In case you weren't at Language World yesterday and the day before, here is my presentation Read all about it.
When we read, what exactly is it that we do? This is the Oxford English Dictionary definition:
We infer meaning from a series of (usually) black squiggles on a page. We have to learn what each little squiggle is and how it combines with other little squiggles to form blocks of meaning, and how these blocks of meaning (words) go together to create greater meaning.
We want children to read aloud and in their heads, for pleasure, for comprehension and for information. We want children to distinguish the different words in the new language and to understand them, and then to understand the meaning in English of a word, phrase or sentence.
For reading aloud, phonics are crucial to confidence, and it is by reading aloud extended passages of the language that children can hear and practise the intonation of the language. Once the children can decipher the sound of a word, they can link that sound to the word they have already learned and begin to build the meaning and understand the writing. They can also use clues like capital letters, layout and pictures to help them to deduce the meaning. Therefore we read with our eyes, our ears and our mouths. (Thanks to Vicky Cooke for this!)
These are the objectives for reading from the National Curriculum programme of study.
Phonics of course invaluable for confidence in reading aloud and helping to decipher new words.
The "words, phrases and simple writing" part echoes the progression that is built into the old Key Stage 2 Framework, which advocated building up from single words in Year 3 to short texts in Year 6.
"Authentic sources for reading" can comprise children's story and non-fiction books, poems, texts from the internet, magazines, newspapers, publicity material from shops, adverts, leaflets, posters, letters and emails from children in schools in another country.
What would be in "a range of writing"? Perhaps handwriting, machine text, stories, letters and news articles. Also, writing that has been written by a language teacher for practising a particular point, as opposed to authentic materials.
Via reading children will see some of the “patterns, grammar and words” of the language in action, and will also see the grammar points in action that are mentioned in the National Curriculum. Dictionary skills are specified for developing skills for children to help themselves to understand what they are reading.
WORD LEVEL
We’re going to look at ideas and possible resources for word level reading, phrase and sentence level and then text level. Activities are of course very adaptable!
It’s often worth showing children an extended passage of the language – they don’t have to be able to understand it – for them to notice differences in conventions in text. There can be some significant differences in punctuation, accents and so on. This way they are going to be more alert to things as they start to read more. I also get them to practise writing accents and upside down punctuation very early on to make them aware of these special characters which they will see in text and have to replicate for themselves.
- We mention cognates in passing while teaching new vocabulary, but don’t necessarily spend a lot of time examining them. They are very useful as a strategy for reading and understanding unknown words. Children often don’t trust themselves that cognates are as straightforward as they look! We can see a lot of cognates just by looking at the headings of the El País website.
- When children are starting to read, small pieces of paper, where you can only fit a little bit of writing on, are perceived as less threatening. One example is dominoes, where you can match the L2 and English, or L2 and pictures, or a mixture if you’re feeling mean. Tarsia puzzles are also useful here.
- I like to use flashcards in the presentation and practice phase of new language. Children can think of lots of games to play with a partner if they have a set of the same picture cards and corresponding word cards.
- Trash or Treasure
- Animal sounds to practise phonics
- Festisite for word spirals and snakes
- Understanding and sequencing: good for anything that can be sequenced, e.g. numbers, times, part of a story. Children work in groups to put the items into the correct sequence and then have to read them out in the right order. This is particularly useful for French numbers to 100!
- Reading information from a table. Cross-curricular maths.
- Multiple choice. Good for addressing meaning, spelling and also phonics misconceptions.
- Quizlet
- Studystack
- Educandy
PHRASE AND SENTENCE LEVEL
- Use prior knowledge and known information to fill in the gap in a sentence.
TEXT LEVEL
- Parallel texts: Good for detective work. There are quite a few published books that have texts in both English and the L2, which are also good for children to look at independently.
- Knowledge organisers
- Make your own texts
- Authentic websites
- Poems, rhymes and songs are specified in the Key Stage 2 programme of study. I have written my own anthologies of poems for French and Spanish as suitable authentic ones are hard to find. When we learn a song or a poem, the words are always on the board and the children often have a little copy for their books. We practise it together word by word, chunk by chunk, line by line, then read it all together, then perform. This one is like a dialogue so we might split into groups.
- Dialogues. Reading and speaking, and children can adapt them.
- Authentic books in the L2
- Commercially available translations of English-language children’s books. Often the children will already know the story, which will help with understanding.
- Books in English that will sometimes open up a topic.
- Raid your children’s bookshelves and do your own translations.
- Make your own stories in PowerPoint.
- Storybird
- Storyjumper
- Minibooks
- Text analysis: Texts offer the benefit of extended language, a model to follow. Emphasis is on core language and structure with a view to helping students to create their own work afterwards. I have included one in a lesson pack I wrote about sports and opinions. Children look for and circle the different categories of words.
- Write Away: Read other children's work and submit some of your own!
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