Yearly Archives: 2010

Competent readers use various reading skills when approaching a text written in a foreign language.  Reading techniques vary depending on the type of text.  These different approaches and techniques help the reader to more effectively understand a particular writing style or content.  Students are better able to engage and understand a text in the target language when the accompanying activities are scaffolded toward these styles.

Keep these ideas in mind when developing reading activities:

• When reading for specific information, activities need to provide ways for students to ask themselves, “Have I obtained the information I was looking for?”
• When reading for pleasure, activities should lead students need to ask themselves, “Do I understand the story line/sequence of ideas well enough to enjoy reading this?”
• When reading for thorough understanding (intensive reading), Activities should be geared toward students asking themselves, “Do I understand each main idea and how the author supports it? Does what I’m reading agree with my predictions, and, if not, how does it differ?” To check comprehension in this situation, students may stop at the end of each section to review and check their predictions, restate the main idea and summarize the section

Traditional comprehension questions are a useful tool, but they can be modified to scaffold student engagement with the text so that they are better able to navigate the various styles and objectives of the text. Here are come additional suggestions from the NCLRC.

Developing interpretative reading activities involves more than identifying a text that is “at the right level”  and writing a set of comprehension questions for students to answer.  A fully-developed interpretative reading activity supports students as readers through pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities.

Here are some guidelines and suggestion to keep in mind when creating an interpretive reading activity for students.

• Keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in a text is not the goal.  The goal is to comprehend the text and learn from the content.
• Construct the reading activity around a purpose that has significance for the students.  The goal is not simply to read and understand, but to take the knowledge gained and do something with it.
• Define the activity’s instructional goal and the appropriate type of response. What will students do with the content that they take away from the text?
• Check the level of the text.  Is it accessible given the proficiency level of the students?
• Use pre-reading activities to prepare students for the content.
• Assess students’ background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text.
• Give students the background knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text, or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess.
• Clarify any cultural information that may be necessary to comprehend the text.
• Make students aware of the type of text they will be reading and the purpose(s) for reading.  Interpretive reading activities should have a clear goal and information gained from reading should be used for a follow-up activity.
• Provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for class discussion activities.

Keep these tips and suggestions in mind and when putting together an interpretive reading activity.  They will help to keep the goal of reading and using the content learned in the text.