In an effort to instill proficient reading skills and promote increased learning independence and efficiency in high school students of MGC New Life Christian Academy (MGCNLCA), reading intervention specialist Victor A. Villanueva, conducted an online webinar entitled “Reading Critically: Study Skills for the New Normal,” via Zoom last August 20, 25, and 27, 2020.
All Junior High School students were required to attend Villanueva’s three-session webinar: “Negotiating Actions and Intentions,” “Words Matter,” and “Structures that Hold the Pieces Together.” According to the English Department subject coordinator, Mrs. Janette H. Ramos, ”The skills taught in the webinar are very similar to what is taught in English classes, but the emphasis of the webinar is that the study skills are applicable to more than just English; they can be applied to any subject where there is reading involved.”
The first part of the webinar focused on the process of understanding the given task. Villanueva, also known as Teacher Vic, highlighted the role that verbs, or “command terms” play in understanding directions. According to him, knowing the command terms is essential in “gain(ing) control of your situation.” Verbs dictate the way students should respond to a particular statement or instruction. Attendees also learned how to distinguish the various authors’ purposes: to persuade, to inform, to entertain, to explain, and to describe. Knowing the author’s purpose enables students to differentiate opinions from facts and gives them an idea about the task at hand, lightening their workload.
During the second session, “Words Matter,” students discovered the value of improving one’s vocabulary in the development of self-learning. Teacher Vic taught the four levels of vocabulary: unfamiliar words, familiar words that you don’t know the meaning of, words you know the meaning of when put in a sentence, and words that you have mastered. Students explored the three tiers of words based on their usage: basic words, mature words used in various subjects, and those limited to a specific subject area. He also introduced a series of charts that students can use to develop their vocabulary. These include the Front Load the Words (FLTW) chart, Vocabulary Self-Awareness chart, and the Contextual Redefinition chart, and the Semantic Feature Analysis.
Mr. Villanueva concluded this webinar by discussing the various text organizations and the two types of readers’ responses: the efferent response for factual literature and the aesthetic response for entertainment. There are three ways that texts are organized: the physical pattern or how the text looks to you, the literary conventions or the format by which writers follow, and the text organization, which is composed of narrative and expository. Teacher Vic also introduced the various text structures: description, sequence or chronological order, problem and solution, cause-effect, compare and contrast, and position-reason. The type would depend on the author’s purpose and can be identified through various signal questions and words.
Mr. Victor A. Villanueva is the founder and President of the Council for Reading Intervention Specialists and is presently School Director of The Builders’ School.
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