At the last meeting with parents, some parents asked: Why didn't the report card indicate the children's reading scores (A-Z)? The answer given by the principal is: We don't want parents to pay blind attention to letter grades, but we want parents to really understand what their children's reading needs are!
But it doesn't seem to satisfy parents' wishes. Some parents began to share other people's children's stories ... as long as they are in grade one, they can read grade O, which is the reading level of grade three in American elementary schools! Just finished, look at the parents next to me, some are envious, and some are already anxious.
What is this reading level that American parents love and hate? I want to talk to you today. Although this is not the first time I have written the topic of "graded reading", I have been accumulating it in my usual teaching. Every time I have new teaching experience, I can't wait to share it with you.
Walking into the library of American primary school classrooms, all the books are packed in boxes one by one according to grade. Children also like to proudly announce to their friends: I can already read the level of X!
Reading grading refers to providing graded English reading materials for children according to their different growth periods and their reading ability and hobbies. Just like martial arts novels, books to be read at different levels are different.
When children read level by level and accumulate enough spelling and reading skills, one day they will suddenly find that I can read by myself! This sounds like an exciting thing! Therefore, the reading class in American primary schools is conducted in the form of graded reading.
Before going to school, parents read picture books first, and then slowly transition to graded books. In my teaching, I found that the earlier children come into contact with graded reading, the stronger their reading comprehension ability will be!
How are these books graded? Several grading systems are popular in American primary schools. Let me introduce them to you:
1, reading guidance level (GRL), this system divides reading materials into 26 levels according to the order of letters A to Z: A is the lowest level, which means reading materials is the least difficult; Z is the highest level, which means reading is the hardest. Raz Kids, which many parents are familiar with, is also this classification system.
2. Accelerated reading system is a very accurate English reading scoring system developed by Renaissance Learning Company. It is graded according to the grade level that students should reach. For example, if the child's AR level is 2.3, it means that the child's reading ability has reached the average reading level of American students in the third month of Grade 2.
3.Lexile framework has also been widely promoted in the United States. The blue thinking evaluation system scores from two latitudes: the difficulty of English reading materials and the reading level of students. Its evaluation standard is purely quantitative: that is, the repetition of words and the length of sentences are graded. Add a number with L, from 5L to 2000L. The lower the number, the lower the level.
Speaking of which, I'm afraid everyone feels a little confused. So many levels, which one to choose? In fact, it doesn't matter which one you choose! Because the levels of these different systems can be converted. Let's take a look at this conversion table and find the conversion relationship between different systems:
The positioning of graded reading materials in the United States is more inclined to "teaching materials". Teachers use graded reading materials to guide children to learn reading in class. Reading learning includes fluency and comprehension.
Graded books are usually small books with rich illustrations. According to the difficulty of the book, the sentences are from short to long, from one or two sentences per page to five or six sentences, and finally to the full text. Rich illustrations can help students guess the meaning of words from the context.
An important feature of primary graded reading materials is the repetition of sentence patterns. For example, the repetition of the sentence pattern "he" ... The word "fast" in the following graded reading helps children to build their confidence in reading in a regular sentence structure, because as long as they can finish reading a sentence, they can read many similar sentences by analogy.
Vertically, with the improvement of reading level, the text length and sentence complexity in the book increase a little, and the picture support in the book will be less and less. Let's take a look at several different levels of comparison diagrams:
This is the original A-level book, with only one sentence per page, repeated sentence patterns and rich pictures to guide understanding. The children read each word with their fingers:
This is a D-level book. The sentences on each page are relatively long, but they are mainly repetitive. Children can read simple high-frequency words and track each word with their eyes instead of their fingers.
At the H level, the sentences in the book obviously become longer and more difficult. Most high-frequency words can be mastered and read quickly. Children can read silently and understand the story by themselves.
At the L level, it is already the level of the primary chapter book. There are few pictures and many genres, and you should read both story books and popular science books. Children should use their existing grammar knowledge to understand long and difficult sentences, understand the author's intentions and emotions, and read emotional articles.
Teacher Xiao Yuan takes students to do graded reading in the classroom every day, which is part of our reading class. Graded reading is usually carried out in groups of 5-6 people. I divided the class into five groups according to different reading scores and assigned a color to each group.
In this way, when I call "green group", several children in the green group will go to the back and sit with the teacher and read. Guiding reading group, as its name implies, is to complete reading and learn reading skills under the guidance of teachers.
What are the other children doing when the teacher is doing group reading with a group of students? Can read independently or work in independent groups. Group activities in my classroom include: listening to stories, playing word games, doing reading feedback and so on.
In class, I will remind other children: you should be quiet, because then I can help the group study without being disturbed!
Next is the highlight I will introduce to you! Many parents buy graded books for their children, but they don't know how to get them to read! Today, I share a set of graded reading teaching methods I summarized, hoping to help teachers and parents!
1. Select a teaching point:
The purpose of graded reading is not to take children to learn, but to let children learn reading skills through reading. The following is an American teacher's summary of different levels of reading and reading skills learning. For example, the most basic A-level children should learn how to hold the book correctly, read the words in the book, read from left to right, and use pictures to get the information in the book.
When children reach the H level, they will have higher reading ability. For example, I can form a picture of the plot in the book in my mind, recall the important plot of the story, deal with complicated text information, stop to do comprehension tests during reading and so on.
Read with students.
Students' reading level is still relatively low. At this time, I will choose the way of reading together. When I meet words I can't understand, I will listen to the teacher how to read them, so that I will be more confident when I read them myself!
If the students' reading level is relatively high, I will not read with them at this time, but let them read by themselves.
In the process of studying by myself, I will do one-on-one tutoring. For example, when I find that this child will skip when reading unfamiliar words, I will teach him a new reading skill: What can we do when we have unfamiliar words? You can try to spell the word by spelling, or guess the meaning of the word by pictures and context!
3. Ask questions about reading comprehension
Next, I ask questions about the understanding of this book. For example, I will ask students: Who are the characters in the book? Where is the environment? I will ask them how the characters in the story feel. Or what is the order of the stories, and so on.
I have a list of questions to guide reading. I put it on the table, and sometimes I can find the right questions from it to stimulate children to think.
4. Learn high-frequency words/visual words
Children at this stage are still accumulating high-frequency words and visual words, so every time I finish reading a book, I will introduce 2~3 newly learned words. I will tell them the meaning of this word and how to use it in sentences. Then, I will ask my children to find new words from books, draw them with fluorescent strokes or point them out with wooden sticks.
Finally, in order to strengthen our memory, we will spell the words we learned today with magnet letters. After the whole course, the children not only learned reading skills and practiced reading, but also gained new word knowledge!
If we use one word to sum up the reading teaching in American primary schools, it is "teach them to fish"! American children never mechanically divide and summarize the main idea of a paragraph. What the teacher teaches is reading skills, which are applied to the usual reading, thus gaining endless knowledge. This is the real way to read and learn!