Enriching KS2 Students’
Reading Experiences through the Use of Multimodal Texts
English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute
Education Bureau
June 2018
Workshop Objectives
To provide hands-on activities on how to make
use of digital multimodal texts in reading lessons To enhance teachers’
knowledge and skills of using digital multimodal
texts to facilitate the development of KS2 students’ reading skills and enrich their reading
experiences
To provide suggestions on how to select, plan and incorporate digital multimodal texts in the school-based English
Language curriculum
Workshop Overview
Understanding KS2 students’
progressive development of reading skills
Exploring the role of
digital multimodal texts in promoting reading and enriching KS2 students’
reading experiences
Selecting appropriate digital
multimodal texts for KS2 students
Planning and using digital multimodal texts to facilitate KS2 students’ reading skills development and enrich their reading experiences
School sharing
Hands-on practice
Break
Understanding KS2 students’
progressive development of
reading skills
“Reading is much more than the decoding of black
marks upon a page; it is the quest for meaning and
one which requires the reader to be an active
participant”
(Cox, 1991, p.133)
The Reading Process & Strategies
L.I.F.T Literacy Instruction For Teachers (English Language Education Section, CDI , EDB 2007), p.8
English Language Curriculum Guide (P1-6) (CDC, 2004), pp.55-57
Key Reading Skills
Locate information
and ideas Construct
meaning from texts
Understand the basic conventions
of written English
The Development of Reading Skills
across Different Key Stages of Learning
What is the difference between teaching reading at different key stages?
How do our students change?
How does the focus change?
How does our role change?
KS2
KS1 KS3 KS4
Students’ interests change.
Students have more experiences and knowledge to draw on when reading.
Students gain more exposure to different types of texts in L1 and L2.
Students become more independent and self-directed.
Students develop more skills and
strategies to help them tackle words and texts.
Students shift from ‘learning to read’ to
‘reading to learn’.
Understanding
- Locating information
- Working out meaning of words and phrases
- Connecting ideas
- Identifying main ideas and supporting details
- Distinguishing facts from opinions - Organising information and ideas
Inferring
- Inferring feelings
- Deducing information and ideas
- Comparing information and ideas
- Working out main ideas and themes
Interpreting
- Analysing information and ideas
- Synthesising - Evaluating - Justifying
Underlying principles
Activating prior knowledge and experiences in processing a wide range of texts for different reading purposes
Progressive Development of Reading Skills
Depth of Processing
Cognitive processes involved in reading
Text complexity
Abstractness
Organisation Density of information
Range and application of reading strategies
KS2
KS1 KS3 KS4
Exploring the role of digital multimodal texts in promoting
reading and enriching KS2
students’ reading experiences
Lifelong learning
Challenges in the 21st century
The ability to read and write effectively Literacy Development in the English Classroom
Promoting Literacy across the Curriculum
(LaC)
Promoting Reading across the Curriculum (RaC)
Communicative Functions for General Purposes
Rhetorical Functions for Academic Purposes
Equipping Students with New Literacy Skills
Multi- modal texts
11
Literacy Development in the English Classroom
Processing and creating multimodal texts
Sound effects
Images
Written texts Spoken
language Music
Multimodal texts
Students’ literacy experiences inside and outside the classroom
How are students interacting with texts inside and outside the classroom?
• Teacher-selected
• Selected for language learning
• Often followed up with comprehension exercises/activities
• Need to read even if they find the text boring or don’t like it
• Often textbook-based
• Often monomoodal or limited multimodal texts (images and texts)
• Inauthentic reading experiences Inside the classroom
• Student-selected
• Selected based on students’ own interest
• Usually no follow-up
• Stop reading if they get bored or don’t like the book
• Wide range of sources – newspapers, magazines, notices, story books, games, on-line resources
• Increasingly multimodal (various modes)
• Authentic reading experiences Outside the classroom
• Meaning making
• Communicative purposes
• Use of our background knowledge
• Use of reading/viewing skills and strategies
Processing texts in more modes (e.g.
linguistic, visuals,
spatial, audio, gestural) that are interwoven
Processing more information
Imposing more possible demands
and/or providing more possible support
Processing texts in a linear form of
presentation (usually words on a print page)
“ Multimodal Texts are those texts that have more than one ‘mode’ so that meaning is communicated through a synchronization of modes. That is, they may incorporate spoken or written language, still or moving images, they may be produced on paper or electronic and may incorporate sound”
(Walsh, 2004)
(Digital) Multimodal Texts
Increasingly, multimodal refers to digital and
‘on screen’ texts and we are moving from just reading to ‘reading and viewing’ or ‘reading, viewing and interacting’ with various other
actions involved, such as decoding, responding, interpreting, analysing, browsing, searching, navigating and hyperlinking.
How do we prepare our students to read, view and interact with digital multimodal texts? How do these texts help them develop reading skills?
Selecting appropriate digital multimodal texts
and e-learning tools for
KS2 students
E-
books
Epic
Free Kids Books
Oxford Owl
Pearson Bug
Club Scholastic Reading Resources
Starfall.com
Storybird
Voting and interactive
tools
Kahoot
Mentimeter
Online Quiz Creator
Poll Everywhere
Socrative
Zeetings
Templates / graphic organisers
Bubbl.us
ClassTools.net
Coggle Educreations
Popplet
Read Write Think
Reference Tools
Flickr
Google images
Google translate
learnersdictionary .com
WolframAlpha
Web
Blogger 2.0
Edmodo
Facebook Instructables
Youtube
Creative tools
Book Creator
Draw and Tell
Explain Everything
Glogster
Make Beliefs
Comix Puppet
Pals 2
Story Jumper
Toondoo
Voki
Kids Safe Search Engines Ask Kids
Kiddle
Kid Rex
Kidz Search
Safe Search
Kids
Specific apps and
websites
Atlas (charts and
data)
My Hong Kong Guide
National Geographic
Kids
News-O- matic
Ocean Park
WWF
Characteristics of Quality e-Learning Resources
Involving good models of English use
Supported by teaching approaches based on
sound pedagogical principles
Consisting of user-friendly design, and appropriate
graphics, sound and animation to increase students’ motivation and
support learning
Promoting the integrated use of language skills
Promoting interactive learning by encouraging
student input, allowing students to work at their
own pace and providing feedback to them
“…any use of technology needs to be integrated into your lessons, and it needs to support your language aims. There is clearly no point in using technology for technology’s sake. Unless it enhances the lesson in some way, don’t use it.” (Hockley, 2015)
English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Secondary 6) (CDC, 2017), p.103
Consideration for Selecting Appropriate e-Learning Resources
the type of text and reading skills we want to
focus on
the interests of the students
the age, ability and readiness of the students
the readiness of the teacher
the school’s technology infrastructure
the budget of the school
Planning and using digital multimodal texts to
facilitate KS2 students’
reading skills
development and enrich
their reading experiences
Pedagogy to Enhance Literacy Development
To plan and develop learning, teaching and assessment activities for a unit of work:
Interacting with Multimodal Texts
Access
Producing Multimodal Texts
Access information from a variety of sources
Understand
Analyse &
Explore Evaluate
Express &
Create
Understand the ideas in the multimodal texts under
teachers’ guidance Analyse and explore how
messages are presented Evaluate the messages and
values embedded in the multimodal texts Express and create messages using different modes of communication
E XAMPLE 1
Print & E-book (audio & animation) Narrative Text
(Story)
Information Text (Exposition)
Chrysanthemum Relationships
Narrative Text (Poem)
Knowing me, Knowing you
G.E. Programme Reading Workshops
Writing Task
Write a story about Chrysanthemum studying at my school
- Introducing the theme:
making friends
- Learning vocabulary items about activities they do with friends
P4
3 focus questions:
• What makes a good name?
• What is a friend?
• Do you think Victoria is a friend of
Chrysanthemum? Why?
“Chrysanthemum”
Reading Skills and Strategies
• Introduce book concept by using the information in the cover and blurb
• Use an e-book with animations, voice over and background music to
facilitate students’ understanding of the main idea of the story:
Divide the e-book into several parts: setting, the problems faced by Chrysanthemum and the
resolution
Set questions for students to find out more about the text while
viewing the e-book
Play the relevant parts of the e- book
Ask students to read the printed text of the relevant part to find out / confirm answers to the questions
• Understand intention, attitudes, feelings conveyed in a text by recognising
features such as the choice of vocabulary and use of language
Vocabulary Building Skills
• Use synonyms to help students understand the meaning of unknown words in authentic readers (e.g.
“jealous” is similar to
“envious” & “begrudging”) Forms and Functions
• Use adjectives & adverbs to describe feelings, e.g.
absolutely perfect Text Types
• Recognise the features of a story Writing Task
• Write a story about Chrysanthemum studying at my school
Applying Generic Skills in a complementary manner, e.g. critical thinking skills, creativity,
communication skills
“Relationships”
Connecting one’s personal experience to the text, e.g. If you were Chrysanthemum’s teacher, what would you do to
solve the problem?
Enriching students’
world knowledge
Book Content
Print Exchanges (Interview) The best job for me What do you want to be?
G.E. Programme
- Introducing the theme: the most suitable jobs
- Learning vocabulary items about jobs and adjectives describing people
Narrative Text (story, with news articles incorporated)
E XAMPLE 2
Writing Task –
Design an information leaflet about guide dogs
Reading Workshops
Guide Dogs
E-book (Interactive text)
Information Text (Exposition)
P6
2 focus questions:
• Do you think you and your family can raise a guide dog puppy?
• What should we do when we see guide dogs on the street?
“Guide Dogs”
Reading Skills and Strategies Use different e-features (e.g.
masking, highlighting) of an interactive text to
• encourage prediction of the content using pictorial clues and the title of the text, as well as personal experience
• work out the meaning of
unfamiliar words (e.g. volunteer, bumpy terrain, obstacles, harness, navigate) by using
syntactic/contextual/pictorial
clues and knowledge of the world
• identify details that support main ideas (e.g. characteristics of guide dogs)
• follow ideas by understanding the use of cohesive devices and
making connection between ideas (e.g. how guide dogs are trained)
Vocabulary Building Skills
• Use word formation, word association and affixes to help students decode the meaning of unknown words in an authentic text (e.g.
“blinded”, “blindfolded”,
“partially sighted”,
“overhead” )
Forms and Functions
• Use of action verbs to describe duties of guide dogs
Applying Generic Skills in a complementary manner, e.g. critical thinking skills, creativity,
communication skills Writing Task –
Design an information leaflet about guide dogs
Connecting one’s personal experience to the text, e.g. Have you ever met any guide dogs on the
street? Do you want to look after guide dog puppies?
Enriching students’
world knowledge
Text Content
Some suggested techniques for exploiting digital multimodal texts
Play sound only
Show images only
Show text with / without sound and vice versa
Pause to predict
Zoom in / out
Focus on facial expressions for emotion
Focus on sound track for meaning
Focus on language (grammar / vocabulary / register)
Read / listen and use information to complete a task
Write script / dialogue / story (practising cohesive devices / appropriate tenses)
Explain why you enjoyed / didn’t enjoy the text
Criticise / evaluate the text
Consider the author’s / creator’s intentions
…
