2.4.1. Pre reading activities
Task 1 (see appendix III) uses pictures to activate relevant schemata and to
help students make guesses about the topic. It creates an information gap and children
want to learn more. Finally, children are invited to form their own questions and this
helps them create themselves a purpose for reading.
2.4.2. While reading activities
Task 2 (see appendix III) practises skimming. Students are asked to read the
text quickly in order to find an appropriate title for the text. In doing so they get a
general idea of what the text is about.
Task 3 (see appendix III) asks students to skim the text again in order to test
the hypotheses they had made during the pre-reading activities. They try to find
answers to their own questions so they approach the text with a real purpose.
Task 4 (see appendix III) is an information transfer activity which asks
students to find the Amazon river on the map and say some things they know about it.
Task 5 (see appendix III) asks students to find anaphoric relations in the text
which help the reader understand the text as a whole.
Task 6 (see appendix III) asks students to guess the meaning of some words
from the context, something that helps readers deal with unknown vocabulary.
Task 7 (see appendix III) aims at training students read ‘between the lines’ by
asking them questions whose answer is not clearly stated in the text
2.4.3. Post-reading activities
Task 8 (see appendix III) asks students to retrieve and apply the information
they acquired by completing a summary of the text.
Task 9 (see appendix III) aims at helping students relate the information they
got from the text to their personal experiences and integrates reading with writing.
Task 10 (see Appendix III) practises extensive reading by giving students an
authentic text with information about the Amazon. In addition, the students are given
the chance to borrow books from the class library.
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