ROZEČTI.SE How to read faster

BEFORE YOU WATCH1. Are you reading any books at the moment? How many

books do you read per month? Do you read them only for school or also for pleasure? When and where do you typically read them?

2. Besides books, what other kinds of printed materials do you typically read? (e.g. magazines, comics, Internet, newspapers, e-news, blogs, etc.)

3. What do you usually read in a typical day? How long does it take you on average? Distinguish between materials you enjoy reading and those that you have to read. Do some materials take longer to read than others?

4. Do you think it’s possible to learn to read faster? Do you think you could learn to read faster without losing any comprehension?

Exercise 1

1. Professor Richard Papík is the owner of Rozečti.se.

2. It took 6 months to develop the project.

3. You can try the product on-line free of charge.

4. In order to get a certificate, you need to go through at least 20 lessons.

5. If you take the training seriously, you can manage to read over 500 words per minute.

6. On the average, untrained individuals can read maximally 150 words per minute.

7. It is easy for start-ups to expand abroad because the methodology works for all languages.

8. The start-up won The Idea of the Year prize in 2012 because they had a very good presentation.

WHILE YOU WATCH Exercise 2Are these statements TRUE or FALSE?

Listen and fill in the gaps

Exercise 3

Hello, my name is Michal Zwinger and I am the managing director of the new start-up Rozečti se…

We spent (the) last six months developing (a) product that can enable readers to read , more efficient and

and last month we turned (it) into the on-line available product.

So, basically, we based Rozečti se on (a) hundred year old when it is proved that learners…that readers can

read as they can do training, so that’s our average goal, you can read like , and

what you should do or what you have to do to pass our is you have to keep the .

… but after some , which Rozečti se provides you, you can achieve more than and when you’re very

serious about the , you should achieve more than words per minute. So we are (a) very fresh start-up, we

just launched couple of weeks ago, but the work behind the whole project is months of development. There (are)

people in the core team.

We have two and we have two , one graphic , we have me and my , who is basically the

CTO of the whole product. And what we wanna (want to) from now on is to the product.

Rozečti se just last month won – Vodafone Nápad Roku 2012, and this is competition held per year.

There were different start-ups and we made it to the where different start-ups presented in front of the

jury and after this presentation we won, which was (a) great success for us, but it wasn’t as easy as that. We

had to write quite a long application during May.

And we also had reply (to) of the and they asked basically how scalable the is, also how far

are we with the – that it’s not only an on a paper and how much are we involved.

Looking back, I actually think that was the , that was the point is that there are members of our

team, that we have splited (divided) , that we everything that we need (to), that we do not have to

outsource any ...

Match the English expressions with their Czech equivalent

AFTER YOU WATCH Exercise 4

GROUP WORK – JIGSAW ACTIVITY

1. Work in 3 groups.

You will be given a story in three pieces. Each group is supposed to read one part of it. You only have 60 seconds to read your portion of the text. Then, discuss what you read with the others in the group for couple of minutes and prepare to explain your part of the story to the remaining groups. Afterwards, each person will read the whole story again and discuss any differences of understanding they have. Discuss the meaning of the underlined words with your teacher.

Exercise 5

Hernando Guanlao Turns His Home Into A Public Library

Hernando Guanlao has one overwhelming passion -- books. And in an attempt to spread his love of literature to people around him, he's turned his home into a public library to encourage his local community to read more. The idea is simple but revolutionary: Locals can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want -- even permanently -- and the whole operation is open 24/7. “It’s fine with me because I know that people need the books and in my mind, whatever they take, even everything, will be returned a thousand fold,” Nanie told the Inquirer Life Style. Nanie prefers to think of the library he has been running for the past 12 years as a book club -- one where community members can come to discuss different books and literature.

2. Amazingly, the library continues to grow until the shelves are almost overflowing. BBC News reported that Nanie first got the idea of transforming his home into a public library shortly after his parents died. He was looking for a way to honor their memory and thought that spreading their love of reading was the best way. The library began with fewer than 100 books, but the collection has grown so exponentially that Nanie is no longer able to keep track of the number of books he has. BBC reports that between 3,000 and 4,000 books are just outside the front door, and the library also continues inside Nanie's home, where they are stacked around the living room and the stairs.

3. Nanie also has an abiding desire to help Manila's poorest. He does not wait for them to find him -- he goes to them, on his "book bike", which has a large basket piled high with books. “I decided to become mobile and came up with a prototype like this,” he says, showing off a bicycle fitted with a sidecar that is crammed full of books with a laptop lashed to the back of the vehicle. GMA News reported that Nanie has also started to set his sights outside Manila. He's already given several boxes of books to a man trying to set up a similar venture in Bicol province, a 10-hour drive from Manila, and his latest plan is to help a friend who wants to start up a library in the far south of the country. "You don't do justice to these books if you put them in a cabinet or a box," he told. "A book should be used and reused. It has life, it has a message."

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com /abridged/

GROUP WORK – JIGSAW ACTIVITY

2. After the group activity, discuss how the story impacts you personally.

What ideas or inspiration does it give you? In your groups, discuss what actions your class could do together to make reading more accessible to people who don’t have access to books.

Brainstorm a creative project that would make a difference in the lives of others in your community.

What plans can you make and what actions can you take to realize it?

Exercise 5

SPEED READING TEST

1. EXPERIENCE: Visit the company’s website at: http:://www.rozecti.se and read more about their product. They offer three lessons for free. Try them out and see how you do. How do you like the methodology and their presentation?

2. REPORT: In a small group, discuss your experience of the interactive tutorial and your experiences with it. Did you experience an improvement in your speed of reading? Are you motivated to experience more exercises? Why or why not? Is there anything you would change in the presentation of the product that would make it more appealing to you?

Exercise 6

DISCUSS

3. In your small group, discuss the content of the company’s website. It outlines several reasons their software works: re-training reading habits, streamlining the fixation of the eye, visual range expansion, and best practices in on-line education.

Discuss the relevance of these concepts to your own, personal learning needs. Are you interested in learning these particular new skills? Why or why not? Are you interested in using online, interactive lessons as tools for learning? Would anything persuade you to change your mind one way or the other? Explain your position.

Exercise 6

REFLECT

4. As a whole class, discuss the importance of personal motivation and intention when learning a new sklil or developing new knowledge. Discuss what kinds of learning tools support your own personal learning style. A LEARNING STYLE is your preferred modality for learning something new and the conditions that you best learn in. By identifying your learning style, you can discover the methods, activities, and the environmental conditions through which you learn the most.

5. FOLLOW-UP: Do you know what your personal learning style is? If you want to learn more about how you learn, take the free inventory online at: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/

In small groups, reflect upon how knowing about your learning style can help you learn best as a student. Present your findings to the rest of the groups.

 

Exercise 6