AGGEDEN LessonPlan Libre

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Aye Gr Geden LSA3: Reading Sub-skills: Activating Background Knowledge, Predicting, Scanning and Checking Page 1

LSA 3: Reading Skill

Part 2: Lesson Plan

Teaching How to Employ Sub-skills: Activating Background Knowledge,

Predicting, Scanning and Checking

At Low Levels

Candidate Name: Aye Gr Geden

Center Number: TR054

Word Count: 4033

Submission Date: 19 July 2011


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Contents

LSA1: Reading Skills: Teaching How to Employ Sub-skills: Activating Background Knowledge,

Predicting, Scanning and Checking At Low Levels ......1

Part 2..3

Background ................................................................................. ................................... 3

The Learners ................................................................................ ................................... 3

Aims....................................................................................................... 6

Language Analysis .................................................................................... ..................... 6

Timetable Fit... 8

Assumed Knowledge and Strengths of the Group .8

Anticipated Problems and Solutions ..9

Commentary ....10

Procedure..12

Bibliography.....14

Resources..14

Appendices....15


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1.Background

This is an elementary English course, as a part of DELTA Module2. The course takes place in Istanbul, and in ITI Institutes building, on top

floor and in a small room. Leaners are required to attend a large percentage of classes in order to get a certificate at the end of six weeks. The

course starts at 6.30 p.m. and ends at 9.30 p.m. There are five teachers assigned for this level, so students are exposed to different teaching styles

and accents. Each one of them teach 50 minutes, while the others as well as the tutor observe in the back row. The content of the course is not

based on a coursebook, rather teachers choose their topics according to the students needs and their LSAs. This lesson will be my second one

with a skills focus.

2. Learners

2.1. Student Profiles

Name Personal Information Classroom Behavior, Personality, Learning Style

Can Graphic Designer, 23 Years old Studying English for business purposes, wants to improve

speaking: fluency and accuracy, a bit reserved, butcooperative with others

Hande Art Manager, 24 Years Old Studying English for travel and business purposes, wants

to improve her listening, grammar and speaking;

introverted and needs to be encouraged

Ilknur Hairdresser, in her 40s Studying English for socializing and travel purposes.

Wants to improve her speaking skills and vocabulary. Shy

and reserved, easily switches to L1, needs peer helpduring activities.

Nuri Accountant, 31 Years old Studying English for business purposes. Wants to improvehis speaking and reading skills. Generally silent, and

needs support.

Duygu - Studying English for business purposes, and wants to

improve four skills and vocabulary. A good participant inclass activities.

Taner Technician, 34 Years Old Studying English for socializing and business purposes.

Very extroverted, talkative, likes discussions, helping hispeers, good at vocabulary and speaking, wants to improve


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reading and speaking fluency. One of the strongest ones inclass.

Murat Turkish Teacher, 34 Years Old Studying for travel purposes, wants to improve speakingand pronounciation. Generally quiet, likes listening.

Confident but needs encouragement to speak up. Needs to

improve speaking skills and vocabulary.

Didem Turkish Teacher, 32 Years old Studying for personal development and travel purposes,

likes listening and speaking, though she is generally a bit

reserved, but likes discussions and subjects of her interest

(e.g. politics), wants to improve vocabulary, speaking and

pronounciation.

Sercan Student Studying for academic purposes, starting college this year,

wants to improve grammar and vocabulary, generallyquiet but likes discussions and tasks.

Aziz Company owner, L1: German, 43 Years Old Studying for business and travel purposes. Likesdiscussions and debates about any subject, he has lots to

say all the time and wants to improve his reading and

listening skills.

2.2. Motivation

When learners are asked about their reasons for learning English in a questionnaire at the beginning of the course, their replies reflected that most

of them want to improve their English because of business opportunities. They are aware that English provides chance for better positions,

working conditions and hence higher salaries. Also, a good English can take them abroad and enable them get jobs in international companies.

Some of them want to improve their English because they dont want to have any communication difficulties during their journeys. Also a few of

them want to know more foreign people using English and create a social network worldwide. Tos um up, generally these students are

extrinsically motivated, but dont feel compelled to study English, rather they like the process, activities, realizing how they improve step by

step.


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2.3. Interests

The results of the questionnaire shows that students are mostly interested in travel(10), languages (10), history (9) and sports (9). And all of them

want to study speaking, while 8 wants to improve their listening skills, and 7 students want to learn more about writing.

2.4. Learning Styles and Group DynamicsFrom my observations, I conclude that they like challanging activities, and discussions. They are willing to express their opinions and do pair or

groupwork. They like visuals and kinaesthetic activities. They also like topics such as politics, sociology, social events and world news.

As for the group dynamics, seemingly there is no certain groupings and learners like changing pairs from time to time, and though some of them

are shy to speak before class, in group work they are quite responsive and talkative. It is a quite cooperative class.

2.5. The Lesson and the Learners

As previously mentioned, the learners are interested in various subjects related to the world, such as human rights, wars, international policies

etc. So, I decided to draw their attention to a humanistic subject: massacres. The reading text is based upon, as it is called by some people,

breadline massacre that took place in Bosnia Herzegovina during wartime. As the students are following news, they probably heard of Bosnia

in this month, because the famous Srebrenitsa massacre refers to July 1995, anniversary of which is on TVs in Turkey. As their memory about

this massacre is stil fresh, I wanted to build my reading skills lesson on their schemata. In that sense, this lesson will be employing top-down

approach. As Hudson defines it, in this approach the reader makes guesses about the meaning of the text (which is one of my aims in that class)

and samples the print to confirm or disconfirm the guess. So, reading is an active process in which the reader brings to bear not only the

knowledge of the language, but also internal concepts of how language is processed (2007:37). The learners will be asked to elicit the meanings

of target vocabulary using their existing knowledge about that subject, also they will reconstruct the text in the same way. As they finish the

reading, they will scan and then answer the question, and later on do a detailed reading and check comprehension questions. I believe they will

enjoy reading more than ever, regarding that most of them dont aim improving reading skills because they find reading very boring. Lastly I

should point out that I will make use of the piece of music mentioned in the text as a soothing and reality tool to reflect the atmosphere of thetext.


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3. Aims

3.1. Main Aim: Skill: Reading: Improving Sub-skills

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to successfully employ brainstorming, mindmapping, predicting the content of the text, checking

and scanning skills. As the topic will be interesting and an affective one, probably these sub-skills will not be compelling, dealing with a text ofdifferent features (biography, narrative, real, referring to different senses, focusing on a sensitive subject etc.)

3.2. Subsidiary Aims: Skills: Speaking and Writing

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to complete a story, predicting what will come next from the first and the last paragraphs. They

will use their background knowledge/schemata (based on news) and imagination.

Also, learners will discuss a common ongoing problem all around the world: War. They will discuss different aspects and the reasons, results and

impacts of wars referring to past and the present, making predictions about the future.

4. Language Analysis

4.1. Reading

The learners face different types of texts and documents in various situations. While some of them need reading skills and sub-skills for academic

purposes (reading literary texts, essays, reports etc), the others need to improve these skills for the sake of business (business letters, accounts,

pamphlets etc) and travel (instructions, posters, signs etc) issues. The common problem with the reading is that most of the learners find reading

difficult and boring, too few of them read for pleasure, as they lack the necessary skills and techniques to deconstruct the text and construct a

meaningful message out of it. As reading entails extracting the required information only, the readers should be aware of using their time

efficiently, employing certain strategies. Grellet argues that a competent trader quickly rejects the ir relevant information and finds what s/he is

looking for (1981:3). From this perspective, this lesson will cover some basic exercises about sub-skills to help learners enhance their skills and

increase enjoyment during reading process.


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4.2. Activating Background Knowledge

Discussing the topic of the reading text before learners actually read helps them activate their background knowledge and schemata. Two useful

techniques for this are brainstorming and mindmapping. Brainstorming means thinking quickly about anything related to a topic, and

mindmapping involves putting ideas into some sort of order , for example, into seperate categories (Hadfield 2008:93). From this stage on, the

reader can step into predicting the target vocabulary and the content of the text.

4.3. Predicting and Checking

Predicting what the author will say keeps the reader active and makes reading more enjoyable. In order to employ that skill efficiently, the learner

should look for grammatical, logical, and cultural clues. This technique is claimed to be the core of skimming and anticipation, therefore

practiced oftentimes in these strategies (Grellet:1981:17). After completing the prediction phase, the reader checks the predictions from the text

employing a detailed reading or scanning.

4.4. Scanning

Scanning refers to locating specific information. In order to achieve this, the reader does not have to follow the linear pattern of the text, but just

look for the answer phrase, whether it is a name, date or a number. So, scanning basically aims to retrieve the information that is relevant to our

purpose (17).

4.5. Sub-Skill: Speaking and Writing

4.5.1. Speaking: Discussion

Given a topic and target language, the readers discuss the themes of the text in pairs or small groups. The groups can report back to class what

they think about the themes or the discussion questions. The learners can be provided with cue cards or topic cards to choose a subject relevant to

the text. Through discussions, the reading text becomes more memorable and its meaning extends as more people share ideas about the subject

matter.


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4.5.2. Writing: Predicting and Completing the Text

As the learners schemata is activated, they can be given just a little part of the target text, and asked to predict and complete the story. In that

way, learners interest in the text is raised and they realize how they can employ their imagination to creatively produce a text. Then, as they are

given the original text, they can compare and contrast the differences and perspectives. This also provides an opportunity to use the target

language elicited and presented at the beginning of the class.

5. Timetable Fit

In the previous sessions, the class had many reading lessons covering mostly skimming and scanning. Students learned how to infer meaning of

new lexis using contextual clues. They also learned how to employ top-down processing. As I will cover sub-skills, they are expected to be more

efficient readers, and in the upcoming lessons they are going to cover reading for specific information. So, I suppose these sub-skills will be of

much help.

6. Assumed Knowledge and Strengths of the Group

The reading lesson will make use of some basic skills that learners studied with my peers previously, such as scanning and skimming. So, I

suppose they will have little or no problem at all in that sense, though I will recover scanning. The target text is based on past simple tense, which

they know quite well, and as it is a narrative and a biography at the same time, I assume they will be acquainted with these genres as well.

Because these subjects are covered in writing lessons. So, in structural and strategic terms, this class is expected to be quite strong and not much

problematic, though some questions will stil arise during application of the text.

As for the overall attitude of the class, their supportive manner will help me a lot as I aim to trigger discussions and debates both in pre-reading

and post-reading activities. The fact that they like speaking about the world and sharing ideas about controversial issues, this lesson will probably

be a very fruitful one, in terms of my main aim and sub-aims.


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7. Anticipated Problems and Solutions

a. Varying Learner Levels

Some learners in class are not real elementary students (e.g. Aziz), and they make complex sentences and use high-level vocabulary, which might

cause problems regarding the elementary students knowledge. Such students might dominate in group discussions and might not let the othersspeak. In order to overcome that problem, I will change the pairs and apply a different grouping: students will line up and change pairs

periodically, and they will have talked to each person in the class. (This problem applies to all of my lessons with that class)

b. Prejudices about Reading Lessons

Most of the students in that class are either listeners or speakers. It is very rare to find a well-balanced one who speaks when necessary and

listens if required. For example, Aziz and Taner always want to speak, and they are easily bored with receptive activities, while some Ilknur and

Sinem generally keep silent and focus on the text or listening material. A common attitude towards reading texts is not appreciating the content

but firstly approaching the target text with a prejudice. They believe reading is boring and theres not much to enjoy. In order to break this, I will

give them a subject of their interest, and before handing in the text, I will do lots of eliciting, brainstorming, mindmapping, predicting, and lastlychecking activities which will involve different skills.

c. Reconstructing the text: Sequence of Events

Reconstructing the text might be hard for the students, as they are not familiar with the linkers and transition words. But, I will show them

pictures at the beginning of the lesson which will create a certain sequence of events taking place in the text. They will use the pictures to

reconstruct the text.

d. Long discussions and debates

As learners like to speak about controversial issues and politics, they will probably like to discuss them longer. So, I will put a time limit and

change partners and subjects periodically. Also, I will assign them to report back to class what they discussed and concluded.


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8. Commentary

I have chosen a reading focus because:

- though only some of the learners want to improve their reading skills, they all need to acquire better strategies and techniques to deal with the

texts they will encounter

-learners have certain prejudices about reading, which I believe are transferred from L1, and I want to show that the activity of reading is

enjoyable and easy, if the right strategies are employed efficiently

-learners need to cope with different texts and reading materials in different contexts and situations. As they tend to ignore this fact due to their

prejudices, and try to focus more on speaking, I will show them how reading is made easy.

-learners need more reading in order to construct better speaking and writing skills.

-learners need to practice their vocabulary through texts

-learners will encounter different types of vocabulary in different texts.

As Turkish students are forced to focus on only grammar and reading in a quite formal and dull manner, they have a tendency not to read a lot.

They think that reading will be of little help in practical terms, and they assume that speaking can be developed only by speaking, rather than

receiving data from different sources. So, in that class, I want to point out how the skills integrate and depend on each other.

Another reason why I am doing a reading lesson is to improve my background knowledge in that field, because I have been assigned to teach

reading in the schools I worked, but had to stick to a certain syllabus and a coursebook which probably made the classes duller. Thanks to my

reading and research, and tips and advices from my peers and tutors, Ive realized the mistakes Ive made with my previous reading classes, and I

had the chance to analyze the strategies and techniques, as well as approaches in depth. I have now a wide range of ideas and activities, tasks inmy file thats created in that research process.

So, shortly, my lesson with this group will rerflect my fresh data and perspectives, as well as the adaptation of different activities. I will use a

different skills (reading, speaking and writing) in just one hour, and experiment how they all fit together and make the lesson more fruitful and

enjoyable. As I prepared materials on my own, (adapting a story from internet, and relating it to a real war, as well as emotions) I felt more


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confident in terms of creating new supplies for lessons. I will use music to reflect the overall atmosphere of the text, which will be again

experimental and interesting, both for me and the students. I am also curious about their reactions, comments, criticisms. I am looking forward to

hearing their discussions about Bosnian war, and I hope they will read more about that subject, as it relates to an event that they all witnessed on

Tv and in the media. So, this might trigger a love for reading in my learners, as they hopefully realize how reading becomes more enjoyable and

informative when the subject is right. And as discussions and debates take place, I will probably feel that the distance between the me-the

teacher and the learners melt down into almost a peer-to-peer conversation.


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9. Procedure

Time Stage/Stage Aims Procedure Interaction Materials

10-15 mins

18.30-

18.43

1. Context Set-up

-to set up the context

-activating backgroundknowledge and

schemata

-to elicit the meaning of

Cello Cellist,War ,Bullet,

Sniper, Mortar Shell,

Queue, Graveyard,Massacre

-to create an interest to

the reading material

1. Greet students

2. Show the first picture (Appendix A) on the

board, using OHP.Ask: What do you see in the picture?

3. Model brainstorming and mind-mapping

4.Elicit the target vocabulary from students.

5.Let students explain briefly what context this

word entail

6. Ask Ss brainstorm and mind-map in pairs ontheir notebooks for each picture shown on the

board.

7.Turn off the OHP

8. For each picture, ask some students come to

the board and write brainstorming list, or drawtheir mind-map

9. Elicit the content of the reading material.

T-SS

T-SS

Ss (pairwork)

Ss

T-Ss

OHP

Netbook

Boardmarkers

Whiteboard

5-7 mins

18.43-18.50

2. Sub-aim: Writing

Predicting the content

from the beginning andthe end of the text

Reporting back to the

class

Discussion

1. Say: We will read a text about the picturesyouve seen. But before reading the whole text,

I want you to predict the story using the

beginning and the end of the text.2. Divide the class into 3 groups.

3.Give the handouts for each group with the first

and the last paragraphs of the text (App. B)

4. Ss predict and write the body part of thetext(5 sentences).

5. Each group nominates someone to report

back to the class

6. Ss discuss about their stories

T-Ss

Ss (group work)

Ss-Ss

Ss-Ss

HO

3. Awareness Raising 1. Ask students to put the jumbled paragraphs T-Ss HO


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2-4 mins

18.50-

18.53

about Sequence of

Events

Reordering the

paragraphs

into correct order with their peers

2. Reorder groups, change pairs

3. Students combine the paragraphs4. Report back to class

5. Feedback about the correct order

Ss-Ss (Group work)

T-Ss

3-5 Mins

18.53-

18.57

4. Scanning

Scanning the text to find

answers to the questions

1.Give the reading text2. Explain what scanning is

3. Give questions and ask them to reply

individually

4. Check the answers

T-Ss

Ss (ind.)HO

10-15 mins

18.57-

19.12

5. Reading for Details

Comprehensionquestions

1. Say:Now youll listen to a piece of music:

Albinoni'sAdagio in G Minor.That was the

answer for your first question in scanning part.2. Say:As you listen, read the text carefully, and

answer the questions.3. Give comprehension questions.

4. Students read and answer.

5. Say: Now check with your pairs6. Pairs report back, and teacher gives feedback

T-SS

Ss (ind)

Ss (pairwork)

Netbook

Loudspeakers

HO

6-8 mins

19.12-

19.20

6. Transfer: Speaking

Discuss the subjects in

the reading text

1.Grouping: take an object from 5 students, as

the other 5 closes their eyes, they pick up the

objects of their pairs

2. Give discussion questions, pairs discuss for 3

mins3. Report back to class and open class

discussion

T-Ss HO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinonihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinoni


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Bibliography

Grellet, F. 1981. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: CUP.

Hadfield J.&Hadfield,C. 2008. Introduction to teaching English. Oxford: OUP.

Hudson,T. 2007. Teaching Second Language Reading. Oxford: OUp.

Resources

Materials are prepared by the teacher.


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APPENDIX

APPENDIX A


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APPENDIX B

Cellist of Sarajevo

Vedra ailoi(born November 11, 1956), known as the "Cellist of Sarajevo", is amusicianfromBosnia and Herzegovina.He played in the

Sarajevo Opera. After the start of the war inBosnia,Vedra ajloi, just like hudreds of thousands of other people in Sarajevo, survived the

cold, food and water shortages, the bombings and sniper fire in the street.

He was very successful, but his dreams were destroyed by the war in Bosnia in 1992. Smailovic felt angry for what was happening around him

and powerless to do anything about it. He was not a politician or a soldier, just a musician. How could he do anything about the war? Would he

just stand by and watch people die, fearing for his own life?

One day, Smailovic heard the sad news on the radio:

While 22 people waiting in queue for bread at 10.00 a.m., they were killed by a bomb. So, every evening after that, at 4 p.m., Smailovic would

walk to the middle of the street, where the massacre happened. He dressed formally, as for a performance. There he would sit, on a chairplaced in the crater made by the shell, his cello in his hand, playing music:Albinoni'sAdagio in G Minor,All around him, mortar shells and

bullets flew, but he continued to play. For 22 days, one each for the people killed, Smailovic played in the same place.

He played for free at different funerals, and enemies attacked these funerals. He played to destroyed homes, fires, scared people hiding in

basements. He played for human dignity. Finally, he played for life, for peace, and for the possibility of hope. When a journalist asked him

hether he as raz, ailoi replied: You ask e a I raz for playing the cello, why do you not ask if they are not crazy for bombing

arajeo?

Smailovic continued to play hismusic of hope until December 1993, in graveyards and bombsites. He deided to dail gie a usial praer

for peae, he said. As his stor as pulished i the espapers ad agazies, he eae a sol forpeace in Bosnia. An Englishoposer, Daid Wilde, as so sad after he heard the stor that he rote a opositio for the ello: The Cellist of arajeo, he epressed his

own feelings of anger, love, and brotherhood with Vedran Smailovic. Smailovic now lives in Ireland, and composes music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinonihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinonihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://www.lifepositive.com/mind/arts/music/music.asphttp://www.lifepositive.com/mind/ethics-and-values/peace/peace.asphttp://www.lifepositive.com/mind/ethics-and-values/peace/peace.asphttp://www.lifepositive.com/mind/arts/music/music.asphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_Minorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinonihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musician


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Adapted from: Life Positive:http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asp

Wikipedia Encyclopedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87

Scan Reading Questions

1. What piece of music did Smailovic play?

2. When did the war begin?

3. What as ailois jo efore the ar?

Comprehension Questions

1. Why was Smailovic angry?

2. How was the life in Bosnia during the war?

3. Why did he play music, instead of fighting?

4. Why did he play for 22 days?

5. Why did David Wilde write a composition?
http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asphttp://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asphttp://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asp


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Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever experienced a war?

2. Who is most affected during the wars: children, women, men, old people? Please explain why.

3. Why do you think people make war?

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