OVERVIEW
Reading courses focus on building students’ ability to read academic materials as well as other texts they may read for pleasure or for their communication and test-taking needs. First-year students especially need to: 1) improve their reading strategy use; 2) develop reading fluency; 3) acquire general and academic vocabulary. Therefore, the first-year course focuses on both intensive and extensive reading. Intensive reading focuses on being able to more effectively and efficiently comprehend the key points of somewhat challenging (yet still motivating) texts. Extensive reading, mostly done out of class, involves reading a great amount of less-challenging texts for pleasure in order to build one’s fluency and to reinforce language incidentally.
TEACHING APPROACH
The teacher will introduce basic reading strategies to help students comprehend a text’s main points more efficiently. This includes previewing the text, focusing on one’s goal (reading strategically) and coping with unknown vocabulary (inferring meaning, ignoring words, dictionary use). Students should aim to note down key points or summarize the text in English or Japanese, and they should also try to discuss the content in English. A language focus on the text may follow (i.e. reviewing target vocabulary or structures in the text or translating key sections).
If the course is organized by topics, oral or written projects (such as poster presentations) can be done at the end of the unit. Periodic timed-reading tests may also be done to check students’ reading rate and general comprehension ability. In addition, extensive reading is strongly recommended using graded readers, while higher level classes may be given the option of choosing authentic texts, such as novels for young adults.
DIFFERENT LEVELS
More proficient students will deal with more challenging texts than less proficient students, of course. However, the focus of the classes should be similar. Less proficient students may need to be encouraged and motivated more. Despite the low-level of some classes, teachers should avoid turning the course into a grammar-translation class; these students especially can benefit learning about the joy of reading for pleasure and for meaning.
TRANSITION FROM YEAR ONE TO YEAR TWO
First-year reading focuses more on news media, fiction, and more informal topics, while classes in the second year should be more academic. Moreover, first-year courses focus more on fluency while second- year courses deal more with strategies for tackling somewhat more challenging texts. Second-year courses more explicitly link reading and writing activities.
GRADING
Grading should reflect course objectives. Below are first-year objectives with suggested evaluation methods in parentheses.
By taking this course students should improve their:
- ability to comprehend the main ideas and key points of texts (reading tests, assignments, research projects, reading logs)
- ability to evaluate content critically (reading tests, assignments, research projects, reading logs)
- reading fluency (timed reading quizzes, independent reading assignments)
- receptive vocabulary and sentence structure (vocabulary quizzes, reading tests)
Participation can also be evaluated. For example, students can gain points by attending classes, coming on time, completing class assignments, and speaking up in class. They could lose points by being absent, coming late, showing off-task behavior or non-participation in discussions.
*It is important to combine several different ways of grading to reflect students’ use of different skills, strategies and abilities.