Promoting Reading across the Curriculumin Primary Schools

31 October 2018

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Why is the ability to read effectively important?

Reading abilities

Academic achieve-ments

We will look at

What Reading across the Curriculum (RaC)

entails

How to promote RaC in your school

Reading in the school curriculum –END and MEANS

A skill to be mastered – ENDTo enable pupils to develop the ability to read in a

language

A skill through which knowledge is acquired – MEANSPupils learn through written language (reading and

writing)

Why teach reading? MEANS –END relationship

For pupils to learn how to read in English

For pupils to learn how to learn through reading

English texts

Why teach reading?

For pupils to learn how to read in English

For pupils to learn how to learn through reading English

texts

Reading development

Herber, H.L. and Herber, J. (1993). Teaching in content areas with reading, writing, and reasoning. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Herber and Herber (1993)

Learn to read and read to learn

Learn to read

Learn to crack the code

Learn to read to learn

Learn to get information and ideas in texts

Read to learn

Apply reading ability to acquire information and ideas from text independently

Reading across the Curriculum (RaC)

Reading across the curriculum

What RaC entails Promoting RaC in primary schools

Our school curriculum

11

CHIMATHS

GEN STUDIESART / MUSICI.T.

ENG

A compartmentalized subject-based curriculum

12

CHIMATHS

GEN STUDIESART / MUSICI.T.

ENG

Are there any commonalities among these school subjects? If so, what are they?

13

CHI

MATHS

GEN STUDIES

ART / MUSIC

I.T.

ENG

?

Goals, Language, Concepts, Skills, etc.

14

CHI

MATHS

GEN STUDIES

ART / MUSIC

I.T.

ENG Goals, Language, Concepts, Skills, etc

Language Items/ Concepts – Numbers

Subject General Subject SpecificCardinal number: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10…

Ordinal number:first, second, third…

History: year, dateE.g. BC 1000 VS AD 1000; 1st October, 1949

Mathematics: measurementE.g. one-third = 1/3

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Language Items/ Concepts – ColoursSubject General Subject Specific Red,Orange,Yellow,Green,Blue…

Science: cobalt

Geography: observationRiver/ lake/ reservoir (blue)Vegetation (green)Developed area (purple)

Art: types of colours- Primary colours (red, yellow, blue)- Mixing of colours- Secondary colours (orange, purple, green)

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Another commonality - Reading

17

CHI

MATHS

GEN STUDIES

ART / MUSIC

I.T.

ENGReading

The questions to ask• Are there any reading related

language elements which are common across subjects?

• If so, how are these elements handled in the curriculum?

• If we were to develop reading across the curriculum, whatshould be taught and how to teach them?

Learn to read and read to learn

Learn to read

Learn to crack the code

Learn to read to learn

Learn to get information and ideas in texts

Read to learn

Apply reading ability to acquire information and ideas from text independently

Reading across the curriculum - Read to learn

Learn to read

Learn to crack the code

Learn to read to learn

Learn to get information and ideas in texts

Read to learn

Apply reading ability to acquire information and ideas from text independently

Reading across the curriculum - Read to learn

Learn to read

Learn to crack the code

Learn to read to learn

Learn to get information and ideas in texts

Read to learn

Apply reading ability to acquire information and ideas from text independently

Read to learn

Reading is taken as meansOverall goal of reading instructionEnable pupils to develop ‘read to

learn’ skills and strategies to learn concepts / ideas / knowledge from text written in English oComprehendoOrganiseoConnectoRecall

text content

Read to learn Reading is taken as meansOverall goal of reading instructionEnable pupils to develop ‘read

to learn’ skills and strategies to learn concepts / ideas / knowledge from text written in English oComprehendoOrganiseoConnectoRecall

text content

Promoting RaC in our

schools

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Questions to ask ourselves

In what way is RaC different from our teaching of reading in the English curriculum?Do we need to make a lot of

changes in what we have been doing?If my school does not incorporate

RaC, will my pupils lose out in one way or another?Do my colleagues have the

knowledge and skills to incorporate RaC in our English curriculum?

Considerations

Reading materials

Teaching objectives

Teaching strategies

Reading materials

Many books available to pupilsPrint and non-printIntensive and extensive readingDifferent levels of difficulty

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Reading materials - Topics

A great varietyGeneral knowledgeTopics covered in other school subjects – General

Studies, STEM, culture, music, art, etc.Challenging topics catering for more capable readers

Extend what they have learnt in other subjects – for motivation and interest

Reading materials – in terms of text types

A variety of text types including expository text and narrativeTypical examples

Working with text types

Developing awareness of text types, their purposes and characteristicsFormat and layoutTitles and headings – bigger font size, summary of

contentLanguage – tense usage, topic fronting, signaling

language functions, etc. Diagrams, illustrations and other pictorial clues

Organisation of information – Rhetorical structures

Examples of information structure in expository texts

• Objects to be compared• Basis of comparison• Similarities and differences

Comparison and contrast

• Name of the process• Input / output• Number of stages• Change agents• Conditions for change

Description of a process

Analysis of language use in narratives

Purpose – to narrate a chain of event

• Tense usage – usually past tense• Simple sentence structure • Use of dialogue – present tense• Sequence markers

• Later / Afterwards• Pictorial clues

Linguistic characteristics

Language use in expository text

Highlight language use to express CausalityChronologyLogicHypothesisComparisonDeveloping arguments, etc.

Teaching objectives - Learning outcomes

‘Read to learn’ skills and strategies

Supplementing the general reading skills and strategiesPredict content and text development before readingSummarize text using own words Question the text content Identify important ideas in a text while readingMonitor their readingDraw on background knowledge

Process simple sentences by identifying meaningful chunksLocate specific information by identifying key wordsLocate details which support the main ideas from different parts of a textUse KWLMake notes

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Search for linguistic clues to meaningPunctuation marksUsing prefix / suffix / synonym / antonym

Reread to confirm their understanding of unfamiliar words or difficult passages in a textTranscode text content (text diagram)Mind mapTree diagramDrawing Flow chartTable

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Teaching strategies

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Teaching strategies

Give pupils time to readGive

Avoid reading for pupils Avoid

Ask questions to direct pupils to clues to meaningAsk

Think aloud – demonstrate to pupils how to get meaning from text Think

Promoting reading across the curriculum

Why promote RaC?

Reading materials – what to read?

Teaching objectives – what to teach?

Teaching strategies – how to teach it?

In conclusion

Pupils learn many concepts / ideas from different subjects (which might be disconnected)

Helping pupils to connect these concepts / ideas / learning experiences

That is what RaC is about

Thank you