Michael Paduano Michael Paduano

Teaching Practice 3b
Upper Intermediate level

Description

In this lesson students develop their skimming and scanning reading skills through reading a short text about villains. The pre-reading activities will also build their vocabulary. Students will also complete speaking activities to practice speaking for fluency. The lesson starts with a matching game in which students match pictures of villains with their names and the films they appear in. This is followed by a speaking activity that will give students practice speaking for fluency and develop the context. Next, students complete a vocabulary matching exercise to prepare them for the lexis in the reading text and to get them thinking about the reading topic. Students then complete two reading activities: a 'ranking' activity to practice skimming and a True/False activity to practice scanning. Finally, we will conduct a class discussion to further exploit the reading text and to give students more practice speaking for fluency.

Materials

Abc Whiteboard
Abc Picture Labels
Abc TP3 Reading Text Handout
Abc Photographs

Main Aims

  • To develop students' reading skills by practicing scanning and skimming through the context of a short text about villains.

Subsidiary Aims

  • To develop students' vocabulary using words they will encounter in the reading text. To provide students with speaking for fluency practice in the context of pair/class discussions about villains.

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-In (5-6 minutes) • To set the lesson context and engage students/activate schemata.

I place a number of photographs of famous film villains on the WB. I divide the students into groups and I give each group a collection of labels, which include the names of some of the villains and the names of the films in which they appear. Students then approach the WB and place their labels under the correct photographs. When all of the pictures have been identified, I elicit the idea of 'villains'.

Speaking Activity (7-8 minutes) • To give students practice in speaking for fluency

I ask students to get into pairs and discuss what they know about each villain on the WB. In order to demonstrate the kind of information I am looking for, I demo one photo by eliciting ideas from the students (for example, "what does he/she look like? What do they do that makes them a villain? Who is the hero who tries to stop them? etc.). If I am ahead of schedule I will ask students if they can think of other villains that we could add to the list.

Pre-Reading Activity (7-8 minutes) • To prepare students for the lexis in the reading text, to build their vocabulary, and to get them thinking about the topic.

I tell students that in a moment I will give them a HO and that in pairs they are to match the words with their correct definitions. I have adapted this exercise from the text by adding two extra words that I thought might be more difficult ('vengeance' and 'hijack'). After I give them the HO, we complete the first example together. Then the students pair up and complete the activity. While the students are working, I write all of the vocabulary on the WB, in order to better deal with any difficulties students may have with particular words. During WC FB, I will indicate stress, drill, and ask CCQs if necessary (for example, CCQs might be appropriate for words like 'henchman', 'spine-chilling', 'lure', and 'random').

Reading Activities (13-15 minutes) • To give students practice in skim and scan reading.

I give each student a copy of the reading text and tell them that they have 3 minutes to read it quickly. While they are reading, I remove the photographs of the villains from the lead-in activity from the WB. After students have finished reading, I ask them to quickly read the introduction to the text and then ask them what they have to do (put the 5 villains in order of 'pure nastiness'). They will complete this task in pairs. If they have trouble identifying the task I will clarify it for them. I will ask an ICQ to make sure they understand that '1' corresponds to the most nasty villain and '5' corresponds to the least nasty villain ("Is 1 the most nasty or the least nasty villain?" "What number is the least nasty villain?"). I give each pair a set of pictures of the villains and tell them that when they are finished, they should come up to the WB and arrange their photos in the order they chose. While they are working I label the WB 5-1, leaving enough room for each group to place pictures of the order they chose on the WB. I take some breif FB about why students chose their respective orders. As students sit down I rearrange them so that they are working in new pairs. Next, I tell students that in a moment I am going to give them a HO with a series of True/False questions about the text. I ask them to work in pairs to answer the 8 questions, to underline where they find the answer in the text, and to write the correct answer beside the question if they answer False. We take quick WC FB.

Post-Reading Activity (7-8 minutes) • To help students improve their speaking for fluency.

I will ask the students to work in pairs to answer the two discussion questions in ex. 4. Then we will continue the discussion as a WC. If there is time left I will ask them to talk about some famous Turkish villains.

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