Teaching has been defined in so many ways by different authors, educators and experts in the field of education, however for the purpose of this material, we will define teaching as:
A FULL TIME TASK. It demands all the time, patience, strength, tolerance, understanding, endurance and sense of humor from the person who desires to be a teacher.
AN ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT. This is reflected in the teacher’s daily projection, animation, creative planning, sincerity and enduring patience.
A PROCESS OF PRAISE AND ENCOURAGEMENT. This involves loving, disciplining, helping, guiding, criticizing and accepting the child.
A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION.
This involves guiding the learner from the legend to the truth, from the
unknown to the known, from the pretentious to reality and from the unworthy to
the meritorious.
SELF SATISFACTION AND
FULFILLMENT.
This is obtained from the sweet smile of the child who was helped by the teacher, from his daily contributions to the classroom, and from the achievement of an expectation.
This segment
of the reviewer discusses some of the most common teaching strategies and
techniques that the teachers usually employ to deliver the goods to their
clientele – the students, in an efficacious manner. However, it is an accepted
tenet and a known fact that there is no single best teaching methodology that a
teacher can utilize so as to make his students learn, that is why teacher must
use his prudence in the choice of appropriate and effective teaching strategy to
attain his ultimate end – helping his students learn the lessons.
NOTE, ORGANIZE, SUMMARIZE
Students may need help in
learning to apply reading skills to study techniques when preparing for class
discussions, tests, and report writing. They can improve their comprehension if
they learn to see how ideas are connected in an entire piece of writing.
1. Have the student skim an assigned passage to get at general idea of the content and overall organization. Ask them to discuss the article briefly as a group, then assess how well they have understood the whole passage.
2. Instruct the students to make notes in the margins about important ideas within and across paragraphs. You might model this step with a transparency of the reading and and an example of your own notes for the first paragraph or so. One possibility is to give the students a chance to try writing marginal notes about the key ideas for one paragraph and then show them your model or elicit their suggestions.
3. Have students work on their own, making brief marginal notes in their own words of ideas from each paragraph. Special care should be taken to recognize relationships among ideas extending across paragraphs.
4. Divide students into pairs or small groups. Have them compare their marginal notes. After they have made good headway, hand out blank transparencies to each group and have them outline the passage or part of the passage on the transparency.
5. Show outlines from two or more groups, simultaneously if possible. Have students compare similarities and differences with their own group outlines. Encourage questions about why certain points were or were not included in the outline. After discussing the outlines, have students assess how their comprehension change from the first cursory reading to the second during which they took their marginal notes.
6. Using a student generated outline, have the students summarize the article orally or in writing. Ask the students not to look at the original while they are summarizing. These summaries can be used to test comprehension.
7. As students become used to this procedure, they can begin writing and comparing their own outlines, instead of notes, with those of their classmates.
8. Semantic maps or other representations of organizational structure may be substituted for outlines.
9.
This series of reading activities should be
practiced several times throughout a term so that the students begin to acquire
independent note-taking strategies.
10. If
students are not familiar without outlining or mapping techniques, teachers may
have students take marginal notes to fill up in partially completed outlines or
topic maps. Guidance through procedure should gradually decrease.
11. Not
all passengers lend themselves to paragraph by paragraph analysis. Students may
need some help incorporating ideas from two or more paragraphs into one section
of an outline.
JIGSAW READING
This activity has been around
for a long time and takes various forms, regardless of the type of jigsaw
reading, the activity is enjoyable and helps students to conceptualize the
reading passage by looking at a small part and then fitting individual pieces
together. It works well as a pre-reading activity.
Procedure
1. Divide the passage by paragraphs and make copies for students.
2.
Arrange the class into groups according to the
number of paragraphs in the reading passage.
3. Give each group a complete set of passage, making sure that each person has a different paragraph.
4. Tell the students to put the paragraphs together in an appropriate order. Have them begin by reading their own paragraphs and then telling the other members of the group what they are about.
5. Ask the groups to share with the class the ordering that they have agreed on. Discuss the reasons for the various orderings the groups selected.
Set a limit – this turns the activity into a contest.
For basic readers, do the activity with scrambled sentences instead of paragraphs.
Distribute a copy of the
original reading passage to each student.
ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE, WHO DONE IT?
Newspaper
articles, especially those related to criminal or police actions, offer
students a variety of topics, styles, and levels of difficulty. The information
they contain usually includes elements related to time, place and action.
Leaners must not only Understand the information but be able to reconstruct it
chronologically because journalists present the current state of affairs in the
opening paragraph and then proceed to narrate the events that led to it.
Procedure
1. Select articles a few paragraphs in Length. Long articles can be shortened, but they should contain enough information to make the story coherent.
2. Give the students a copy and ask them to read it.
3. Either write a chart on the board for them to complete, or reproduce it as a handout, Try to have a chart with at least two labels: time and action.
4.
As soon as the students have read the article
and seen the chart, ask them to fill it in, taking care to organize the
information in chronological order, starting either with the most recent time
or with the most remote.
5. After a few minutes, when most or all of the students have finished, have them compare their charts.
6. Complete the chart on the board following the directions the students give you. At this stage, it is important to comment on different words used to fill in the chart or on any differences in how students completed it. Reconstructing the story allows students to discuss their different interpretations of it.
At this point, the students
have all the elements of the story and are ready to narrate it starting from
the beginning. Ask them to retell the story or rewrite it.
LITERATURE: MAKING STORIES THEIR OWN
When students engage in activities requiring them to reread stories. Their understanding at the literal and interpretative levels improves greatly. Ethnic folk tales, and other stories can make rereading enjoyable.
Procedure
• Pictomap. After they read or listen to a story, ask students to:
- draw a map identifying where major scenes took place
- retell what happened at each place
- cut out circles to draw the episodes as inset pictures
- glue pictures onto the map
- draw arrows to indicate event sequence
· They can go back to the story at any point of the project. This activity works well with adventure stories. Structures covered include sequence and cause effect.
• Point-of-view. Using a talk show format, have students take on
the roles of guests and host. As they work together to plan for questions and
answers, encourage students to express their feelings and viewpoint as though
they were the real characters.
This activity allows to
students to understand a story from an insider’s point of view. It also enables
students to consider values and interpretations of events as they consider
various perspectives. Role play during the actual presentation time is a
wonderful opportunity for ESL students to play with ways or speaking.
• Mural. Ask students to create a definite scene that best
represents the story. It is necessary to emphasize careful reading or library
research if necessary to get the details right. The main thrust of the projects
is to interpret the tone and mood of the story. Students can experience how to
create desirable effects using different media such as paint, chalk, finger
print and three dimensional paper art.
(Use dark paper as background,
avoid white.)
• Sculpture. Give clay to students to create a solid symbol for
the story. It is important to have two or three students work together because
through discussion they can come up with a theme or underlying message of the
story. After the sculpture is done, they need to explain orally or in written
form how their sculpture is a symbol for the story.
READ AND DRAW
This activity
aids comprehension by allowing students to look at the reading from a different
point of view. It also encourages the sharing of insights into the article by
students.
Procedure.
1. Divide the reading passage into five or six easy to read parts and write each part on an index card. Make sure the reading is one that lends itself well to drawing and make sure each parts has an element in it that can be drawn.
2. Divide the students into as many groups as you have parts of the reading. Explain the activity. Have the students working together in small groups read their part of the story and then draw what they have read.
3. Give one piece of paper and a pen to each group. Remember, students should work cooperatively.
4. After each group has drawn their portion of the story, post the drawings.
5.
Have a representative from each group to explain
the drawing.
Tips
1. Try a reading passage that is not so easy to draw. You’ll be surprised at the students creativity.
2.
If you have not done cooperative learning
activities in the class before, you might want to introduce the concept of
cooperative learning.
READING RELAY
In this strategy, which focuses on speed reading, skimming and scanning skills, students compete against a clock, but not against one another, if you have not done cooperative learning activities in the class before, you might want to introduce the concept of cooperative learning before you try this activity.
Procedure
1. Divide the reading passage into easy-to-read parts. The students work in group, so make sufficient sets for the number of students in the class. For example, if you have 12 students and the story has three parts, make four sets.
2. Make up any kind of comprehensive questions you wish for the entire reading passage.
3. Divide the students into small groups. The number of students in each group should equal the number of reading parts you have in each set.
4.
Explain the activity. Each member of the group
receives a different part of the reading. They read that part as many times as
they can before the signal. At the signal, the students pass the reading
passage to the student on their right. This continue use until
Each student has had an opportunity to read each
part of the passage.
5.
Hand out the reading to each group. Tell the
students to start reading as you begin to time them. The length of time you let
the students read depends on their ability and how much you want to focus on
skimming skills and reading speed.
6.
After the students have finished reading all the
parts, collect them and give each group one copy of the comprehension questions.
Ask the students to work as a group to answer the questions.
7.
Give each student the entire reading passage and
ho over the comprehension questions.
CHOOSING A DIFFERENT TITLE
This activity is a good way of getting students to realize that authors have many options to choose from in selecting a title and that the actual title used will reflect the taste or bias of the author or editor of the newspaper or magazine in which the article appears.
Procedure
1. Locate a suitable article from a newspaper or magazine. The article should have a title and be about 250-350 words long. Prepare a list of 10 other titles for the article 5 “good” titles (i.e. titles focusing on the main idea of the article) and 5 “wrong” ones (i.e., distracters focusing on supporting details). You will need one copy of the article and one list of titles for each student.
2.
Distribute the article and the list of titles.
Divide the class into pairs.
3.
Tell the students that they are to read the
title of the article and the article itself. Then they are too look at the list
of titles and choose 5 or more that are also good. Then they should number the
titles from 1 to 5 starting with the one they think is best.
4.
Have students work in pairs, choosing and
ranking 5 titles.
5.
(Optional) Have one student from each part
report to the class
Tips
1. As a variation, remove the original title from the article and include it among the titles on the list. Have students guess which title was actually used by the author.
2. As an additional step, ask students to say what is wrong with the other titles in the list.
3.
Another option is to have the entire class vote
on what they think is the best title for the article.
PIECING TOGETHER IDEAS
Making distinction between general ideas and supporting details is an important part of reading comprehension. Strip stories are an enjoyable way for students to see the relationship between the bigger and smaller pieces of a text.
Procedure
1. Select appropriate reading material for the class.
2. Select sentences or paraphrase portions of the reading passage and write them on strips of paper. Prepare a set of corresponding strip that say either “Main idea” or “supporting detail”.
The two sets
of strips must correspond exactly. The total number of strips should equal the
number of students in class.
3. As the students read the material, devote class time to enhancing comprehension until the material is well understood.
4. Have students
• Draw a strip from a list
• Work together to match the strips with the quotations to the strips with the labels.
• Stand in a line (with a strip) in the order that the sentences appeared in the reading passage.
• Read
out loud, in sequence, what is written on the individual strip.
Tips
1. For a large class, use two sets of strips and have two groups form two different lines simultaneously.
2. Make the activity more difficult by requiring any reading material to be put away before the strips are drawn from the hat so students may not refer to it during the exercise.
3.
It is important to have covered the material
well before attempting this activity, but it is a nice way to conclude work on
a reading passage.
NEWSPAPER POSTERS
Understanding
the content of the sections in a newspaper is essential for proceeding in a
course that uses newspapers extensively. English language newspapers also give
students access to more of the English speaking world around them. This
activity is a great ice breaker at the start of a term.
Procedure
1. Clip an assortment of articles and other items from newspapers. Be sure to include enough items from all parts of the papers for all the groups to have plenty to choose from.
2. Provide a list of all categories to be included in the posters. For example: front page, metro, business, sports, lifestyles, entertainment, classifieds.
3.
Put the students into groups. Each group uses a
poster board and creates a poster that represent the various items found in the
different sections, choosing from the articles and items you provide. Ask the
students to label the categories.
MIXED UP COMPREHENSION
Lower level reading skills
such as decoding and graphic cue recognition should be learned along with
higher level reading skills such as applying prior knowledge to the reading
passage.
Procedure
1. Make up 5-10 comprehension questions on the board on the reading passage selected.
2. Write the comprehension questions on the board or have the questions prepared on a handout.
3. Have students write a reading passage that answers the questions. The students can use their imaginations and write anything but the passage must be able to answer every question.
4. Read the stories out loud
5.
Compare with original reading
READING ROULETTE
It is important to recognize topic sentences in paragraphs for reading and writing activities, as they are a key to understanding the text. This activity combines the search for topic sentences with speed reading and peer correction.
Students also have a break from reading materials in textbooks. They read their own material and feel a sense of pride. They laugh a lot as they read what their classmates have written. They have fun.
Procedure
1. Create groups of three to five students. All groups should have equal numbers.
2. Give all students the same topic sentence (complete or incomplete): It was a dark and stormy night and…..
3. Have students write for 3 minutes.
4. After 3 minutes, have them pass their papers to the classmate on their right (within their group).
5. Give students 4 minutes to read what was written by their classmate and then continue to write from where their classmate left off.
6. Give them 5 mins to repeat step 5.
7. Increase the time after each exchange of papers and keep repeating step 5.
8. Return the papers to the original writer, who will write the conclusion.
9.
If there are five students in a group, the total
time spent on reading and writing should be 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 33 minutes.
The first 3 minutes and the last 8 minutes will
be utilized by the original write, who will write the introduction and
conclusion. The four other group members will write paragraphs.
10. Each student now has a student generated piece of reading (a total of six paragraphs).
Students can correct essays
with teacher monitoring.
ONE MORE TIME, WITH FEELING
Learners reading aloud often
do so with little effect. This activity can help them develop expression. The
feelings they choose may or may not be related to the text, it is quite
possible, for example, to read and exciting passage while you’re retired.
Procedure
1. With the class, brainstorm a list of emotions and physical states (e.g excited, happy, tired, bored, and hung over). Write them on the board.
2. Have learners select the paragraph or paragraphs they will read. They also choose one of the feelings listed on the board. Tell them they will read the selection as if they felt that way.
3. They practice reading the text aloud (to themselves)
4.
In pairs or small groups, they lead the
selection partners try to guess the feeling.
THINGS TO DO BEFORE READING
Before students begin reading any passage, they need to preview it to see what they already know in terms of content and vocabulary. Previewing makes for smoother reading and smoother reading lessons. Any one and the following directions, or a combination may be used each time a new passage is introduced.
Procedure
1. Ask students to brainstorm for answers to the following
questions, then write ideas on the board.
- Look at the title and the headings for each section. What do you think this passage is going to be about?
- Look at the pictures. What do you think this passage is going to be about?
-
Read the first and last paragraphs and the first
sentence of each paragraph.
What do you think is this
passage going to be about?
- Scan the passage and cross out all the words you don’t know. After you read the passage again carefully, look up the words in dictionary.
- After looking at title, picture and so on, brainstorm the specific words expect to see in the passage.
- After looking at the title and pictures, make up some questions you think this passage might answer.
-
What kind of passage is this? (Fiction? Non-fiction-what
kind?) Why would somebody read this? For information? Pleasure?
2. Choose words from the passage and write them on the board. Ask
students to scan the passage and encircle them (to give pre-teaching of
vocabulary a task)
3. Tell a story about the ground of the reading passage, or
summarize the passage itself. Ask students to take notes or draw a picture of
the story as you speak.
4. Have everyone read the passage.
Adopted from:
An assortment of Interactive
Reading Recipes from New Ways in Reading, (1993). R. Day (Ed.).Alexandra, VA:
TESOL Publications. Selected by Jeff Taschner, USIS English Teaching Fellow,
1993-94