Reading Approach:

Teachers use reading approach as one of the methods in teaching English. This
approach is one way of solving students’ reading problems. Students are demanded
to read more to improve their knowledge and get new ideas. Inferencing, guessing,
and predicting are important skills developed in reading. By reading, students will
know about the different of culture by reading across cultural understanding, and
they will learn how to pronounce the words correctly. In reading approach, students
are expected to improve their English skills.

Skimming:
In skimming, the main idea of a text is quickly identified. The goal is to read
shorter texts to extract accurate detailed information. Skimming is done at a speed
three to four times faster than regular reading. People often skim when they have
lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. Some students will read the
first and last paragraphs using headings, summarizes and other organizers as they
move down the page or screen. Some might also read the title, subtitles,
subheadings, and illustrations. Other people consider reading the first sentence of
each paragraph. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places. It might be
used to review graphs, tables, and charts. This technique is useful when you are
seeking specific information rather than reading for comprehension.

Scanning:
Scanning is quickly reading a text to get the summary of it. It is a technique wherein
students search for keywords or ideas. Scanning involves moving eyes quickly down
the page seeking specific words and phrases. Scanning is also used for the reader to
find answers to questions. Once a student scanned the document, they will go back
and skim it.

Extensive reading:
Extensive Reading is an approach to language learning, including foreign language
learning, by means of a large amount of reading. The reader’s view and review of
unfamiliar words in a specific context will allow the reader to infer the word’s
meaning, to learn unknown words. Extensive Reading is the free reading of books
and other written material that is not too difficult for readers. Extensive Reading is
sometimes called Free Voluntary Reading.
 What’s More

Activity 1. Read Me!

Direction: Read the selection Chechnya by Anthony Marra and answer the
questions that follow.
Chechnya
Anthony Marra

AFTER HER SISTER, Natasha, died, Sonja began sleeping in the

hospital. She returned home to wash her clothes a few days a month, but
those days became fewer and fewer. No reason to return, no need to wash
her clothes. She only wears hospital scrubs anyway.

She wakes on a cot in the trauma unit. She sleeps there intentionally,
in anticipation of the next critical patient. Some days, roused by the shuffle
of footsteps, the cries of family members, she stands, and a body takes her
place on the cot and she works on resuscitation, knowing she is awake
because she could dream nothing like this.

“A man is waiting here to see you,” a nurse says. Sonja, still on the
cot, rubs the weariness from her eyes.
“About what?”
The nurse hesitates. “He’s right out here.”

A minute later in the hallway the man introduces himself. “My name
is Akhmed.” He speaks Russian without an accent, but by now Sonja feels
more comfortable conversing in Chechen. A short beard descends from
Akhmed’s face. For a moment she thinks he’s a religious man, then
remembers that most men have grown their beards out. Few have shaving
cream, fewer have mirrors. The war has made the country’s cheeks and
chins devout.

He gestures to a small girl, no older than eight, standing beside

him. “My wife and I cannot care for her,” Akhmed says. “You must take
her.”
“This isn’t an orphanage.”
“There are no orphanages.”

The request is not uncommon. The hospital receives humanitarian

aid, has food and clean water. Most important, it tends to the injured
regardless of ethnicity or military affiliation, making the hospital one of the
few larger buildings left untargeted by either side in the war.
 Newly injured arrive each day, too many to care for. Sonja shakes her
head. Too many dying; she cannot be expected to care for the living as well.

“Her father was taken by the rebels on Saturday. On Sunday the

army came and took her mother.”

Sonja looks at the wall calendar, as if a date could make sense of the
times.

“Today is Monday,” she says.

“I was a medical student before the war,” Akhmed says,

switching to Chechen. “In my final year. I will work here until a home
is found for the girl.”

Akhmed glowers. Sonja often sees defiance from rebels and

occasionally from soldiers, but rarely from civilians.

“I can’t,” she says, but her voice falters, her justification failing.

Sonja surveys the corridor: a handful of patients, no doctors. Those with

money, with advanced degrees and the foresight to flee the country, have done so.

“Parents decide which of their children they can afford to feed on which
days.
No one will take this girl,” Sonja says.
“Then I will keep working.”

“Does she speak?” Sonja looks to the girl. “What’s your

name?” “Havaa,” Akhmed answers.

Six months earlier Sonja’s sister, Natasha, was repatriated from Italy.
When Sonja heard the knock and opened the door, she couldn’t believe how
healthy her sister looked. She hugged her sister, joked about the padding
on her hips. Whatever horrors Natasha had experienced in the West, she’d
put fat around her waist.

“I am home,” Natasha said, holding the hug longer than Sonja

thought necessary. They ate dinner before the sun went down, potatoes
boiled over the furnace. The army had cut the electric lines four years
earlier. They had never been repaired. Sonja showed her sister to the spare
room by candlelight, gestured to the bed. “This is the place you sleep,
Natasha.”

They spent the week in a state of heightened civility. No prying

questions. All talk was small. What Sonja noticed; she did not comment on.
A bottle of Ribavirin antiviral pills on the bathroom sink. Cigarette burns on
Natasha’s shoulders. Sonja worked on surgeries, and Natasha worked on
sleeping. Sonja brought food home from the hospital, and Natasha ate it.
 Sonja started the fire in the morning, and Natasha slept. There were
mornings, and there were nights. This is life, Sonja thought.

Akhmed is true to his word. Five minutes after Sonja accepts the
girl, he is washed and suited in scrubs. Sonja takes him on a tour of the
hospital. All but two wings are closed for lack of staff. She shows him the
cardiology, internal medicine, and endocrinology wards. A layer of dust
covers the floors, their footprints leaving a trail. Sonja thinks of the moon
landing, how she saw the footage for the first time when she arrived in
London.

“Where is everything?” Akhmed asks. Beds, sheets, hypodermics,

disposable gowns, surgical tape, film dressing, thermometers, IV bags,
forceps—any item of practical medical use is gone. Empty cabinets, open
drawers, locked rooms, closed blinds, taped-over windowpanes, the stale air
remain.
“The trauma and maternity wards. And we’re struggling to keep them both
open.”

Akhmed runs his fingers through his beard. “Trauma, that’s obvious.
You have to keep trauma open. But maternity?”

Sonja’s laugh rings down the empty hall. “I know. It’s funny, isn’t it?
Everyone is either giving birth or dying.”

“No.” Akhmed shakes his head, and Sonja wonders if he’s offended by
her. “They are coming into the world, and they are leaving the world and it’s
happening here.
” Sonja nods, wonders if Akhmed is religious after all.

Direction: Fill out the table with setting and character. Use skimming as a
reading technique.

Literary Element Question Answer

Setting 1. Where and 1.
when did the
story happen?

Character 2. Who are the 2.

characters in
the story?
Assessment 1. Comprehension Check:
Direction: Now, answer the following questions below to test your
understanding on the given story.

1. What descriptions were given about the setting of the story?

2. What seems to be the conflict surrounding the story?
3. What was the deal made by Sonja and Akhmed?
4. What change in attitude was evident in the main character of the story at
the beginning and at the end?
5. Why was it important for the writer to narrate the events that happened
during the wars to reveal traditions in Chechnya?

Activity 2. Scan Me!

Direction: Read and understand the story below and answer the
questions that follow.

Adaptation from The Journey to the River Sea

By Eva Ibbotson

Maia is an orphan. Her only guardian is a lawyer, named Mr. Murray, whose
only responsibility is to help her with the small amount of money her parents have
left her when they died. Then, Maia learned that her relatives, the Carters would be
willing to take care of her. When a note written by the Carter twins, Gwendolyn and
Beatrice, arrives, Maia makes up her mind to go live with the Carters in their house
on the Amazon. She travels there with Miss Minton, her new tutor. On the boat from
England, she meets Clovis King, a struggling child actor. The two quickly became
friends. Maia is very excited to live with the Carters. She imagines that she and the
twins will become the best of friends and they will have a wonderful time together.

However, the only reason the Carters took Maia in was her money. In reality,
Gwendolyn and Beatrice are selfish. They hate Maia before they even know her. Maia
feels like being with the Carters is like a being in prison. Soon, however, she meets
Finn, who is running away from private detectives known as “the crows.” They are
trying to force Finn to return to England and claim his inheritance.

When Clovis committed a mistake in a play where he belongs, he goes to Maia

for help because his acting company fires him. She and Finn hide him in the hidden
lagoon where Finn lives and devise a plan to get Clovis back to England. Finn, Maia,
and Clovis plan to make the crows believe that Clovis is Finn so Clovis pretended to
be Finn.
 Meanwhile, in England, Clovis confesses that he is not the real Finn and
wishes to go home, which causes Sir Aubrey, Finn’s father to have a heart attack.
The real Finn goes to his father's home, to help Clovis reveal the truth.
In the end, Mrs. Carter, Beatrice, and Gwendolyn return to England to become
servants of their wealthy relative. However, Maia, Miss Minton and Clovis all return
to Brazil. Finn inherits all his family’s money and possessions.

Direction: Fill out the table with point of view, conflict and
theme. Use Scanning as a reading technique.
Literary Question Answer
Element
Point of View 1. Who is 1.
narrating
the story?
Conflict 2. What 2.
struggle is
the main
character
facing in
this story?
Theme 3. What is 3.
the main
idea
expressed
in the
story?

Assessment 2.1. Comprehension Check

Direction: The story was quite interesting. Now, answer the
questions that follow to test your understanding.
1. What problems did Maia experience during her travel to Brazil?
2. What are the characteristics of Gwendolyn and Beatrice?
3. What life lessons did she learn from her friends Finn and Clovis?

Assessment 2.2. Critical Reading Check

Shimenawa

By Naoko Kumagai

This is a story I was told.

It was August 1973. My brother Jiro was four, sitting at dinner.

“E tadaki mas,” my uncle said. Jiro picked up onigiri, a rice ball, with his hands
and mashed it into his mouth. Fish and rice on his plate, untouched. He stuffed
another onigiri in his mouth, bits of rice falling.
“Jiro-chan…” A warning from my mother. Jiro opened his mouth wide, splayed his
tongue covered in tiny white beads of rice. Kazuya stood up and roughly pulled Jiro
out of his chair.
“What are you doing?” My mother asked, getting up.

Kazuya went out the back door, carrying Jiro firmly under his arm. With the other
hand, he picked up a circle of rope hanging on the fence by the shed. In the yard
was a large oak tree with heavy, twisted branches. He wrapped the rope around
my brother once, then pushed him to the trunk of the oak, winding the rope around
and around.

“He must eat his dinner properly.” My uncle tied a thick knot at the end. “He needs
to learn to be a man.”
My mother was shouting at my uncle; Jiro was screaming, the sound flooding the
sky. Kazuya went back into the house, relaxed, and entitled, as if he had just
finished a long day’s work.

No one remembers the rest. My mother never forgave my uncle. My father wasn’t
there. Jiro can’t recall any of it. He jokes that the incident is possibly the reason he
always, intuitively eats everything on his plate.

1. Shimenawa is rice straw or hemp. It is festooned in some sacred landmark.

The short story is entitled that way because
_

2. Onigiri may be wrapped with seaweed and could be similar to sandwich

by the West. Onigiri is a .

3. The main characters in the story were .

4. E tadaki mas,” my uncle said. Jiro picked up onigiri, a rice ball, with his
hands and mashed it into his mouth. The one telling the story was
.

5. The setting of the story was in East Asia. Specifically, the setting was in
Japan because (prove your answer by extracting the text to justify your
answer)

6. Asia is known for having a close family ties. The family tradition being
presented in the story was

7. The story shared a specific culture in the country. The culture shared was
 8. In the story, Jiro was not eating properly, so Kazuya stood up and
roughly pulled Jiro. Write what Kazuya did to Jiro.

9. Kazuya did something hard to Jiro. Write the reason why Kazuya did that
kind of punishment to Jiro.

10. Years had passed and Jiro could not recall what happened before.
Write what positive effect the incident has brought to Jiro.

Activity 3. Newly Learned

Direction: Fill out the table with unfamiliar words from the two selections
Chechnya by Anthony Marra and Adaptation from The Journey to the River
Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

Chechnya The Journey to the River Sea

Words Meaning Words Meaning
1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

3. 3. 3. 3.

4. 4. 4. 4.

5. 5. 5. 5.
Activity 4: Critical Analysis of the Poem
Direction: Read the poem with understanding. Write a critical essay about the
poem by completing the guide in the grid below.

Critical Essay:
I. Background Information
A. Information about the Work
1. Title
2. Author
3. Purpose of the poem. Provide
evidence, extract lines from the
poem
4. Theme of the poem
II. Summary- Write the issues
being raised in the poem
III. Interpretation and Evaluation
A. Discuss the style of the author
in presenting the issues
B. Discuss if the author was
successful in persuading the
audience regarding the issues
IV. Reflection: How are the
issues presented affect you?