DO THEY HAVE DIFFICULTY ENGAGING IN
THEIR READING ?
Your class exhibits an immediate advantage in comparison to classes that you may have
taught before overseas as English is their first language. Without the residence of a second
language you will be able to instill literacy at an earlier age/stage than those learning in
direct ‘competition’ with their native tongue. You might find that your class is faster
progressing through Challs reading stages than others. However with a class that finds
engaging with reading difficult we suggest that you begin with ‘story telling’ NOW before you
sigh and dismiss this entire article we must confirm that this “story” is in fact providing them
with the use of more CONTEXTUAL CUES ‘kick-start’ your classes reading. They begin telling
stories to each other using words they know which begins to encourage the learning of more
unfamiliar words from peers. When you then move on to reading they will have a wider
schema of lexemes to aid them in word identification and comprehension.
DO YOU THINK
THEY COULD
ACHIEVE AT A
HIGH LEVEL
EARLY ON?
This class, although being taught overseas, the exact same teaching criteria can be applied as
for those in the standard English system. With, you imply, the added advantage of being
assumed to be students with great potential. These should be taught with the Phonic approach
avoiding the ‘whole-word’ approach which has been discredited by the British system. You may
find it is helpful to teach according to the statistical retenton rate of Synthetic phonics up to 44
phonemes at any one time. Which will aid grapheme recognition. You may even find it
appropriate to elevate the speed of learning of this high potential class by increasing the
projected phoneme memorisation (standar is five a week, but a high performance class could
learn up to eight new sounds a week. Alongside grapheme retention the GRAPHOPHONIC CUE
would be key to fovus on with your class. Semantic and Visual would be likely already in use.
Enjoy this promising class!
Your class don’t show difficulty engaging but do not move at a quick pace. We would suggest
that the use of the VISUAL cue as a key starting point. The standard phonics approach which
provides you with SEMANTIC cues also with obvious word connectons and easy assosiations to
be made. Encourage class disscussion and group repetition - the "you say - I say" approach too
will provide your pupils with a phonological referncing point. As you say words from the text you
want them to reproduce bare in mind the anolytic approach by breaking up the phonemes. This
aids successful repetition building the childs confidence. You may also find that it is best to not
to begin with the use of semantics or contxtual cues instead try to narrow their grapheme
assosiations. With miscues, as this is their first languae they are appropriate to pick up on at an
earlier stage butkepp your corrections to a minimum. Avoid repeated corection as this will
cause the child unhekpful anxiety affecting their reading
ARE THEY A LOUD CHATTY CLASS?
IS IT HARD TO
GET THEM TO
ENGAGE IN CLASS
READING?
With quiet classes, who don't manage to engage in their reading despite English being their second
language, your main priority is to build their confidence in their abilities. A probable mix of different
ages, at the same “beginners" stage. We suggest you begin with CUES each in their progressive
orders of general learning. Alongside Challs stages the standard; GRAPHOPHONIC taught shapes of
lexemes and noticed familiarities.SEMANTIC understanding the meanings of words and making
connections aiding decoding. VISUAL narratives through imaging to interpret unfamiliar words and
ideas. SYNTACTIC application of knowledge of word order and class to determine its
appropriateness (note; it is best not to focus on these details until the class is confident in those
above. CONTEXTUAL considerations will naturally follow at this point. MISCUES the final cue is
important to avoid until the appropriate moment. Your students will benefit best from these when
they have grown in confidence.
As with many classes it is hard to engage your class to engage in their reading. As they are not
a loud chatty class, one technique which you may find helpful is to begin with story telling.
NOW before you sigh and throw down this article, it has been proven that the telling stories
TO EACH OTHER does aid your pupils in their reading. Granted listening to you telling a story
(although enjoyable) is less effective. Children will expand their CONTEXTUAL and SEMANTIC
cues by telling stories to their peers. Avoid the harder syntactic cues for the beginning part (as
your pupils are speaking in their second language word order will be established at a later
point) Avoid miscue correction to begin with as this will decrease pupil confidence.