6.2.

Intensive Reading: The Role of the Teacher

There are different roles we need to adopt when asking students to read
intensively, but first, we need to work to create interest in the topics and tasks in
order to get students to read enthusiastically in class.

Organiser:
We need to give our students a clear purpose for reading by providing them with a
set of tasks, and a time limit in which to complete each task. If we wish to avoid our
students trying to understand every single word, it is very important to set a brief,
but “do-able”, time limit for a specific task.

Observer:
By passively observing we restrain ourselves from interfering in students’ reading
by giving them their own space. We can gain valuable information about a
student’s progress from how well they are doing individually and collectively.

Feedback Organiser:
After each task, the teacher should conduct a brief feedback session. Organising
our students into pairs or small groups to compare their answers after a completed
task will encourage them to pool their knowledge and responsibility for answers.
This is also creates opportunities for verbal communication between the students.

When students give answers it is important that they always say where in the text
they found the information. This tells us of any comprehension problems that the
student might have; it also provokes a detailed study of the text, which will come in
handy the next time they deal with a similar reading passage.

Prompter:
After students have read a text, they can be prompted into noticing language
features contained in it. We can direct them to certain features of text construction,
clarify ambiguities, and make them aware of issues of text structures that they may
not be familiar with.