Mother's Day Celebration

While people were celebrating Mother's Day, I was celebrating myself in involved in attending a workshop. In fact, I was not alone because I ran into Sophie, Alice senior and junior, and my colleague--Hwei-Fon. Surprisingly, I received a call from my sisters right after the workshop. They wanted to buy me a special dinner to celebrate the special day. Ha,how content I was!



The following are the excerpts from Richard R. Day.

May 11 (Sunday) Ambassador, Oxford Press
Richard R. Day

1. If teachers are talking, students will not read.

2. Try to accept students' own interpretation of a test.

3. Reading fluency: unknown words general words sight vocabulary
Then, students can be effortlessly learners.

4. If you want to torture students, you can show students one word after another, but each word should be shown around 30 seconds or even 1 minute. That is, reading word by word will slow the speed of reading and also interrupt the reading comprehension.

5. Strategies are read to learn, whereas skills are learn to read. Strategies are conscious and they can be taught, while sills are unconscious and they are integrated and embedded by students themselves.

6. The rate of reading per minute for native speakers in daily material is 400 words per minute. Yet, the rate for difficult or academic material is 150 to 180 words per minute.(Word per minute: WPM)

7. Teach students signal words such as first, second, however, etc.

8. Choosing a book with dialogues is a good way to attract students to reading.

9. Four approaches to teaching reading
Intensive reading (grammar translation, comprehension questions & language analysis, skills & strategies) + extensive reading

10. A complete reading course:
a. combine intensive reading with extensive reading
b. help students learn to read
c. help students read to learn
d. focuses on both fluency and comprehension

11. The benefits of a complete reading course:
a. students will enjoy reading
b. students will read with confidence
c. students will adjust their rates to fit their purposes for reading
d. students will learn and use fluency and comprehension strategies