Dr Liu May

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Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study on a reading program of school based curriculum (SBC) at a primary school in Singapore. This reading program of SBC focuses on identifying scope and sequence of both grade-level and cross-grade-level (p3 to p5). For example, P3 students are encouraged to extend their reading experiences using reading portfolio. P4 students are encouraged to use reading strategies while reading. Furthermore the schema theory is applied into P5 reading program. In this paper we discuss the relationship between schema theory and reading comprehension, how to apply different schemas (e.g., cultural schema, linguistic schema, content schema and form schema) in reading process (e.g., pre-reading, during reading and post-reading) in order to help students fill-in-the-blank or refine, reshape, correct, and restructure their schemata. We'll also introduce some pre-assessment tools to assess students' prior knowledge. Some effective strategies such as narrow reading (Krashen, 1981) will also be provided. Through this reading program of SBC we help students like to read, extend their reading abilities and experiences, learn how to read and learn from reading.

Keyword(s) : Krashen, primary school, schema theory, reading comprehension, assessment, school-based curriculum