ENGAGING

LEARNERS TO
LITERATURE
READING
SELECTING APPROPRIATE MATERIALS FOR TEACHING LITERATURE

Instructional materials play both an essential and significant role in teaching and the learning of
various subjects, including children’s literature.

Olayinka (2015) posited that instructional materials promote teachers’ efficiency and improve
learner's performance. He also added that instructional materials make learning more interesting,
practical, realistic, and appealing.

Several studies (e.g., Collopy, 2003: Remillard, 1999: Sherin & Drake, 2009. Thompson & Senk,
2014) have pointed out that teachers tend to use the materials selectively and modify the suggested
activities to suit their own purposes, needs, and interests.

Four major criteria to consider whenever selecting instructional materials for literature teaching.
They are encapsulated in the acronyms CARE.

CULTURAL ENRICHMENT

One of the primary reasons for incorporating culturally bound materials is the inseparable nature of
language and culture (Erkaya, 2005, p.1). Considering the richness of the mirrored culture on the text
used for literature teaching ¡s further highlighted by Nasihramadi et al.

Culture learning could be "fifth dimension" of language learning complementing the four major
language skill (Damen 2017)

Cultural and Educational Enrichment activities are designed to broaden, expose, and provide
opportunities to enhance each participant's learning experience. These activities include field trips
such as plays, college visits, and musical concerts.

Nasihramadi et al. (2014) further pointed out that using "culturally-filled materials" can create a
"colorful world," which can quickly help the learner feel for the codes and preoccupations that shape
a real society through literature.

AUTHENTICITY OF THE MATERIAL

Keshavarai (2012) pointed out that a good instructional materials m for literature teaching becomes
authentic when it becomes a good source content contextualize learners' activities Fogal (2010) eves
mentioned that students yearn for authentic instructional material in a literature class that engages
meta-cognitive awareness and demonstrates that this awareness leads to improved performance and
higher levels of work-related student satisfaction.

EXAMPLES

 TV shows
 News segments
 Documentaries,
 Movie clips and trailers
 Online videos and Commercials.
 Radio broadcasts
 Songs, and podcasts.
 Photographs and artwork
 Signs
 Postcards
 Maps and;
 Advertisements.

LANGUAGE AND ENRICHMENT

Literature provides learners with a wide range of individual lexical or syntactic items, so students
become familiar with many features of the written language, rending a substantial and contextualized
body of the text. They learn about the syntax and discourse functions of sentences, the variety of
possible structures, and the different ways of connecting ideas, which develop and enrich their own
writing skills. Good literature materials are those that can improve the learners' language skills,
especially reading and speaking. A potential instructional material for literature teaching should
enrich the linguistic skills of the learners.

EASE REQUIREMENTS IN READING AND UNDERSTANDING

You can use it when you want to inform the reader that your writing is organized in a way that will
make it easier for them to understand. For example, "This article is divided into several sections for
ease of reading.".
The literary text should neither be too easy nor too difficult to read and understand. Karvonen et al.
(2017) pointed out that potential materials for literature teaching should help students adapt
according to their needs and situations.

Nasihramadi et al. (2014) also posited that when students easily understand the text, it becomes
authentic and eventually yields higher fluency in their reading and higher motivation for speaking.

The input+1 theory of Stephen Krashen can explain the issue on the not-too-high- not-too-low level.
Hence, teachers should provide materials for literature teaching that are one step higher than the level
of their production and understanding.

EMERGING WAYS TO READING ALOUD

READING ALOUD

According to Johnston (2016) and Morrison and Wlodarczyk (2009), read- aloud is an instructional
practice where a teacher reads a text loud to learners incorporating pitch, tone, pace, volume, pauses,
eye contact, questions and comments to create fluent and captivating reading experience

BENEFITS OF READING ALOUD

 It engages discussion (Barone Youngs, 2008, Wilhelm, 2008)

 It develops listening habits (Bandre, Collabucci, Parsons, & Son, 2007)
 It motivates pupils to read (Serafini & Giorgis, 2003; Esquith, 2007)
 It causes easy and quick reading (Peterson & Eeds, 2007; Tompkins, 2010)
 It provides an easy assessment of readers comprehension (Serafini & Georgis, 2003)
 It prolongs the learner's attention span (Fox, 2008)
 It enriches the child's vocabulary bank (Fox, 2008)

METHODS OF DOING LEARNER FOCUSED READ ALOUD

 INTERACTIVE READING ALOUD

Interactive read-aloud is a whole-group instructional context in which you read aloud a selected text
to the whole class, occasionally and selectively pausing for conversation. Students think about, talk
about, and respond to the text as a whole group or in pairs, triads, or quads. Both reader and listeners
actively process the language, ideas, and meaning of the text.
 1. INTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD AT GLANCE
 Whole-group instruction.
 Teacher reads aloud a selected text to children, occasionally pausing for discussion.
 Texts are organized into text sets for highly intentional teaching.
 Texts are beyond the instructional reading level most of children.
 Children are listening to the text and viewing the illustrations.
 Text-based discussions helps children construct meaning.
 Children make connections between books in the text set.

Why is interactive read-aloud important?

 Allows readers to experience rich, interesting texts that are age- and grade-appropriate,
regardless of their independent or instructional reading level
 Provides a context for learning how to talk about texts with others
 Builds a community of learners with shared literary knowledge
 Expands knowledge, language, and vocabulary
 Builds a foundation of mentor texts for reading and writing mini lessons.

“Interactive read-aloud is the foundation of a community that shares literary understandings

through thinking and talking together.” – Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell

2. RETOLD OR DRAMATIZED READING ALOUD

Retold or dramatized reading aloud is a teaching strategy that involves children retelling or acting
out a story after it has been read aloud to them This strategy helps children recall the events in the
story and understand the characters, setting, and big events that happen in the story.

3. MULTIPLE PIECES, SIMILAR TOPIC READING ALOUD

4. DESCRIPTION- INITIATED READING ALOUD

BIG BOOKS

 Big books for children are oversized books that are designed for group reading and
storytelling.
  They are typically larger than standard picture books, making them easier for children to see
and follow along with the story
 Big books can be used in classrooms, libraries and at home for shared reading experiences.

IMPORTANCE OF READING BIG BOOKS

 Provides opportunities for all students to participate in and enjoy the book reading experience
 Helps students to gain individual reading skills
 Improves comprehension skill
 Helps students to learn proper punctuation and pronunciation
 Builds confidence and self-esteem

"Henny Penny" is a European folk tale that tells the story of a chicken who believes that the world
is coming to an end. The story is also known in the United States as "Chicken Little" or "Chicken
Licken".

The Monkey and the Turtle is considered the first children's folktale in the Philippines. Its author is
unknown, but its story has been passed around the Philippines for centuries, according to Rizal. He
even illustrated a cover for the story. The Monkey and the Turtle, was a comparative review of its
similarities with a Japanese folktale titled The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab. He published
the two tales in an article titled "Two Eastern Fables."

PROMINENT TECHNIQUES IN DOING READING ALOUD

 Strongly imply the main problem or the overview of the literary piece
 Sustain the children’s attention using dramatic pauses, appropriate gestures, a variety of
pacing and plenty of eye contact
 Select the best location or make-shift ambiance to suit the theme of the piece. For
kindergarten pupils or early elementary learners, Teale (2008) suggested that they be
positioned closest to the teachers because, in that way, they can reap the most benefit during
the read- aloud activity
 Conduct follow-up activities after the read- aloud activity by conducting writing or drawing
related task
  For older elementary learners, teachers must vary their location during the read aloud activity.
In that way, they can accommodate all pupils to maximize their participation
 When reading a picture book, children must see the pages of the materials
 Giving opportunities for pair and small group discussion before, during or after the read
aloud activity also promotes high engagement. Serafini and Ladd (2008) called this as
interpretive space
 Using the power of technology, teachers may use smart e-books from online sources as a
variation for the printed ones.
 Teachers may also invite a person to do the reading. For instance, asking one teacher wearing
an animal costume to read the story of The Monkey and the Turtle will sustain more the
reader’s attention span.

DIFFERENTIATED LITERATURE CIRCLES

 Multiple approaches to teaching have been studies and suggested by scholars. These includes
approaches that will make the learners engaged in classroom discussion, achieve the set
outcomes, and accomplish the prepared tasks. It aims to construct new knowledge
(Whittingham,2014)
 According to the parlance of educational psychology, using literature circles banks on the of
Social Constructivism by Lev Vygotsky. Using a theory posits that learning exists through
socialization and the aid of a “more knowledgeable other” (MKO).

WHAT IS LITERATURE CIRCLE?

Literature circle is the use of small peer- led discussion, involved in reading the same piece of
literature. The group members come together to share interpretations and insights about what they
read. (Sheldon- Strong, 2012)

COMMON ROLES AND FUNCTIONS OF MEMBER IN A GROUP:

DISCUSSION DIRECTOR

 Leads the group in stopping certain points in the reading for the passage predictor to do
his/her job.
 Asks critical and leading questions
 Starts off reading aloud

CREATIVE CONNECTOR
  Makes text-to-text, text to self, and text-to-world connections based on the text read.

PASSAGE PREDICTOR

 Predicts what will happen next at two stopping points during the groups reading

ARTISTIC ARTIST

 Illustrates what was read

 Writes a caption

SUPER SUMMARIZER

 Records the main events, characters, and setting in the section read.

WORD WIZARD

 Identifies new, interesting, and fun words in the text read.

 Looks for the definition, part of speech, etc.
 Writes a sentence using the difficult words

RESEARCH- PROVEN BENEFITS OF USING LITERATURE CIRCLES

1. It develops responsibility among the learners.

2. It engages learners in total participation by eliminating timidity in big group sharing.
Subsequently, it builds learners confidence to verbalize their ideas.
3. It promotes collaboration among the team members.
4. It provides scaffolding to break down reading difficulties and to improve reading
comprehension.

5. It rejuvenates excitement about teaching and invokes eagerness about literature reading.

6. It helps the children learn appropriate responses to literature and basic comprehension
strategies used in group strategy discussions about the literacy text.

7. It relieves the learners of the pressure to perform in large group conversations and provides an
environment promoting an environment promoting safe and intimacy.

 For Daniels (2002) the focus of literature circles is to combine literary skills and strategies,
typically given in a non-threatening and supportive atmosphere.
  Beginning teacher needs to possess elemental skills like providing proper modeling, and
sufficient instructions.

Here are some fundamental procedures to ensure quality implementation of literature circles:

1. Form a group of four to eight members.

2. Assign individual roles.
3. Select a literary piece and give each member a copy.
4. Read aloud some parts of the piece. While reading, demonstrate the expected work or
function of each member.
5. Present thought-provoking or enduring questions to stimulate debate, to act as a compass in
the study, or to solve after the activity.

MODIFICATION OF LITERATURE CIRCLES

1. Differentiated literature circles.

In a differentiated classroom, teachers engage learners in instruction through different approaches

to learning by:

 appealing to a range of interests by using varied range of instruction

 mixed range of task complexity
 different support systems

DepEd Order 42, s.2016 lists that differentiation is one of the major features of the K-12 curriculum.
Hence, every basic education teacher should be equipped with the principles of differentiated
instruction.

Research-based ways to format differentiated literature circles

Teachers differentiate roles according to learners’ interests and abilities.

Teachers differentiate tasks associated with the roles to be scaffolded. The complexity will later be
escalated to motivate learners to discuss the text at deeper levels.

Teachers provide learners with flexibility in role assignments to ensure that children have a
differentiated experience.
Teachers differentiate the content, process, product, and even environment according to the learners’
readiness, interests and learning profile to students.

Heterogeneous grouping is effective when the learners know the routine and structure of the skills
and strategies.

Pairing high-low performing readers helps to refine skills.

Mixing up literature groups could also be another pairing option to present a sense of novelty.

2. ONLINE LITERATURE CIRCLES

 Like the face-to-face version, except the learners talk about the literary piece they have read
in small virtual groups.
 Learners may use online programs such as Moodle, Angel, Nicenet, Facebook, Skype and
other virtual classrooms. In this way geographical barriers in education can be addressed.
 Online literature circles are also an avenue where exchanges of cultural learning take place,
especially when done by different races from various countries.
 Day and Kroom (2010) reported that online literature circles helped techno-savvy learners to
become more engaged in the classroom.

MULTISENSORY LITERATURE TEACHING

VAKT

 A multisensory approach, also known as VAKT (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Tactile)
 Visual - seeing and perceiving through their eyes
 Auditory - hearing and speaking through their ears
 Kinesthetic - movement, and doing through body movements
 Tactile - through touch

MULTISENSORY LITERATURE TEACHING

 This concept has been the basis of teaching literacy, especially among elementary grades.
 In elementary literacy prove that multi-sensory teaching does not only engaged children to
learn, but also create a strong relationship with experience and concept.
 In other words, multisensory teaching provides kids more than one way to connect with what
they are learning. it also helps in recalling key information about the literary piece.
  Researchers on literacy improvement believe that involving multiple areas of the brain is one
of the prime ways to teach concepts. This is called whole brain learning.
 Multisensory teaching is anchored on the whole based learning.
 In other words, whole brain learning posits that we remember how to do things best when the
directions are given with engagement of the multiple senses.

MULTIPLE INTELLEGENCES (MI THEORY) HOWARD GARDNER

1. Visual/Spatial Intelligence - Seeing concepts in action in order to understand them.

Classroom Activities: Painting, Poster making

2. Verbal/Linguistic- Learning through the spoken and written word.

Classroom Activities: Storytelling, Writing stories, reporting, debate, vocabulary games

3. Mathematical/logical- Learning through reasoning and problem solving.

Classroom Activities: logic game, solving numbers, puzzles

4. Bodily/kinesthetic- Learning through interaction with one's environment.

Classroom Activities: Role playing, charades, experiments

6. Intrapersonal- Learning through feelings, values and attitudes.

Classroom Activities: Writing essay, working independently, keeping journal, writing autobiography

7. Interpersonal- Learning through interactions with others.

Classroom Activities: group project, role playing, team building

8. Naturalist- Learning through classification, categories and hierarchies.

Classroom Activities: cultivating plants, collecting items from nature

9. Existential- This intelligence seeks to real world understanding and application of new learning.

Classroom Activities: Analyzing and sintering ideas, essay, reaction papers

 Researchers have emphasized that it mostly benefits those learners with learning disabilities
with sensory integration challenges and in early elementary grades.
  In fact, literacy in particular is a multi-sensory skill because of the need to decode words and
comprehend the thought at the same time.

Research have emphasized that it mostly benefits those learners with learning disabilities, with
sensory integration challenges, and in early elementary grades. Readers at risk can be aided with
multisensory learning because they are forced to use all of their senses while browsing a text and rely
on their critical thinking.

One technique that you can use includes taking turns in reading a poem with some critical thinking
questions or photographs.

According to ( Preece & Zhao, 2015 ) one emerging modification of multisensory teaching is
multisensory storytelling. While narrating, the literature teacher will aid his/her storytelling by the
use of relevant objects, chosen for their sensory qualities (e.g., feel, smell, temperature, height ).

A very popular technique in the multisensory teaching to enhance reading comprehension is using
story sticks. These colored popsicle sticks will represent each element of the children's short story.
Blue sticks, for example, may refer to the characters in the story. The green stick may refer to the
settings. The learners can exchange the stick's and listen to one another while they answer the
questions. Also, the kids can also be given activities to color or highlight the major elements of the
story.

The following are some techniques you can employ in using multisensory teaching:

1. Try playing an audio recording or watching a video clip of the narrator while reading a literacy
piece in a class.

2. As a way to enhance kinesthetic skills, let the learners build vocabulary words using letter
magnets.

3. Give students video or audiobook assignments to take home instead of pure print books.

4. Provide children opportunities to draw the meaning of words that they have difficulty to
understand in the text.

5. Teach students to sound out words while pointing at each letter to solidify a link between sounds
and print letters.

PUPIL-LED BOOK TALKS

Book talks, according to Atwell (2007), are brief, enthusiastic oral descriptions of a book that a
learner has entertainingly read. They, too, are used to entice other pupils to read that same book or
other short storybooks. Essentially, doing book talks is not creating, A book report and sharing it
before the class.

Book talks are not also primarily used to prove to the teacher that the pupil has read a book (Miller,
2009).

Aronson (2012) noted that book talks are used to familiarize the audience with the specific book in
just a short period, particularly in two to three minutes. In that short time of presentation, the pupil
will have the opportunity to expose other children to the main characters of the story, the main
conflict, and the exciting journey of the character toward the end.

Benefits of conducting book talks in the elementary classes:

 Book talks do not only engage young pupils to read but also develop a community of readers.
 Conducting book talks is a way of introducing students to a vast array of texts.
 Introducing book talks can be extremely advantageous for struggling readers.
 Conversations arising from the book talks serve as improvement of comprehensions in the
part of the sharer-reader.
 Engaging in book talks also targets some core reading and speaking (including listening)
standards and competencies inscribed in the current K to 12 English curriculum.

A. Asking and answering questions about key details in a text;

B. Retelling stories and noting details;
C. Describing characters, setting, and major events in a story; and
D. Participating in collaborative conversations with diverse partners.

Primary Criteria for Conducting Book Talks

Guidelines in Properly Implementing Pupil-led Book Talks

 Model how book talks are conducted

 For beginning teachers like you, it is advantageous to look for sample videos on how to
conduct book talks.

Scaffold their early attempts to conduct book talks

 Prepare the pupils toward their big day, you may first conduct a read-aloud session using a
concise storybook. Stories like “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” or “The Woman Who
Swallowed a Fly” may be used, depending upon the choice of the teacher.

Practice Makes Perfect

 This stage prepares them for the actual presentation of their book talks. Provide the pupils
with an array of popular short storybooks to choose from. Grouping them in this activity may
also be an effective aid for starters. Let them read and monitor their work. If necessary,
provide them still with scaffolds.

Engage in a Real Book Talks

 Select a fixed schedule of book talk.

Gather feedback from the book talks

 One good way to improve the conduct of book talks is by gathering feedback from the
participants.