What is Reading?

Definition: "Reading is a purposeful thinking act that can be described as bringing meaning to and taking meaning from text" (Winch et al., 2010, p. 5).

Teaching reading in the 21st Century:

• Bottom-up view: to teach beginning readers with a heavy emphasis upon phonics, decoding text & alphabetic writing system.  Subskills claimed to make up the reading task.
• Top-down view: to teach beginning readers with a heavy emphasis upon meaning being paramount in any approach and devalue decoding as a substitute for context in word recognition.  Opposed to the subskill approach and regard reading from a holistic point of view.  often criticised for the lack of attention to the alphabetic system of English writing.
• Balanced view: Phonics alone is not enough to teach someone to read effectively.  Skilled readers require fast word identification and understanding of text.  Reading and writing have reciprocal links.  Winch et al. (2010, p. 14) states the following eight points provide the best opportunity for all students to acquire the skills of effective reading using a balanced approach:

1. places meaning at the core of all reading
2. recognises the interaction between reading and writing
3. recognises the importance of context in reading
4. places equal emphasis on the development of semantic, grammatical, phonological-graphological, and visual/pictorial knowledge through explicit and systematic teaching
5. recognises the importance of students developing effective strategies for processing both paper-based and digital text
6. provides for instruction across a range of fictional and factual ext-types including public and electronic texts
7. promotes a balance of Shared, Guided, and Independent Reading opportunities
8. bases instruction on effective assessment of students' needs and abilities.

Definition: "Multiliteracies - refers to two things: first, the variation in communication within different cultural and social contexts, a English spreads throughout the world; and second, the multimodal nature of making meaning through the interface of written-lingustic modes with visual, audio, gestual, and spatial forms to create new types of literacy (Winch et al., 2010, p. 20).  


Some creative ways to use digital texts in classrooms:

• Dragon Naturally Speaking Software to record classroom news, watch the program translate verbal to text and to find and fix errors.  Finally, printing as an author and adding to the class blog or hard copy text for future reference and reading.
• Use Avalanche Flash to create book covers
• Use Photoshop to create a collage of a scene in an electronic book (wiki) or blog.
• Use paint to create a character
• Use Inspiration to create a mid map of the qualities of a character in a book
• Us paint & Photostory to produce a summary of chapters in a book
• Use MS Access to develop a database of books researched in developing a project or theme
• Create a PowerPoint presentation to expand the reading of a book
• Produce Audio-visual recordings of people reading a book or playing characters and editing these as an electronic version or story.  May even change scenes or the endings or introduce other characters or replace to foster creativity and expression.  
• Many many more...(Winch et al., 2010, pp. 5-26).

WHAT ARE TEXTS:


Texts are constructed within social and cultural contexts to serve particular purposes (Winch et al., 2010, p. 113).

Two classifications of texts:

1. Literary (constructed to entertain the reader: stories, poetry, plays, film,TV). Remember: Multiliteracies include visual, audio, gestual, and spatial forms to create new types of literacy.
2. Factual (constructed to convey information: text-books, recipe books, newspapers, TV documentaries) 

Different conventions exist for different types of texts and their purpose.  Factual texts sometimes create language challenges for readers.  They apply a different structures and use unfamiliar grammatical features to literary texts which are usually more familiar to the daily routine experienced by many students.  Factual texts are different to literary texts in that they have a purpose to either:

• tell real life facts
• describe how to do tasks
• argue a point of view
• compare points of view
• recount events that have happened (Winch et al., 2010, p. 118).

Structural features of factual texts are also different to literary texts that follow a storyline.  Factual texts can include:

• information in a variety of ways; print, pictures, tables, maps etc.
• usually no sequence like that of a story.
• may include a table of contents, index and or glossary 
• paragraphs generally bundle information
• paragraphs may begin with topic sentences
• pictures with captions and labels may be included
• additional text boxes with extra information may be added
• sections of a page are designed to compliment each other: Example, a table or diagram may add to information in print.
• Grammar is usually vastly different: such as, use of technical jargon, general nouns, moderating adjectives, logical connectives and lauguage often exceeds students everday semantic knowledge (what is familiar to students) (Winch et al., 2010, p. 118).

A running record is a strategy used (as within the 3R's reading program) to judge a readers level of difficulty with a particular text (Winch et al., 2010, pp. 123-126).

Teachers should analyse factual texts and identify what features need to be taught to students and scaffold students to use more complex relevant texts.  It is important not to continually use overly simplified or infantile versions of texts, like "AutoCAD for Dummies", when other more professional resources are available and quite relevant (Winch et al., 2010, p. 120). 

Don't simply seek out easier ways to present the information for students; instead, find texts that require students to up-skill and assist them through understanding how the information is presented and interpreted within the text using lessons to scaffold student learning.  Example: look for some pictograms, from the text, that can be used as a focal point of a lesson to explain a complex task.  Using such features from factual texts will encourage students to further read about the topic.  Remember to use both print and digital texts in your lessons (Winch et al., 2010, pp. 119-121). 

Finally, teach students how to locate (research) proper texts and to reference in a variety of styles correctly as part of the process.  

HOW TO GRADE A TEXT FOR READERS:(Winch et al., 2010, p. 126).

IN THE CLASSROOM:


Teachers can help student to understand how different media work to construct meaning and carry either a story or convey a writers message.  Students need to learn how to use the various elements of print, image, sound, and movement to construct meaning; particularly, how writers use these elements to take a particular stance on the subject of their text.  Give opportunity for students to:

• Use and evaluate existing and construct own range of media products (internet sites, TV programs etc.)
• discuss different methods for presenting information, visual image, audio & print & combinations
• Experiment with the construction of media texts by manipulating print, image, sound and movement and discuss the effects the changes have on the meaning of the text as per Mr. Spencer's Graphics Print & Image LEP's 1-3(2010).
• Include the use, evaluation and construction of media products as part of a ITD or Business contextual design project (Winch et al., 2010, p. 129).