CYCLIC READING AS A WAY OF HELPING CHILDREN DEVELOPING THE SKILL.

A good teacher who make use of cyclic read is at the good chance to improve reading skills .How the teacher can plan cyclic reading lets follow it now.
Reading is an interaction through which an author's meaning encoded in written symbols becomes meaning in the reader 's mind. Thus decoding author's symbols.
Cyclic is revolving or recurring in circles .A series of occurance.
Therefore cyclic reading experiences what recur over a specific period of time . It is a form of reading instruction which may be viewed as a modification of the individualised approach. Which is an ideal approach to reading? The ideal method is teacher pupil not pupils alone. But in developing countries where teacher pupil ratio is very large in Zimbawe to be pecific cyclic reading in some schools where a teacher has over 65 pupils is very impossible.
Cyclic reading caters for the individual learner where the learner selects own opinions at own pace . It may also make use of basal readers which are series of books of progressive regreater difficult through the grade. The reading books are selected and the learning material produced ,inorder to meet abilities and needs of small groups rather than individuals. Oftenly all pupils in the same grade read from the same reader.
Various activities and learning stations are developed. Usually of equal sizes .
The groups organised circle through set of activities during the course of reading programme.. The centre is organised with games or other activities which stimulates vocabulary development.
The second station is for practise of comprehension skills and practices. The third station is for games and activities again to develop word recognition skills.
The forth is the area specifically for silent reading. The sixth for oral reading,seventh stationed for small groups conferences with the teacher. Some teachers may include another station for writing comprehension work .
As in the individual approach there is ocassional large group instruction for high frequency vocabulary skill teaching and sharing. Remember that cyclic reading approach seeks to favour small group through individual instructions. However this demands a reflective industrious teacher who move from pillar to post sourcing a variety of meaningful teaching materials.
These material can teach independently other groups when the teacher is occupied with other small group at a time.
Now lets get into the situation where the teacher has a class of 45 pupils and grouped them into heterogenious group ,not ability group to encourage fruitful assistance to the slower learners. A reminder it is a clear form of child abuse to call slower children dunderhead,silly,dull,poor or any other provocative word which demotivates the child to get out of place.
Then the teacher forms 5 groups of 9 children in a group . The teacher then displayed a chart showing each group activities of each day. And the groups are categorised as A-E.
Now all these five groups do the same things done by A but on the different day and the school days are 5 per week ,so that A can do the same exercise which B can do the next day and C can follow B the next day.
To make it clear lets follow A's activities of the week.
On monday the whole class is given instructions on key vocabulary words as well as key structure.
Tuesday the whole class again for 5 minutes a quick review of vocabulary and structure instructions on sequencing. Then A does vocabulary game uses 3 game boards and game cards with new words and some old ones.Groups of three within A group play the game .
On wednesday further instructions on the whole class ,silent reading using study questions will be on the board or chart.
Thursday group A is now involved in comprehension skills children in groups of 3s put together a story whose sentences have been cut. Together as A group they list the words they find in a passege . They then discuss how they were used and make their own oral questions.
The last day on friday they practise oral reading in threes. The following monday on the whole class the teacher led discussion of the passege . The whole class can hear from some excelling pupils in the same chapter who masttered and read favourite parts of the texts or some other oral meaningful stratergy.
On tuesday the class can share assignments ,drama,or favourites parts of the story. Then presentation of vocabulary for new passage or chapter.
Please take note that there is need for the teacher to have a clear chart ,for recording the skills and pupils ' progress through the various activities since pupils work independently on skills practice.