children enjoyed their summer holidays, I worked in my 127 family’s restaurant. While my friends were having fun, I was filling water glasses, taking 128 orders, handing out chutney3, and counting change. 129 I didn’t really enjoy working in the family business. In fact, I often hated it. In my 130 family, no one is shy about saying exactly how they feel and what they think. There were 131 lots of arguments about how things should be done. Sometimes we couldn’t agree about 132 simple things like the color of the menu or how much ice to put in each glass. In 133 addition, there were many other businesses like ours, so it was hard to make enough 134 money to keep our business going. My parents were always worried about money. When 135 I was a teenager, I just wanted to escape from our family’s business. 136 Now, as an adult, I realize that I learned many important lessons in my family’s 137 business. It was hard to listen to the arguments, but I learned that it is important to be 138 truthful. I also learned that yelling is not a good way to communicate. I learned a lot 139 about my parents, both their good and bad qualities. I learned to appreciate each of my 140 relatives and his or her talents. I learned the importance of working hard and having a 141 loving family. Of course, I learned that the restaurant business is not for me. 142 Sameer, London 143 144

11 3 A spicy food made from fruits and vegetables. It is often used in Indian and Pakistani cooking.

12 Download an electronic copy of this handout and of the PowerPoint slides at 13 www.joemcveigh.org/resources. 14 Bixby & McVeigh p. 5 145

15 Download an electronic copy of this handout and of the PowerPoint slides at www.joemcveigh.org/resources.