Reading Treasures Show

This is a wonderful recording of an Alado session which took place some time in August 2007, called "Reading Treasures Show". Teachers from various countries talk about what they do to create reading opportunities for their students. I'd like to congratulate all of them on this wonderful work!
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THEIR DISCUSSION

Developing Reading Skills

This month in Learning with computers we'll be sharing links to develop reading in English.

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html (Gladys's suggestion)(Enchanting!)

Some of Larry's links:

http://professorgarfield.org/pgf_ReadingRing.html Put cartoon strips in order and answer comprehension questions. (Great!)


http://reading.ecb.org/student/index.html It's not fully ready yet but focusses on reading strategies.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm#talk a collection of online reading stories.

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/gr1_4lily/skill_ae.html Drawing conclusions. (simple but interesting)

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/learning_material/portal/predicting-meaning_lit_e2/m01/t08/index.htm Predicting meaning

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/learning_material/portal/checking-the-meaning-of-words_lit_e3/m01/t24/index.htm Using a dictionary

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/i/enviroprintp.cfm Reading Street signs

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/stories_poems_archive_frame.html a collection of stories from BBC

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-stories-archive.htm collection of stories

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories.htm stories for kids

http://www.stories.org.br/ the same TRUE story in English and portuguese side by side.

http://www.indianchild.com/short_stories.htm SHORT stories.

http://www.englishclub.com/reading/short-stories.htm short stories graded by level.

These ones I found in Libardo´s blog:

http://www.zapdramatic.com/mod1.htm You can read, listen and watch a very exciting story. You are even asked to interact with the events. SUPERB!
http://www.3xplus.com/pasnet01/scrpasnet01US.htm another interactive DETECTIVE story.
http://www.kizclub.com/Sbody.html Different stories to read and listen, 3 different levels.
http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/owl/OWL3Book1/Book01/default.htm this story explains about opposites in an interesting way.
http://www.go4english.com/ffk/archive.php?lang=en&cid=10041002 Great stories.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/games/game2/game2.html The time machine. I had great fun travelling in time!

Using Computers To Teach Reading

I wanted to share a few of the favorite sites I use to help my English Language Learner students develop their reading skills.

They are basically divided into two categories -- sites that explicitly teach reading strategies and test comprehension, and sites that offer fiction or non-fiction stories that have text with audio and visual support.

For the former, my favorites include:

* Reading Ring, an activity on the excellent Professor Garfield site. In this game, players have to correctly unscramble a comic strip and then answer questions about it.

* Into The Book is a work-in-progress that will eventually have interactive exercises helping students learn multiple reading strategies. Right now only the one of "visualizing" is complete. It's extraordinarily well-done.

* There are two sites that have multiple activities to help teach reading strategies. I have links to many of these specific activities, and the ones I mentioned earlier, under the English For Beginners -- Reading section of my website. However, it's worth checking-out the two sites that host them all, too. They are Study Zone Test Prep Center of New York and the United Kingdom's Embedded Learning Portal.

I have links to thousands of online stories that offer text with audio and visual support on the English For Beginners- Stories and English For Beginners Non-Fiction sections of my website. My favorite, though, is:

* Woodlands Junior School in the United Kingdom. They have many of the same stories I have on my pages. However, there's is much better-designed and attractive.

Finally, I'd encourage people to read here about my school's use of computers to teach reading to English Language Learners, which was awarded the 2007 International Reading Association Grand Prize Presidential Award for Reading and Technology.

Larry Ferlazzo