A Short Course in Teaching Reading Skills

by Mikulecky, Beatrice S.

• ISBN13: 9780201500790
• ISBN10: 0201500795
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-08-01
• Publisher: Pearson P T R

Summary

This practical resource book offers a fresh start to teachers struggling with how to teach reading to ESL students. Comprehensive yet concise in its presentation, A Short Course in Teaching Reading Skills combines research and theory with classroom application. The principles outlined apply to students of any age and language proficiency who already have basic decoding abilities.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vi
Who is this book for?	vi
Background	vi
Contents of this book	viii
PART I Reading and Literacy: Some Connections	1	(12)
What is Reading?	1	(5)
The Reading Process	2	(3)
Implications for Teachers	5	(1)
The Connection Between Reading and Literacy	5	(1)
What is Literacy?	6	(4)
The Connection Between Language and Literacy	7	(2)
Literacy Acquisition and Reading - Implications for Teaching	9	(1)
What Students Need to Be Able to Do to Read Effectively	10	(1)
Teaching Reading: Applying Research to Practice	11	(2)
PART II Pleasure Reading	13	(12)
Self-Selected Books for Pleasure Reading	13	(1)
What Should Students Read?	14	(4)
Reading Levels	14	(1)
Suggested Books	14	(4)
When Should Students Read for Pleasure?	18	(1)
Making Books Available for Students	18	(1)
Book Conferences	19	(3)
Logistics	20	(1)
Benefits	20	(1)
Peer Conferences	21	(1)
Other Feedback About the Books	22	(3)
PART III Teaching Reading Skills	25	(124)
Background, Rationale, and Methodology	25	(8)
What are Reading Skills?	25	(4)
Focusing on Specific Skills	26	(1)
Reading Skills as the Basis of Lessons	27	(1)
Cognition and Metacognition	28	(1)
Teaching Interactive, Skill-focused Lessons	29	(1)
Working in Pairs and Small Groups	29	(1)
Lesson Plan	30	(1)
The Role of the Teacher	31	(1)
Organizing Classes and Allocating Time for Various Activities	31	(1)
Intensive Reading Lessons	32	(1)
Activating Background Knowledge and Conceptual Frameworks	33	(11)
Previewing	33	(5)
Introducing the Skill of Previewing	34	(1)
Previewing a Textbook	35	(1)
Previewing Chapters of Books	36	(1)
Previewing Magazine Articles and Essays	36	(1)
Previewing Books for Pleasure Reading	37	(1)
The Benefits of Previewing	37	(1)
Predicting	38	(3)
PreP: Making Semantic Associations	41	(2)
Applying Previewing, Predicting, and PreP	43	(1)
Benefits of this Lesson Plan	44	(1)
Learning Not to Read Every Word	44	(18)
Exercises Based on the Principle of Closure (Cloze)	45	(1)
Using Cloze Reading Exercises to Encourage Guessing	45	(4)
Scanning	49	(5)
Teacher-Designed Materials	49	(3)
Using Published Materials for Scanning Practice	52	(2)
Reading Faster	54	(8)
Materials for Practicing Reading Rate Improvement	54	(6)
Techniques for Teaching Reading Rate Improvement	60	(2)
Improving Bottom-Up Processing	62	(10)
Perceptual Skills	63	(1)
Identification Exercises	64	(2)
Perceptual Training Combined with Meaningful Text	66	(3)
Automatic Decoding	69	(1)
Spelling, Grammar, and Reading	70	(2)
Word Knowledge for Skilled Reading	72	(12)
Function Words	73	(1)
Pronouns	73	(1)
Synonyms	74	(2)
Hyponyms	76	(2)
Identifying Cohesion Devices	78	(1)
Summary Words	79	(2)
Lexical Items Which Signal Text Organization	81	(1)
Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary	81	(1)
Direct Instruction	81	(1)
Vocabulary in Context	81	(3)
Vocabulary Development Through Extensive Reading	84	(1)
Topics and Main Ideas	84	(27)
Sequencing the Exercises	85	(1)
Materials for Teaching topics Lessons	85	(2)
Learning to Recognize and State the topic	87	(6)
Topics of Conversations	93	(1)
topics of Paragraphs	94	(6)
Identifying the topic Sentence	100	(3)
Stating the Main Idea	103	(8)
Patterns of Textual Organization	111	(27)
Introducing Patterns	111	(1)
Generalization/Details Pattern	112	(3)
Time Order Pattern	115	(7)
Comparison-Contrast Pattern	122	(5)
Cause-Effect Pattern	127	(7)
Practice in Identifying Patterns	134	(4)
Skimming and Summarizing	138	(11)
Skimming	138	(7)
Summarizing	145	(4)
Appendix	149	(6)
1. Brief Review of Methodology	149	(1)
2. Teachers Reading Aloud	149	(1)
3. Students Reading Aloud	149	(1)
4. More About Cloze	149	(2)
5. What Are Schemata?	151	(1)
6. The Reading Skills Not Discussed in This Book	152	(3)
Bibliography	155	(8)
Index	163