TEACHING READING
DR. MARK JOSHUA D. ROXAS, LPT
Program Chair, Bachelor of Secondary Education
Associate Member, DOST National Research Council of the
Philippines
[Link]@[Link]
Receptive Skills
• Receptive skills are the ways in which people extract
meaning from the discourse they see or hear. There are
generalities about this kind of processing which apply to
both reading and listening.
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How Reading works as Receptive Skill
• When we read a story or a newspaper, listen to the
news, or take part in conversation, we employ our
previous knowledge as we approach the process of
comprehension
• we deploy a range of receptive skills
• which receptive skills we use will be determined by our
reading or listening purpose.
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How Reading works as Receptive Skill
• In order to make sense of any text we need to have ‘pre-existent
knowledge of-the world’(Cook 1989: 69). Such knowledge is often
referred to as schema (plural schemata).
• Each of us carries in our heads mental representations of typical
situations that we come across. When we are stimulated by
particular words, discourse patterns, or contexts such schematic
knowledge is activated and we are able to recognize that we see
or hear because it fits into patterns that we already know.
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Reasons for reading
• We can divide reasons for reading into two broad
categories:
• Instrumental
• Pleasurable
• Instrumental: a large amount of reading takes place because it will
help us to achieve some clear aim.
• Pleasurable: another kind of reading takes place largely for pleasure.
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Processing
• Top-down and bottom-up processing:
• In metaphorical terms Top-down can be likened to the difference
between looking down on something from above - getting an
overview - and,
• on the contrary, bottom-up is being in the middle of something
and understanding where we are by concentrating on all the
individual features.
• It is the difference between looking at a forest, or studying the
individual trees within it.
• In top-down processing the reader gets a general view of the
reading passage by, in some way, absorbing the overall picture.
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Processing
• In bottom-up processing, on the other hand, the reader focuses
on individual words and phrases, and achieves understanding
by stringing these detailed elements together to build up a
whole.
• It is probably most useful to see acts of reading as interactions
between top-down and bottom-up processing.
• Without a good understanding of a reasonable proportion of
the details gained through some bottom-up processing we will
be unable to get any clear general picture of what the text is
about.
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Strategic skills
• Different skill-levels prompt different readers to employ
different uses of those skills:
• Identifying the topic
• Predicting and guessing
• Reading for general understanding
• Reading for specific information
• Reading for detailed information
• Interpreting text
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Extensive and intensive reading
• most researchers like to make a difference between
‘extensive’ and ‘intensive’ reading.
• Whereas the former (extensive) suggests reading at
length, often for pleasure and in a leisurely way, intensive
reading tends to be more concentrated, less relaxed, and
often dedicated not so much to pleasure as to the
achievement of a study goal.
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Extensive and intensive reading
• Extensive reading frequently takes place when students
are on their own
• Intensive reading is often done with the help and/or
intervention of the teacher.
• Extensive reading enables students to read without
constantly stopping and provide an increased word
recognition (Richard Day and Julian Bamford 1998).
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Extensive reading materials
• material which students can understand.
• Since pleasure is the main goal of this activity, if they are struggling
to understand every word, they can hardly be reading for
pleasure.
• teachers need to provide books which either by chance, or
because they have been specially written, are readily accessible
to the students.
• This type of materials have been called ‘language learner
literature’ (Day & Bamford 1988)
• A library of suitable extensive reading materials for graded learners
should be established, coded and made available for the
students.
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Extensive Reading: the role of the teacher
• Students usually do not do much extensive reading if
they are not prompted by the teacher. So the role of
teacher is crucial.
• Teachers should espouse reading as a valid
occupation and thus persuade students of its
benefits.
• Teachers can, at times, read aloud excerpts from the
reading materials they like to show their students how
interesting and pleasing reading can be.
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Extensive reading tasks
• Students should be allowed to make choice regarding
reading
• Students can be asked to maintain reading
diaries/journals about their reading with commentary
about the texts
• They can be asked to review and rate the texts they are
reading.
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Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher
• In order to get students to read enthusiastically in class, we
need to work to create interest in the topic and tasks.
However, there are further roles teachers need to adopt
when asking students to read intensively.
• Organizer: to tell students exactly what their reading purpose
is, give them clear instructions about how to achieve it and
explain how long they have to do this.
• Observer: just to observe and not interrupt the process /
activities of reading and silently collect information about the
whole event.
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Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher
• Feedback organizer: to lead a feedback session to
check that students have completed reading activities
successfully.
• Prompter: to prompt them to notice language features
within it and to direct them to certain features of text
construction, clarifying ambiguities and making them
aware of issues of text structure which they had not
come across previously.
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Intensive reading: the vocabulary question
• Though students are asked not to bother about the
meaning of every single word, rather to read for a general
understanding, students are usually desperate to learn
the meanings of all the words they come across.
• ‘It seems contradictory to insist that students "read for
meaning" while simultaneously discouraging them from
trying to understand the text at a deeper level than
merely gist’ (Carol Walker 1998: 172).
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Intensive reading: the vocabulary question
• To resolve this contradiction, students can be given a chance to ask
about the meanings of particular words.
• The teacher may limit the amount of time spent on vocabulary
checking in the following ways:
• Time limit: a time limit of, say, five minutes for vocabulary enquiry,
whether this involves dictionary use, language corpus searches or
questions to the teacher
• Word/phrase limit: only answer questions about five or eight words or
phrases.
• Meaning consensus: get students to work together to search for and
find word meanings.
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Intensive reading: letting the students in
• Teacher should try to engage the students in a text by
bringing their own feelings and knowledge to the task.
• Teacher can ask students whether they like the text or
not as a whole.
• Teacher needs to activate the students’ schemata. To
do this, she can discuss subject matter of the text before
the students read it, ask them to work out some charts
regarding the texts asserting what they know about it.
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Reading lesson sequences
• Intensive reading may involve a lot of purposes like the
students may have to skim, scan or read for communicative
purposes
• To accomplish these different objectives, intensive reading
activities involve lesson sequences
• Most reading sequences involve more than one reading skill.
Teachers may start by having students read for gist and then get
them to read the text again for detailed comprehension
• Students may start by identifying the topic of a text before scanning
the text quickly to recover specific information
• Students may read for specific information before going back to
the text to identify features of text construction.
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Teaching Reading Skills
Dr. Mark Joshua D. Roxas
Drawing Inferences
Inferential Level – reading level that involves motives, feelings,
judgments.
Inference – subtle suggestions expressed without direct statement.
With inference, the author often subtly suggests of getting the
message across.
• The reader forms/draws/generates answers from
suggestions/details within the text.
• The reader searches beyond the printed word for insights into
what is not directly stated.
• The reader uses his experience and general or prior knowledge.
• The reader makes informed guesses from the facts/details
provided.
• Drawing inference from description
• Drawing inference from action
• Drawing inference from factual material
• Drawing inference from time and place
Making Generalizations/Drawing Conclusions
Drawing generalizations/conclusions – making logical
deductions from both stated ideas and unstated
assumptions; on the basis of perceived evidence to
interpret motives, actions, and outcomes.
Conclusion – interpretation based on evidence and
suggested meaning
Determining Author’s Point of View/Bias
• Point of view – the particular angle or perspective that
suggests thoughtfulness and openness
• Bias – prejudice, mental leaning or inclination; when facts
are slanted, though not necessarily distorted, toward the
author’s personal beliefs; ; but has negative connotation;
suggests narrow-mindedness and prejudice.
Determining Author’s Purpose
• Author’s Purpose – can be a single purpose only or a
combination
1. To inform, explain, describe
2. To persuade, argue, condemn, ridicule
3. To entertain, amuse, delight
Determining Author’s Tone
• Author’s tone – expression of his/her attitude and feeling
1. Humorous remarks – meant to be comical, amusing
2. Sarcastic remarks – meant to cut, give pain, to satirize
3. Ironic remarks – meant to express something other than
the literal meaning, show incongruity between the
actual and the expected
Recognizing Argument
• Argument – assertion that support a conclusion that
intends to persuade; a rational discussion where one
advances and supports a point of view about some
matter
• Good argument – has a clear point and valid evidence
that truly backs up that point.
• Categories of Support for Argument
1. Facts and statistics
2. Examples
3. Analogies
4. Authority
5. Causal relationship
6. Common knowledge claim
7. Personal experiences
Determining Logical Fallacy
• Fallacy – an inference that first appears reasonable, but
closer inspection proves it to be unrelated, unreliable, or
illogical; irrelevant reasoning or weak arguments.
1. Relevance fallacy
2. Believability fallacy
3. Consistency fallacy
• Relevance fallacy: Is the support relevant or related to the
conclusion?
1. Ad hominem – an attack on the person rather than the
issue; that if the person is opposed, the idea will be
opposed.
2. Bandwagon – the idea that everybody is doing it and
you will be left out if you do not quickly join the crowd.
3. Misleading analogy – suggesting that two things are
similar when they are distinctly different.
4. Straw person – a setup in which a distorted or
exaggerated form of the opponent’s argument is
introduced and knocked down as if to represent a weak
opposition.
5. Testimonials – opinions of agreement from respected
individuals (celebrities) who are not actually experts.
6. Transfer – an association with a positively or negatively
regarded person or thing in order to lend the same
association to the argument (also guilt or virtue by
association).
• Believability fallacy: Is the support believable or highly
suspicious?
1. Incomplete facts or card stacking – omission of factual
details to misrepresent reality.
2. Misinterpreted statistics – numerical data misapplied to
unrelated population which they were never intended
to represent.
3. Overgeneralization – examples and anecdotes asserted
to apply to all cases rather than a select few.
4. Questionable authority – testimonial suggesting authority
from people who are not experts.
• Consistency fallacy: Does the support hold together or fall
apart and contradict itself?
1. Appeals to emotion – highly charged language used for
emotional manipulation.
2. Appeals to pity – plea to support the underdog, the
person or issue that needs help.
3. Begging the question or circular reasoning – support for
the conclusion which is merely a restatement of it.
4. Oversimplification – reduction of an issue to two simple
choices, without consideration of other alternatives or
gray areas in between.
5. Slippery slope – objecting to something because it will
lead to greater evil or disastrous consequences.
Distinguishing Fact from Opinion
• Fact – is a statement proven true through objective
evidence (physical proof, spoken or written testimony of
witnesses).
• Opinion – a statement that cannot be objectively proven
true or false; usually express beliefs, feelings, or judgments.
Stages of a Reading Lesson
Dr. Mark Joshua D. Roxas
Chair, BSE-English Program
Pre-Reading
• Activating Prior Knowledge
Engage students in discussions about the topic before reading
to activate background knowledge.
• Previewing the Text
Skimming the text to predict content.
• Setting a Purpose for Reading
Provide students with specific goals (e.g., understanding the
author’s argument).
While/During-Reading
• Guided Reading
Work with students to read texts in small groups, providing
guidance and support.
• Think-Alouds
Model how to think critically while reading by verbalizing your
thoughts.
• Annotating the Text
Encourage students to underline key points, write questions, or
mark unfamiliar vocabulary.
Post-Reading
• Discussion and Reflection
Facilitate discussions on themes, perspectives, and
interpretations of the text.
• Response Journals
Ask students to write reflections or personal responses to what
they have read.
• Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World Connections
Encourage students to connect the text to their own
experiences, other texts, and broader world issues.
Summary of Example Activities
Stage Activity Objective
Pre-Reading KWL Chart Activate prior knowledge and set learning goals.
Skimming and Scanning Get an overview of the text and make predictions.
Question Generation Set a purpose for reading by generating key questions.
During-Reading Jigsaw Reading Promote collaborative learning and comprehension.
Think-Alouds Model critical thinking while reading the text.
Annotating the Text Encourage active engagement and note-taking.
Post-Reading Socratic Seminar Foster discussion and deep analysis of themes.
Response Journals Provide personal reflection and synthesis of ideas.
Connection Map Make connections to self, other texts, and the world.
Types of Text for Teaching Reading
Literary Texts
• Encourage deep analysis of novels, short stories, poems, and plays.
• Discuss figurative language, symbolism, themes, and character development.
• Engage in literary criticism, using theories like formalism, structuralism, and postcolonialism.
Expository Texts
• Focus on reading and analyzing non-fiction texts such as essays, articles, and reports.
• Practice identifying main ideas, supporting details, and recognizing text structures (cause
and effect, comparison, etc.).
Digital Texts
• Incorporate the use of digital and multimedia texts such as blogs, websites, and videos.
• Teach students how to evaluate the credibility of sources and use digital tools for reading
comprehension.
Assessing Reading Comprehension
• Cloze Test
Description: A passage with blanks where students fill in
missing words based on context.
Purpose: Assesses how well students understand text
structure and meaning.
Example: "The ________ was overcast, so we decided to stay
inside."
Assessing Reading Comprehension
• Retelling
Description: Students summarize or retell the text in their
own words.
Purpose: Measures comprehension of main ideas, details,
and sequence.
Activity: After reading, ask students to verbally or in writing
retell the story or passage they read.
Assessing Reading Comprehension
Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)
• Description: A method that categorizes questions into
different types:
• Right There: Answers found directly in the text.
• Think and Search: Answers that require synthesis of information.
• Author and You: Answers that require inference based on textual
evidence and personal experience.
• On My Own: Answers that rely primarily on personal knowledge,
not the text.
• Purpose: Helps students identify how to find answers to
different types of questions.
Assessing Reading Comprehension
• Graphic Organizers
Description: Visual tools that help organize thoughts, such
as story maps, Venn diagrams, and cause-and-effect
charts.
Purpose: Assesses how well students understand
relationships and key elements of the text.
Activity: After reading, students complete a story map with
sections for setting, characters, plot, conflict, and resolution.
Assessing Reading Comprehension
• Running Records
Description: The teacher listens to the student read a
passage aloud and notes errors, self-corrections, and
comprehension.
Purpose: Tracks fluency, accuracy, and comprehension
over time.
Activity: Regularly assess reading fluency and
comprehension by having students read aloud while
marking their performance.
Gooddell’s Reading Skills Ladder and
Stages of Reading
The Reading Skills Ladder is designed to illustrate the incremental
development of reading proficiency. Each "rung" on the ladder
represents a new set of skills, with readers starting from basic
phonemic awareness and gradually moving towards higher levels of
critical analysis and interpretation.
Goodell’s Stages of Reading further explain the development of
reading skills, dividing them into clear phases of growth. These stages
are a continuum, meaning students progress through them at
different rates depending on their individual learning pace.
Goodell’s Reading Skills Ladder
Rung Skill Description
Recognizing and manipulating individual
1 Phonemic Awareness
sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
Understanding the relationship between letters
2 Phonics (Decoding)
and sounds to read words.
Developing the ability to read with speed,
3 Fluency
accuracy, and proper expression.
Expanding word knowledge and
4 Vocabulary
understanding meanings of words.
Understanding, interpreting, and analyzing text,
5 Comprehension
both literal and inferential.
Goodel’s Stages of Reading
Stage Description Characteristics
Early awareness of books and print; building oral Children "pretend" to read, recognize letters, and begin
1. Pre-Reading (Emergent)
language skills and letter recognition. to understand that text conveys meaning.
Beginning to decode words and understand basic Focus on letter-sound relationships (phonics), simple word
2. Early Reading
sentences with guidance. recognition, and short sentences.
Increased ability to read more complex texts
Greater fluency, comprehension of connected text, and
3. Transitional Reading independently, with less decoding and better
the use of context clues for unknown words.
fluency.
Reads smoothly and quickly with good
Fluent reading of longer texts, improved expression, and
4. Fluent Reading comprehension; uses strategies to understand
better understanding of narrative structure.
unfamiliar words.
Reads a variety of texts independently, critically,
Strong fluency, comprehension, and ability to analyze
5. Proficient Reading and for different purposes (e.g., learning,
and interpret texts across genres.
pleasure).
References
Langan, J. (1992). Ten steps to improving college reading
skills. NJ: Townsend Press.
Smith, B. (2000). Bridging the gap: College reading. NY:
Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Thank you for listening!
Asst. Prof. Mark Joshua D. Roxas, PhD, LPT
Program Chair, Bachelor of Secondary Education
Research Coordinator, HUMSS Cluster
Associate Member, DOST National Research Council of the Philippines
[Link]@[Link]
