YAL session 2

• Communicatie
• HBO
• Studiejaar 2

Hooked on Books

Teen, Adolescent or Young Adult Literature

in the English Class

YAL session 2

Session 2

• Extensive reading
  
• Matching reader / novel
  
• Criteria for selection
  
• Info on Exam Task 5
  
• Info on Reading circles

Extensive reading 

• read easy, enjoyable books to build reading speed & fluency
  
• aim: to become better at the skill of reading & enjoy reading
  

 Read quickly and

 Enjoyably with

 Adequate comprehension so they

 Don’t need a dictionary

Position of reading in EFL?

Tailwind:

• More research evidence of impact on achievement
  
• More interest in excellence, learning outcomes, ranking, competition
  
• Back to basics in education → central subjects
  
• Level of attainment in English stalling → exam grades slowly falling
  
• Changes in exam rules → CE + SE on a level & exam mark for English cannot fall below 5
  
• EFL is mostly reading skills → 50-65% of exam mark
  
• More prominence in curriculum: hours and earlier start
  
• Availability of tablets, e-readers
  
• More pressure for inclusion of under-achievers in education
  

Position of extensive reading in EFL? -2

• Headwind:
  
• No longer prominent in exam programmes
  
• Student is not eager.
  
• Teacher is too busy.
  
• Demise of school libraries (focus is on-line resources & study halls)
  
• Focus is on coursebooks (anything else is extra, on top...)
  
• Little pressure from parents, colleagues, professional world:
• Staatsen, F. et al (2016). Moderne Vreemde Talen in de Onderbouw.
• Kwakernaak, E (2015). Didactiek van het VTO
  
• Harmer, Jeremy (2007). How to Teach English. An Introduction to the Practice of English Language Teaching
  

What books?

• Variety of books in stock
  
• Fiction and non-fiction
  
• Authentic YAL novels
• Graded readers for beginners
  

For:

Individual reading: adaptive & taste

Class reading: for attention & promotion, sharing, comparing, discussing

First: YAL novels 

Booming market; special YA (Teen) departments in Waterstone’s, 

Dekker vd Vegt.

Origins:

1850 → Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Twain, R.L. Stevenson, 

                  Kipling, Sewell, Hodgson Burnett

1950→ Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, Harper Lee

2000 → J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Gary Paulsen, 

                 Louis Sachar, Suzanne Collins 

                 (HungerG → YA is recognised as a literary genre 

                     → attracting a wide audience, including adults

YA book clubs: also in the Netherlands

YA Book Vlogs

YA Bookstagram
 

Graded Readers

• books written especially for language learners to build reading speed and practice reading for pleasure
  
• different levels of difficulty (started to advanced)
  

https:

Matching book and student

Advance assignment:

Go to the website http://novellist.nl/. 

Now choose 3 books from novellist.nl, each for a different level, to match your students. 

Why, on what criteria, did you pick these 3?

Based on what criteria did you select them?

Selecting Books

Criteria:

1. Enjoyability
   
2. Readability
   
3. Formative Value (learning about)
   
4. Exploitation potential
   

www.novellist.nl         www.goodreads.com

What makes a book enjoyable according to your students?

2. Readability

Idea is to read for meaning not language learning

• Easy reading but not too easy → Level + 1
  
• Original YAL novels: for average students of 4 KB, 3/4T, 3 H/V, 2 TTO = B2/C1
  
• before that stage: graded readers
  

Some tools:

• Lexile (USA)
  
• ERK levels               Oxford graded readers

Lexile

https:

Lexile

Within a range from 100L below to 50L above his or her Lexile measure, a reader is expected to comprehend the text well enough to understand it, while still experiencing some reading challenge.

The Sun is also a Star	HL650L
Percy Jackson	680L
The Magic Finger, Roald Dahl	560L
Moonrise, Sarah Crossan	HL650L
All American Boys	HL770L

3. Formative Value

Information → opening up the world around

Dilemmas → thinking about morality, right/wrong,

Challenges → dealing with life’s pains and joys, tasks and drives

Does the story tell me anything about my world, make me think about relationships with people, make me deal with life’s challenges and … along the way make me laugh, make me cry, make me feel stronger?

4. Exploitation Potential

Any spin-off goals?

Thinking skills: discussions

Study skills: researching, reviewing, summarising

Language skills: writing, viewing, speaking, lexical

Culture: sports, migration, politics

Art or creative skills: designs, exhibition, video

Crosscurricular projects: ww1, bullying, media

Portfolio Task 5

Write short (half A4) reviews of the 6 additional YAL novels (e.g. graded readers Oxford, Penguin, Early/Young Blackbirds) recommended for use in 12-16 age range based on clear criteria highlighting the qualities of the books (individual).

Criteria:

A short discussion of each book in terms of interest to the individual student in the target group highlighting its qualities. Substantiated evaluation in terms of Readability (linguistic), Enjoyability (class/year/stream, age, gender, theme/subject) and Formative Value (values, lessons, cultural information, identification). May include ideas about Exploitation Potential and actual use as an I (individual) or C (class) reader.

Session 5 (11/3): Reading circles on McKay, H. (2018). The Skylarks’ War

Reading Circles

Reading Circles are small groups of students who meet in the classroom to talk about stories. The goal is to have an enjoyable, interesting discussion in English. In a reading circle, each student plays a different role in the discussion. The seven roles are:

 Summarizer       Discussion       Director Connector              Illustrator

                          Word Wizard               Passage Person       Researcher

To prepare for your roles, you complete a Role Sheet.

You read the novel from your given perspective (role) outside the class

During the discussion you use your Role Sheets as prompts for the discussion

Reading Circles combine, in a natural way, the skills of reading, speaking and listening

The Roles

Summarizer 

 Discussion Director

 Connector 

 Illustrator

 Word Wizard 

 Passage Person 

 Researcher

Some reasons to use RC in the classroom

• Literature circles are a place for cooperative learning. Students help each other understand a text and make sense of it. 
• Lit circles teach kids how to use each other as resources and become independent learners.
  
• Literature circles allow students to make choices about their learning.
  
• Literature circles are fun, in part because they are social experiences.
• "Reading circles are an effective strategy to use not only with students with reading disabilities, but also with any student with reading difficulties. Grouping students together heterogeneously allows students with difficulties to learn from their peers". (Hébert, 2009).

Three groups 

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
Ellen Basten Delilah Eric Nathalie Michel Maikel	Thijs Louise Ouarda Tulay Danny Hakeem Naoufal	Jeanette Ruben Bas Ahmed Stephanie Michaela Christine

Reading circles

In the channel of your group you can find the information on reading circles and the form to assign roles.

Please send the form to me by email or teams today. 

Next session

• Teaching the novel: the novel as class reader
  
• How to guide reading, both individually and with class reading: activities
  
• Info on Exam task 1
  
• Examples of exam task 1
  
• Time for group work
  

The week after next ;) Next week you can catch up on reading!