A theme-based and genre-oriented reading course for Institución Educativa Distrital Jorge Nicolas Abello

Abstract

Reading represents one of the most essential means to acquire knowledge and there is a close relation between learning in the content areas and the development of students reading comprehension, which is one of the most common problems students face in secondary school, especially in public schools. This paper reports the process of designing, partially implementing and evaluating a content-based and genre-oriented syllabus that promotes reading strategies to improve learners ‘reading comprehension of Natural Science texts. The presentation reports on the needs analysis which was carried out in several steps to identify initially general needs and later, more specific wants and lacks of the target students regarding the reading skills and the content areas. Data was collected through classroom observations, a reading comprehension test and a think-aloud protocol. The decision for the selection of the content was supported by the analysis of the school programs, surveys about students preferences, interviews and observations of content teachers classes. As a result, a four- unit syllabus focused on Natural Science topics was designed for 9th graders at Institución Educativa Distrital Jorge N Abello.