READING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

 

 READING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS

AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES.

Augusto Neves, 2024

  I consider reading in a learning process as essential, everything involves reading verbal and non-verbal texts.

So, I remember that when I was learning to read, images were very important to guide me what the text was

talking about. Then, back in the day when I was learning an additional language, comic books, films with subtitles

and especially the transcript of a youtube video were extremely helpful. So, I needed my native language to give

me support as a tool. My reading process was very mechanical and repetitive but it helped me a lot until I felt ready

to read in another language without using the translator, so the words that I heard and read was fixed in my

memory.

  Nonetheless, when thinking about learning an additional language as a grown up, I used my native language as

a crutch. So it was basically learning how to walk as an adult and step by step I started to left this crutch until

I realiased that I gained independence. But, to become a self-learner I learnt at elementary school the basics first,

which gave me previous knowledge of the target language that I was learning.

 

 AS A TEACHER:

  I like how the BNCC describes reading in general, it’s about quality rather than quantity. Moreover, especially

working with reading in another language for students, it requires something more than a codification of words,

it includes imagination and interpretation. I like when Paulo Freire mentions in his book the “Pedagogy of the

Autonomy”, it’s never about how many books we read but about a critical reader that: reads, understands and has

an opinion about the lens of the author. Perhaps, our opinion can be different or go beyond the author's opinion. 

  Besides, I think it’s pretty annoying when I heard a snob saying that they read the entire local library. Okay, Good

for them! And plus, I don’t believe that the young generations don't read anymore, actually the way that all of us

read has changed from the last decades. It has become a bit informal and the books it’s not the only sources of

reading thanks to the internet. There are a variety of genres including posts, blogs, infographics, recipes, a piece of

news on facebook and list goes on. Besides, working with reading news it’s one of the most important and listed by

the BNCC.

  The BNCC, defines that a reader needs three basic steps for a good read including: pre-reading, reading and

after-reading. The first one will give a previous knowledge about the text which I consider rather important to

the reader and to the teacher because it will give us a clue if it’s this text that we can or want to work on.  

 The document also defines 2 styles of reading, the skimming, which it’s when we read or take a look to find the

general information and the scanning which is when we look for the specific information we’re looking for.

Well, those are my words to describe them.

 

 Lastly, the after-reading includes a series of questions related to the text, sometimes this can be the hard part and

in my opinion it requires the presence of the teacher to guide the students to the interpretation of the text,

identifying the informations, sharing the ideas in a friendly environment by respecting each one speech.

NOW, WHERE CAN WE FIND BOOKS OTHER THAN THE SCHOOL LIBRARY?

  This one it’s very problematic, we can simply google out and download the PDF of the text that we want to work

on. This can be considered as piracy and even though most of us do it will be great to avoid. 

  Hopefully there are loads of websites that give us the possibility to work with reading. Including the: Internet

Archive, Librivox, Open Library, BBC learn English, News in Levels, British Council, Big Fish and

the OpenDyslexic extension.

  So, let’s start with the Internet Archive, it’s like a virtual library where you can rent online books or other media.

However, you have to create an account that will make it easier to use all the functions that the website has to offer,

it’s for free and you can even use the online bookmarks. In my opinion, I have been using this site since 2019 and

it’s still my favourite, even though the books available there it’s not on a PDF format but something like a

scanned book it’s still good and I love the button read this book out loud, it works and it will read for you, even

though it sounds very robotic  and with some glitch sometimes if you use a computer and the Edge browser (YES,

you read that) you will have a variety of voices including the characters and accents in English (including non-native

accent). It’s like Librivox, which it’s a platform with books and audiobooks from the public domain and for free,

it’s better visually and you can download it on your phone (android) or visit their website. Personally, I prefer the

app version. It's a good app, however the Librivox has a fixed character and accent which means you can change

them. Then, following the structure of the Internet Archive, there is the Open Library, which is the same thing as

the Internet Archive, however you will find only books. 

 Those websites are very good but rather boring to use to teach in the classroom, but it can be a good

recommendation for those students and teachers who would like to read but they can find it on the local library

neither in PDF. Plus, as mentioned before you have the option of listening to those books, which at least for me is

therapeutic, it feels like I’m not reading alone and plus you practise the listening. Fabulous! Isn’t it?

NOW, TO WORK IN THE CLASSROOM:

 Now, I know some websites where you can use it in the classroom to work with reading and it will include

exercises.

The British Council, it has loads of simple text to be used in the classroom, some of them have the audio or a

video and extra activities after reading. The site in my opinion it’s very good but I feel that it isn’t the best. 

  Also, The News in Levels it’s very simple and one of my favourites. ou can work with a piece of news and the

site provides a video and  audio of the text. It’s very short and quite simple. I believe it can be used as a “quick”

activity.

Following the same category of news, the Learning English BBC which in a nutshell I think it’s one of the best.

It's very similar to the British Council but with topics related to news and includes the after reading exercises as well.

 Then, the Big Fish, where it’s a platform that transforms the book into a game, so you’ll feel like you are living the

book. I personally didn’t find it very nice but rather a bit confused as I use it only once. And last but not least,

OpenDyslexic which is an extension for Google Chrome that helps people with Dyslexia. I still didn’t use it well,

but it seems that it helps the reader to get focus while reading, adding colours and organising the sentences giving

support to the reader with Dyslexia. I find it very important to mention it.

SO, HOW ABOUT YOU?

• Do you know better apps to use in the classroom that have before and after reading exercises?

• Do you use those apps listed above?

• Physical books and textbooks are also great. Do you use them? How? And how do the students react with analogical technologies?

PLEASE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

TA! xx

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REFERENCES:

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. MEC. Base nacional comum: Introdução. Available at <http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/abase/#introducao> accessed on 06/02/2024 at 18:05