Teaching Academic Reading

Most of the reading teaching I've done is at the intermediate and advanced level. I have used a variety of reading textbooks — Impressions 1 & 2 (Thomson & Heinle), Active (Heinle), Inside Reading 2 & 3 (Oxford),and Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic Word List (Longman). I try to make use of the readings in these series, as they are good representatives of college textbook reading. To build reading skills, I pull a lot of supplemental skills-based activities from Reading Power and Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills (Townsend Press).

Intensive Reading Activities
Locating main ideas Underline sentence in each paragraph that summarizes the main idea.
Annotating Underline or circle key words/phrases in each paragraph; note the key transitions like "however", "but", "yet", "despite" if present; write the main idea in the margin
Paraphrasing Paraphrase a selected paragraph
Mapping Help students identify the main idea and supporting ideas by analyzing the structure.
  • Create an outline of the entire article
  • Create a map of the article (main ideas, support, cause-effect, etc) on a poster

Using the map/outline/annotation, write a summary or paraphrase of the whole article. Using the map/outline/annotation, answer the comprehension questions
Increasing Reading Rate I use a lot of activities from Reading Power, which focus on chunking and ignoring unknown words. See my blog posting on this. Also, I do one-minute reading sprints, where students read for one minute. Stop and mark their place. Return to the beginning and read for another minute, trying to pass their mark. Other variations include setting a goal for where they want to read to in one minute and see if they can meet or pass their goal.
Identifying Tone/Style I like to bring in various genres along the same topic and have students analyze them for tone and style.

See an example worksheet (pdf) done in the lab.
Vocabulary Activities
Vocabulary Log

Throughout the week, students find 2 authentic sentences using the each assigned vocabulary word. They cannot be from an online dictionary. The Vocabulary Log must be a neatly typed and printed Word Document, including the sources for each sentence (APA format).
Lab Activities

Online Chat: partners chat about each word

  1. Find the word in the article from our textbook. Type the entire sentence.
  2. Discuss the part of speech
  3. Discuss possible meaning
  4. Check with online dictionary or www.wordsift.com
  5. Create a new sentence

Quizzes: Students create quizzes for each other. They find sample sentences on the Internet and create Fill in the Blank quiz questions.

Extensive Reading and Other Supplemental Activities
Short Stories

Sometimes I find a nice way to spend a Thursday class period, right before the weekend, is to do a short story or a chapter/segment from a novel. I find that they can usually read it in 30 or 40 minutes. Afterwards, we can do some fun analysis and discussion.

Example: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Chapter 1).

Critical Thinking Questions:

  1. Describe Mma Romatswe. Find quotations from the text to support your answer
    • Physical appearance
    • Skills and talents
    • Her detective agency
    • Her personality
    • The way she interacts with people
  2. Describe Happy Bapetsi. Find quotations to support your answer.
  3. Describe the lifestyle of people in this African village. Find quotations to support your answer.
Subtitled Foreign Films

To increase reading fluency, I sometimes show subtitled foreign films. Unlike simply showing a film with the sound turned off and the captions on, subtitled foreign films offer students the complete entertainment experience along with the reading practice. I've found that showing foreign films is an excellent way to encourage critical thinking because of the topics and themes that arise.

Example: Life is Beautiful (1997).

See the Life is Beautiful worksheet (pdf) students did while viewing.

Novel Study

I believe students should have at least 15 minutes/night of extensive reading for pleasure. I like to have my students always working on a novel. To keep them motivated, I assign a chapter or two between each class period and give a short reading quiz the following day. The quiz is mainly to check to see if they actually did their reading.

A key to a successful novel study is to choose the right book. So far, one of the best books I have found is Funny in Farsi, a memoir written by Firoozeh Dumas, an Iranian immigrant who grew up in California. The reason it worked so well in my class is that it is extremely accessible to my Saudi and Chinese students. Although it contains a great deal of idiomatic language, Dumas' experiences are such that my students can relate and actually enjoy.

Student-Led Reading Activities Once during the semester, each student signs up to deliver a reading lesson they developed. They bring in a pre-approved article of their own choice and lead the class in:
  1. Previewing activities
  2. Main idea/detail, inference, vocabulary, critical thinking questions
  3. Review of the answers
  4. Post-reading discussion and application