CImplement Monitoring Extensive - AR

Monitoring Extensive Reading - AR

I decided to find out the attitude of my inquiry students about their engagement on AR for the last 4 months or so. I used these questions:

• What did I learn about English language when I read AR books?
• What other benefits did I have when I read AR books with its good practices?
• What are the differences between guided intensive reading we do in class and AR?
• What has stopped me from doing my in-class AR well?
• What do I need to do to improve my in-class AR?

Below are three samples from my inquiry students responding to questions asked about their AR.

All of my inquiry students admitted that by doing AR, they have learned new words, more than before, they knew the spelling and how to pronunce them. This is a benefit of reading books and listening to the same from myON. They acknowledged that doing AR has generally helped in their learning of English language and in developing responsibility.

My inquiry students also understood the differences between guided intensive reading in class and in-class extensive reading in AR. They had more comprehension in intensive reading because the teacher was present to explain meaning of words they did not know and guided them on how to read by using strategies to understand what they read. They were also more focused in intensive reading, but rather more distracted when reading in AR.

They understood what stopped them from doing in-class AR most effectively. All said that sometimes they wasted time by playing around when given time to read in class. Doing reading online, they were sometimes distracted to watch youtubes or games in the internet. And of course sometimes they were just lazy to read. All these actions indicated that my inquiry students failed to some extent to do one best practice of doing AR, quantity or time to read. This was evident in three students being able to read less than 20 books in about 4 months compared to one of them reading 50 books.

When asked about what they needed to do to improve their AR, they reckoned that they needed to take responsibility and focused on reading, read everyday and not wasting time, read more books and try to learn new words to help comprehend what they read, and to keep on reading.

I was glad I did this student voice with my inquiry students at this point. It helped awakened them to realise that doing AR has already helped them in their learning of English and will continue to do so if they stopped wasting time and focused on reading. They already knew what to do, they just needed to get on with it and read. It helped me realised that I needed to monitor their AR more closely, and not just tell them it's reading time and expect them to get on with it. I also thought that it might also help if I get engaged in their reading by reading with them so that they take it seriously. That's what I will do.