THE SECOND REFLECTION, 4 OCTOBER

This week, we covered the models of teaching reading (the bottom-up, the top-down,
and the interaction), pre/while/post-reading activities. We answered the questions of the book.
We discussed the techniques of the teachers on the book.
Firstly, while we were talking about the models of teaching reading, we gave
examples from our experiences. We’ve learned that in bottom-up model, linguistic knowledge
is used; in top-down model, linguistic knowledge and background knowledge are used, we
take the gist, the general idea/understanding first; in interactive model, we activate the
schemata, the schema of languages/forms/content. We agreed on the idea that the interactive
model is the best, because as called the interaction is very high in this model. I believe in that
if the interaction is high and the ideas shared are so many, the learning will be more effective.
Thanks to this, we can learn their background, life style, their point of view and if we know
all these items, we can choose the best approach/technique in their learning process in order to
make them participate actively and make their learning permanent.
Secondly, we discussed the aims of pre-reading, and we got some conclusions such as;
to get the general idea, to make the students have a purpose about the activity, to get the
students’ attention and motivation. We talked about the benefits of reading loudly in English
classes such as; to get much better pronunciation, to make them hear themselves, to make
them get self-confidence. I believe in that if the students hear themselves, they will have self-
confidence; if they are self-confident, they will try to focus on their pronunciation and
developing it; if they do that, they will be successful and it will make them enjoy reading. We
tried to find some other ways to make the students get pleasure from reading, such as; we can
set a library including some books they are interested in, we can give the students time just for
reading to enjoy, we can give some clues of strategies, we want them to bring their own
materials which makes them feel special and important, we can prepare some texts according
to their interests. If we do that, they want to participate in the lessons, because the topics are
chosen according to their interests and they will enjoy.
Finally, from the teachers’ experiences on the book, I liked most Kate’s; because
discussing the topic, brainstorming, predicting vocabulary, matching for visuals, true/false for
comprehension, role-plays for making them active, group-work for interaction and sharing
something, different ending for developing their creativity. The things I liked most in Liu’s
were using similies in L1 for new vocabulary, guessing from the context which makes the
students active and confident, creative, role-plays and games which make them participate
actively and practice the words. For example; Isabella’s writing about the text read is very
useful and effective, I think. Astrid’s leading the students for the new words’ meaning by
questions may make them feel confident. Annemarie’s and Xu’s reading aloud technique was
a part I liked, because as I mentioned before, I believe in that it makes the students get self-
confidence and better pronunciation. When I become a teacher, I want to use all these useful
models in appropriate situations to make the students enjoy reading, learn new vocabulary and
patterns, and practice them in sentences while speaking and writing.
Duygu ALDEMİR