Reading across the Curriculum:
Reading for Breadth and Depth
(Project code: NT0919 )
Regional NET Coordinating Team
Briefing Session on
Collaborative Research and Development (“Seed”) Projects for the 2018/19 School Year
Rundown
● Why reading across the curriculum (RaC) in the English Language classroom?
● What does a target project unit look like?
● What is our support model?
● How can you apply?
● Any questions?
Why reading across the curriculum (RaC) in
the English Language classroom?
Your school context?
- Students not making connection between their learning experiences in the school and their life experiences or global issues
- English seen by the students as a subject that has little relevance to their daily life, rather than a tool to access other subjects
- Students’ motivation in reading mainly extrinsic or instrumental, rather than intrinsic
- Students faced with exponential growth of information because of the Internet
- Students’ understanding of a text at surface level
Our approach
to motivate students to
read more
andread deeper
with
critical eyes
to explore topics and understand issues
Project objectives
● enhance English teachers’ understanding of RaC and ability to integrate it into the school-based curriculum
● develop teachers’ ability to identify, select and use appropriate print and non-print texts of a variety of text types and themes to enhance students’ motivation and confidence in English language learning
● sharpen teachers’ skills in scaffolding their students’ reading, viewing, analysing and responding skills development;
● expand teachers’ ability to design suitable learning, teaching and assessment activities to support students’ reading skills development and to engage them in appreciating the value of cross-curricular reading
● develop teachers’ ability to identify opportunities for students to connect their learning in English lessons (e.g. reading strategies and knowledge of topics) to their experiences in real life or learning in other KLAs
What does a target project unit look like?
Textbook passage
Fashion: Why it’s so important to teens
Longman Elect JS2B
Fashion
Focus question:
How does fashion affect people’s life?
Example 1 (S2)
A theme with immediacy in the students’ life experiences
as the entry point
● What does the writer want us to think/believe/do?
Fashion is very important to teens (Assumption presented as a fact)
⇨ How might that influence our belief?
⇨ How might that influence our behaviour?
Content?
Source?
Purpose?
Critical reading - a crucial skill in reading
Information literacy;
21st century skills
Textbook passage
Fashion: Why it’s so important to teens
Longman Elect JS2B
Textbook passage
Fashion: Why it’s so important to teens
Longman Elect JS2B
● Where are fashionable clothes made?
● Who makes them?
● How are they made?
● What is used to make them?
● What happens to the clothes that we throw away?
● T- or S-generated questions with answers not given
in the text
● Hook students’ interest in further reading to explore the
issue/topic
● Where are fashionable clothes made?
● Who makes them?
● How are they made?
● What is used to make them?
● What happens to the clothes that we throw away?
A political cartoon that displays
sweatshops/child labour
worldwide
● Use powerful visual texts to bring about the issues as the answers to the questions
● Hook students’ interest in further reading to explore the issue/topic
A photo that shows the
sea water polluted
by fabric dyes A photo that shows a
landfill
full of clothes
An image that displays
consumerism
Examples of target reading strategies:
• Scanning and skimming
• Identifying main ideas
• Inferring
• Making connections
• Summarising
• Questioning
• Evaluating
• Synthesising
A reader or an online article with the following info
and ideas:
- what sweatshops are - why they exist
- the brands that use sweatshops
- how sweatshops affect communities
- what changes can be made
for reading instruction and text grammar instruction
Fashion
Focus question: How does fashion affect people’s life?
Reading Skills and Strategies Text Grammar
Final Task:
Textbook passage:
Fashion:
Why it’s so important
to teens?
Text(s) on Fashion and Environment
Text(s)on Fashion and Child Labour Text(s) on
Fast Fashion
Math Ed
PSHE
Sci Ed Tech
Ed Arts
Ed Chin Lang
Ed
Read and discuss texts that examine social
issues and topics Links between
ELE and the other KLAs
Modern Technology Focus question:
What is the global impact of modern technology?
Example 2 (S3)
A textbook text with a topic related to students’
daily life
Textbook passage The dangers technology
Junior 3 Thematic Anthology OUP
A theme with immediacy in the students’ life experiences
as the entry point
Questions with implied answers or answers not given in the text:
● Where are smartphones made?
● Who makes them?
● How are they made?
● What is used to make them?
● What happens to the phones when we throw them away?
● Train students to read critically
● Motivate students to explore
issues/topics related to their daily life
YouTube advertisement Meet iPhone X — Apple
https://youtu.be/0S6pHex-KCo
Read, view and discuss texts that represent multiple perspectives of the issue.
A YouTube clip
by Amnesty International Is my phone powered by child
labour?
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/
06/drc-cobalt-child-labour/ EdPuzzle on
child miners’ stories (Sky News)
https://edpuzzle.com/media/5a4c4b226565ab4
A video and a written report Inside the Congo mines that
exploit children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJ8me22NVs
Texts for reading instruction
For example
• Understanding text structure (organisation of information and ideas at the text level)
Modern Technology
Focus question: What is the global impact of modern technology?
Final Tasks:
(1) Producing a Spark Video to raise awareness of the issues involved (2) Writing a letter to influential people or influencers to convince them
Reading Skills and Strategies Text Grammar
Textbook passage:
The Dangers of Technology
Text(s)on Gadgets of Technology Text(s):
Technology adverts
Text(s) on Technology
and Child Labour
Math Ed
PSHE
Sci Ed Tech
Ed Arts
Ed Chin Lang
Ed
Read and discuss texts that examine social issues
and topics Links between
ELE and the other KLAs
Explore and communicate ideas and information on… and impact of
modern technology.
Features of a target project unit
- Immediacy in students’ daily life
- Use of a focus question to link the texts
- Multiple texts - varied text types, multimodality, print and non-print - Strategies that hook students’ interest in reading
- Student products for assessment - Pedagogical strategies
in each unitcurriculum links
- Standalone, or developed from a unit in the English Scheme of Work - Links with other KLAs
What is our support model?
Personnel Involved in the RaC ‘Seed’ Project
1 - 2 Support Officer(s) from the Regional NET
Coordinating Team
Project Teachers English teachers
- Project Coordinator
- English teacher(s) of the project class(es)
Non-English teachers
- Optional
Support from the school senior management
Gradual release of responsibility
Support officer responsibility
Project teacher responsibility
“I do it.”
“We do it.”
“You do it.”
“You do it alone.”
Independence
Schools that we are looking for
- Partners, not service recipients
- Students with basic reading competency - Curriculum flexibility
- Committed project teachers amenable to new ideas and pedagogical suggestions
- Sustainability
How can you apply?
Important dates
5 Mar 2019
Deadline of application
- Appendix C of the EDB Circular Memorandum No.5/2019
(Application Form with a school proposal)
https://applications.edb.gov.hk/circular/
upload/EDBCM/EDBCM19005E.pdf
Mar- Apr
Vetting visits - Meeting - Class visit(s)
June Announcement of application results
Enquiries
Project-related Ms Eva CHIU (NET Section) Tel: 3549 8359
Email: evachiu@edb.gov.hk General
Ms Christy NG
(Life-wide Learning Section) Tel: 2892 5824
