Different texts for different Life Activities - help kids find books that satisfy their life purposes (pg 124)- isn't that the push of young adult lit? To help kids process life things like divorce, racism, suicide, etc... to find themselves in the books - or to help them find empathy for those in situations unknown to the reader?
Genre Teaching - be careful not to stifle creativity by requiring strict adherence to genre form when writing...
Reader Purpose vs Author purpose - (and teacher purposes!) - all transactional - once the writer wrote it - hey let go - things are going to happen in the transaction!!!
Children and Magazines - target children's interest! Use what they are reading already!
Levelled reading books - be careful -- sends message that value is place on moving up thru the levels not reading for meaning - choose books with good stories, interesting characters, compelling twists - with something to generate real discussion!
Integrated Curriculum - like ESL - if students see learning English as something they only need to think about during ESl class, then it loses its power and potency - integrate it across curriculum and students can make the connections
Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
RTL: Language as Social Practice/Purpose
OK, this just turned everything I knew on its head...
language is now being described as social practice rather than as communication (transmitter - receiver - OK - every communication course I've had goes out the window, too - ha!!)
Language is learned interactively as individuals engage in social contexts... OK, this jibes with the idea of negotiation of meaning in ESL lingo...
BUT what if someone is just sitting there reading to learn quietly alone... does this mean the social context is now between the reader and the author? OK, that makes sense.
Reading Involves Purpose
When we read, we always read with a purpose...so when reading is evaluated, the purpose (of text and reader) should be taken into consideration - e.g purpose for reading a poem and reading a medicine bottle... would success be gauged in the same way?
*** Make sure that classroom reading serves authentic purposes - link to children's lives
language is now being described as social practice rather than as communication (transmitter - receiver - OK - every communication course I've had goes out the window, too - ha!!)
Language is learned interactively as individuals engage in social contexts... OK, this jibes with the idea of negotiation of meaning in ESL lingo...
BUT what if someone is just sitting there reading to learn quietly alone... does this mean the social context is now between the reader and the author? OK, that makes sense.
Reading Involves Purpose
When we read, we always read with a purpose...so when reading is evaluated, the purpose (of text and reader) should be taken into consideration - e.g purpose for reading a poem and reading a medicine bottle... would success be gauged in the same way?
*** Make sure that classroom reading serves authentic purposes - link to children's lives
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