Improving the Teaching of Reading in Upper Primary EFL Classes through Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction: A Professional Development Program for Teachers

Abstract

This innovation proposal addresses the need for teacher training on reading comprehension strategy instruction in a primary school in China. The needs analysis revealed that although upper-primary teachers are aware of the importance of teaching such strategies, they lack the training necessary to do so. Therefore, this proposal aims to address this gap by providing a professional development program to upper-primary teachers on how to explicitly teach eight research-based reading comprehension strategies: (1) activating prior knowledge, (2) text-structure awareness, (3) monitoring comprehension, (4) visual graphics and graphic organizers, (5) summarizing, (6) forming questions, (7) answering questions and (8) visualizing. This proposal presents a 7-month long professional development program consisting of ten workshops. The workshops incorporate active learning, modeling, feedback, and opportunities for classroom application, all framed within the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, and promote cooperative learning and collaboration among participants through reflection, co-teaching, constructive feedback, and peer coaching. Detailed teaching plans and materials for three workshops are included. An assessment plan was designed to evaluate the innovation proposal in terms of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability, and a communication plan to present the proposal to the stakeholders. It is expected that teachers will gain an increased awareness of the importance of including explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction in their teaching practice and the confidence to do so. This dissertation provides teachers with theory and practical guidance to make meaningful changes to their teaching, which in turn has a positive impact on student learning outcomes.