The Chinese Reading Coaching Program ties into a larger learning support system. Reading is just one important component of our overall language program.
A normal, everyday definition of "reading" is what we are aiming to do here, basically: looking at words in their sequence on a page while tracking their meaning, pronunciation, and context at the same time.
Problems identified in our classroom have shown students often avoiding reading (definition above), instead "gaming the system" for two goals: (1) getting the desired grade, (2) spending minimal time. These goals are understandable in the context of having so much to do for school every day. The resulting process often includes:
"cramming" as close to the graded task as possible, such as the night before and minutes before;
scanning for unique words to use as clues to look for during the graded task;
getting meaning almost exclusively through the given English support;
not actually reading (definition above)
Our Chinese Reading Coaching Program addresses the above problem--avoiding reading--by providing routine opportunities for teacher-supported reading. The teacher asks questions about facts, inferences, and organization in the text.
Reading activities will include, and can be organized into lesson sequences:
Preparation, such as glossing key terms that will come up in a text;
Choral reading, including teacher help with pronunciation;
Partner reading, partners read one sentence at a time, help each other say and understand every word
Competitive reading, read and re-read on a timer; compete with yourself or with a partner
Read-and-draw, with frequent shows of drawings and frequent re-readings
Read-and-edit, led by teacher on big screen, e.g. change 起,承,转, and/or 合 sections.
Reading stations, such as clues that help solve a fictional crime