The Nature of Reading

Online Training Session Guide

On Literacy Instruction

Prepared by:

Rosalina J. Villaneza, PhD

Chief Education Program Specialist
Bureau of Learning Delivery
Department of Education Central Office

Objectives:

At the end of the session, teachers should

be able to:

1. examine the teaching practices that

will help uncover their belief in the
reading process;

2. explain the nature of reading;

3. realize that the reader has a

significant role in the reading process
and that his/her attitude and motivation
affect his/her reading performance; and

4. apply research – based practices in

teaching children learn to read and read
to learn

Key Understandings

Reading is one of the fundamental

skills a child needs to learn to succeed in life.

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 It is also the foundation of one’s ability to
learn and ultimately, the ability to function
properly in an ever-changing society.

Developing good reading habits is vital to a

child’s future not just academically, but in
everyday life as well.

In addition, reading is essential to

just about everything in life – from cooking to
driving to just getting through school.

It is important to start at a young age and

teach a child the value of reading so they will
grow to practice it often and value their
ability to do so.
Yet, reading is a very complex matter
and new discoveries are made in the field all
the time, requiring adjustments in the
teaching process.

As teachers, we make a lot of decisions that

affect learning. This entails a thorough
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understanding of what learners need to
learn, how to analyze their strengths, and
how to correct any misunderstandings they
have.
10 Reasons Why Reading is
Important for Kids:
1. It expands their vocabulary.
While reading, they might come across
words they have never heard –
prompting them to find out what they
mean. As a result, they add it to their
vocabulary.

2. It makes them better at it.

Practice makes perfect. The best way to
get better at reading is just to do it!

3. It helps build independence and

self-confidence.
As they learn that they no longer have to
rely on their parents to read things to
them, they develop a sense of
independence. Through reading, they
can begin to understand the world on
their own.

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 4. It keeps them safe.
Traffic signs have words and so do
warning labels. Reading allows kids to
understand when something says it could
harm them.
5. It helps them make sense of the
world around them.
As they learn to read, they are able to
determine what things around them say –
from signs to stickers to labels. Being
able to read helps them understand what
is it and the purpose it serves.

6. It leads to their future academic

success.
A child must be able to read in order to
even progress through school. Reading
is essential to following the instructions
on the test and being able to even
understand or answer the questions.

It enhances their imagination.

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 As a child reads, they can begin to
imagine where the characters are. They
might even create their own little world,
as well. Reading enhances their
imagination by forcing them to picture
what the character actually looks like and
who they are.

7. It entertains them.
It gives them something good to do –
especially once they can start reading
chapter books with no pictures, forcing
them to really get into their imagination
and therefore, really get into the book as
well.

8. It improves their grammar.

Through reading, they can see how the
author composed their sentence
structure and grammar. This can also
help improve their communication skills
as they determine how it should be read
using clues such as punctuation.

9. It improves their writing skills.

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 Because reading helps improve their
vocabulary, communication, and
grammar skills, it ultimately improves
their writing skills as well.

Current Perspectives on Reading

1. Reading as Skill vs. Skills
● Reading is viewed as a unitary skill that
we use to process text.
● This unitary skill can be analyzed in
terms of component subskills or global
skills.

2. Reading as Process
a. It is a complex process of making
meaning from a variety of symbols and
conventions.

b. The readers use three primary

sources of information or cues to read
a text:

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 ▪ Meaning – to tell if what they read
makes sense with our prior
knowledge and fits with the sense of
the story.

▪ Structure – to verify that what is read

sounds like language patterns of
speech (grammatically correct) and /
or book language.
▪ Visual Graphophonic – to check that
words look right or have correct letter
/ sound association.

c.Three types of processing are done:

▪ Bottom-up processing – from parts to
whole
▪ Top-down processing – from whole to
parts
▪ Interactive processing – whole to
parts to whole

3. Reading as Comprehension
● Comprehension occurs in the
transaction between the reader and the
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 text.
▪
● The more background knowledge a
reader has that connects with the text,
the more likely he/she will be able to
make sense of what is being read.

● According to the schema theory,

individuals have organized world
knowledge which are stored through a
series of networkable solutions known
as schema. These can be activated or
retrieved when needed.
● Reading comprehension involves
thinking.

4. Reading as Development
● Reading is an interplay of one’s
experience, oral language, and ability
to interpret written symbols.

● Reading and writing have their roots in

a child’s earliest attempts to
communicate and make meaning.
●
● Reading development is correlated with
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 other aspects of child development –
physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio
– emotional.
●
● Oral language development is an
integral part of beginning reading
instruction.

5. Reading as Strategy

● Readers use cognitive and

metacognitive strategies to achieve
comprehension. If comprehension
breaks down, the use of fix-up
strategies can be helpful. For example,
when children stuck, they can:
- reread the text;
- read on;
- read aloud;
- look at illustrations;
- check surrounding sentences;
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 - ask for help.

Materials Time Allotment

● PPT 11/2 hr
● Lecture video
● Laptop
● Internet Connection Alignment to the
● Zoom PPST
3.1, 4.1, 5.3, 1.1,
1.2, and 1.5

References

Ambruster, Bonnie B., et. al. (2000). Put

Reading First: The Research Building
Blocks for Teaching Children to
Read. USA: Center for the
Improvement of Early Reading
Achievement (CIERA) through the
office of Educational Research and
Improvement.
Gunning, Thomas G. (2000). Creating
Literacy Instruction for All Children
Third Edition. Needham Heights,
MA : Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson
11
 Education Co.
Hermosa, Nemah N. (2002). The
Psychology of Reading Diliman, Quezon
City : University of the Philippines
Open University.
Tankersley, Karen. (2003). The Threads
of Reading Strategies for Literacy
Development, Virginia, USA:
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Tankersley, Karen. (2005). Literacy
Strategies for Grades 4-12;
Reinforcing the Threads of Reading.
Virginia, USA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum
Development (ASCD).
Visser, Evangeline & Hanggi, Gary M.
(1999). Guided Reading in a
Balanced Program. USA: Teacher
Created Materials, Inc

Before you start the session with Zoom, ensure that all your ppt, video, and
activity sheets are open (just minimize it) so that these are accessible anytime you
need them. (activity sheet can also be sent in advance thru email, google link, or in the zoom
group chat bellow the chat group.)

Procedure:

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Introduce the session by saying: “Good
______ everyone. I am
_______from_______ ______. I will be
delivering the session of Dr. Rosalina J.
Villaneza, Chief Teaching and Learning
Division, Bureau of Learning Delivery,
Central Office on “The Nature of Reading”.
Before we start, let us take note of the
following session objectives.”

1. Examine teaching practices that

will help uncover belief in the reading
process;

2. Explain the nature of reading;

3. Realize that the reader has a

significant role in the reading process
and that his/her attitude and
motivation affect his/her reading
performance; and

4. Apply research – based practices

in teaching children learn to read and
read to learn

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Session Proper
The first activity can be done in 2 ways:

using the zoom beakout room. To do this, as a host you can find
the breakout icon bellow. Click and just follow the instructions like
(how many breakout rooms you wish to have, how much time is the
breakout session, and how do you want to choose the participants for the
breakout (be it automatic or manual where you assign participants to be in each of
the breakout rooms). After five minutes, have the participants go back to
the plenary for the reporting. (When you set the duration (let’s say 5mins)
of the breakout the participants will automatically go back to the plenary) for
the reporter to report their outputs from the breakout session.
using the plenary session, just show slide deck number 3 have the
participants show how they feel about the statement by using the reaction
board, thumbs up for agree and thumbs down if they disagree.

Activity (5 minutes)

Anticipation Guide: (there is an activity

sheet for this – annex A)

Directions:

1. Divide the big group into five small

groups.
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 2. Check if they have annex A for this
activity.
3. Each group should choose a
Facilitator (to facilitate the discussion) a
Recorder (to record the discussion) and
a Reporter (to report to the big group the
output/s)
4. In their own breakout rooms, they
have to discuss their responses to the
statements whether they “agree” or
“disagree”.
5. The group should come up with a
consensus.
6. The reporter will be given 2mins to
report in the big group.

Agree
Disagree
______1. Before children learn to read they
should know the sounds of _______
Most letters.
______2. The more symbols (letters or
words) there are in a text, the _______
Longer it will take to read it.
______3. We gather meaning from what we
read. _______
______4. When one reads one tries to find
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some cues in an effort to _______
Make sense of the written text.
______5. Visual information provided by
maps, charts, or pictures help _______
Young readers store and retrieve
information they have read.
______6. A reader who is familiar with the
subject matter of a text _______
Already has a basis for making
sense of it.

Analysis 1 (5 minutes)
Discuss their answers, have the
participants keep their work until after the
Abstraction.

Possible answers
1. Agree – Awareness of the sounds of
the language is a fundamental skill in
learning to read. This leads to
associating the sounds (phonemes)
with the corresponding letter symbols
(graphemes).
2. Disagree – This is actually true. But if
smaller sense units (words, phrases)
are combined into bigger, coherent
ones (sentences, paragraphs), the
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 whole is much faster to read than if
they are separate or incoherent.
Therefore, learners will read more
successfully, if given whole meaningful
units of text to read rather than
disconnected bits.
3. Disagree – The word “gather” implies
that somehow the meaning of a
text is there in the words and all we
need to do is pick it up. The
construction of meaning that occurs in
reading is usually a combination of
decoding and understanding words,
phrases, and sentences – the text
(bottom –up processes) and one’s
previous knowledge or schema of the
text content and genre (top – down
processes). The more background
knowledge a reader has that connects

with the text being read, the more likely

the reader will be able to make sense
of what is being read.
4. Agree – When one reads, he tries to
find some cues in an effort to make
sense of the written text. The available
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 language information consists of
sounds and symbols (graphophonic
cues), language structure or grammar
(syntactic cues), and knowledge which
is part of the reader’s background
(semantic cues). These cues answer
the following questions: Does it look
right? Does it fit the sense of the story?
5. Agree – Sometimes, a reader does
not have sufficient background
information about a text. A diagram, a
chart, or any picture cues can help
young readers to better understand
what they read.
6. Agree – The more background
knowledge a reader has to connect
with the text being read, the more likely
the reader will be able to make sense
of what is being read.

Deepening of the Concept: (45 mins. video

presentation) (slide deck numbers 5 – 25 are
in the video)
This will be done using the Zoom Share Screen which is found at the bottom
of your screen. Click the arrow up then choose share computer sound, then
click share, you are now sharing the video.

Say: We will deepen our

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understanding on the Nature of Reading thru
this video lecture/demo from Dr. Rose J.
Villaneza. Before watching the video let us
read and understand the following questions
and will try to answer them after watching
the video: (slide deck no. 4)

1. What is Reading? What does

dynamic process mean?
2. What are the important and/or crucial
elements needed by the reader to be
able to interact with the text.
3. What are the five alternative views
about reading?
4. Using the Chart provided fill in the
column as indicated:

Natur Key Its implication What

e of points/ to you as do you
Readi Your reading think
ng take teacher/super are the
(View away visor/school challen
s head ge/s
about based
Readi on
ng) what
is/are
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 the
reality/i
es in
the
field?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Discussion: (10 mins)

This will be done using zoom breakout rooms. You may use the same
groupings or a different one. Again, have each group choose a Facilitator, a
Recorder, and a Reporter. The participants will be discussing their answers
to the given question before the viewing activity. (The questions are in annex
B, check whether the participants have it.)
Have the participants go back to the plenary after 10 mins. and ask each of
the reporters to report to the big group.

Go back to the anticipation Guide and

discuss, ask if they would like to change their
answers from the given statements.

Reflection Questions (slide deck no. 26)

(This can be done and submitted in an
agreed upon time and process)

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 1. Learning all these, how should
learners be taught to read?
2. Why do you think we still have
frustrated readers even in the higher
grades?

Application/Assignment (slide deck 27)

(This can be done and submitted in an
agreed upon time and process)

Have the teachers do a Professional

Development Plan.
Show the slide of the PDP.
Say: Let’s make a Professional
Development Plan. In this PDP, you will
write what you will STOP, SUSTAIN and
START. STOP is what you will stop doing as
regards your practices in your reading class.
SUSTAIN is what you will continue doing in
your reading class. START is what you will
start/begin doing in your reading lessons.

STOP SUSTAIN START

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Closing (slide deck 28 – 30)

Let’s read this.

Children Learn to Read and Write

Good readers aren’t born.

They’re created.
Created as the evening clock stands still
and the minutes of a bedtime story reign
supreme.
Lovingly read each night.

Good writers aren’t born.

They’re taught.
Taught to revere writing, as an important
tool, the nuts
and bolts linking them to the world beyond.
Guaranteed to strengthen the mind of an
impressionable child.

Good readers and writers aren’t born.

They’re inspired.
Inspired by teachers who value reading and
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writing, as the keys to knowledge and
success.
Who read and write like they breathe…
Continuously, steadily, automatically.

Adapted from “A daughter learns to read”

By Mardi C. Dilks, The Reading Teacher,

Vol. 56, No. 3 November 2002

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