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
The research sources describe various "complex mental processes" and "higher-order" cognitive abilities that develop primarily during childhood and adolescence. These processes are often interconnected and essential for advanced literacy and learning.
Predictive thinking is explicitly defined as a complex cognitive process in which learners use prior experience and environmental knowledge to find innovative solutions or new ideas. Key elements include:
Probabilistic Inference: The mind acts as a "prediction engine," continuously updating beliefs and expectations to anticipate upcoming linguistic or sensory information.
Hypothesis Selection and Revision: Selecting the most probable hypothesis to account for sensory input and adjusting those hypotheses when "prediction errors" occur.
Perceptual and Active Inference: Perceptual inference aligns predictions to sensory input, while active inference involves performing bodily actions (such as intentional eye movements) to confirm a prediction or alter the sensory input.
Statistical Learning: The ability to track regularities in the environment, such as transitional probabilities between syllables, to identify patterns or word boundaries.
Described as "higher-level abilities," these are critical for functioning in a complex world and are still maturing throughout adolescence. They include:
Inhibitory or Effortful Control: The ability to stop and think before acting, control impulses, and resist using a first strategy in favor of a better second one.
Working Memory: The capacity to hold information "in mind" while simultaneously working with it, such as reflecting on one's own thinking or holding multiple perspectives at once.
Cognitive Flexibility: Purposely shifting attention between different elements and adjusting mental effort as needed.
Metacognition refers to higher-order thinking where students take active control over their own cognitive processes. It involves:
Thinking about thinking: Reflecting on how one learns and separating previously known information from what is still unknown.
Self-Regulation: Identifying, communicating, and acting on learning preferences, strengths, and barriers.
Strategic Oversight: Planning how to approach a task, monitoring comprehension during the process, and evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies used.
The research identifies several other sophisticated thinking skills that adolescents develop through practice:
Analytical and Critical Thinking: Analyzing information for bias, reliability, and validity, and using "critical thoughtfulness" to solve problems.
Abstract and Multidimensional Thinking: The capacity to think about a variety of possibilities and see issues as relative rather than absolute.
Synthesis and Evaluation: Integrating and applying content knowledge while drawing reasoned conclusions based on specific criteria.
Moral Reasoning: Developing a sense of autonomy and moral judgment based on both personal values and external factors.
Several complex mental processes are specific to the development of fluent reading and writing:
Orthographic Mapping: The mental process of connecting sounds (phonemes) to their visual letter patterns (graphemes) to bond a word's spelling, pronunciation, and meaning into a single neural model in memory.
Semantic Organization (Clustering): The capacity to form semantic connections between entities to improve memory recall.
Phonological and Metalinguistic Awareness: The ability to perceive and manipulate the sound structure of language and the conscious realization that language consists of structured units like syllables and sentences.