Littlefae and Tinyfae as huge lovers of books and stories were horrified that Mabel didn’t just dislike books but that she did terrible things to them- although there was a little blushed face at the standing on books to reach things from Tinyfae! The End has brought a lot of entertainment & thought to our house. THAT child is Mabel, and Emma Perry and Sharon Davey have brought a reluctant reader to life and a love of books with humour and wonder. Luckily we had the privilege of being able to work with her needs and pace and by doing so she now reads beautifully and passionately at a level that makes my heart sing.īut what about the children who don’t make that step? What about the children who think books are boring possibly due to the diet of reading material they have been fed learning to read that puts them off picking up a book for pleasure? The latter was certainly the case that we faced with Littlefae who adored books and wanted to read but flat out refused to read Biff, Chip & Kipper and similar Cat sat on the Mat style books. In Daisy Hirst’s I Do Not Like Books Anymore it was partly because Natalie was struggling with the mechanics of reading, converting squiggles into sounds which is understandable and partially because the early books that accompany that process are mind numbingly boring compared to the fantastic array of fiction that children will have enjoyed through read aloud picture books before. I hope some of you can make it, it should be a great weekend.Many young children go through a block when they start to read for themselves and this can come from a variety of places and manifest in different ways. I’ll be talking more in depth about why reading is so important for Japanese students, and about how parents, teachers, and school administrators can use the ORT to strengthen English skills and programs. I did one presentation in Sendai on the 3rd of October, and I’ll be doing another one in Tokyo on the 7th of November, at the Tokyo ETJ Expo. The ORT has clearly defined levels which make it easy to see which books students should be reading, and our school has several sets of the trunk stories (the fiction ones with Biff, Chip, Kipper, etc.) so we have the option to let some students borrow books while others read in class.Īs you can probably tell, I love the ORT stories myself (I find the materials that work best for me are the ones I actually like, as I find it much easier to be enthusiastic about them), so I was delighted when Oxford University Press Japan asked me to present about it at the ETJ Expos. Students borrow books to read at home, either in a structured manner where the books are assigned and students are supposed to read to their parents, or a freer style more like the in-class reading above. They read independently, and record basic information about each book they read as they finish them. Students are given reading time (normally 5-10 minutes), during which they can choose any book of a suitable level to read. The teacher will read a book to the students, helping with unfamiliar vocabulary, asking questions about the story and the pictures, and asking students to predict what will happen. We use the ORT in three ways at Cambridge English: However, the strong stories and characters make it perfect for students who are starting to read for pleasure. The ORT is not phonically decodable (although it has phonics-based components among its 500+ books), so it is less suitable than other series (such as Jelly and Bean) for absolute beginner readers. I was originally introduced to the series by a colleague who used it with his own children and students, and quickly came to love the characters, the pictures, the humour, and above all, the warmth of the series. The Oxford Reading Tree provides the third ingredient above. In order for that to happen, students need a strong foundation of systematic phonics instruction, phonetically decodable reading material to start with, and interesting material to fuel the flame once they get used to reading words and sentences. It is my goal to allow my students to start reading in English, to encourage them to continue, and to empower them to become confident and voracious readers after they finish at our school. I love reading, and I am a strong believer in the power of reading to allow students to absorb language (I am a Krashenite at heart). At the English school I advise, Cambridge English, we have a strong phonics and reading program. I am very interested in teaching English to children, and spend a lot of time thinking about how to possibly do it in a more efficient way.

Biff chip and kipper level 10