Studying Text

Explanation of the Dress Graphic Organizer:

In studying text, it is necessary to know the text structure, study strategies, and study guides. The text structure, whether it is internal or external, improves the learning and retention of the readers. It helps the readers identify the important information and increase the comprehension of the text.

Moreover, study strategies can help the readers understand the text. The use of graphic organizers depicts the relationship in the text. Writing summaries is another strategy. Summaries helps the readers identify the main points of the text. Lastly, making and taking notes will help the readers recall the information. Text annotations like summary note, thesis note, critical note, and question note are some examples of notes that readers can write in the index card or sticky notes.

                Study guides like text pattern guide and selective reading guide are also helpful in studying text. Text pattern guide is the story maps in narratives and the outlines in informational texts while selective reading guide is similar to end-of chapter comprehension questions, which focuses upon specific passages.

Reflections:

Reading is one of the five macro-skills in language that should be developed. It has always been a dilemma for teachers like me on how to teach reading students in higher elementary and junior high school. Not everyone likes reading. Those students who like reading would rather read fiction stories than those in their textbooks. Teaching the students enjoy reading is really a challenge not only for English teachers but also for teachers in other subject matters.

 The dress graphic organizer I made shows some strategies on how to study texts easily. It shows how important the use of graphic organizer, note taking, and writing summaries are. I think it is necessary to teach those strategies to the students. Some textbooks incorporate the use of these graphic organizers but because of time constraints, some teachers tend to neglect its importance.

As a teacher, I think I need to allot time to teach my students on how to make graphic organizers for informational texts. Although I already taught them the elements of a story in English and in Filipino, teaching them how to make outlines from expository texts will also improve their reading comprehension skills.

As a graduate student, I think selective reading guide will always work for me because professors always assign long readings. In making reflection paper like this, it is best to focus on the important points of the texts.

Reflecting on the Natural Approach

            

Natural approach aims to teach the second language in the classroom setting with more emphasis on the communication than the grammar. Since this method is developed by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terell, we can associate this method with Krashen’s monitor model.

            I think it is associated with the Input Hypothesis which is concerned with the acquisition rather than the learning. The Natural approach values the fluency rather than the accuracy. When the students engage in meaningful conversations, they can acquire the language. The natural approach and the input hypothesis believe the learners will improve by understanding the messages or by receiving the comprehensible input.

            Krashen’s ideas may also apply in the situation where I am teaching. I’m teaching in an international school. The classroom is composed of students with different L1. English is the common language among us. Although most of them are native speakers of English, some of their classmates use English as their second language or as their foreign language.

            I found out that the most applicable for my students is the affective filter hypothesis. It is important that the students are highly motivated in order to acquire the knowledge. When the teacher gives them some praises, their self-confidence is being boosted. Another factor is the manner of correcting. When the students know that they will not be criticized when they make mistakes, their level of anxiety will be lesson. These situations can lead to better understanding of the language.

            Among the five main hypothesis of Krashen’s theory on SLA, I think that I will have a hard time in applying the input hypothesis. The input hypothesis claims that people acquire language best from messages that are just slightly beyond their current competence. I believe that in my classroom setting, the students don’t have the same level of competence. Of course the native speakers have an edge compared to their Japanese or Korean classmate. It is a challenge for me to design the learning activities that will be fair for my students.  

The Adventures of English

             Honestly, I don’t have a background of the development of English. My undergrad course is BS Development Communication. I just took 18 units of Professional Education to be qualified to take the LET.  Watching this series really gave me an idea about the development of English.

            Thank God for holiday, I was able to do a marathon of this series. I’m not a fan of history but I swear, I tried my best not to sleep to understand the documentary. I know that it will really help me to understand the structure of English.

            The series explained that the development of English is influenced by the historical events. Romans invaded the Britain. The Goths kick out Romans. Picts and Scots from Ireland attacked the Britons. Angles, Saxons, and other German settlers arrive in Britain to assist the Britons and claim the territory. The invaders who speak West Germanic dialect established many of the essential characteristics of the English language. Studying the literary text would really help us in order to understand how the language has been developed. At the same time, knowing the history can also help us understand the literary texts better.   

 There was also discrimination among the languages. Like for example, they say that French is the language of the elite; Old English is the language of the common people; and Latin is the language of the people in academe or church.

            I am also fascinated about the difference of American and British English. Besides some spelling discrepancies, they also have different terms for a certain thing. British use lift instead of elevator. They live in a flat instead of apartment. It’s amazing that they use different terms for things yet they understand each other.

            For the past years, many dictionaries were published. English is now a worldwide language. The native speakers, the second language users and the foreign language users may have some differences in the way they use the English language but what important is that they are able to communicate with each other.

            There are different kinds of English language. For me, fluency is more important than the accuracy of using the language. Using the English language will make it more dynamic. I believe that the English language will continue developing and it will not end up like Latin. 

Comprehension of Informational Text

Explanation of the Chart:

      The first figure shows the five basic patterns of informational texts: sequence or time order, listing or description, compare and contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution pattern. Students are having a hard time to recognize these patterns because some authors combine patterns and some organizational patterns maybe spread over several paragraphs.

      To address the problem, I put an arrow to the second figure that shows the strategies for helping students read informational text independently. The strategies can be Using Read-Alouds with Grade-Level Text, Content-Free Questions, Text Coding, Discussion Cards, Topic-Detail-Main Idea Strategy, Think-Aloud Strategy, and Question-Answer Relationships.

      Students must not only understand the informational texts, but they also have to memorize what they read to discuss it and pass the test. This leads to figure three that shows the strategies on how to transform these texts into a form that can easily be remembered (visual diagrams). When students construct a diagram, they can actively process the information. They will be able to recognize the important information. The use of main idea grid and idea mapping is a great way to transform informational texts.

Personal Reflection:

This week, I taught my students about the types of sentence according to purpose. For my grade school students, I taught them the basic elements of narrative texts. On the other hand, my high school students were assigned to study some descriptive, narrative, persuasive and expository texts. I can see that they need to work more with the informational or expository texts.

I can say that all of my students know how to read but few of them can really make sense of what they’ve read. When a child knows how to read, we call them literate. For me, content literacy is better. It is important that they have the ability to read and comprehend at the same time.

Narrative texts, which can be fiction or non-fiction, are used in language subjects like English and Filipino. In contrast, subjects like Science and Social Studies use informational and expository texts. After reading those texts, the teachers expect the students to answer some assignment or participate in the class discussion. Students are really having a hard time in that kind of method.

Knowing the strategies for helping students read informational text is essential not only for the language teachers but also for the teachers in other content areas. It should always be student-centered so that they can use it on their own.

Now that I understand the Informational Text, Grade-Level Competence and the Common Core Standards in reading. My dream to be a textbook author still goes on. I will be an author who will make these informational text “easy to digest” by the students. 

The Three Interactive Elements of Reading

Explanation of the Ice cream chart:

            Three scoops of ice cream were used to illustrate the three interactive elements of reading. As seen in the image, the scoops were positioned next to each other. It shows that the three elements are interrelated.

            The strawberry ice cream represents the reader. Knowing the prior knowledge, misconceptions and the teaching strategies of the reader is essential in teaching reading. Teachers have a big role in helping the students to recognize and change their misconceptions about the topic or subject they are reading. The teachers also need to motivate students to learn and practice reading strategies.

            The chocolate ice cream represents the climate. The climate affects the students’ attitude towards learning. The role of the teachers is to create a classroom climate that is conducive for learning. In our handout, the National Research Council (NRC) described an effective learning environment into four dimensions: learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered.

            The vanilla ice cream represents the text features. Vocabulary improvement is important in reading across the subject areas. Having an existing schema or mental framework about the topic can help the students understand more about the text they are reading. Moreover, it is also essential to consider the text style that includes the text structure, text coherence, and audience appropriateness.

            It is important to know the three elements (reader, climate, and text features) because they affect the reading comprehension of the learners.

Reflection as a Teacher and Student

            People expect the English teachers only to teach reading. It gives me pressure knowing that I also have to teach the students the other macro-skills like writing, listening, speaking, and viewing. Our selection is refreshing. It gave me some ideas on how to collaborate with my co-teachers so we can work together in teaching the students about reading.

            I always start reading with some questions about their prior knowledge. I want to know what they know and what their schemas about a certain topic are. After that, I help them to unlock the difficulties by teaching some vocabulary words before reading the actual selection. That is my routine every time we read. I am surprised that the teachers of other content areas can also apply that method.

            The teachers have a great role in motivating students to read. The classroom climate depends on the beliefs, attitude and values. It is important the teachers know the teaching strategies to teach the students to read with comprehension.

            As a student who studies the how to teach English Language Teaching, I believe that this selection really gave me many teaching strategies in reading. The challenge now is to apply these teaching strategies in my classroom as well as the classroom of the colleagues. 

Content and Language Integrated Learning

The figure illustrates a Venn diagram showing the integration of the Content-based Instruction and the Second Language Teaching. It assists students to identify the link between ideas and processes within separate fields.

            It’s my third year of teaching language. I believe that Content Based Instruction (CBI) has always been integrated with Second Language Teaching (SLT). I’ve always used different contents in order to sustain the interests of my students and at the same time, teach them the second language.

            According to Ticko (1985), Language Across Curriculum (LAC) is easier for primary school teachers because they are mostly self-contained. In most cases, they teach all the subjects for their class. They tend to feel more responsible to use the LAC. On the other hand, language teaching becomes the responsibility of the language teacher during their secondary school. The teachers of other subjects feel that they are not qualified to integrate other fields in their subject.

            I think it’s about time that the 21^st century teachers should integrate second language teaching in their subject. Maybe the reason why teachers have to take the general education exam in the LET is to know if the teachers have the capabilities to have understanding in different fields.

            Moreover, language teachers should keep in mind that the absence of meaningful content is a danger in many communicative learning programs. Students must be exposed to a meaningful content in order to not only improve their basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) but also their cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). 

            In conclusion, I believe that if language teachers and non-language teachers will really have a better coordination and collaboration, the students will be able to improve their BICS and CALP.

             As a student, I really believe that being exposed to multidisciplinary approach in learning the second language teaching will really broaden my horizon. It will help me develop my full potential in the mastery of using second language in different content areas.