ENG 414

The Teaching of Listening and Speaking

Papio, Dianna Rose M.

BSED ENG 411Reading in Content Areas
What is Content Area Reading?

Content areas are topics from courses across the curriculum. The content areas
typically included in this definition are science, social studies/history and math, but any
area outside of English literature instruction constitutes a content area.
Content area reading is the reading that a person (usually a student) needs to
complete and understand in a particular subject area. The reading associated with content
area courses reflects not only the concepts and ideas important to these subjects, but also
the text structures used by those practicing the field. Reading in content areas makes use
of materials in content courses to teach and learn reading.
Content area teachers in middle and high schools face sometimes misguided pressure
from administrators to include more reading in their instructional activities. While its
likely that being asked to read (with reasonable support) in every classroom would
improve standardized test scores, thats a side benefit to the real reasons to make sure that
reading is a part of students content area learning.

Reading is a way to gain exposure to and develop tentative understandings of

content. Teacher talk, even when supported by audiovisual aids, tends to dominate
content area instructionoften at the expense of engaged student learning.
Reading diverse and provocative texts from your content gives students another
way to interact with the key information and ideas about which theyre learning.

Reading is vital means of exposing learners to what thinking in your content area
looks and sounds like. Exposing students to well-chosen readings lets students in
on important conversations in your field and provides models of what it means to
think and talk like a scientist, historian, psychologist, musician, and so forth.

Asking students to read widelybeyond the textbookis a highly regarded strategy

of giving students access to the language and ideas that all students need to be successful
in school and beyond. Teachers dont have enough time to tell student everything they
need to know, and students cant learn it well enough just by listening and writing
(http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/reading-withpurpose-content-30514.html).
Discourse analysis is analyzing the kind of structure of a reading text or pattern of
paragraph development.
1. Formal definitions are made by giving the class the characteristic/function of a term
being defined.
2. Process descriptions are chronological or step-by-step descriptions of processes.

3. Cause and effect, a passage describing a process or an action-sequence generally

represents a chain of cause-effect relationships.
Kinds of texts used for reading classes:
1. Authentic texts- any texts not written specifically for language learning purposes
2. Stimulated authentic texts- texts that imitate authentic texts in terms of lay out, topic
and tone but are written in simpler language
How are Content Area Texts Different Than Literature?
Since most of the texts used in these subject areas are expository (informational)
they require their readers to use different strategies for reading and comprehending them
than they employ when reading literature. Consider the differences between a novel and
social studies textbook. Novels are usually set up so that there are distinct chapters, but
each page of text looks the same. It features sentences in paragraphs. There may
occasionally be a few illustrations, but they are few and far between. Now think about a
textbook. While there are chapters and text in paragraphs textbooks also use sidebars,
illustrations, headings, footers and colored text to tell their stories. If the reader
focuses only on the components of a textbook that are like a piece of literature, she will
end up missing a large portion of the information on the page.
In addition to looking different, content area texts may be written differently than
literature. Literature is written in a narrative form which relies on a plot and character
dialogue to convey its message to the reader. Content area texts are usually expository
meaning that are written to inform, persuade, describe or explain information for the
reader. There is no action to tell a story in an expository text. The reader needs to use
strategies for harnessing and synthesizing the information in this type of text.
Beyond these general differences specific content areas may use particular text
structures or styles of writing. For example, lab reports written by scientists (and science
students) follow a certain format that their writers and readers must understand in order to
convey information.
How do Readers Go about Understanding Content Area Texts?
Readers need to choose and revise their choices of reading strategies depending
on the type of content area text they are reading. Each genre of text requires its readers to
use a different set of strategies for accessing its information. The reader must first
identify the texts structure and use his knowledge of this genre to read the text. While
reading the text, he must use general reading strategies such as questioning, making
inferences and connections and activating prior knowledge and content specific strategies
including drawing on subject specific information to make meaning of the text. During

this process he is (hopefully) making meaning on three different levels: literal

(understanding the information written on the page), inferential (reading between the
lines) and evaluation (making judgments and conclusions about the information). These
abilities

develop

from

good

content

area

reading

instruction

and

practice

(http://www.k12reader.com/what-is-content-area-reading).
In teaching the reading of a science text, the teacher can use a pre-reading technique
of showing a picture to activate the schemata of the students. He/She can also brainstorm
by giving a keyword.
Vocabulary building can be through:
1. Analysis of word structure- use of prefixes and suffixes
2. Association- use of synonyms and related words
3. Classification- words with the same classification are grouped together
While reading the text, the teacher can use diagrams to map out information and show
the relationship among ideas in the text.
Teaching Tips

Directed reading lessons

Vocabulary building strategies
Making definitions- listing of characteristics, simulated examples, real-world
examples, defining concepts

Childrens Literature
Childrens Literature is the body of written works and accompanying illustrations
produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a wide
range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture books and
easy-to-read stories written exclusively for children, and fairy tales, lullabies, fables, folk
songs, and other primarily orally transmitted materials.
The development of childrens literature reflects the spirit and interest of different
periods. Before the invention of printing press which made books available, children
listened to stories told by elders. These stories were passed by their elders on by word of
mouth from generation to generation before they were collected for printing.
Childrens literature first clearly emerged as a distinct and independent form of
literature in the second half of the 18th century, before which it had been at best only in
an embryonic stage. During the 20th century, however, its growth has been so luxuriant

as to make defensible its claim to be regarded with the respectthough perhaps not the
solemnitythat is due any other recognized branch of literature.
Children's literature can be traced to stories and songs, part of a wider oral
tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of
early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after
printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for
adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the 1400s, a large quantity of
literature, often with a moral or religious message, has been aimed specifically at
children. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became known as the "Golden
Age of Children's Literature" as this period included the publication of many books
acknowledged today as classics.
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and
poems that are enjoyed by children. Modern children's literature is classified in two
different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Classification
Children's literature can be divided into a number of categories, but it is most
easily categorized according to genre or the intended age of the reader.
1. By genre
A literary genre is a category of literary compositions. Genres may be determined
by technique, tone, content, or length. According to Anderson, there are six categories of
children's literature (with some significant subgenres):

Picture books, including concept books that teach the alphabet or counting for
example, pattern books, and wordless books.

Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs,

superstitions, and beliefs of people in previous civilizations. This genre can be
further broken into subgenres: myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales

Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction, and historical fiction

Non-fiction

Biography and autobiography

Poetry and verse.

2. By age category
The criteria for these divisions are vague, and books near a borderline may be classified
either way. Books for younger children tend to be written in simple language, use large
print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex
language, normal print, and fewer (if any) illustrations. The categories with an age range
are listed below:

Picture books, appropriate for pre-readers or children ages 05.

Early reader books, appropriate for children ages 57. These books are often
designed to help a child build his or her reading skills.

Chapter book, appropriate for children ages 712.

o Short chapter books, appropriate for children ages 79.
o Longer chapter books, appropriate for children ages 912.

Young-adult fiction, appropriate for children ages 1218.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_literature)
Key Concepts:

Whole language- a way of viewing the teaching of all macro-skills in language in a

way that integrates two or more in a single approach

Student-centeredness- a feature of whole language perspective where the focus of the

lesson and all its activities is mainly on the learner

Reader-response- an offshoot of student-centeredness where classroom activities are

geared towards tapping learner reactions to the texts they are reading
Schema activation- a pre-reading activity which aims to explore the experiential
background of the reader-learner in preparation for some related concepts found in a

text to be taken up
Reading-writing connections- an attempt to make writing activities natural offshoots

of an earlier reading activity

Engagement activities- post-reading activities which ensures that students are busy as

they respond to the texts

Story reading- a way of taking up a narrative/reading direct from the book
Storytelling- the age-old way of sharing a narrative; an oral rendering of a narrative-

without aid of a book or storys printed copy

Book talk- as classroom activity where the students share with one another their
experience with a book

Teaching Tips

Writing check-up quizzes

The intangibles
Ability grouping without tears
Story reading
Storytelling
Creative dramatics
Visualization
Miming
Reading-Writing Link

Connections between reading and writing

When students write, they build on and extend the literacy learning that they need
to be successful readers. They transfer their growing understandings from their reading to
their writing and vice versa.
Writing supports students to learn to read by providing opportunities to:

highlight letter forms, letter sequences, and letter clusters

switch between different levels of information in the print letters build up into
words, words into phrases, phrases into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs
in a text

use their reading knowledge to build understanding of writing, for example,

articulating their writing to identify the individual sounds and then relate these to
letters that they recognise

self-monitor their writing by using writing strategies that reinforce similar reading
strategies.

Teachers can draw on the reciprocal nature of reading and writing to help students
strengthen their knowledge and skills. When students are writing, encourage them to
articulate words slowly. Use prompts that encourage them to notice what they already
know from their reading.
Making connections during reading

During guided reading sessions, consolidate the students learning by prompting them
to use what they know from their writing. For example:

Prompt beginning readers to notice full stops and draw on their knowledge of
what a sentence is.

Point out words that have the same spelling pattern as words they are learning to
write or help them make connections to words or ideas that are the same as those
in a class language experience text.

Help more advanced readers to notice aspects such as the use of paragraphs
within a text or different ways of starting sentences.

When the students come across unfamiliar words in their reading, use prompts that
encourage them to think about what they already know about visual information
(http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Teacher-needs/InstructionalSeries/Ready-to-Read/Ready-to-Read-in-literacy-programmes/Connections-betweenreading-and-writing).
For many years reading and writing were (and sometimes still are) taught separately.
Though the two have almost always been taught by the same person (the
English/Language Arts teacher) during the Language Arts period or block, educators
rarely made explicit connections between the two for their students. Over the last ten
years research has shown that reading and writing are more interdependent than we
thought. The relationship between reading and writing is a bit like that of the chicken and
egg. Which came first is not as important as the fact that without one the other cannot
exist. A childs literacy development is dependent on this interconnection between
reading and writing.
The Relationship Between Reading and Writing
Basically put: reading affects writing and writing affects reading. According to
recommendations from the major English/Language Arts professional organizations,
reading instruction is most effective when intertwined with writing instruction and vice
versa. Research has found that when children read extensively they become better
writers. Reading a variety of genres helps children learn text structures and language that
they can then transfer to their own writing. In addition, reading provides young people
with prior knowledge that they can use in their stories. One of the primary reasons that
we read is to learn. Especially while we are still in school, a major portion of what we
know comes from the texts we read. Since writing is the act of transmitting knowledge in
print, we must have information to share before we can write it. Therefore reading plays a
major role in writing.

At the same time practice in writing helps children build their reading skills. This
is especially true for younger children who are working to develop phonemic awareness
and phonics skills. Phonemic awareness (the understanding that words are developed
from sound chunks) develops as children read and write new words. Similarly, phonics
skills or the ability to link sounds together to construct words are reinforced when
children read and write the same words. For older children practice in the process of
writing their own texts helps them analyze the pieces that they read. They can apply their
knowledge about the ways that they chose to use particular language, text structure or
content to better understand a professional authors construction of his or her texts
(http://www.k12reader.com/the-relationship-between-reading-and-writing/).

Research on the Reading-Writing Relationship

1. Exploring the Cognition of Reading-to-Writing (Victoria Stein)- The purpose of
which is to find out how reading strategies affect the writing process
2. Rhetorical Form, Selection and use of Textbooks (Avon Crismore)-

Reveals that

learners use of textbooks is influenced by the way content is presented

3. The Case of Rhetorical Perspective on Learning From Texts: Exploring
Metadiscourse (Crismore)- Supports the idea that rhetorical devices called
metadiscourse (an authors discourse or commentary about the subject matter
discourse) positively affects reading comprehension
4. Does Texts Structure-Summarization Instruction Facilitate Learning from Expository
Text? (Bonnie Armbuster)- Concludes that difficulty in comprehending can be due to
lack of sensitivity to text structure or the way ideas are organized
Some Selected Strategies for Reading-Writing Integration
1. Style Study- aims to engage students in critically reading their own writing
2. Parallel Writing- where the students parallel a writers style
3. Extended Writing Activities Using Reading Selection as Resource- where students can
pull together their own ideas
4. Reading-Writing Worksheets- includes activities to guide students in the development
of expository reading and wring skills in conjunction with teacher-student, studentstudent, student-self interaction, through the various phases of writing

5.

Reading-Writing Workbench- capitalizes

activity

on enlisting writing as a pre-reading