Reading:

Introduction
Reading is a skill that we put into practice in real life. Research has shown that general language acquisition is helped enormously when students read a lot; this is because when they are reading, they assimilate and review language, sometimes subconsciously. Another reason why it is good to help your students get into the habit of reading and to find it enjoyable is because it is something they can do on their own. For this reason, in addition to the materials provided by your school / organisation, you can help motivate your students to develop this skill by selecting texts that you read or think that they might be interested in and by adapting them for your reading skills lessons.

Working on reading skills during class time allows students to develop two different reading strategies: ‘reading for gist’ and 'reading for detailed/specific information’.

Planning a reading lesson

Introduction
We have looked at why and how receptive skills need to be worked on in the language classroom.

Now you will be asked to plan a reading skills lesson. The tasks/stages below will help guide you through step-by-step.

1. Choose a text you think will be interesting to your students. Make sure it is suitable for their level, age, cultural background, etc.
2. To start the lesson, think of a way to generate an interest in the text. Maybe you can bring in any visual aids or realia, if some sort of game could be used, and link these to suitable questions that might elicit useful language too.
3. Have a look at the text and pick out the words you think might cause students to struggle with the text. Think about how you could pre-teach them before having students read. It’s important to present the pre-teach vocabulary activity as a short snappy task: i.e. card matching word and definition, or match word and definition by drawing a line to join them, etc. Otherwise the reading activity and the overall aim could get bogged down at the vocabulary stage.
4. Set the first reading task. This should be something that will help them focus on the general meaning of the text and not the details. Usually we give them 2 or 3 very general gist questions to answer. Give your students a time limit here, so you force them to skim read for your simple gist task.
5. Remember that students should read silently on their own.
6. Feedback to check everyone has got the gist, first in pairs and then as a whole group.
7. Set the detailed reading task. Here you want to ask students more questions so as to make sure they go through the text carefully. In addition to comprehension/detailed questions, many of the ideas listed for detailed listening tasks can also be adapted for reading skills lessons.
8. Feedback to check answers and deal with any questions, again in pairs first and then as a whole group.
9. Carry out one or more follow-up activities.
10. Set homework if necessary.

Special Note: In your lesson plan, remember to say what the teacher is doing at each stage. The teacher could be monitoring and facilitating, or correcting errors on the spot, or taking a note of errors for an error correction focus after this activity.

I would personally hesitate from reading the text out loud as you are testing a different skill – listening. I would get the students to read it again as this is testing their detailed understanding – as if they were reading an important manual at work for example. The students will have plenty of other opportunity to hear your native accent and practice their listening comprehension.

Pre-listening/reading Activities - to be carried out BEFORE students listen to the song or read the text:

• Students predict the content of the text by reading its title.
• Jumble the words/letters of the title of the text for the students to reconstruct.
• Students brainstorm ideas about the topic.
• Students describe/discuss photographs/pictures related to the topic.
• Pre-teach the necessary vocabulary to help students understand the text.
• Students predict possible vocabulary items which may appear in the text.
• Students brainstorm the vocabulary which might be associated with the topic.

Activities to be carried out DURING the reading of the text or listening to the song:

• Cut and mix the lines (sentences) of the text. Students order the jumbled sentences.
• Students read or listen to the text to confirm what was predicted during the 'pre' stage.
• Students read or listen to the text to extract the information to write a summary.
• Students read or listen to the text and put photographs/cartoon pictures in the correct order.
• Students invent a title for each paragraph/verse and an overall title for the text/song.
• Students answer multiple choice/comprehension questions, etc.
• Students listen to the song and take dictation.
• Students identify deliberate mistakes (of vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc.).
• Omit words and replace them with a relevant drawing. Students identify the missing words before reading or listening to the text.
• Omit words to produce a gapped text. Students reconstruct text by choosing the correct word from the list. (At higher levels, give more words than students need)

Activities to be carried out AFTER the reading of the text or listening to the song:

• Students read the text and create a gap-fill task for others.
• Students create their own multiple choice/comprehension questions, etc.
• Debates and discussions on themes raised in the text/tape.
• Students write a dialogue between the characters.
• Students write a letter to or from one of the characters in the text.
• Students write their own lyrics to the tune of the song.
• Students interview one of the characters.
• Use the text as a springboard to initiate discussions to develop students' ideas about the topic.
• Students identify the meaning of words/expressions as used in the text.
• Students role-play (parts of) the situation as described in the text.
• Students write a reply to the author/singer.
• Students re-write the text from another character's point of view.
• Students design posters relating to the topic or promoting the song which are then displayed.
• Students perform the song.
• Students write a summary of the text.
• Students invent essay titles relating to the topic of the text (and write one of the essays).
• Students create or complete charts or diagrams about the text.
• Students select or write songs to produce a class song book.
• After the song/text is finished, students predict what happens next.
• Students write and give a speech on the topic.
• Design activities on the text which are similar to examination questions.
• Students sing the song and record it. Play it again and improve on pronunciation.

Ideas for reading follow-up activities
After students have finished reading a text and you have checked that they have understood it, you then want to move on to one or more final activities. It can be a good idea to work on a different skill area (in this case: speaking, writing or listening) and to find a way to develop ideas and themes that come up in the text in a fun and creative way. Here are just some of the many ways this can be done:

• Do-it-yourself questions - in groups/pairs, students write comprehension questions for the other students to answer
• Provide a title
• Summarise
• Continue the story
• Preface the story (What happened before the activity in the text began?)
• Fill in gapped text
• Correct mistakes in the text - students have two texts and have to compare/contrast by asking each other questions about the texts.
• Discussion/debates based on themes in the text
• Revision - rewriting the story using pictures, storyboarding, graphs and pie charts
• Role play or Interview
• Write a dialogue in pairs/groups and then perform it for the class
• Write an article, letter, diary entry, etc
• Further work on vocabulary