Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work: Arwijati Wahjudi
Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work: Arwijati Wahjudi
Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work: Arwijati Wahjudi
Arwijati Wahjudi
Abstract: The post-reading stage of a reading lesson is often confused with the clos-
ing of a lesson. However, having new information from the whilst-reading stage
should bring about a change such as the students would know more, or think or feel
differently from before. Teachers should help students connect the new information
they are now familiar with and their lives. This article re-introduces the importance
of the post-reading stage and some workable, meaningful activities. Interactive ac-
tivities are chosen so that students not only process their knowledge obtained from
the text but also communicate this new knowledge to peers.
Reading deals with understanding written Indonesian, and/or in the most widely-used,
texts. Although it is actually a complex ac- global language, English.
tivity involving both perception and I believe Indonesian teachers of Eng-
thought, it is an everyday activity done by lish know for sure the need for students to
many people. People read bills, billboards, be able to read in this foreign language so
names and addresses, names of streets, that they can carry on with reading English
newspapers, advertisements, brands, menus, texts when they have left school. These stu-
prices and fares, notices, manuals, medicine dents might not need to speak or write in the
directions, forms, invitations, TV programs language, but reading English texts seems to
and announcements, train and plane sche- be, to a certain extent, unavoidable.
dules, song lyrics, film subtitles, on-line ar- Getting students to read English texts,
ticles, and books. These reading activities therefore, is an important part of the English
can be carried out in our national language, teacher s job because of many reasons.
First, many students want and need to be
84
Wahjudi, Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work | 85
able to read English texts for present study, THE THREE STAGES OF A READING
for further study, for future career or simply LESSON
for pleasure. Second, the more students A reading lesson, in which we intend to
read, the better readers they become (Har-
grasp meaning of new information based on
mer, 2007: 101). Furthermore, better read- what we already know, think or feel about
ers usually gain more vocabulary from their the topic we are about to read, is divided
reading activities and are more familiar with into three stages based on the purposes of
the grammar of the language they are read- each stage, i.e. the pre-, whilst-, and post
ing, which is useful for language acquisi- reading.
tion. Third, reading texts provide good
models for English writing, concerning con- The Pre-/Before Reading Stage
struction of phrases, sentences, paragraphs
and whole texts. Finally, good reading texts A reading lesson should begin with a
can introduce interesting topics, stimulate pre-reading activity to introduce the topic
discussion, inspire creative responses, and and to make sure students have enough vo-
provide trigger or springboard for interest- cabulary, grammar, and background infor-
ing language lessons involving various lan- mation to understand the text. The teacher
guage skills. should be careful not to introduce all new
The above reasons suggest that beside words or unfamiliar grammar no matter
the reading activity, the reading text itself is how good his/her intention is. Instead of
an important object for students to get explaining all of the potentially problematic
information from, to learn or simply to en- new material ahead of time, for example,
joy, which further suggests that both the the teacher can assign the students to dis-
teacher and the students should make the cuss in pairs or small groups some key
most of the reading texts they are dealing words extracted from the text by the teacher
with. The object we are referring to con- and to try to figure it out together with the
tains lots of language samples to be intro- help of a dictionary.
duced to the students so as to make the stu- In the pre/before reading stage, the
dents familiar with the samples of the target teacher normally works on general aspects
language. These language samples should of the topic to elicit what students already
stay in the students memories ready to be know about the topic and make them ready
retrieved at the right moments. Reading a for the new information. Guidance before
text, therefore, should be done repeatedly. reading may involve providing a reason for
Of course, there would be a risk that stu- reading, introduction of the text, breaking
dents will get bored of reading the same up the text, dealing with unfamiliar lan-
texts again and again. Therefore, there must guage, and asking leading questions (Nut-
be strategies to do it so that the students tall, 1996: 152). In real life we read because
would do the repetition willingly. One way we want to read, and there is a reason for us
to do this is by conducting a reading lesson to read; therefore, the teacher should set up
in several stages, each with a different pur- reasons for the students so that reading a
pose and manner, so that the learners will be text becomes meaningful. Introduction of a
acquainted with and will be recycling text text is useful in that with a little background
structures, sentence structures, vocabularies, knowledge, the students will be able to read
and idiomatic expressions contained in the the text comfortably. The teacher must be
text. careful not to give a long introduction,
which is by definition not an introduction,
and not to give irrelevant points in the in-
86 | BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 38, Nomor 1, Februari 2010
troduction. Breaking up a text is needed on- activities that match with students interest
ly when the text is too long. Dealing with so as to help the teacher gear the activities
unfamiliar language involves discussing un- toward achieving the purpose. The teacher
familiar grammar and vocabulary. Howev- should remember not to dominate the activi-
er, again not all unfamiliar words or phrases ties because the final goal of any reading
should be pre-taught because there are con- program is to enable students to read with-
texts to help the readers guess meaning of out help unfamiliar authentic texts, at ap-
unfamiliar words and there are words which propriate speed, silently and with adequate
are not significantly needed for comprehen- understanding (Nuttall, 1996: 31). Appar-
sion. Leading questions provide the students ently, students also need some time to expe-
with the right direction to comprehend the rience and get used to individual silent read-
text, so these questions should not ask for ing.
detailed answers. Common activities in this stage are:
It would be easier for students to com- modeled reading, skimming-scanning, re-
prehend a text when they already have a reading, pause- n-predicting, asking and
sense of what they are going to read. Also, answering questions, summarizing, jigsaw
the students will be less dependent on the reading-writing, reading aloud by the teach-
words on the page and they will be able to er (or from a tape).
get global meaning in a shorter time. The
teacher should be careful in this stage not to The Post-/After Reading Stage
be tempted to give away everything for the When the during-/whilst- reading stage
students to be able to read smoothly, in a is completed, the students are expected to
linear way, with no effort whatsoever. This have obtained new information from the
kind of help is counterproductive because text. This should bring about a change of
the students would not have good practice some kind such as they would know more,
in making sense of a text. What is more, or think or feel differently from before.
they will be over-reliant on the teacher and Therefore, we ask, So what? , which leads
will probably never become independent to the connection between the new informa-
readers. tion the students are now familiar with and
Common activities in this stage are: their lives. According to Nuttall (1996: 164)
predicting from words/phrases, title/first when intensive work in a during-/whilst
sentences/key illustrations, readers ques- reading stage is completed, general com-
tions, general telling, sharing existing prehension must be intended to. At this
knowledge. stage, the students should be able to eva-
luate the text as a whole to respond to it
The During/Whilst Reading Stage from a more or less personal point of view.
In during/whilst reading stage, we gen- They may be asked to agree or disagree
erally read a text with some purpose or in- with the author or the characters in the text;
terest in mind. One important purpose is for relate the content to their own experience;
the teacher to model good reading strategies connect the content with other work in the
such as identifying main ideas, predicting same field; discuss characters, incidents,
information what comes next, relating one ideas, feelings; or predict what can happen
idea with another, guessing meaning of un- afterwards.
familiar words in context or deciding to skip Common post reading activities are:
unfamiliar words. Therefore, the stage is creating stories or end of stories, producing
normally dominated with discussions and
Wahjudi, Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work | 87
posters, reconstructing texts, and question- both comprehension, which is instruction
ing the text or views of the writer. sensitive, and obtaining and working on
new information, which takes the students
IMPORTANCE OF POST-READING to their real life situation. Well-designed
ACTIVITIES after-reading activities usually require the
learners to return to the text several times
Post-reading activities are simply activi- and to reread it to check on particular in-
ties done after during-reading activities are formation of language use. Students, indivi-
completed. At this stage the students are in dually or in groups, should have ample time
a temporary change of state or condition, to share and discuss the work they have
that is, they now know something they did completed. This enables the students to tie
not know before. They know some new vo- up loose ends, answer any remaining ques-
cabulary items, some new sentence struc- tions, and to understand the interrelation-
tures, some new idiomatic expressions, and ships of topics covered. When readers are
they have new knowledge about a certain called on to communicate the ideas they
topic. However, it is definitely not the right have read, it is then that they learn to con-
time for the class to just call it a day . How ceptualize and discover what meaning the
many times do we see lesson plans with text has to them. Although teachers should
good pre-reading activities and well- be careful to spend just some time in the
planned during reading activities, but brief, pre-reading stage, they are actually ex-
classic post-reading activities such as pected to spend more time in the post-
write the answers on a piece of paper , reading stage with several activities. A two-
translate paragraph 2 , write a sentence fold purpose is involved here, namely: stu-
for each of the new words found in the dents need to (1) recycle what they have
text , using a similar pattern, write about obtained from the text and (2) go beyond
your house ? the text and enter the real world, equipped
Something must be done to help the with the newly-obtained information.
students use what they now know so that
these new things will become more than just
knowledge. In a post-reading stage students WHAT STUDENTS GAIN FROM
are not studying about the language of the POST-READING ACTIVITIES
text and they are not comprehending the At least six principles in foreign lan-
text, either. At the post-reading stage stu- guage teaching-learning by Brown (2007:
dents are supposed to apply what they pos- 62-81) can be fulfilled. From recycling
sess. some language components in different
Post-reading activities are expected to ways through different language skills, au-
encourage students to reflect upon what tomaticity is certainly on its way. Meaning-
they have read. The purposes of the activi- ful learning is carried out because at a post-
ties are for the students to use the familiar reading stage students relate new informa-
text as basis for specific language study, to tion with their own life and experiences.
allow the students to respond to the text Each student is asked to respond to parts of
creatively and to get the students to focus the text she or he has read. Because students
more deeply on the information in the text. are active in responding to the texts they
For the new information to stay with them, have been, and the teacher puts himself in
the students need to go beyond simply the background, students are empowered
reading the information to using it. Follow- and to a certain extent, in control of the ac-
ing up in the post-reading stage is critical to tivities. This may lead to students autono-
88 | BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 38, Nomor 1, Februari 2010
my. Willingness to communicate, which There are many activities that will re-
involve students willingness to take risks fine, enrich, and increase interest in the as-
and being self-confident, is gained because signed topic of a text. However, the primary
they are supposed to be well-prepared to do goal of the post reading phase is to further
the post-activities. When students are given develop and clarify interpretations of the
different tasks, they have good opportuni- text, and to help students remember what
ties to use the language, orally as well as they have individually created in their
written. This puts them in a position where minds from the text. Good post-reading ac-
they can develop their interlanguage. Final- tivities should be able to get the students to
ly, post-reading activities are not interested recycle some aspects from their whilst-
in the right versus wrong answers to com- reading activities; to go beyond the text; to
prehension questions anymore. Students do share opinions, ideas, feelings; and to give
not have to prove they understand the voca- reasons to communicate.
bulary and grammar of the text, anymore. There are various kinds of interactive
Therefore, students are not only taught to post-reading activities that relate reading to
achieve linguistic competence but also dis- other language skills. The following activi-
course and strategic competence, so com- ties are mostly taken from Bamford and
municative competence is also taken care Day (2004) and, after some adaptation, are
of. We can conclude that from post- proven to have worked well in my classes.
reading activities, the students are develop-
ing themselves to achieve automaticity, Interactive Post-reading Activities Focus-
meaningful learning, autonomy, willingness ing on Listening
to communicate, interlanguage, and com- 1. Identifying differences
municative competence. The students listen to the teacher reading
a text with some changes. Initially, this is
INTERACTIVE POST-READING AC- an individual activity. Then, in pairs stu-
TIVITIES dents discuss their findings. This activity
Reading comprehension should not be is ended after class reports from groups
of four, each reporting one change. As a
alienated from the other skills (Harmer,
2007: 267). In reality, for example, we tend variation, the reporting can be done
to talk about what we have read, especially competitively by assigning two groups to
write the changes on the board with a
when the content is actual, interesting, un-
expected, or simply strange and unbelieva- time limit.
ble. 2. Add-on Information:
Therefore, we may link reading and The entire class adds to existing infor-
writing, for example, by summarizing, note- mation in this exercise. Student 1 recalls
making, mentioning what has been read in a a piece of information. Student 2 repeats
letter. We might link reading and listening that information and adds another piece
by comparing what we have heard to read- of information. Student 3 repeats what
ing a news report, comparing the song we was given by 1 and 2 and adds a third
heard from the radio to the song lyric down- piece of information. This continues un-
loaded from the internet. Still, we might til all the students have had an opportuni-
link reading and speaking by discussing ty to contribute. Note: The add-on infor-
what we have learned from a reading pas- mation does not have to follow the se-
quence in the text.
sage and retelling stories.
Wahjudi, Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work | 89
Interactive Post-reading Activities Focus- in the text. Here, there is aspect of un-
ing on Speaking predictability, which is one important
Students are likely to understand more characteristics of real communication.
Funny answers are expected, and these
when they discuss with each other what
they have learned, so they must have special are the interesting part of the activity.
opportunities to orally discuss their opi- 6. Vanishing cloze
nions, feelings, and conclusions, from their This activity helps the students memorize
reading activity. Some of the ways to do a poem by doing a cloze procedure oral-
this include the following activities. ly. The teacher adds the blanks until no
more words are left. Although it is a
1. TV reporters
Students can pretend to be television re- teacher-centered activity, the teacher can
porters with two minutes to sum up the assign the students to work in groups of
highlights of the "story." They work in four and at different point of the process
the teacher and call out students in dif-
small groups to decide on the highlights
which are written as news prompt on a ferent group to recite a certain part of the
laptop or a large piece of paper put on a poem. To give equal chance to the stu-
dents, this activity can be done in a
stand.
Numbered Heads Together format.
2. Main ideas list
Students list the five (or more) main 7. Team Review
Students review material already studied
ideas of the text beginning with the most
important to the least (not following the and share their knowledge with other
order in the text). This can be done in a students. This can be done in groups,
where students move to other groups to
Round Robin type of activity, in which
each student is a group of 4-5 students socialize their knowledge.
takes turn saying one main idea.
Interactive Post-Reading Activities Fo-
3. Teacher-absent student cusing on Writing
A student becomes the "teacher" and ex-
plains what was covered in class with a 1. Story Innovation
student who was absent. This is a good Students are assigned to create a story
and meaningful activity because the stu- based on any part of the text. For exam-
dents are trained to decide important as- ple, after reading the Boy Who Cried
pects of a lesson. The activity may be- Wolf , the students had to write a story
come really entertaining when the based on the part when the villagers were
teacher plays a role of a real teacher the tricked for the first time. One created sto-
class know. ry was: The villagers were angry. Mrs.
4. Debate Doubtfire scolded the boy, You
The students can take specific sides of a naughty boy you made me spill my
topic and debate an issue. Depending on delicious vegetable soup. Shame on
the levels of students, the activity can you! She went back home and had to
range from the students just mentioning make the soup all over again. (Class
likes and dislike to a real debate activity. work, 2009)
5. Hot Seat 2. Innovation on the ending
One student becomes the writer of a Students change the ending of a story.
text or a character in a text, answering For example, after reading The Boy
the class s questions. The questions can Who Cried Wolf , whose ending was a
be creative, whose answers are not found wolf really came and ate some of the
90 | BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 38, Nomor 1, Februari 2010
boy s sheep, a student wrote, The wolf students who play the role guests of an
ate the boy . So, the villagers lived exhibition.
peacef ully and happily ever af ter. (By: 8. Summarizing
This activity enables students to identify
Riza, 2010)
writer's main ideas, recognize the pur-
3. Cartoon strip
pose or intent of the selection, distin-
Students create a comic for a scene in
guish between relevant and irrelevant in-
the text. This activity should be done in
formation, note the evidence for support
small groups in which there must be one
of main ideas, detect the organizational
student who can draw or make use of
pattern of the author, follow material se-
Clipart program. The group decide the
quentially Note: Students can share,
content of the story and help the artist
compare, and discuss individual summa-
to create the strip. This activity should
ries in groups or as a class. Many times
not be carried out when only a few stu-
discussions will lead to observations of
dents can draw.
different interpretations which students
4. Reader s theatre
have not previously recognized.
Students create a short play based on the
9. Composing a Test
text. The teacher, however, should re-
Preparing an actual test is a valuable tool
mind the students not to overdo the prep-
in helping students decide the main pur-
aration. With young learners, lots of
pose and the most relevant information
movements in place of words can be
found in a text.
done. With older students, an impromptu
This activity can be done in several ways:
short skit or a short play taking a five-
a. Have each student write 1-2 test
minute preparation would suffice.
questions. Compile these and ac-
5. Wanted posters
tually create the test from students'
Students create wanted posters of a cha-
questions.
racter in the text. For the Princess and
b. Divide students into small groups.
the Pea , for example, the poster would
Each group is responsible for writ-
be pictures of princesses and description
ing a test. These tests are distributed
of an ideal princess.
around the class so that each group
6. Story map
has another groups' test to answer.
Students create story maps that can be
The answers are handed back to the
used by others to re-tell the story. To
group who originated the test to be
make this activity more interactive and
corrected.
meaningful, a One Stay-Three Stray
c. Have the students compile a class
Cooperative Learning activity can be im-
test that you will use for future
plemented so that learners learn from
classes. They can complete the
other groups can give and take informa-
questions individually or in groups.
tion as well as inspiration from other
The test they create can be a valua-
groups.
ble tool in reviewing for the actual
7. Clipping
test.
In groups, students produce a poster con-
10. Agony column
taining several pictures related to the top-
Students write a reply letter to a charac-
ic of the text. These pictures could be
ter in the text about how to solve a prob-
contained in the text or produced by the
lem. An example:
students themselves. Then, representative
of each group describes the picture to Dear Vince,
Wahjudi, Interactive Post-Reading Activities That Work | 91
It seems that you have a difficulty to un- show pictures or make use of media, or
derstand your partner s hobby. You hate ask questions.
her music while she loves it so much, so 2. Story Telling
it becomes a real problem. I think you In this activity, the story teller has to re-
had better take my advice to help you
ally know the story. He or she has to
solve your problem. Here is what you
should do: *You have to realize that
prepare the story and rehearse again and
every person has his or her own hob- again so as not to make any language
by.*etc. etc.(By Firdha Khaerani, mistakes when doing the actually story
2006) telling. To help the teller to communicate
his or her story as well as the audience to
11. Lessons for living: understand the story, some media such as
Students write what they learn from the puppets, cut-outs, realia, or animation on
text in the form of a letter to a close LCD, can be used.
friend or to the editor of a newspaper or 3. Interactive Dictation
magazine. Unlike the usual practice, in which the
An example: teacher dictates a short summary of the
A lesson that I can get from this article is text for pronunciation and spelling pur-
that in making regulations in plural so- poses, students carry out the dictation ac-
ciety like Indonesia we have to consider tivity (also called Running/Walking Dic-
[an issue] wisely, we cannot judge tation) in groups. Here, the teacher pre-
something from one side. It is hard to pares the short version of a known text
change a custom in a society. But
and gives it to the student in charge of
etc.
(By Aga Deta, 2006)
the dictation. Another variation is each
member of the group dictates one sen-
12. A character s diary tence at a time for the others to write.
A student pretends to be a character and The final part of the activity, which
writes a diary based on the story. An ex- seems to be the most serious , is the
ample: students correct their work based on the
Thursday, March 21, 2006, 11 p.m. written text given by the teacher. At this
Dear Diary,
stage, everybody is absorbed in checking
I thought my life was over because I
have a boyfriend now and I do not
his/her individual work and copying the
really like him that way, and I have to correct words.
break up with him without hurting his 4. Interactive cross-word puzzle
feelings, which is I guess, probably im- The purpose of this activity is to recycle
possible. Well, I etc. vocabulary items learned from some
(By: Ismiyati S., 2006) reading texts. The students work in pair
in an information gap activity, in which
Other Interactive Post-reading Activities each member has a different set partially
1. Story Reading completed cross-word puzzle without
This activity is meant for reading with an clues. The pair take turns asking each
audience such as young learners. The other so that they can have the completed
reader of a text (usually a short fable, cross-word puzzle. Because no clues are
folk tale, fairy tale, or procedure text) has provided, the student who has the an-
to be well-prepared in terms of pronun- swers should construct the clues to be
ciation, intonation, key or new vocabu- guessed by the other student in the pair.
lary, when to pause and give comments,
92 | BAHASA DAN SENI, Tahun 38, Nomor 1, Februari 2010
CONCLUSION REFERENCES
The importance of post-reading activi- Bamford, J. and Day, R. R. 2004. Extensive
ties cannot be denied. At least three reading Reading Activities for Teaching Lan-
principles mentioned by Harmer (2007: guage. Cambridge: Cambridge Universi-
101-2) can be found in post-reading activi- ty Press.
ties, namely: students need to be engaged Brown, H.D. 2007. Teaching by Principles:
with what they are reading, students should An Interactive Approach to language
be encouraged to respond to the content of a Pedagogy. Third Edition. White Plains:
text, and good teachers exploit reading texts Pearson Longman.
to the full. Therefore, teachers should plan Harmer, J. 2007. How to Teach English.
their post-reading activities according to Essex: Pearson-Longman
teaching-learning objectives, profile of the Nuttall, C. 1996. Teaching Reading Skills in
students, as well as students and classroom a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heine-
conditions. The keyword for using post- mann
reading activities is variety, which leads to
creating positive, creative, innovative, ef-
fective and fun activities. Through a variety
of post-reading activities, students are ex-
pected to recycle certain learning aspects of
language skills and components so that their
communicative competence can be devel-
oped well.