TESL 0130: Unit 2 - How Did I Learn to Read?
I have always read. I cannot remember a time when I did not read. Reading is a hobby of mine, and when our children were young I read to them all the time. They read to me. We had our own summer home reading program where we would read Little House on the Prairie, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dolphin Diaries.
This week as I have been thinking of the complexities of reading, I have wondered how we ever learned how to do it? It seemed so intuitive for our children - for our older two their reading took off in grade two and for our youngest it was in grade three where suddenly it all came together. Vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, intonation... all of it.
Now when I look at the complex discussion, analysis, and preparation for teaching reading, the idea of reading itself becomes even more of a gift.
Besides those reflections, this week I have reflected on the technologies we have available to us to support our own efforts. This is of great comfort to me because as I learn and develop as a teacher there will be constant support for my own professional development - I have the continued opportunity to learn how to better support the learners I work with. And, I do not have to know everything - there are tools to support me as well.
I did find the use of the reading analysis tool (Reading Level Assessment Tool) to be useful and have added it to the "My Resources" page on this blog. Yesterday when I was reviewing the blog post from Nathan Hall that was recommended by Anna (our instructor) (see Nathan Hall - Reading Level Sites), I was surprised by all the tools that there are available for supporting reading development and want to keep that information handy as I may need to refer to it as I plan the lesson later in this course.
Out of curiosity, I decided to level this blog post and found that it is at the grade 9 level. This is interesting for me, but even more important is that the analysis shows there are too many difficult words and long sentences to be easily read. IELTS level 4-5 (CLB 4-6) tells me that it is not too complex, but when I think back to the articles we read in the first unit that were various levels of comprehension, it is interesting to understand how this blog post is written relative to the comprehension level of the staff that I work with. It is a reminder (again) for me to be careful when creating a written message to staff. I send emails and memos, am involved in pre-employment orientation and extended orientation, so I see and interact with newcomer staff a lot in their first few weeks/months at work and how I communicate is important.
One last thought about reading - if we enjoy the topic or can relate to it, we are more likely to read. Enjoyment was key to our home reading program, and we are more likely to be successful in our classes if the learners can relate to (and enjoy) the topics. I did some looking around on the web and found One Stop English which has leveled topical reading studies with lesson plan suggestions that can be used as a jumping off point for the EAL teacher. I found this site fun to review and had good ideas to support reading focused lesson plans.
While I may not be teaching ESL just yet, this week was a good learning experience with tangible outcomes that I can already put into practice in my work environment. It has been a "worth it" week!
References
Added Bytes (2018) Readable.io. Retrieved from https://readable.io/text/
Hall, Nathan (2018, April 6) An overview of leveled reader sites [Web log post]. Retrieved October 19, 2018 from https://nathanghall.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/an-overview-of-leveled-reader-sites/
One Stop English (2000-2018) Topic based reading lesson plans. Retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/reading/topic-based-lesson-plans/
This week as I have been thinking of the complexities of reading, I have wondered how we ever learned how to do it? It seemed so intuitive for our children - for our older two their reading took off in grade two and for our youngest it was in grade three where suddenly it all came together. Vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, intonation... all of it.
Now when I look at the complex discussion, analysis, and preparation for teaching reading, the idea of reading itself becomes even more of a gift.
Besides those reflections, this week I have reflected on the technologies we have available to us to support our own efforts. This is of great comfort to me because as I learn and develop as a teacher there will be constant support for my own professional development - I have the continued opportunity to learn how to better support the learners I work with. And, I do not have to know everything - there are tools to support me as well.
I did find the use of the reading analysis tool (Reading Level Assessment Tool) to be useful and have added it to the "My Resources" page on this blog. Yesterday when I was reviewing the blog post from Nathan Hall that was recommended by Anna (our instructor) (see Nathan Hall - Reading Level Sites), I was surprised by all the tools that there are available for supporting reading development and want to keep that information handy as I may need to refer to it as I plan the lesson later in this course.
Out of curiosity, I decided to level this blog post and found that it is at the grade 9 level. This is interesting for me, but even more important is that the analysis shows there are too many difficult words and long sentences to be easily read. IELTS level 4-5 (CLB 4-6) tells me that it is not too complex, but when I think back to the articles we read in the first unit that were various levels of comprehension, it is interesting to understand how this blog post is written relative to the comprehension level of the staff that I work with. It is a reminder (again) for me to be careful when creating a written message to staff. I send emails and memos, am involved in pre-employment orientation and extended orientation, so I see and interact with newcomer staff a lot in their first few weeks/months at work and how I communicate is important.
One last thought about reading - if we enjoy the topic or can relate to it, we are more likely to read. Enjoyment was key to our home reading program, and we are more likely to be successful in our classes if the learners can relate to (and enjoy) the topics. I did some looking around on the web and found One Stop English which has leveled topical reading studies with lesson plan suggestions that can be used as a jumping off point for the EAL teacher. I found this site fun to review and had good ideas to support reading focused lesson plans.
While I may not be teaching ESL just yet, this week was a good learning experience with tangible outcomes that I can already put into practice in my work environment. It has been a "worth it" week!
References
Added Bytes (2018) Readable.io. Retrieved from https://readable.io/text/
Hall, Nathan (2018, April 6) An overview of leveled reader sites [Web log post]. Retrieved October 19, 2018 from https://nathanghall.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/an-overview-of-leveled-reader-sites/
One Stop English (2000-2018) Topic based reading lesson plans. Retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/reading/topic-based-lesson-plans/
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