Increasing Literacy Skills by Placing Reading at the Core Neil J. Anderson Brigham Young University Provo, Utah

Placing Reading at the Core of Instruction Reading

Developing Critical Thinking Skills Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Lower-order skills Higher-order skills

The Griney Grollers Thinking Skills Test The griney grollers grangled in the granchy gak. 1. What kind of grollers were they? 2. What did the grollers do?

The Griney Grollers Thinking Skills Test The griney grollers grangled in the granchy gak. 3. Where did they do it? 4. In what kind of gak did they grangle? 5. Place one line under the subject and two lines under the verb.

The Griney Grollers Thinking Skills Test The griney grollers grangled in the granchy gak. 6. In one sentence, explain why the grollers were grangling in the granchy gak. Be prepared to justify your answer with facts. 7. If you had to grangle in a granchy gak, what one item would you choose to have with you and why?

The Griney Grollers Thinking Skills Test Moral: Students can answer low- level questions without thinking. Students enter/exit classrooms with no more understanding of what they've learned than "The Griney Groller” taught you! What is higher-order thinking? hink.htm

Placing Reading at the Core Curriculum Design and Development 1. Focus on student learning 2. Emphasize quality instruction 3. Focus on purpose and continuous improvement Glatthorn, A. (1994). Developing a quality curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Curricular Change and Innovation Change does not necessarily result in higher program quality. Innovation is an organized system for improving both teaching and learning. Stoller, F. (1997). The catalyst for change and innovation. In M.A. Christison & F. L. Stoller (Eds.), An Handbook for Language Program Administrators (pp ). Burlingame, CA: Alta Book Center.

Curricular Change and Innovation Markee (1997) defines curricular innovation as “a managed process of development whose principle products are teaching (and/or testing) materials, methodological skills, and pedagogical values that are perceived as new by potential adopters” (p. 172). Markee, N. (1997). Managing curricular innovation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Curricular Change and Innovation “Without a focus on innovation, changes may result in nothing more than minor adjustments to the existing curriculum” (Casey, 1999, p. 81). Casey, J. (1999). Curriculum innovations in intensive English programs: An update. Journal of Intensive English Studies,13,

Integrating Critical Thinking into the Reading Curriculum “Critical thinking is a vital feature for the improvement of teaching and learning” (Nguyen, 2005, p. 6). Nguyen, T. C. L. (2005). From passive participant to active thinker: A learner-centered approach to materials development. English Teaching Forum, 43 (3), 2-9.

Placing Reading at the Core of Instruction Reading

Placing Reading at the Core of Instruction Lesson planning verbs: To develop lower-order skills: define, repeat, identify, what, label, when, list, who, name, subdivide, categorize, breakdown, sort, separate To develop higher-order skills: deduce; anticipate; predict what if; infer; apply; speculate; conclude, evaluate, argue, judge, recommend, assess, debate, appraise, critique, defend

Wilhoit, S. W. (2004). A brief guide to writing from readings, 3 rd edition. New York: Pearson.

A good summary is... Comprehensive—it conveys all the important information in the reading. Brief—it conveys the information concisely. Accurate—it correctly conveys the author’s ideas, findings, or arguments. Neutral—it avoids judgments concerning the reading’s topic or style. Independent—it makes sense to someone who has not read the source text. (Wilhoit, 2004, p. 71)

Placing Reading at the Core of Instruction Reading

Integrating Critical Thinking into the Reading Curriculum Paran (2003) suggests constructing activities that train students to distinguish (1) fact from opinion, (2) supported opinions from unsupported opinions, (3) texts with factual mistakes in them, (4) corroborating information from disconfirming information, and (5) conflicting information within and between texts. Paran, A. (2003). Helping learners to become critical: How coursebooks can help. In W. A. Renandya (Ed.), Methodology and materials design in language teaching:Current perceptions and practices and their implications, pp Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Integrating Critical Thinking into the Reading Curriculum Paran (2003) recommends providing “two texts that present totally different views on the same matter and invite students to discuss and debate the issue. Paran, A. (2003). Helping learners to become critical: How coursebooks can help. In W. A. Renandya (Ed.), Methodology and materials design in language teaching:Current perceptions and practices and their implications, pp Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Placing Reading at the Core of Instruction Reading

Increasing Literacy Skills by Placing Reading at the Core Neil J. Anderson Brigham Young University Provo, Utah USA