CHAPTER 2

Engaging Learners to Literature Reading

LESSON 4: Selecting Appropriate Materials for Teaching Literature

EXPERIENCE

"I never teach my pupils; I only provide the conditions in which they can learn," Albert
Einstein famously said. When becoming a teacher, it is important to understand that learning is
an active process and that it is our role to investigate strategies that we can use to create
meaningful and engaging activities that lead to learners' intellectual growth. This quote is
relevant to selecting appropriate instructional materials for our learners as we must plan,
implement, and evaluate the tools to be used in making students' learning experiences
memorable and effective. As Elaine Skates, Chief Executive of the Council for Learning Outside
the Classroom, states, it is "best not seen as a subject in its own right, but as a tool for teaching
and learning." As educators, we must assist learners in discovering within themselves and
allowing them to have practical experiences that help them develop skills and concepts and
work in a variety of ways.

ASSESS

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS

Criteria Rating Reason/Remarks
Cultural Enrichment 4 It uses culturally-filled materials that quickly help learners
feel for the codes as the poem created a colorful world.
Authenticity of the 5 The poem establishes a strong relevance and a firm link
material to the motivation, needs, and backgrounds of the
learners.
Relevant language 5 In this poem, learners can learn about the syntax and
enrichment discourse functions of sentences, the variety of possible
structures that will develop their writing skills.
Ease requirement in 5 The poem can challenge the learners to critically
reading and understand the text while it is still within their level of
understanding understanding.
OH, MR. SUN
Criteria Rating Reason/Remarks
Cultural Enrichment 3 It somehow includes learning situations that
acknowledge the cultural aspect of language learning.
Authenticity of the 4 The poem is a good source and context to contextualize
material learners’ activities.
Relevant language 5 This poem can expand the learners’ vocabulary and
enrichment hone their communicative competence. It also enriches
the linguistic skills of the learners including their mastery
of the grammar.
Ease requirement in 5 The poem is neither too easy nor to difficult to read and
 reading and understand by the learners.
understanding
LESSON 5: Emerging Ways to Read Aloud

EXPERIENCE

The activity is conducted in triads. Access the story about Principal Jessica Ascano and identify
three important roles of an elementary teachers and instructional leader in conducting reading
aloud activities.

An instructional leader develops and communicates a vision and goals for his/her
school,which sets high standards for student achievement.

Encouraging them to improve theirteaching practice continuously, principals

who are also instructional leaders positively affectstudent learning.

Teachers in leadership roles work in collaboration with principals and other school
administrators by facilitating improvements in instruction and promoting practices
among their peers that can lead to improved student learning outcomes.

ASSESS

Now that you know the principal roles of a teacher in reading aloud, why don’t you deduce
some more of the latest importance of reading aloud for children whose literacy level is lower
than expected?

Reading aloud to children gives them the opportunity to try on the language and
experience of others.

Reading aloud for children stimulates their imagination and expands their
understanding of the world.

It develops important skills like recognizing letters and story elements, and it helps
children understand that printed type represents the spoken word.
LESSON 6: Differentiated Literature Circles

ASSESS

1. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller

Helen discovered the critical lesson that, as individuals, we can change small things
around us, but to change the world, we must put our differences aside and come together to
achieve a common goal. In utilizing literature circles, we must work together on a common goal
in order to achieve things beyond our greatest imagination. This is especially true if our
intentions are real and the purpose is for the greater good of the learners.

2. “Knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied.”

The knowledge shared has the potential to be more effective than keeping it within
boundaries. The effect of the synergy factor, which allows assessment of binary interactions in
case-control studies, is important to understand when the power of two or more is individually
less than their collective effort. Briefly put, sharing knowledge in a literature circle creates a
dynamic of transparency, trust, and collaboration that increases the power of the relationship
exponentially.

3. “When you frequently talk about the book to others, they will feel valued. When you
frequently listen, you also make the reader feel valued and loved.”

Sharing makes us more significant and valued than we are including the listeners who
receive the message we convey. In using literature circle, communication is important as we
need to talk openly and be good listeners. Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you
share. Literature circles give students the opportunity to talk about books with their peers.
Through these conversations they build community, learn critical speaking and listening
behaviors, deepen their understanding of books, and recognize that reading is fun.

HARNESS

1. Set Clear Expectations. Spend the first day of literature circles establishing
expectations with students. Since the expectations are student created, they have more
ownership and drive to follow through on them.
2. Give Every Student a Role. Giving each student a role helps to ensure that all students
are participating in literature circles, it helps each child to feel essential to their group,
and it helps to, once again, set clear expectations for students.
3. Create Routine. Setting up a routine and sticking to it helps students to master the art of
talking books. This will make sure that students have their reader's notes in their novels
and that each student knows the pages they are responsible for reading.
4. Use Timers. Keeping students on task is much easier with timers. In each literature
circle group, one student is the "task master." This student is tasked with keeping
students on task and using the timer to pace group work.
 5. Individual Accountability. Literature circles are largely made up of group work, but
individual accountability is necessary in order to measure each student's understanding
of the work and to help ensure that each group member is contributing to the work of
learning.
LESSON 7: Multisensory Literature Learning

ASSESS

How does the cone of experience relate to the use and importance of multisensory literature
teaching?

Dale’s Cone of Experience is a model that incorporates several theories related to

instructional design and learning processes. During the 1960s, Edgar Dale theorized that
learners retain more information by what they “do” as opposed to what is “heard”, “read” or
“observed”. Dale’s cone of Experience provides teaching and learning models that allows
teachers to understand how to increase the retention rate of learners by involving the learner.
This means that while the learner participate and get involved in the learning process by
expression, they awaken the sensory organs. This cone of Experience goes hand in hand with
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences which says that you can’t reach learners with a style of
learning but several. Multisensory activities, on the other hand, are based in whole brain
learning, which is the belief that the best way to teach concepts is by involving multiple areas in
the brain. By adding auditory or visual components to reading assignments, like illustrations or
online activities, we can help students develop stronger literacy skills. The several styles
therefore helps awaken the sensory organs of each learner and helps him or her achieve self-
education. Multisensory teaching techniques stimulate the brain in a variety of ways so that
each sensory system becomes more developed and higher functioning. Thus, the cone of
experience relate to the use and importance of multisensory literature teaching as this improves
essential functions of the brain such as listening skills, movement, vision, tactile recognition and
conceptualization.

CHALLENGE

Present in a graphic organizer the challenges you might encounter in using multisensory
teaching.
sensory Teaching

Requires extensive training and planning beforehand.

llenges in Using

(Smith, et, al, 2001)

Learners tend to stray away from the learning objective due to

distractions.

Tactile and kinesthetic ways may go weaker and visual and

auditory senses strengthen.