blogging expectations extensive reading facebook graded readers materials online resources readers school management
by sendaiben
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Graded Reader Word Counts
Right, this is the third and final post (for now) about graded readers and word counts. From now on, I will be posting about this issue only at the Facebook page I have set up to co-ordinate the various proposed campaigns.
http://www.facebook.com/GradedReaderWordCounts
I think as well as the boycott, it would be useful to encourage teachers to write to publishers directly, as well as create some educational resources aimed at informing publishers about the issue.
Thanks for all the support and suggestions so far, and hopefully see you on Facebook!
curriculum extensive reading graded readers materials readers school management university
by sendaiben
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More thoughts on the graded reader boycott
I really enjoyed reading all the replies to yesterday’s proposal. A few people thought that calling for a boycott was a bit harsh, but it was very interesting that so far not one person has offered a reason for publishers not to print word counts on graded readers.
My personal take is that some editors are not aware that word counts are a useful and, for some teachers and programs, essential tool.
I am going to proceed with the boycott. To assist in that effort and to help connect with publishers who are not yet aware of the issue, I am going to create a website listing various graded reader series in three categories:
- A Greenlist of series that clearly print accurate running word counts on books
- A Greylist of series that do not print word counts on books, but do make full and up-to-date word count information available on the Extensive Reading Foundation website
- A Blacklist of series that do not print word counts on books, and also do not make word count information available on the ERF website
I hope this will become a useful resource for teachers and institutions when they are choosing materials for their classes and programs. The site will be maintained and updated if conditions change (ie a publisher starts printing word counts on books, or makes the information available on the ERF site).
blogging expectations extensive reading graded readers materials readers school management
by sendaiben
12 comments
Let’s boycott graded readers that don’t print/publish word counts
Right, I have had enough.
Our graded reader program uses word counts to track student progress. I believe this is superior to using pages or books or time. It makes it easy to compare students across levels, and to standardize goals and progress.
Every year, I spend days searching for word counts, writing them in books, putting them on our website, and even counting words by hand because the publisher refuses to release the word counts for the book (why, Black Cat, why?).
Well, I’m not going to do that any more. I understand that each publisher is free to make editorial and design decisions, and not printing word counts on books is one of them. However, I am also free to decide which books I buy, and I would like to say publicly here that I will no longer be ordering graded readers that do not have word counts printed clearly on them. I have an unlimited budget here at Tohoku University, and a considerable one at Cambridge English, and from now on I will be using those funds exclusively to buy readers from publishers that listen to teachers when they say that they need the word counts on the books.
I would like to invite other teachers that use extensive reading and graded readers to join me. Please contact your sales rep/book distributor and let them know that you care about this issue. I’m guessing that we will see some changes fairly quickly if enough people get involved.
Are you with me? 😉
curriculum extensive reading graded readers language courses materials online resources school management teaching Uncategorized university websites
by sendaiben
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ER@TU website
The ER@TU (Extensive Reading at Tohoku University) Project now has a website!
Features of possible interest to teachers include the Guide to ER (bilingual page aimed at students explaining extensive reading and this particular program) and the Word Counts page, which lists graded reader titles and word counts only (aimed at teachers and students).
The website has both PC and mobile versions, and is not quite finished yet (to put it mildly!).
The site is a WordPress installation on Bluehost, as explained very thoroughly by Michael Hyatt in this excellent blog post. I paid for three years in advance, bringing the monthly cost to around 400 yen. This works very well, as my contract is also up in three years time, so hopefully this will give me some leverage with the university 😉
Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions about the site.
curriculum EFL expectations extensive reading graded readers language courses teaching university video
by sendaiben
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VIDEO: Extensive Reading EFL Class Orientation
I was hoping to post this video yesterday, but I ran into technical problems (three of the students wandered into the shot, and I wasn’t comfortable posting something with students’ faces visible without getting permission from them and the university). Much easier to just try again with another class this morning 🙂
So, this is the first session of one of my extensive reading classes at Tohoku University. This is the orientation class, so we briefly run through what ER is and how our ER program works. After the video ends, the students start reading low-level graded readers. We managed to get about fifteen minutes of silent reading in class.
The ER@TU program is described in our forthcoming bilingual handbook. I will have a few copies of this to give away at the ACLL later this month, the Pan-SIG conference in May, the ER World Congress in September, and JALT National in October -please let me know if you want one or just come and find me at the conference.
Please post any questions below or on the Facebook page.