TP8: A drop of text
Upper Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide practice of deducing meaning of lexis in the context of a news article about a boy who harnessed the wind
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide detailed reading practice using a text about beating the odds in the context of a news article about the boy who harnessed the wind
Procedure (41-60 minutes)
Show sts the picture from the article, ask them to guess what the story is about. Then read the title to sts, "Malawian boy uses wind to power hope, electrify village". "Can you guess what kind of story this will be?" "Can you guess what fields of vocabulary will you find in this text" (e.g. for a bank robbery story, you'll find vocabulary about finance/bank, police, robbery, time" Write down on WB
Sts quickly read the article to understand what it is about. "Do you read every word?" No. "Are you reading to understand everything to or to get the main ideas? the main ideas. Give handouts, face down. Sts turn the page at the same time and read for 1 minute. Ask sts what the story is about? Look at the vocab areas they have guessed, would they like to add or change anything? things about windmills, problems in Malawi, machines, etc. STORY HIGHLIGHTS - Malawi had gone through one of its worst droughts seven years ago - Amid shortage William Kamkwamba realized wind offered hope - Armed with a book the then-14-year-old taught himself to build windmills - His windmills now generate electricity and pump water in his hometown
Student read again and discuss in groups of 3-4. WC discuss which 4 areas of vocabulary we will work on. Write on the board and make 4 columns. (e.g. machinery/electricity, conditions/problems, Sts in groups ("drop") write down words they know and don't know into these 4 fields.
Ask someone from each group to fill in on of the columns on the board, and ask what other groups think. Discuss words that sts are unfamiliar. Encourage sts to deduce meaning from the text. Tell them one of the words' meaning and have them guess which word it is based on the co-text. If time allows, do another column. guess all the unfamiliar text.
Sts read another news article. and guess meaning of words they don't know by deducing.