DEVELOPMENTAL READING

Course Description
Developmental Reading for science-oriented high school
serves as a reading laboratory focusing on science texts. It
is intended to equip students with reading comprehension
skills and the ability to determine the text structure of
scientific and technical written discourse. This serves as a
preparatory course to Research Writing 1-Technical Writingwhich will be taken up in the second year. It provides
students with further exposure to and practice in decoding
texts that could serve as models in the forthcoming writing
course.
The reading laboratory consists of two sets of materials;
a)
the basic texts made up of multi-level graded
work-type reading selections targeting vocabulary
and reading comprehension skills, and
b)
intensive exercises for remediation focusing on
skills not mastered by the learner
As a reading laboratory this course has the following
features:
1.
Students work independently reading multi-level
graded self-access texts
2.
They read the materials suited to their own
reading grade level and work on the
accompanying exercises designed to develop
skills in discourse analysis and information
mapping.
3.
They check their own work-at least two selections
per one hour weekly session-using the Key to
Answer that goes with each text.
4.
They plot their own progress on a reading chart
designed for that purpose
5.
Remediation on items missed is done in the
regular English class.
a) Determining the reason for the error (error
analysis)
b) Follow-up intensive exercise on the skill
missed

Objectives:
As a result of the work done in the reading laboratory the
students are expected to be able to do the following tasks:
1. Arrive at the meaning of terms by using word-attack skills
and strategies
2. Employ affixes as a tool for expanding vocabulary
3. Determine the text types and structure of reading
selections
4. Map out information from texts to concept and schematic
diagrams
5. Single out words of interclausal thought relationships
6. Determine the objective of the text and the means used
by the writer to attain it.
Learning Competencies
1.

Arrive at the meaning of unfamiliar words by using word

attack skills and strategies
1.1

2.

Single out the words that make up simple noun

compounds to arrive at the meaning of the terms
1.2
Determine the noun headword and modifiers of
complex noun compounds
1.3
Single out the rootword and affixes of subtechnical
vocabulary
1.4
Arrive at word meaning by noting context clues
( e.g. definition, restatement, example, comparison
or contrast) given in the text
1.5
Note synonyms, collocations and differences in
shades of meaning
Determine the text type and structure of reading
selections
2.1 Single out the macro discourse pattern (TopicRestriction, Illustration TRI, Problem-Solution PSn) of
written texts
2.2 Distinguish between the thesis statements, supporting
details, transition paragraphs and restatements
2.3 Determine the structure of different genre
2.4 Note the difference between the types of paragraphs
(conceptual vs physical, inductive vs deductive

3.

Map out information from a text to concept maps and

schematic diagrams
3.1
Choose the concept map suited to a given set of
rhetorical functions (e.g. tree diagram for
classification, flow chart or process for causeeffect; grid for comparison and contrast)
3.2
Use different thought organizers (e.g. outlines,
graphs, tables, schematic diagrams) to present
data and to show relationships between concepts
in a given text
3.3
Match schematic diagrams with their write-up
3.4
Note the sequence of presentation of details as an
aid to mapping out concepts

4.

Single out word signals of interclausal thought

relationship
4.1 Identify the type of connectors used in line with the
relationships they signal
4.2
Choose the appropriate signal words to indicate a
given relationship taking into account the order of
presentation of the concepts

Competencies Targeted in the reading texts

A. Word Study
1. Use affixes to expand vocabulary
1.1 Single out the rootword and affix of given terms
1.2 Determine the added meaning, if any, given by affixes to
a term
1.3 Determine the affixes used to change the part of speech
(noun, verb, adjective, or adverb) of a term
1.4 Distinguish between affixes and non-affixes
1.5 Distinguish between meaning-bearing and non meaningbearing affixes
2. Use word-attack skills to arrive at the meaning of terms
2.1 Single out the words that make up compound terms
2.2 Determine if the meaning of the words that make up noun
compounds may be used to arrive at the meaning of the
terms
2.3 Distinguish differences in shades of meaning of words
belonging to the same semantic field
2.4 State if words or phrases have similar or opposite
meanings

2.5 Note the difference in meaning of a given term used as a

part of the technical register of varied disciplines
2.6 Arrive at the meaning of idiomatic and technical phrases
2.7 Use context clues to arrive at the meaning of unfamiliar
terms
B. Reading Comprehension
1. Determine the objective of the text and the means used by the
writer to attain it
1.1 Use varied aids (e.g. the title, thesis statement, space
allotted to concepts, etc.) to determine the main topic of
the selection
1.2 Determine the objective of the text and state if it is
indicated explicitly or implicitly
1.3 Single out the rhetorical techniques or modes of
development (e.g.
comparison and contrast,
exemplification, cause-effect, definition, etc.) employed
by the writer to attain the objective of the text
2. Determine the text type and structure of reading selections
2.1 Give the text type (exposition, description, recount, etc.)
of the selection based on its rhetorical function
2.2 State the macro-discourse pattern used (e.g. PSn
Problem-solution, TRI Topic-restriction-illustration, or
their variants) to develop the selection
3. Map out in schematic diagrams the information and concepts
given in texts
3.1 Determine the concept or information map that a
selection would lend itself to
3.2 Use non-linear texts (e.g. flowcharts, tree diagrams, grids,
graphs, etc.) to show schematically verbal relationships
evident in the text
4. Single out word signals of interclausal relationships
4.1 Pick out the micro-discourse signals or connectors used
to establish semantic relationships in the text
4.2 Identify the cohesive devices used in the text