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Using TIME with Learners

> Demystify the Magazine
> Read Photographs
> Use the Table of Contents
> Connect Viewing to Reading
> Read Out Loud

Time To Read trainers emphasize the importance of using TIME with learners and letting learners make their own decisions about what they want to read. For some learners, that may not be easy. Being unfamiliar with TIME, they may assume there is nothing of interest to them in the magazine, or they may be intimidated by what they view as a fathomless ocean of words and pictures. Developing interest is a process that will take time and patience. But it's worth it, for out of interest comes involvement and the motivation to read and learn more.

Of course, it helps to spend some time before each session orienting yourself to the magazine. The more familiar you are with the contents of each issue, the easier it will be to use your comments and questions to stimulate your learner's interest in a variety of topics.

Here are some tips that will help you and your learner enjoy using TIME by:

• Providing your learner with exposure to the magazine without the anxiety of reading lengthy articles, and
• Stimulating your learner's interest in reading by relating something in their own life experience to something in the magazine.

Demystify the Magazine
Take your magazine and separate ad and editorial pages by tearing out the ad pages to demonstrate how magazines are put together. Pick out several ads, and discuss them with your learner, commenting and asking questions about the images and text. Encourage your learner to react along with you. Suggest that your learner pick out a product he would like to have and tell why. Ask your learner to pick a product he's used. What did he think of the product? How does his experience compare with what the ad copy tells him? Another time, try finding different ads for the same kind of product. Compare the ads. Which is better? Why? Remember, ads are part of life, and reading them is "real" reading.

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Read Photographs
Using the photos from stories and ads, look for something that makes you smile or feel jealous, something that shocks or offends you, something that makes you sad, scares you, angers you or puzzles you. As you discuss your reactions, try to elicit your learner's feelings and responses. Brainstorm a list of other things that make you and your learner smile, feel compassion, etc. Choose words from your lists for vocabulary practice.

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Use the Table of Contents
Take your learner through the table of contents to familiarize her with the content and organization of TIME. Note how featured sections are clearly identified by topic—e.g., Nation, World, Business, Arts; a heading, a lead into the article and the page number. Ask your learner what topic or photo is most interesting. Have her turn to the page of that article. Is a photo from the table of contents repeated? Checking several of the table of contents photos to see if they are repeated will get your learners into the magazine and give them experience in reading page numbers and locating articles. One way of having your learner practice reading is to check if the topic and heading are repeated. (TIP: Most of the time, the Table of Contents photo, topic and heading will be repeated at the beginning of the article.)

Look for and discuss the magazine sections that will be in every issue of TIME, including Letters, Milestones, People, Books, Movies and Music. If your learner is interested in celebrities, movies, TV or even obituaries, he will see that there will always be a story of interest in TIME.

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Connect Viewing to Reading
Ask your learners what they've watched on television in the last week. It could be something about a celebrity or world leader, a sporting event, a natural disaster, a national problem or an amazing performance. Talk about what they've seen, and then together flip through the magazine to find a photo, headline, ad or story that relates to what they've watched. Extend the connection, and ask what else they know or want to know about the subject; add one thing you know and a question you have.

Encourage your learners to look for further mention of the person, place or event on TV, in another magazine or in a newspaper during the week. Follow up on this at your next session. Were they successful? How many times did they find what they were looking for? On what programs? In what magazine? Is their person, place or thing in TIME again this week?

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Read Out Loud
Each week pick out something from TIME to read aloud to your learner: something a world leader said that may affect our lives; a tidbit about a celebrity your learner has mentioned before; a few paragraphs from a movie review; a letter to the editor that picks up on a point you and your learner discussed in a previous session. Reading portions of an article to your learner creates shared information that you can react to and talk over together.

Take the lead and model making connections by taking the first turn as you try out some of the suggested activities. If your learner is quiet at first, that's O.K. Try to keep the tone of your comments and questions informal. Be patient and accept some moments of silence as natural. This will change over time as rapport is established and your learner feels more comfortable. What started out as a monologue will progress to a conversation and with time develop into a discussion.

Give it time. You may spend a whole session or even many sessions engaged in these or similar activities before your learner's interest or comfort level grows enough for him or her to want to read whole paragraphs and parts of articles.

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