PROJECT: "A MAGIC WORLD"

PROJECT: "A MAGIC WORLD"

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

Source of information: Reading Essentials by Regie Routman


Language refers to "a form of communication in which we learn to use complex rules to form and manipulate symbols (words and gestures) that are to generate an endless number of meaningful sentences" (Platnik-1999).

Language is a beautiful gift with it we can share our wants, oue needs, our thoghts, our feelings and everything that make us human. Language gives us the possibility of communicating our thoughts.

When we spend time with a child, we have the power to give and nurture this gift of communication.

For Vygotsky, language has a particular role in learning and development. By acquiring a language, a child is provided the means to think in new ways and gains a new cognitive tool for making sense of the world. Language is used by children as an additional device in solving problems, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution before trying it out and to control their own behaviour.

It is through inner speech and oral language Vygotsky argued, that thoughts and mental constructs are formed.

Every function in the child's culture development appears twice: first, on the social level later on the individual level; first, between people and then inside the child.

In growing up within linguistically structured and sustained relationships "the child begins to perceive the world not only through it eyes but also through its speech. And later it is not just seeing but acting that becomes informes by words". (Vygotsky)

It is through language that we construct reality. With words we define, shape and experience. Without the words to think, communicate, experience or understand our lives would be very different from what they are. Words expand our conciousness. Language provides the framework through which we pweceive, experience and act.

"A word devoid of thought is a dead thing and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow". Vygotsky

In summary, language is the ability of putting into words our thoughts.

When teaching a second language we have to bear in mind that we are enabling our students to "think" in that second language. We are teaching the words, the structures and the conventions of that language so that they can express their thoughts in the second language. Learning a second language is not about learning the components of the language as such,but as a mean to be able to use it effectively.



HOW TO ENCOURAGE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AT PRIMARY SCHOOL WITH STORIES


Expand on social communication and narration skills (telling a story) by role-playing.

Continue to read stories with easy-to follow plots.

Help our children predict what will happen next in the story. Act out the stories and put on puppet shows of the stories.

Have our child draw a picture of a scene from the story or of a favorite part.

READING DEFINITIONS:

"I define reading as a message-getting, problem solving activity which increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced". (Marie Clay, becoming literate, Heinemann, 1991)

"Reading is the decoding of symbols on the page, what we read should make sense". (Philomena Ott, How to detect and manage dyslexia, Heinemann, 1997)

"Reading is a complex, thinking process which goes beyond decoding and literal comprehension". (Regie Routman, Literacy at the crossroads, Heinemann, 1996)

"My answer to this question is a simple one: reading is comprehension". (Brian Cambourne, The whole Story, scholastic, 1988)

"The reading process can be described as creating meaning from text by making connections between what is read and what is already known". (The learner as a reader, Learning media, 1996)



PROCESSING STRATEGIES

All readers use processing strategies, but they do so at different levels, depending on factors such as the reader's proficiency, the difficulty of the text and the purpose for reading.

The processing strategies that the readers use are:

• Attending and searching- looking or anticipating purposefully for particular information, known words, familiar text features, patterns of syntax and information in pictures and diagrams.
• Predicting- forming expectations or anticipating what will come next by drawing on prior knowledge and experience of language.
• Cross-checking and confirming- checking to ensure that the reading makes sense and fits with all the information already processed.
• Self-correcting- detecting or suspecting that an error has been made and searching for additional information in order to arrive at the right meaning.

Reading can be thought of as a constantly repeated process of attending and searching, predicting, cross-checking and confirming or serlf-correcting. These strategies are not discrete stages; they constantly interact and support one another. They are used in complex combinations and experienced readers usually apply them automatically.


DEVELOPING COMPREHENSION

Comprehension involves:

• Getting the message at a basic or literal level, for example, following the plot in a narrative or understanding the facts in a non-fiction text.
• Making connections.
• Understanding the purpose or intent of a text.
• Understanding its form and function.
• Responding personally.
• Thinking critically about the text.

Expert readers are active readers who use text and their own knowledge to build a model meaning, and then constantly revise that model as new information becomes available.

SELECTED STRATEGIES FOR STUGGLING READERS

• Creating original texts

- Predictable text form child' s language and experience.

- Nonfiction text from chil' s interests or curriculum.

- Wordless picture book (adding text).

• Shared reading

- Read book aloud as students follow along in own copy.

- Choral reading and echo reading.

- Big books in small/whole class grouping.

- Listening to book on tape while following along in own copy.

• Repeated reading

- Reading of familiar texts.

- Read book aloud before student reads it independently.

- Dramatize story.

- Buddy reading.

- Reader' s theatre.

• Introducing the book/providing background and support before reading.

- Brainstorm word/semantic mapping.

- Read another book aloud on same topic.

- Close-read aloud, pause, and have students supply word.

• Paired reading

- New text with more capable reader.

- Familiar text with struggling reader.

• Sustained Silent Reading of just-right books
• Writing aloud
• Journal reading
• Shared writing
• Cross-age tutoring

"CHILD-FRIENDLY" READING GOALS

• Reread when meaning is unclear, when something doesn' t sense. (Good readers monitor their reading to make sure they understand the text)
• Think about what you are reading and what' s happening. (Good readers use helpful strategies to understand text; they predict, check-and sometimes change-their predictions, question themselves, question the author, summarize as they are reading)
• Make sure you can decode and understand the words in the books you select. (Good readers know that if they can' t easily decode almost all the words, they won' t understand what they are reading. Good readers recognize most words automatically, which allows them to focus on the meaning)
• Think about why characters act and behave the way they do. (Good readers understand that fiction, historical fiction and biographies are largely about people-what motivates them, how they relate and change, how they attempt to solve problems)
• Make connections to your life and what you already know to help you understand the story. (Good readers rely on prior knowledge and experiences to help interpret text. Good readers know they need sufficient background knowledge before reading nonfiction and some fiction)
• Read in your mind. Don' t move your lips. ( Good readers read a lot and read quickly; they don' t have time to subvocalize)
• Make a picture in your mind to help understand. (Good readers form mental and visual images in order to understand more as they read and remember more afterward)
• Try reading is another genre. (Good readers balance their reading diets and know and understand how biography, poetry, nonfiction, and other genres work. This in turn increases their general knowledge and vocabulary.
• Read more, at least thirty minutes a day at home, plus thirty minutes in school. (Good readers read a lot and in doing so increase their vocabulary, fluency and prior knowledge)
• When you don' t know what a word means, use surrounding words-or read the next sentence or two-to help you figure it out. (Good readers have strong vocabularies and know how to determine concepts and word meanings from context)
• Use the pictures (graphs, charts, virtual aids) to help get meaning. (Good readers use an interpret visual sources of information when they read nonfiction)

Other goals might be related to reading in a specific genre, becoming familiar with specific authors or increasing vocabulary (not knowing the meaning of an important word can make you misinterpret a whole section of text)

DEVELOPING COMPREHENSION

Reading can be thought of as a constantly repeated process of attending and searching predicting, cross-checking and confirming or self-correcting. These strategies are not discrete stages; they constantly interact and support one another. They are used in complex combinations and experienced readers usually apply automatically.

Comprehension involves:

• Getting the message at a basic or literal level, for example, following the plot in a narrative or understanding the facts in a non-fiction text;
• Making connections;
• Understanding the purpose or intent of a text;
• Understanding its form and function;
• Responding personally;
• Thinking critically about the text.

Expert readers are active readers who use text and their own knowledge to build a model of meaning and then constantly revise that model as new information becomes available.

Comprehension strategies are necessary and useful tools for all students- including students who are making rapid progress and need to be extended, those who are struggling to master aspects of literacy learning, and those whose home and community literacy practices differ from the conventional practices in schools.

BUILDING COMPREHENSION

Students need develop strategies that they can use deliberately and afdspurposefully to enhance their understanding of text and develop their critical awareness.

While it is useful to consider comprehension strategies individually, readers do not use them separately but in complex combinations, which become increasingly complex as readers progress. Text activities based on share goals enable students to acquire and practice these strategies. Goals for this purpose could include:

• Identifying the sequence of the facts in a piece;
• Describing the use of certain kind of language in a text;
• Explaining how parts of a story or procedural text realate to each other;
• Describing how characters develop in a text;
• Identifying the author' s intention;
• Identifying the purpose of the text and its structure or form.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES

• Making connections

Helping students to make connections between what they know and what ther are reading improves their comprehension. We can model making such connections, and prompt students to make links with their own knowledge and experience, when they are introducing and discussing texts for reading and in writind and oral-language activities. When activating students' prior knowledge for a particular purpose, teachers can help students to predict, infer and build their own interpretations as they read.

Comprehension strategies are specific, learned procedures that foster active, competent, self-regulated and intentional reading. (Trabasso and Bouchard, 2002)

• Forming and testing hypotheses about texts

A hypothesis about a text is an expectation or opinion thay the reader forms about the text before reading it. The reader then tests and revises this as they encounter and act upon new information. Hypotheses are formed on the basis of what they can be discovered about the text before the content reading begins: this may include the cover, the title, the opening section, and the illustrations, and also it includes what the reader brings to the text. Depending on the goal for a task, a hypothesis may relate to the plot of character development (in a narrative) or to the conclusion of an argument. The hypothesis often takes the form of a question. The teacher can usefully model hypothesizing when introducing a text and can encourage the students to seek and give feedback about their own hypotheses.

• Asking questions

As in any activity, formulating questions shoud be directed towards a goal or intended outcome. In comprehension development, questioning helps to reinforce the habit of reading for a purpose. We need to help the students to formulate appropriate questions, for example, by modeling such questions during shared reading or writing. Asking questions helps readers to engage with the ideas in the text and with the author and gives focus to the reading task. After their reading, it' s useful to help the students to evaluate the effectiveness of the questions they posed for themselves and to give them feedback for further learning.

• Creating mental images or visualizing

The ability to visualize or picture what is happening within a text draws readers into the text and helps them to achive grater understanding. Studies have indicated that creating an image in the memory helps the reader to retain what is read and use it later on.

Readers experiencing difficulties often need help with creating mental images and may not realize how this can help their comprehension. Asking questions such as "What picture do you see in your head?" and sharing responses will support students. It sometimes helps to have students make a sketch.

• Inferring

Inferring means using content in a text , together with existing knowledge, to come to a personal conclusion about something that is not stated explicitly in the text. When the author provides clues but not all the information, we read "between the lines" to make predictions, revise these, understand underlyng themes, hypothesize, information, sometimes quite simply and sometimes at complex levels.

We can help students to make inferences by asking inferential questions during shared reading or during discussion in guided reading. Or we may pause, when reading a text with students, to draw our clues from the text and prompt the students to make connections between different parts of the text in order to reach a conclusion.

• Identifying the author' s purpose and point of view

It is important for readers to recognize that behind every text is an author, that the author has a reason for writing, and that the reader has a reason for reading.

The purpose of the author may be:

• Provide or obtain information;
• Share the excitement of an event;
• Persuade or influence;
• Create or enter a personal world;
• Simulate the imagination;
• Convey important cultural stories or myths;
• Empress or appreciate a point of view.

By supporting students in discussing the purpose and point of view of a text, we can help them to recognize that writers bring their own experiences and concerns to their writing. Such activities contribute richly to students' awareness of the functions of texts and of how authors positions readers; they also can help students to build the habit of responding thoughtfully to what they read. Students then carry their new awareness to their own writing and learn to plan and articulate their specific purposes for writing as they consider purpose and point of view.

• Identifying and summarizing main ideas

Identifying and summarizing main ideas can help students build knowledge and awareness of text are structured and how ideas within a text are related.

Identifying the main idea or ideas in a text present a challenge for readers. Not every text provides a near hierarchy or clear sequence of ideas. To identify a text' s most significant points, students often need to retrieve information and summarize it. They may also need to use other strategies such as inferring the text' s purpose. We can show students how to identify and clarify the main points in a text by modeling how to formulate questions-for example, during in-depth discussion of a text in guided reading or when helping students to form intentions in their writing.

• Analyzing and synthesizing

When students take apart a text they have read, examine it from their own viewpoint, and put it back together again, they make it their own. This helps them to remember what they have read and transfer what they have learned. They may feel empathy towards a character, be excited by events of information, or enjoy the style of the writing. They integrate of synthesizes their newly acquired understandings and attitudes with their existing view of the world to make a new and slightly different world picture. The ways in which as reader analyzes and interprets text and synthesizes ideas are affected by that reader' s prior knowledge, experiences and cultural values.

• Evaluating ideas and information

Good readers make a personal, informed response to a text. They not only understand the information in the text but can also generalize from it and make judgements about it in the light of what they already know. They examine and evaluate the ideas in a text and may consequently go on to confirm, extend, or change their personal views; or they may disagree with the content of a text or find an argument unconvincing.

TOP FIVE THINGS WE DO TO ENSURE STUDENTS BECOME EXCELLENT READERS

• Introduce students to all kinds of genres.
• Have lots of books they like to read and that are at their level.
• Read good literature to them.
• Share our love of literature.
• Give students time to talk about their reading.
• Set aside significant blocks of time for reading.
• Give children choice in what they read.
• Tell kids "you are a reader".
• Make reading fun.
• Model.
• Link reading to the curriculum.

TOP FIVE THINGS I DO TO ENSURE STUDENTS BECOME EXCELLENT READERS

• Demostrate that I am a reader.
• Provide an excellent classroom library.
• Let students choose books they want to read and give them time to read them.
• Teach strategies students need to know to process and understand text.
• Evaluate students regularly, giving them feedback and helping them set goals

DESCRIPTION OF OUR READING PROJECT "A MAGIC WORLD"

OBJECTIVES:

Students should be able to:

- enjoy reading;

- understand the stories;

- sequence the events while/after listening to a story;

- take part in a role play;

- tell the stories to the others.

In this project children and teachers are going to read to:

- obtain information;

- share the excitement of an event;

- stimulate the imagination;

- enjoy.

We are going to choose one Story book for each month and we are going to read i once a week. With this strategy we are going to help students to memorize the stories. After that, children will tell them to the other grades.

STORIES BOOKS

"JASPER" by C.J. Moore

"THE UNHAPPY GHOST" by C.J. Moore

"WE' RE GOING ON A LION HUNT" by David Axtell

"THE DOORBELL RANG" by Pat Hurchins

"BUZZZ SAID THE BEE" by Wendy Cheyette

"THE SEALS ON THE BUS" by Lenny Hort

We can add other books in the list.