Self-Assess Reading Resources

1. the target students and curriculum

Intermediate to upper intermediate students in High School 1st grade

The textbook is published by (주)금성출판사.

2. the purpose of providing web reading resources

The general purposes are to provide students extensive reading materials, to give students further information about topics, to develop sutdents' content schema, to help students activate their schema during classroom reading, and to provide authentic reading materials.

Each category has different purposes.

1) Fairy tales: to provide students a variey of fairy tales which they are not familiar with

2) sleep: to develop students' content schema and to give them information about siesta

3) gestures & etiquette: to provide different gestures and etiquette in the world. Those websites are given to students for fun and they help students to understand different cultures.

4) the environment: This category can be used as a classroom activity. Studnets read each website and then discuss about the topic, the environment.

5) rights: The textbook deals with a singer, Marian Anderson, who sang songs for civil rights movements in the USA. I thought students need further information about the movement so I put websites related to rights movements.

6) invention: I would like to give students interesting stories of inventions. Students will read the stories just for fun.

7) traditional clothing: One of the chapters of the textbook deals with Hanbok so I want to provide other traditional clothings in the world. This category will help students develop their content schema.

3.Define your reading categories

My categories are topic-based according to 7 chapters of the textbook. I chose seven topics out of eleven in the textbook and each category has 3 to 6 websites.

Journal #8

Teaching vocabulary in reading

I was taught two different method of teaching vocabulary in reading. The first one was that the teacher gave explanations or definitions of the target vocabulary before reading a passage. The other one is that students guessed the meanings of words from the context and then teacher gave students activities like close questions and matching definiton to a word. I prefer the latter one because it helps learners to develop autonomy and to activate long-term memory. However, there are some limits to teach vocabulary in that way. The reading passage should not be difficult for students. It means that the reading passage should not consists of grammatical points that beyond target learners' level and difficult text structure. Otherwise, it is going to be really hard for students to guess the meanings of target words. Also, teachers should present exact difinitions of the words. It is possible for learners to guess incorrect meanings so the teacher should make sure they are going to the right way, and provide students opportunity to check wheter thier quessing is right or not.

Journal #7

How does your individual web project help your students extensive readindg? How can you use your collection for real teaching?

I collected the web resources according to topics from seven chapters of the textbooks. I tried to provide students many kinds of interesting reading materials. Also, I wanted to offer further informaion about the topics which appear in the textbook. I thought that the colloection should consist of something interesting to help students extensive reading, so I tried to search reading materials which students are not familiar with but are interesting. I thought that students might feel difficulties to search English website and not have enough opportunity to read something in English outside classroom. As providing my collection, I believe that they would become familiar with English websites and have more chances of extensive reading.
I would like to use my collection not only for extensive reading but also for extra classroom activities to encourage students read them. For example, the first category, fairy tales, I would give students an assignment to write impressions after they read one of the stories. Also students would have a variety of choices.

Journal #6

Option 1: Does a schema activate your reading process? Talk about your case episode how schema helps your reading or no schema retards your reading.

Does a schema activate your reading process? Yes, of course. I have lots of experience how much a schema helps my reading comprehension. Let's assume there are two reading passages. Both have same degree of difficulties of grammar, vocabulary, and so on. However the topics of the passages are different; one is about Korean culture and the other one is about the big bang theory. In my case, I would understand the passage dealing with Korean culture much more than the other one because I have background knowledge of Korean culture. On the other hand, it is much easier for an American student who majors in astrophysics and barely knows about Asian culture to read the passage dealing with the big bang theory.
From my own experience, I tried to read metro, the free newspaper, when I was in Toronto. At the time I felt frustrated because it was difficult for me to understand what the articles said. Especially, it was really hard for me to get meanings from politics and economy sections because I did not have any kind of knowledge about Canadian politics and economy. On the other hand, it was quite easy for me to follow the section about entertainment. It dealt with like hollywood stars' gossip and movies. I did not have any problem to understand the contents.

Journal #5

Click the first hyperlink below "Reading Strategy Checklist." Think back your L2 reading habit and mark the strategies you usually use. Write about your reading strategy patterns. Is your reading strategic? how much? why or why not?

In pre-reading stage, I use almost all strategies (I checked 6 strategies out of 9). Before I read something in L2, I like to get some information through the cover and title. Also I usually skim the contents table then make preditions.
During reading, I make mental pictures what I read. When I read a liturature, I draw a picture of the story in my mind. I identify confusing parts and reread them and use pictures, graphs, and charts to understand the parts. I identify unfamiliar words and use context clues figure out their meanings. Also, I sometimes jot down a tough word and the page its on and ask for help.
I check 2 strategies out of 5 in after reading. After reading, I think about the characters, settings, events, or new information and reread to find support for questions.

I think in pre and during reading stage, I read quite strategically because I use the title and cover to make preditions and try to activate my prior knowledge. Also, I use think-aloud strategy in during reading stage. However, in after reading stage, I need to use more strategies. After I read something, I just close the book and do not review it. Some times I reread to find support for questions but mostly I just think about the characters and some new information. Neither do I write my impresson nor reorganize what I read. Therefore, I need to try to use more strategies after reading.

Journal #4

From Table 4.1-4.4, think back what reading skills you haven't used before when you read English textbooks. Do you think ESOL learners should practice these skills (the skills you haven't used) in English class?

Reading skills I have not used befor when I read English textbooks:
Rhyming words, retell story, reliability of source, reactions to the author's use of language, identifying a writer's technique

I think some skills are necessarily needed in English class. For example, retelling story is an important comprehension skill. When I was in middle and high school, I rarely used the skill, retelling a story. The teachers in middle school focused on teaching grammatical rules and structures through the reading passages and they just translated the English passages to Korean. Also in high school, I was taught some reading skills only used to solve problems in university entrance exam. I did not use the skill, retelling a story, because it was not contained as a type of skills the the exam required. However, I think paraphrasing is an essential skill to understand what I read. To paraphrase a story, the reader needs to completely understand what s/he read. Also it is good for the reader to use the skill to reconstruct what s/he has read.
On the other hand, I do not think it is necessary for learners to practice rhyming words, reliability of source, and identifying a writer's technique. Learners do not need to practice rhyming words unless they compose poems or raps. Also, it is too difficult for ESOL learners to identify a writer's technique.

Journal #3

Do you think L1 reading skills transferred to L2 readin skills? How about your case?

I think L1 reading skills transferred to L2 reading skills. I think that someone who can not read in their first language is not good at reading in second language. The reason why I think like that is that L2 reading is affected by L1 reading strategies. Reading is a receptive skill so reading is not just decode the letter; it means that it is required strategies to read. In the case of L2 reading, the learners already have the knowledge of their L1 and they know how to read in their L1 so it naturally affects their L2 reading.
In my case, I practiced some reading strategies in L1 like finding main idea, guessing the meaning through the context, and etc to prepare for a univertity entrance exam. Before I practiced these kinds of strategies in L1 (When I was a middle school student), I used bottom-up approach in L2 reading so I decoded every single word and tried to identify what are subjects and verbs. Also I had difficulties to find main ideas in L2 reading. However, after I was able to use the strategies in L1, it was much easier for me to find main ideas and to guess unknown lexical items through the context in L2.