“READING”(the strategies,method and approach)

“READING”

A.  Strategies for Developing Reading Skill

1.      Using reading strategies

Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include:

a.       Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection.

b.       Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content.

c.        Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions.

d.       Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up.

e.        Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text.

2.      Reading to Learn

When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:

a.       Figure out the purpose for reading. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate reading strategies.

b.      Attend to the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory.

c.       Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning.

d.      Check comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies.

B.  Methods in Teaching Reading

1.        Choral Reading (CR) Method
            The first reading method is called Choral Reading Method, or frequently called “unison
reading.” Choral method provides many opportunities for repeated readings of a particular
piece, and gives practice in oral reading. Choral reading is particularly suitable to
poetry and rhymes. There are four principles for selecting materials that are planned
to read in chorus or together. The principles are:

a.     Try to take short selection of stories or poems.

b.     Select the material that every student can read easily.

c.    Look for something with an attractive title that will make imaginations work.

d.    Select a poem or story that will come alive when it’s read aloud, words with charming
sounds, contrast of some sort that can be interpreted, mood that can be improved through verbal interpretation or dialogue that draws personality.

2.        The Paired Reading (PR) Method
            The paired reading was formerly used by parents with their children at home. But because of its advantages, the use of this method then was modified to broader area. It has also
been utilized by schools to conduct classroom action research or to train tutors to read
with students on a regular basis in natural settings. The technique allows the students to be supported while reading texts of greater complexity levels than they would be able to read individually.

3.        PORPE Method
            PORPE is a method to study textbook materials in which the students create and answer
essay questions. It can be a time-consuming process, but it is an excellent means for
preparing for essay exams. There are five steps in this learning strategy: Predict, Organize,
Rehearse, Practice and Evaluate.

a.       Predict: After reading the chapter, predict possible essay questions from the
information contained in the text. In the arrangement of these questions, the students
should evade questions that begin with “what,” “who” or “when” and do not include
analysis. Some key question words are “explain,” “discuss,” “criticize,” “evaluate,”
“contrast” and “compare”

b.       Organize: few days before the exam, the organization of information is needed to answer
the predicted questions. The organization can be done by outlining or by other methods
such as mapping. Main concepts and supporting details to answer the questions are highly
recommended to be summarized. The more information is organized, the more advantage can
be taken to arrange the practice answers.

c.       Rehearse: Recite aloud the information and examine the students memory. Reciting aloud
must be performed because the more senses that are involved in forming the memory,
the better understanding the students will get. This step helps students to place the key
ideas, examples, and overall organization in students’ long-term memory.

d.       Practice: In practicing, the students’ answer the students’ predicted essay questions
from memory. The students can draft an outline of the essay or organize a complete answer

e.       Evaluate: Evaluate the students’ work by asking the following question: Do I have
enough clear examples? Is my answer complete, truthful, and suitable? Is there anything I
should study before taking the exam?

4.        KWL Method

 K-W-L, developed by Ogle (1986) has been implemented in classrooms.
KWL is aimed to be an exercise for a study group or class that can direct the students
in reading and understanding a text. The students can adjust it to working alone.
The method is formed of only three stages that reflect a worksheet of three columns
with the three letters. The three stages is intended to discover the following information;
a.    What the students Know: brainstorm, record, engage, and organize the information.
b.    What the students Will/Want to know
c.     and what the students Learned

5.     SQ4R Method
            This SQ4R Method is very practical to help students keep studying organized and efficient. The steps to SQ4R are Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Record, Review:

a.  Survey:  skim the text for an overview of main ideas.

b. Question: the reader asks questions about what he or she wishes to get out of the text

c. Read: read the text

d. Recite: reprocess the point of oral or written language

e. Record: recording the point

f. Review: assess the important of the reading result 

C. Approach in Teaching Reading

1.        The top down approach

The top down approach emphasizes readers bringing meaning to text based on their experiential background and interpreting text based on their prior knowledge. Top is higher order mental concepts such as the knowledge and expectation of the reader. Bottom means the physical text on the page. This approach focuses on what the readers bring to process.

2.        The bottom up approach

This approach stipulates that the meaning of any text must be decoded by the reader and that students are reading when they can sound out words on a page. This model starts with the printed stimuli and works its way up to the higher level stages.

3.        The interactive approach

The interactive models of reading assume that skills at all levels are interactively available to process and interpret the text. In this model, good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters of text, their decoding skills becoming more automatic but no less important as their reading skill develops.