Welcome to READ!!This is an extra support unit for those of you who need a little extra help with your reading. If you are to improve your reading you will have to be prepared to do the work set here as homework, and to work independently. You are not alone . I have set apart every THURSDAY lunch break so that you can come to me and discuss your progress. I am here to help you but, you also have to be prepared to help yourself and to take the extra support provided seriously.

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WHAT IS READING?

HOW CAN WE READ BETTER?A lecturer by the name of Frank Smith, wrote a well known university textbook for teachers. The name of the book is “Reading”.

What is interesting about this book is that it compares reading to riding a bicycle. The best way to learn how to ride a bicycle is to get on one and try and the best way to learn to read is to read!!!! The best way to read better is to read more!

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If someone tried to tell you step by step how to ride a bicycle, it would become very complicated indeed. Frank Smith said that the best way to learn to read and to become a better reader is to READ. Once you get into the habit of reading you will actually find reading easier and easier. When you first learnt to ride a bicycle, this is what happened. Riding became easier the more you did it. Then, you became so good at it that you soon rode well without even thinking about what you were doing. Your speed also increased. Well this is exactly what happens with you read, so make up your mind to read more in your spare time.

Another person, by the name of Gordon Wells, wrote a book called “The Meaning Makers”. Gordon Wells thought that the main thing that successful language users and readers do is that they SEARCH FOR MEANING IN TEXT.

If we add what Frank Smith said with what Gordon Wells researched, we could say that good language users (and good readers )practice until they can read really wel.

When we practice using language and reading, we are searching for meaning in both the spoken and written

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words. This search for meaning is the purpose for reading and for using language. This is what makes reading enjoyable !

Now, look up these words:

Potential, purpose, academic, research.

When you understand the meanings of these words, re-read my comments on the previous page. Did you understand it better once you understood the meaning of some words?

Good readers look up words and their meanings constantly/often, and I hope that you will use your dictionary a lot as you do some extra reading.

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What kind of a reader are you?Complete the Reading Quiz below and find out something about your attitude towards reading, the places in which you like to read best, and whether you read slowly and carefully or quickly.

When you have completed all the suggested activities and reading materials in this support unit, return to this quiz and see where your attitudes and habits have changed/improved.

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Where do you like to read the most?

Whilst I am travelling in a car or bus At a desk or table Whilst I am relaxed on a sofa or in a comfortable

place I like to read in any location I only read when I have to at school With the t.v/radio on in the living room

(comment: if you only read at school you will not be reading enough at all! You must read more in your spare

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time. There is no perfect place to read. Anywhere you feel comfortable is good enough! Keep reading!)

How do you read?

I only read when I am forced to read and when I do read, I am very slow and careful

I read very quickly but I don’t always understand what I read well

I always read very carefully I sometimes read slowly/quickly and carefully I am afraid of reading and I avoid it as much as I can I enjoy reading and read as much as I can I have can use the skim and scan method for reading

texts

(comment: If you tend to read slowly, don’t worry. Just keep reading. Your speed will improve with practice. Here is a tip if you read really slowly. Don’t say each word out loud. This actually slows you down! Practice reading silently and you will find that you read faster. Also, always try to read at a pace where you can at least

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understand most of what you are reading. Its no point reading fast if you don’t understand!)

When you read in English do you always

Look at the words around the ones you do not know to find clues to their meaning

Use a dictionary and or Thesaurus often Do you look for other clues in reading such as

pictures and headings and topic sentences I just stare at the page but hardly understand

anything

(comment: looking at the words around the one you do not understand often gives you a clue to the meaning of the word (this is called a context clue) , and this is useful when you do not have a dictionary. Try it. You will be surprised to see how much you can learn about the meaning of new words in this way)

What kinds of texts do you read and how often?

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Newspapers sometimes/often/never

Magazines sometimes/often/never

Textbooks sometimes/often/never

Novel sometimes/often/never

Poem sometimes/often/never

Definition sometimes/often/never

Report sometimes/often/never

Directory sometimes/often/.never

(comment: you should try to read a little of all types)

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LETS GET STARTED!!

LETS READ!!!!

First, try to read more in your spare time. Read things that you enjoy, for example, read comics, sports magazines, novels in fact anything which you like. Whatever you do just keep reading!

Use the library at school. There are some really great novels there for all levels of readers and some of them have CD’s so that you can listen and read at the same time. This is one way in which you can enjoy reading more. If you read things which you like, reading will not seem so difficult!

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NOVELS

This is a good place to start reading more in your spare times.

Here are two novels from the school library which I recommend that you read.

1. THE CALL OF THE WILD (Penguin Active Reading Series – Level 2).

2. WHITE FANG (Penguin – Level 2).

After you have read these two novels read one novel per month. The Librarian will help you to find great novels suitable for boys your age. Make a list of all the novels which you have read and come to me to discuss the book and further activities. Make sure you write down the title of the book and the person (author) who wrote it.

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JOURNALS

You can also keep a journal about what you read. It is easy. Once you have read a few pages which you read, just jot down in a notebook short points about what you have understood so far. Also make a list of the words which you do not understand in the novel and go back to them later using a dictionary to get the meaning.

Or use Google and find the website for ……………………….

This is an on line journal which some people find really good to use.

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ACTIVITIES UNIT 1. - The Novel

After you have read each novel choose at least three activities from the following list and complete them.

Write a letter to a friend explaining what you like and dislike about the book. Remember to give a short account of what the story is about.

Write a short outline of the main events in the book. Find a list of at least 10 adjectives from the novel

and make sentences using each work in a way which shows that you know the meaning of the each word.

Use a dictionary and look up all the words which you do not understand. Talk to a friend and explain each meaning. Try to use some of the words in your everyday conversations with your friends.

Look carefully at the first chapter again. Find the topic sentence in each paragraph and select the most important supporting detail from each paragraph. Use the notes you have made to write a short summary of the first chapter. Do not use more than two paragraphs in your summary.

Create a new cover design for this novel.13

Change the conclusion of the novel to any other way in which you would want it to end. Remember, your conclusion must be different to the author’s.

Create a power point presentation which retells, in your own words, the story told in this novel.

Now complete the exercises at the back of each book (if there are any).

Make a short crossword puzzle or word search using key vocabulary from the novel.

Now that you have read novels, try to vary your reading by choosing to read parts of newspapers, magazines, reports, etc. See me with the reading you select.

Go online and try to find out something about the author. Where was he/she born and what other books did he/she write? Did you find out anything interesting about the author? Write about him/her in your journal.

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Activities – Unit 2 - Reading For Academic Purposes

As you move up the school you will find that the reading you do is more related to preparation for further learning, or academic purposes.

You will be expected to be able to extract key information from text, and to understand the writer’s purpose (or intention/reason) for writing. For example, did the writer want to describe, inform, entertain, report, persuade? Etc…..)

You will need to be able to recognize the structure of academic texts and be able to use these structures

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yourself, for example you will need to be able to write essays and outlines etc… You will also need to be able to recognize key words and phrases which focus on cause and effect as well as to take notes. You will need to be able to use graphic organization (eg. Venn Diagrams, Spider diagrams, Charts etc) to capture your notes/ideas after you have heard a lecture .

You will find that the kind of reading you have to do is no longer just stories/novels which are made up (fiction) but that now you will have to also deal with reading from serious academic subjects like psychology, ecology etc.

The articles you will listen to and read will contain lots of important information which will be enjoyable and interesting in a different way to which novels are.

However, it is still a good idea for you to read novels and magazines and newspapers in your spare time as this will provide variety , and you will still continue to gain a lot of practice and confidence from reading.

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Definitions

Here are some important definitions which will reinforce what you doing in class when you read for academic

purposes.

The Environment and Pollution

Many people are worried about the environment (the air, water, and land around us) as a result of the harmful (dangerous/damaging) effects of human

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actions. Some human activities/actions cause pollution (dirty air, land, and water),

and some are destroying the environment (destroying it so badly that soon parts will not exist). Here are some of the problems:

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The ozone layer: a layer of gases that stops the sun’s harmful radiation from reaching the earth. Recent research shows that there are now holes in parts of the ozone layer.

The greenhouse effect: when gases (from pollution trap the sun’s heat, in the same way that the glass of a greenhouse (a glass building for growing plants in winter) hold

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in the heat. This may lead to global

warming. Global warming: an increase in world

temperature caused, in part, by an increase in carbon dioxide and other gases.

Acid rain: rain that contains dangerous chemicals; this is caused by smoke from factories.

Ecosystem:An ecosystem is a community, or group of living things (plants, animals, etc) which are

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found in one area and which are connected to each other for survival. For example, a rainforest is one type of an ecosystem and so is a pond, or a desert, or a mountain or seas and rivers, or the tree in your garden.

You would not find the same kind of living things in a desert as you would find in a pond or in a tree in your garden. There are millions of ecosystems in the world. Destruction of any ecosystem or any part of an ecosystem affects everyone and everything on the planet because all life depends upon other living things for survival. Conservationists care about protecting the natural environment. It is important that we take care of the planet in which we live because if we destroy one part all other parts are affected. Every

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animal plant and living thing is important, even small insects.

For example, consider the simple honey bee. We depend upon plants for food and also for medicine. Without the work that bees do to pollinate flowers and plants there would be none! If we destroyed bees we would be causing untold damage to the natural environment. Similarly an agouti depends for food upon the brazil nut tree. However, if the agouti did not drop nuts, (and in this way replant brazil nut trees), we would not have any brazil nut trees left.

EcologyEcology is the relationship between living things and the natural environment. We

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often refer to ecology as the ‘web of life’ because everything on the planet is connected in one way or the other.

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