<h1><b>What impresses me most of Ailsa’s class is that she always mentions the importance of encouraging students and believing in students! Meanwhile she pays much attention to making students <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">effective learners </span>rather than just be well prepared for exams! To be an effective learner means being equipped with skills or strategies needed for independent learning, even if faced with some unfamiliar or boring topics they can still get the information they need!</b></h1> <h1><b>In this class Ailsa puts it that we should help students read <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">critically</span> or we should help students be <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">critical</span> readers, that is to say, students can be able to analyze the passages they read and question everything thus finally they can draw their own conclusions. I couldn’t agree more.</b></h1> <h1><b>How to teach reading ?<br /></b><b>Ailsa and Nancy taught us some reading techniques and also the stages they should be used:<br /></b><b>1.Pre-reading <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);"><br /></span></b><b style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">prediction / activating schemata(rising interest /using background knowledge)</b></h1><h1><b>In this period teachers can make use of some activities to activate students’ prior knowledge may be just vocabulary of this topic or understanding of this topic, or lead students to predicting the topic to be talked about or prepare some activities or questions just to arouse students’ interest. I want to say students’ former experience or their horizon or their attitudes to life is definitely influencing their performance in this period!</b></h1> <h1><b>2.While-reading</b></h1><h1><b>Whatever strategies you take don’t forget that reading is <span style="color: rgb(22, 126, 251);">a top-down activity!</span></b></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Skimming</span> : read quickly for main idea or gist (skimming the passage means looking through the passage quickly or just reading topic sentences of each paragraph ) A skilled reader can find out the the writing style and the writing purpose after skimming.</b></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(176, 79, 187);">Outlining or Note-taking technique</span> designed to help the students see the overall organization of a text can be used here.</b></h1><h1><b><br /></b></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Scanning</span> : read quickly for specific information for details for main points (scanning the passage means that the reader’s eyes jump through the passage and look for key words that may be a clue for the questions)A skilled reader can find the information he needs even if the topic is uninteresting to him.</b></h1><h1><br /></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Making</span> <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">inferences</span> : read between the lines; infer the author’s opinions or attitudes <span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">which are not stated in a passage. </span>It is challenging for readers. Please note that don’t make inferences in your own way of thinking but think as the author; and remember we only call what is not stated in the passage an inference.</b></h1><h1><b><br /></b></h1><h1><b>Text organizations: <span style="color: rgb(176, 79, 187);">Activities like</span></b></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(176, 79, 187);">Close exercise (fill in the blank exercise in which some words are omitted)or Scrambled stories (re/order the mix-up pieces of a text) </span>designed to assess how well a reader understands how a text is linked together can be put into practice here.</b></h1><h1><br /></h1><h1><b>Attention please! Recognizing discourse markers and their functions can help readers quickly get the gist of the passage.</b></h1> <h1><b>3.Post-reading</b></h1><h1><b style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Guessing meaning from the context</b></h1><h1><b>Or contextual guessing means guessing the meaning of words by looking at the surrounding words or situation. It is another tough task for students.</b></h1><h1><b style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Paraphrasing : </b><b>test the students’ ability of comprehension by writing or saying some of the passage in their own way.</b></h1><h1><b style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Responding to the text : </b><b>measure the readers’ </b><b>understanding of the whole passage </b></h1><h1><b style="color: rgb(176, 79, 187);">Information transfer</b><b> (Exercise which requires reader to transfer information from the text into another form )</b></h1><h1><b style="color: rgb(176, 79, 187);">Passage completion </b><b style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">(</b><b>Finish the reading passage orally or written , such as predicting a logical or structural conclusion for the passage)</b></h1><h1><b><br /></b></h1><h1><b><span style="color: rgb(237, 35, 8);">Extensive reading</span>: read widely to improve reading comprehension, reading speed and vocabulary. In or After class we may ask students to read more about different topics.</b></h1>