Move students from a literal reading to a deeper comprehension of a text in the target language Guiding language learners to effective reading comprehension in the world language classroom does not need to be stressful, overwhelming or scary. No, it really doesn’t. It is true, I have been stressed, overwhelmed and scared to go through a chapter book or any text of serious length with my French students in the past. I have asked myself questions such as: --Where do I begin? --How do I make the text come alive without giving them all the answers or translations? --HOW DO I DO THIS?? To respond in French, “pas de souci!” Or to quote The Lion King, “hakuna matata!” Really, your students CAN read and understand a text in the target language with deep comprehension and understanding. Equip yourself with effective reading strategies to then guide your world language learners to reading comprehension success in the target language! We will explain some ideas for each step of the reading process: Pre-reading During reading Post-reading On y va! Disclaimer: We learned about these strategies over the years from world language conferences, professional development in-services, education courses, informational texts, etc. Then, we personalized them to fit our needs and our students’ needs. We have used all these ideas and examples in one way or another in our French classrooms, ranging from beginner to advanced students. Pre-Reading Strategies for World Language LearnersIntroducing the text and allowing students to become familiar with it is just as important as the during and post reading strategies. Why? It helps students assess prior knowledge, gain a glimpse of what to expect, become familiar with what is to come. Let's take a look at some activities you could do BEFORE reading a text in the target language. Depending on your teaching methods and student needs, any of these activities could be immersed in the target language or bounce between English and the target language. 1. Meet & Greet Have students look at the cover and back page. Let them flip through the book and see how it is organized. How many chapters or sections? Is there a table of contents or glossary? Do they notice images or captions? This preview is like a Meet & Greet night at school – it helps everyone get to know their way around, provides visuals and gives a first impression. 2. Personal Connections to the text Create 5-10 yes/no personal statements that connect to the main idea of the text. For example, before reading Pirates français des Caraïbes, some of my sentences included: -I watched the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. -I like to go on boat rides. -When I was young, I imagined playing with a magic potion. These simple sentences 1.) create a personal connection to the text and 2.) give insight into the text. Another twist on this would be to create “Have you ever…?” questions that personally connect to the main events of the text. Have you ever climbed a mountain? Have you ever slept until noon? Have you ever...? The point is to make a personal connection to the introduction of the text. 3. Assess prior knowledge Tell students 1-3 topics included in the text and ask them what they know about it. The topic is “pirates.” What do you know about pirates? The topic is “French tourist attractions.” Do you know of any tourist attractions in France? The topic is “World War II.” What do you know about this time in history? 4. Text Cut Up Choose 5-10 main sentences or quotes from the entire text. Type them, print them and cut them out for each small group. Ask each group to arrange the sentences in the order of the text. Have each group share what they think comes first, middle, or last. Then, from this glimpse into the text, ask students to predict what will happen or what problems may arise. This helps them assess prior knowledge, brainstorm, and use clues to predict. Don’t you love having students THINK on so many levels?! ** Use this same activity as a Post-Reading activity – witness the growth of understanding! During Reading Strategies for World Language LearnersOur biggest piece of advice when reading a text (especially a lengthy text and/or chapter book): VARIETY! Let’s say it again. VARIETY. Mixing up your strategies helps students stay engaged and interested in the text. Keep them on their toes! If you do the same thing in each lesson over and over again, boredom and disengagement set in quickly. All strategies can be good, but too much of a good thing isn’t good! Whew, we have so many DURING reading strategies, we better get going! 1. Map it out There are so many varieties of maps and diagrams you could create to help students organize the main points and flow of the given text in the target language. Here is an example of something you could use for a chapter or entire text. This helps students organize the key points and simply visualize the text in its entirety. 2. Who’s Who? Keeping details, descriptions and personalities of characters can get confusing! Therefore, we help students with a simple organizer that they keep with them during the entire book unit. As they read about a new detail about someone or a brand new character, they add it to their paper. We often see students going back to the paper as a reference point to help them keep who’s who straight! 3. When problems arise Focus on the problems of the given text. Guide students to differentiate between the existing problem, the causes of the problem and the resolutions to the problem. Providing an organizer such as the one below can help keep all thoughts, citations and details organized. 4. I say, you say, I say, you say This strategy is exactly the title: I say something about the text (a prediction, a question, a comment, a connection) You (my partner) says something about the text. I say something different. You say something different. If each partner cannot say at least 2 different comments, connects, etc., it is a good indication that they need to go back to the text. 5. Predict, read, confirm Give students 5-10 sentences about the text. Set up a table such as the one below. Before reading the text, students predict if the given sentences are true or false in the left column. (Decide if you want to poll the class on their predictions, do a majority say true or false for #3?) Then, they proceed to the text, paying special attention to the sentences in the middle column. As they read, they confirm or correct their answers in the right column. Discuss the answers as a class. 6. Alike & Different Help students find similarities and differences between main ideas of the text using a Venn diagram. You could do this with 2 or 3 circles. It is great to see what students can deduce from the text! See the example below: 7. Diagrams Galore There are so many ways to help students organize and pull out details from a text. Perhaps you provide the main idea and then let them find and prove details to support the main idea. Or, perhaps you provide a few details and they need to discover the main idea of the text. The point is to help students organize, deduce and comprehend the text in a different way. Some diagrams might look like this: 8. Text or Images Cut Up Just as the pre-reading strategy where we cut up important parts of the text for students to kinesthetically arrange into chronological order, do that same strategy here on a smaller scale. Choose the main ideas of the article or chapter, print, cut and distribute to small groups. BUT WAIT. You don’t need to just do text…use IMAGES, too! This provides variety and a different way of thinking as students process and analyze the given text. As students read the text, they arrange the papers in the correct order. 9. Questions for Another After reading the text, in small groups, students create 3-5 comprehension questions for another group. Once each group has their questions written, pass to the group nearby. Now each group has a new set of questions to discuss and answer. 10. Images for Another Same process as #9, but now students DRAW 2-4 representations of the text. Pass the drawings to the next group. Now, students must analyze the images and explain WHY the first group chose those images and WHY the new group arranged them as they did. 11. Act it out: Teacher as Narrator Ask for volunteers or choose charismatic students to represent characters in the text. To help the class, have each student wear a name tag depicting who s/he represents. Ok, now you’re ready to go (but you need to be REALLY prepared). Teacher reads the narrator parts. When a new character speaks, that particular student reads the quote. When an emotion is displayed, be very dramatic and enthusiastic. Encourage your “actors” to play the part, too. Surprised? Then, everyone needs to act surprised. Scared? Look scared. Whenever an important object is described, pull that object out of a bag for the class to see. A magic potion? A hammer? A doll? This object helps 1.) provide understanding to a new vocabulary word and 2.) makes the text come alive. Continue enthusiastically guiding the text between actors, the class, you and the objects. If done well, students LOVE this method. 12. Act it out: All student driven In small groups, students read the text together. Then, they act out the text to show their interpretation of it. It is so great to see how each small group can read the exact same text yet act it out in a completely different way! 13. Draw the main idea Asks students to draw their interpretation of the text. Compare everyone's drawings. Post-Reading Strategies for World Language Learners1. Text Cut-Up In small groups, give students the same sentences/quotes that were cut up as a pre-reading activity. Ask them to arrange the papers in the correct order of the text. It’s always interesting to watch how quickly and confidently they can arrange the papers correctly! 2. Incomplete Summary Provide students with a summary of the text with a lot of words missing. Don’t choose words that are too discreet or detailed; instead, choose words that are major to the storyline. Start with just the summary and no word bank. How many can they complete? Then, working with a partner, how many words can they add? Add the same process with small groups. Spend just enough time for students to think but not too long for boredom or defeat to settle in. Then, provide a word bank. Now, what can they complete? Once done, they have an entire summary of the text. 3. Change the ending Whether written or orally, ask students to change the ending of the story. How would it be different or similar? This can lead to great discussions and such a variety of creativity! 4. My name is… Again, written or orally, ask students to become a character from the text. How would they introduce and describe themselves to a stranger, to someone who has never read the text, or even to someone who has read the text. Or, without giving the name away, ask students to provide a description of a character for their peers to guess who it is. 5. Prove it! Make a list of main characters from the text. Ask students to return to the text and find 1-3 quotes or descriptions (cite page numbers!) regarding the given characters that prove their understanding and impression of the character. HOW?
That student read an entire chapter book as a beginner French student.
A student who didn't have much previous knowledge of the French language. Can you sense the enthusiasm and sense of accomplishment? "READ A CHAPTER BOOK." The reading strategies were effective, the student put in the effort and now that great feeling of satisfaction for this student. Help your students feel this sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of conquering a second (or third) language. Let us know which strategy you want to try or implemented already! [email protected] Oh and me (Andi)? I LOVE the During Reading Strategy #11: Act it Out, Teacher as Narrator. My enthusiasm ramps up, I get excited to dive into the text and I am ok with the students laughing at my antics. But, I love it because students are engaged AND they understand the text. Again, move yourself from the unknowns to the success of your students as they glide from literal reading to deeper reading comprehension. Wahoo! Youpi!
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Who are the Hobbs?Originally, we are from the Midwest and the East; however, our paths took us to Angers, France where we met and fell in love. Archives
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