Strategies to help Children with English Language

Strategies to help Children with English Language Workshop for Parents of P1/P2 Pupils 2011

Outline of Workshop • Developing Reading Skills • Developing Writing Skills • Use of ICT for enhancing Reading and Writing Skills • Q & A

Developing Reading Skills • What is reading? • What to read? • Developing Reading Skills - Stories • Developing Reading Skills – Comparing Texts • Developing Reading Comprehension Skills • Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers

What is Reading? Ni shi wo de hao peng you • Reading is not about pronouncing the words in a book or being able to look at a word and say the word • Reading is understanding the text • For beginning readers lots of help must be given if they are to understand the text

What to Read? • stories • newspapers • brochures • advertisements • post cards • letters • emails • recipes • catalogue • telephone directories • maps

Developing Reading - Stories 1)Sharing a story with child 2)Buddy Reading - getting a sibling to read to the child

Teaching Reading - Stories 3)Whisper Reading - child reads story with parent - parent sits slightly behind - reads directly into child’s ear - reads slightly faster than child - not to worry if child reads some of the words incorrectly or replaces - if help is sought, say the word instead of sounding it out

Developing Reading - Stories 4)Story Detectives - use of predictions handout - browses through the story - makes predictions based on chapter titles and pictures 5)KWL - what we already know - what we want to know - what we have learned - use of KWL handout

Developing Reading - Stories 6) Questions Galore A)Knowledge - Where and when does the story take place? - What is the problem in the story? - How does the story end? B)Comprehension - Explain why the story has such a title. -How did the main character feel at the beginning and at the of the story? - How was the problem in the story solved?

Developing Reading - Stories 6)Questions Galore C)Analysis - What do you do that is just like what the character in the story did? - What part of the story was the funniest? saddest? most exciting? D)Application - If you had to cook a meal for the main character, what would you cook? - What would you do if you could go where the story takes place?

Developing Reading - Stories 6) Questions Galore E)Synthesis - Retell the story from another character’s point of view - How else could the story have ended? F)Evaluation - Compare two of the characters - Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why? Why not? - Was the main character in the story good or bad?

Developing Reading - Stories 7)Visual Organisers - story maps - character maps 8)Reading Response Journal

9)Use of Four Resources’ Model(Freebody & Luke, 1990)

1) CODING COMPETENCE • recognise and identify visual codes in a text • Some questions:- • What colours can you see on the page? • Why do you think it is green? • What can you see from the background? • Why do you think the word 'Budgie' is bigger than 'Grandma's'? Why?

2. Semantic Competence • Interpret and predict literal and inferential meanings from illustrations • Narrative Text:Grandma’s Budgie • Semantic literal:- • Who is the main character? • What happened to the main character? • Semantic Inferential:- • Why do you think the word 'Budgie' is bigger than 'Grandma's'?

3. Pragmatic Competence • Understand that information text has particular structure and features • Predict the purpose of the text • What do you think this text is about? What makes you think • so? 2. Why do you think there are numbers in the text? • 3. Why are some information numbered and some are boxed up?

What do you notice about the kind of information presented by the author in this text? Why do you think he/she did this? Questions are targeted at ensuring that students understand that texts are not neutral 4. Critical Competence

Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers • Have young children search for different letters of the alphabet. Throughout the various sections of the newspaper children will find type written in different sizes, colors, fonts (type faces), and styles (bold, italic, etc.). When they cut out letters of the alphabet, they discover the many ways that a letter can be written and still be that letter. These letters can be glued to paper to make an ABC poster or stapled together to make a book.

Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers • Introduce children to some simple concepts related to newspapers: headlines and articles. Show them that the headline is like the title of a book: it is written in larger type and tells what the article is about. Cut out and laminate articles; separate the headline from each article. Have the child sort the "pieces" into two piles: headlines and articles.

Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers • Introduce children to the differences between articles and advertisements. Show them both and have the children generate the characteristics of each. Point out the drawings, prices (with dollar sign), and borders that often surround ads. Talk about the purposes of newspaper articles and ads: articles are intended to inform while advertisements are intended to influence us to buy something.

Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers • Introduce the children to comic strips. Show them that the people in comic strips are characters and the words the characters say are written in the "bubbles." This introduces the concept of dialogue.

Developing Reading Skills - Newspapers • Help children discover the various sections of a newspaper: news, editorial, lifestyle, sports, classified ads, etc. Discuss the characteristics of each and have children identify the sections in different newspapers. Cut out and laminate examples of items from these sections. Have the children sort them into these categories.

Developing Writing Skill • What to write? • Teaching of Narrative Writing

What to write ? • Letters • Postcards • Messages • Poems • Emails • Recipes • Diaries/Journals

Developing Narrative Writing Skills • Process-based Approach Identification of 3 Stages a)Planning Stage b)Writing the Draft Stage c)Proofreading Stage

Planning Stage • Generation of Ideas (use of graphic organisers) • Structure of Narratives (beginning, body, ending)

Writing Stage • Structure of Composition (Paragraph Writing) a) beginning b) body c) ending • Focus on structure of a sentence • Subject Verb Agreement • Correct use of Tenses

Proofreading Stage • Proofreading Strategies a) Sentences begin with capital letters b) Sentences end with correct punctuation c) Paragraphs are indented d) Quotation marks are used correctly

Using ICT to teach Reading and Writing • 1) Use of Microsoft Word Processor - helps the process of revision and editing - writing simple sentences, rearranging lines in a poem, arranging a string of ten items from a shopping list into a horizontal list, typing speech into a speech bubble or deleting words to break up longer sentences - Children can produce a picture book by writing text to go with the pictures to tell the story.

2)Using PowerPoint for presentations. • 3)The use of electronic mail (emails), which has become a daily form of written communication for millions of people. Writing becomes an interactive activity

3) Use of electronic dictionaries for all levels of learners • 4)Use of writing programmes, such as Storybook Weaver and Story Starters for the promotion of creative writing. Such programmes allow pupils to create text with the help of background pictures. Some of them read aloud the text pupils have created, while others allow the pupil the opportunity to read out their text and listen to their own voice.

Storybook Weaver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHFlIHhKIEQ • http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm

5) Online Story, Animated Story Books 6) Interactive Story Books http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm

In Conclusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zkJqC78b_w&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Strategies to help Children with English Language