“Mindthegap”buildingbridgesbetweenstudentsreadersandtexts

1、“ Mind the gap” : building bridges between students readers and texts作者来源：徐汇中学张 琼发布时间： 2004-04-02Discovering the gap between students readers and textsIn the underway when passengers disembark from a subwaytrain, a clear voice warns as the doors open,“ Mind the gap” , becausethere is a small crevice

2、 between the edge of the platform and the floorof the train. At other times, there is a more obvious gap between ourstudents interests, reading abilities, levels of life experiences, andthe world of the texts they are asked to read. Now our students arelearning“ The New Century Senior English” book

3、which is regarded asone of the modest and best textbooks. During the teaching processwe teachers find this kind of gap appeared frequently. Even thoughour textbooks are appreciated by teachers and students for its wideknowledge, various themes, clear structures, open-minded ideas,large vocabulary an

4、d so on, most students would find such gapsbetween them and texts. While a few good students leap gracefullyover such gaps, many other students find reading difficult orinsignificant in learning texts for different reasons: they may lackappropriate skills, motivations, interests, or trust in the lea

5、rningsystem, or they just might not like learning English, the teacher, orthe way the textbook makes them feel too difficult and dumb. So whatcould an English teacher do to help them? To my opinion, texts thatpresent no difficulties for readers are usually judged to be at their“ pleasure” reading le

6、vel, rather than at the“ instructionalstudents need instruction from teachers when they are carrying some tasks through.Teachers as BridgeHow does a “bridge ” do in our daily life? It helps us connect onepoint to another, similarly, texts need to have bridges to built intothem when our students feel

7、 confused about them. Teachers are thebridge. Often we devote to helping connect our students with thetextbook by our own experience to open students to the world of thetext. We help students find new perspectives, new ideas, and newunderstanding of other people, place, and times by studying the“ in

8、structional” level text. But some students often can t feelcomfortable in the world of text, even can t easily understand themeaning of the text. As their teacher, we should try our best to helpthem leap the gap. For instance, unit 6“ Going to the Cinema”module 3 in column 2 senior 1 is a text about

9、 stunts in movies. For ourstudents,“ stunts in movies” is not one of their familiar topics. But film” level. Ourofstars such as Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise, Stallone are popular withthem. So before entering into the explanation of the text, we can firstdesign some activities to build a bridge into the t

10、ext. My teaching planwas as following:A. Before the Reading ask Ss to collect information about JakieChan or other film stars by means of books, magazines, pictures,DVD, and Internet (especially about stunts).B. A QuestionnaireAsk Ss to answer these questions and fill in the table below in a groupwo

11、rk.1. How often do you go to the cinema?2. What kind of movies do you like？3. Do you ever go to the cinema alone or with your parents orfriends?4. Do you like a movie to have a happy ending or a sad ending?5. Do you ever watch action movies on VCD and DVD?6. Who s your favourite movie star? Say some

12、thing about him/her .SubjeSubjecSubjecSubjecct 1t 2t 3t 4DramaThrillerActionCartoonHorrorRomanceScience-fictionMysteryOthersC. Discussion:Group work: Your likes and dislikes for a film or a film star, using asmany examples and reasons as possible . And then give a report tothe class.D. Show some cha

13、pters of famous films about stunts in movies,give a sensational understanding about the text to the students first.“ All roads lead to Rome.” Before the text studying, we shouldstimulate students imagination about the text and make them attempt to know the details in the text.Additional Readings as

14、BridgeTeaching is truly a challenging art. It consists of designingactivities that lead students to acquire knowledge and thoughts bythinking through their work. A skillful teacher must know not only howto design such activities, but also how to ensure that students couldget to comprehension and ins

15、ight. If we want to promote studentsmeaning-making skills, we ought to build another bridge into the text.In addition to the additional reading in the textbook (Sometimes it istoo difficult for students), wecan choose some“ pleasure” readinglevel passages to help students deepen the text s understan

16、ding. Wehad a text about“ English Manners” (unit3 of module2 in column1senior 1) ,which was not in the range of students lifeexperiences. In order to let the students enter into the world of thetext, I provided them with some materials easier read to help themfind connection with the text. My teachi

17、ng schedule was as following:A. Situational story readingRead the situation below, and choose the best answers to thequestions. Sometimes more than one answer is possible.Martha, an American teacher in the US, had started teachingEnglish to a group of Japanese students. She wanted to know thestudent

18、s more informally, so she invited them to her house for aparty. The students all arrived together at exactly 8:00 p.m. Theyseem to enjoy the party: they danced, sang, and ate most of the food.At about 10:00 p.m., one of the students said to the teacher, I thinkit s time foe me to leave. Thank you ve

19、ry much for the party. Then allthe other students got up to go, and all left at the same time. Marthadecided she would never invite them again!1. Why did all the students leave together?a. They didn t like late nights.b. There was no more food.c. They were doing what was normal for them.d. They had

20、an invitation to another party.2. Why did Martha decide never to invite these students to herhouse again?a. She felt insulted, because they all left at once.b. They had eaten all the food.c. They stayed too late.d. They hadnt brought her a present.B. Social behavior readingWork with a partner. Imagi

21、ne that the situations below take placein an English-speaking country. What would you do in each situation?In some cases, more than one answer is possible.1. You ve been having digestive problems for a week, and have just started to feel better. You meet a British friend at a party. Your friendsays,

22、“ How are you?” what would you do?a. Start taking in detail about your problem.b. Say,Fine, thanks. How areyou?c. Say, Not bad, thanks. How areyou?d. Nothing.2. You re visiting an American friend in her new apartment. You likethe apartment and you want your friend to know. What would you do?a. Say,

23、Your apartment is nice. How much is therent? b. Say,Gee, this place is really nice.c. Say, I reallylike your apartment.d. Say nothing, but show that you are interested by everythingthat is movable.We can use these materials to find the differences between Chinaand English manners. My desire was to i

24、ncrease studentsand participation in the text learning. By comparing with thedifference, students got a general meaning about the manners andwanted to know what“ English Manners” was about. Additionalmotivationsreading is not only a bridge, a complement for the text but also anopportunity for studen

25、ts to expand their mind and vocabulary.Media as BridgeIn an era of MTV, video games, and the Internet, how do we keep students engaged in the disciplines of texts study? Teachers always complain that it is harder to keep students interested, harder to keep them devoted in their work. Why not build a

26、 bridge by media to help them? It is true that most of students are keen on new ideas and updated information on the Internet. Once we learned a text about metropolises (unit5 of module 3 in column1 senior 1), I asked students to find some information about their favourite metropolises on the Intern

27、et and prepared a PowerPoint presentation before class. My schedule was as following:A. Choose one famous metropolis from the text and find out relatedinformation as much as possible. (At first, students found it difficult toseek appropriate information and arrange it in proper order. Iselected a pa

28、ragraph in the text about London to give an example tothem. After intensive reading, students found out that we couldintroduce each metropolis about different aspects such as its location,its population, its history, and its special characters etc.)B. Enable students to make sure their purpose that

29、is to learn howto introduce a city with complete information and emphasize itsdistinguishing feature.C. Ask Students to find connection between their assignment andthe text then to fulfill their task smoothly.D. Every group presented their PowerPoint work before class andhad a competition among them.In this procedure, every group strove to show their excessiveabilities and grasped a chance to practice their oral English. I wasdelighted in enjoying thei