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原文章由 星級國民 於 07-12-10 22:08 發表 
The Oxford Reading Tree storybook boxes and the Read at Home series are designed for the purpose of leisure reading (reading for fun). Visit their website (http://www.oup.com/oxed/children/readathom ...
There are 2 main types of reading.
Leisure reading is reading for no purpose other than for personal entertainment. I read a lot for leisure, my children too. My elder child is now reading some of my Agatha Christie's Poirot books which are definitely difficult for her. Many words are difficult for her, the English in the books is old fashioned and the context can be quite mature. But since that is leisure reading, she does not have to know all the words. All she has been doing is to read for the plot. And I just let her do it.
The ORT is definitely not one of those leisure reading books, at least not in your case, since your child is reading it with the purpose of learning English. Rather, the series was developed with the main purpose of teaching the language. In fact, I know that some local kindergarten or primary incorporate this set of books as part of their English language teaching tool books and student are using them in class. It is not like my Poirot books or even the Harry Potter series, which the authors did not intend to teach the English language with their books. Using the Harry Potter books as an example, even young western kids might have problems understanding some of the more challenging words. But we would not stop them from reading (I do not want to discuss about the context, which some very religious people think is "evil") just because there are words that they do not unerstand. They are merely reading the books as leisure reading, they are merely reading for the story itself. As long as they know what happened next, they are pleased.
The ORT is not the same. The sole purpose of levelling the books is to monitor the reading level of children and help them improve. In western education, both reading and spelling are systematicall levelled. Western teachers would tell parents how to select books for children as part of the home reading program. The simplest way is to check how many words in one page (full of words with no pictures) that a child cannot read. If there are more than 6, the book is too difficult. Now I am talking about books much more advanced than the ORT. I am talking about chapter books like, say, Roald Dahl books. For the ORT books where tere are so many big pictures, I would say at most 2 words that a kid cannot read in one page would be the limit. Then after the kid has learnt the words (the meaning and pronounciation), he can move on.
The children need to go on to the next reading level when they are ready. When are they ready? How do we tell they are ready? There is no way better than asking him to read aloud. If a child is skipping the more challenging words, he can still know the story but he is not learning that word he skipped. And without learning the words in a ORT book in a lower level, I do not think a child should move on to the next.
I wrote my previous message (and this) with the purpose of sharing my own experience as a mother with 2 children, one of them is now in secondary school. My children have out grown the levelled readers a long time ago. They are now in much more advanced books. My elder child is now into her first year in secondary school where her English class is more of literature appreciation than the language skills itself. However, since both of my childre have once read the ORT books, I know how the books were designed to work, and wanted to share my views.
I am merely putting forth some of my personal views of hot to utilize the ORT a better way. If you like it your way, that's good. If you are happy with your child's progress, that's good. But I am sure some other parents would like to see an alternative way of utilizing the ORT books.
I have been a parent volunteer at my younger child's class (primary school) to hear children read to me. It is part of the reading program where children are to get a book of the correct level (This is not leisure reading, but with the purpose of improving their reading skills.) I noticed that even native English speaking children can have the problem of choosing books. Girls tend to choose very difficult books; and boys tend to choose very easy books. There are exception of course but children just do not know how to choose books to read (for this reading program, not leisure reading), for the specific purpose (ie to improve reading skills), and teachers and parents were to help them. They were asked to read to us, so that we can tell them whether the book chose is ok. Children would not benefit if they have chosen books that are not of the appropriate level to read. Either way, they would not be learning as efficiently as they should have. |
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發表於 07-12-10 17:12
