Contents introduction chapter I. Approaches to teaching reading skills

The Story Method. The Peculiarities of Reading Comprehension
Story method is an advanced method over the sentence method. It creates interest among the children. It gives the complete unit of thought. The teacher tells the story in four or five sentences illustrated through pictures. The children first memorize the story and then read it. The limitations of this method consist in failing to develop the habit of reading accurately and putting a heavy load on the memory of the student. Special attention is given to intonation since it is of great importance to the actual division of sentences, to stressing the logical predicate in them. Marking the text occasionally may be helpful. Should not forget to perform before-reading-practices:
Teach the pronunciation of difficult to read words. Students can read the words in a passage accurately and fluently, their reading comprehension will be enhanced. Word recognition and decoding skills are necessary, though not sufficient for reading comprehension. According to the National Reading Panel, systematic and explicit decoding instruction improves students’ word
recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension. Fluent reading in the primary grades is related to reading comprehension. Of words for decoding instruction:
. Use the list of difficult to read words provided in your program.
. If list of words is not provided or inadequate for your students, preview the passage selecting the difficult to read words.
. Divide the difficult to pronounce words into two categories for instructional purposes:
· Teach the meaning of critical, unknown vocabulary words. is related to reading comprehension. If students understand the meaning of critical vocabulary in the passage, their comprehension will be enhanced. Gap in word knowledge persists though the elementary years. Moreover, the vocabulary gap between struggling readers and proficient readers grows each year. And Hutchins identify seven reading comprehension strategies:
. activating or building background knowledge;
. using sensory images;
. questioning 4. making predictions and inferences;
. determining main ideas 6. using fix-up options;
. synthesizing.
In chorus, reading in groups in imitation of the teacher which is practiced in schools forms. The result is that pupils can sound the text but they cannot read. The teacher should observe the rule "Never read words, phrases, sentences by yourself. Give your pupils a chance to read them." For instance, in presenting the words and among them those which are read according to the rule the teacher should make once students read these words first. This rule is often violated in school. It is the teacher who first reads a word, a column of words, a sentence, a text and students just repeat after the teacher .