Event
HomeTwo presentations on Extensive Reading
Saturday, February 27th, 2021, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Speaker: Mark Brierley and Paul Goldberg
First presentation:
Using Booklog for Extensive Reading
Mark Brierley
Extensive Reading is an approach to language learning by reading a lot of easy, enjoyable books. It can only work when learners have access to a large range of books at a range of easily determined levels, and libraries are natural allies to proponents of this practice. While libraries are familiar with procedures to buy paper books, and can arrange them in shelves and with stickers to make their levels apparent, digital books present several challenges: finding books; navigating purchasing or licensing; finding funds to pay for them; displaying books to students and indicating how students can access them. Books are available through Maruzen and Ebsco, and our university library allows students to access them once logged into the University's online system. Librarie licenses titles for a limited number of years but requires students to set up accounts. None of these systems gives any indication of the level of books and only work well if you know which book you want to read. We have used a system called Booklog to help students see what books are available and at which levels.
Mark Brierley teaches at Shinshu University, in Matsumoto, Nagano. He has worked on the Extensive Reading Foundation Online Placement Test, an online systems for keeping track of student reading and a database of Graded Readers. He is an editor of JALT ER SIG's ERJ newsletter, and the Journal of Extensive Reading.
Second presentation:
Xreading: What's New and What's Next
Paul Goldberg
Xreading is an online library that gives students access to over a thousand graded readers from major publishers such as CUP, Cengage, and Macmillan. Students have unlimited access to all books at all times, and besides the books, they have access to the audio narrations, book ratings, and quizzes. In addition, the system tracks students' reading progress (books read, words read, reading speed, quiz scores, etc.) so it makes management and assessment much easier for teachers.?Since the launch of Xreading in 2014, constant improvements have been made to the system. However, the number of new features were accelerated this past year to help teachers deal most effectively with remote teaching. For example, teachers can now see in real time if their students are actively reading, and send messages to them. In this presentation, the founder of Xreading will explain the new features and functionality that have been added, and review what is planned for the future. Current users of the system who attend are encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions based on their experience.
Paul Goldberg is a native New Yorker. He has an M.S. in Secondary Education from Dowling College in New York, an M.A. in TESOL from Long Island University, and completed the coursework (ABD) for an Ed.D in TESOL at Temple University. He has taught English as a foreign language in Venezuela, Spain, Korea, the US, and most recently at Kwansei Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan. He also has done teacher training for many years, specializing in communicative activities. His main areas of interest are extensive reading and extensive listening. Finally, Paul is the founder of Xreading, which he developed because of his desire to make graded readers more accessible for students, and extensive reading programs easier for teachers to manage. Email: paul@xreading.com.
Online: The Zoom link will be posted on the Fukuoka JALT website ( https://fukuokajalt.org) the day before.
Organization: Fukuoka Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Fukuoka JALT)
Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen
Venue: Online: The Zoom link will be posted on the Fukuoka JALT website the day before
Location: Online, Online Events, Online Event
Upcoming Months
By Location