Foreign Language Reading
Thu, 07/25/2013 - 11:56 — Nancy Johnson
Strategy Category:
Instructional activities
Grade Level:
Middle/Junior High
Content Area:
Foreign Language
Materials or Resources:
Leveled questions for same reading passage (better with a few illustrations for assistance with context clues
Preparation:
Pre-printed reading materials/passages and questions
Activity Length:
30minutes
Activity or Strategy Description:
As a 1st or 2nd level middle school language teacher, I try to use cross-curricular reading goals and strategies. Early into reading in 2nd year and later in 1st year, we discuss how to apply English reading skills when decoding a foreign language. We discuss using contextual clues, reading around the word, using cognates and illustrations, identifying verbs/nouns that look like other parts of speech to decode, etc. The leveled questions ask the same idea, but some require understanding, responding with full sentences, expanding on ideas in the story, etc. Students leave class with a better sense of self-efficiency for reading a foreign language.