Chapter 10: Taken as Read: Teaching Reading Lessons 151
Before long, students can start performing short dialogues from a script using
the phrases from a recent lesson. The following is an extract from a beginners’
text. Ask the class to tell you what people say when they meet and put their
ideas on the board. Students can then compare their suggestions with the text.En: Hello! I’m a new student and my name’s En. What’s your name?Alejandro: I’m Alejandro and I’m from Venezuela. Pleased to meet you En!
Are you from Malaysia?
En: No, I’m not from Malaysia. I’m Chinese.Alejandro: Oh, you’re Chinese! Sorry!
Fabio:En:
Alejandro:Ideas for reading lessons
Some authentic pieces of writing you can use in
the classroom include:
✓ Classified ads: Students can discuss things
they’d like to sell or buy – a bike or a piece of
furniture, for example. First, talk about ways
of buying and selling unwanted items. Then,
use a page full of classified ads to practise
scanning for particular purchases. Give the
students a budget and certain specifica-
tions to match the ads with. Finally, as a
follow on, students can write their ads and
make a notice board in class. Lonely hearts
columns are great fun.
✓ Problem pages: Tell students about a prob-
lem you have and ask for some advice. Find
out if they know what an agony aunt is and
if they’re common in their own country.
Following that, read letters from a problem
page and predict what the advice will be.
Read the professional advice on the page
and get students’ opinions on it. Role-play
talking about various problems and giving
advice.
✓ Tourist information: Collect or download
leaflets on various tourist attractions in an
English-speaking country. Find out what
students already know about these places
or whether they’ve visited them. Ask stu-
dents to write questions they’d like to ask
a tour guide and then have them read the
leaflets to see whether their questions
have been answered. They can read differ-
ent leaflets and pool their answers. They
can write their own tourist information to
follow up.✓ Film blurbs: Examine the blurb (the informa-
tion on the back cover) of a DVD. Skim by
looking at the length of the film, the actors
and director but scan by reading about the
plot. Find out whether students would be
likely to watch the film and ask why. A fol-
low-up listening lesson can involve watch-
ing a clip or two.
Notice that in each reading source, you can do
a follow-up activity that involves a different skill
(not reading).