Newsletter (2017-2018) December 2017 Newsletter | Page 5

WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHTS
Oliver Wijayapala | USA
One of the workshops I conducted was “Reading for Understanding: Tips on Reading Comprehen-
sion.” In this workshop, students developed skills to further improve their reading comprehen-
sion through understanding co-construction of meaning, summarization, metacognition, and other
reading strategies. One fun moment in the workshop was analyzing a scientific report on Hong
Kong’s geography. From the information provided, students had to make inferences about Hong
Kong’s standard of living. For example, they saw that nature and country parks comprised 40% of
Hong Kong’s land. From that information, they inferred that Hong Kong people have greater access
to recreational activities in nature. During the activity, they also connected Hong Kong’s lack of de-
veloped land space to overpopulation.
Through these exercises, students learned the importance of critical thinking, the ability to think
outside the box. In addition, students also viewed the importance of reading in education since
most of the students are going to be future teachers. We offered tips and strategies to implement
reading curriculum in the classroom. Although this course did not focus on I