TP3 Reading: Personal Achievements
Upper-Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
-
To provide gist, scan and detailed reading in the context of unusual achievements
Subsidiary Aims
-
To provide vocabulary related to the reading text about unusual achievements
Procedure (45-55 minutes)
I start a discussion about personal achievements. I give my own/my sister's story. An instruction to write their own success story is given - it's not important whether it's distinctive or not . Then they discuss their ideas in pairs. I ask learners to report what their mate told them and ask them what was interesting in their story. Instructions are checked with ICQs. (The word 'achievement' is not used until sts use. It'll be related to the word 'success')
Only the word 'achievement' is elicited, as they'll need it to make sense of the context accurately. (Since the people with exceptional features are the subject matter. It is more different than our small goals.) Only photos are given to the students without the texts. I want them to think about the pictures and guess what they have achieved. I want them to take notes and discuss it with a partner. Then I monitor them.
I instruct them to read the text quickly to get the main idea. They don't have to understand every word in it, just for few minutes. I check sts with ICQs. Next, I get them match the headings with the texts. Later on, in pairs they compare their answers. This part ends with the feedback about answers. As a small feedback I ask them if their prediction matches with the texts in any aspect.
After giving clarified instructions, learners are asked to give answers for True and False statements that I gave them. They do it individually and in pairs check their answers. Also everyone has to write their name on the page. In the next stage they are asked to write the justification of their answers on the same page, not anywhere else. I make sure with the ICQs. Then I monitor them. When time is up I collect papers and give them to different people, so all learners check someone else's paper and see if they gave the same answers. I give feedback. I give another set of questions to evaluate their scanning. These questions include specific details, such as names, places, numbers and dates. In different pairs they compare answers.
Students answer a series of questions given to them by the instructor along with paying attention to few unknown words in the text. I give brief explanations of the words if asked. After answering them they share their answers in groups of four. Group members reason their answers.
Learners will do fill-gap exercises to find the synonyms of the words they have already seen in the text. This will help to reitarate the knowledge they studied in the text and help build vocabulary by its acquisition.
Students will give their subjective opinions about the text. They put the texts in order according to their 'achievement levels'. The text or the person in the text they found the most impressive will be the first and the fifth one will be the least impressive one. They mingle in the classroom and discuss/compare their ideas. Another question is if they had such talents what kind of a thing they would like to do? They mingle in the classroom and discuss/compare their ideas. Finally, the instructor asks sts what the students' partners think of it and why.