3. Lesson 2
3.1.The aims of the lesson
The aims of the lesson are to help students approach authentic texts with
confidence and take from them the information they need. Also, to use both top-down
and bottom-up approaches in order to create meaning from texts.
3.2. The objectives
At the end of the lesson student would be able to:
use skimming in order to understand the overall organization of a text and get
the gist
use scanning to locate specific information
guess the meaning of words from the context
understand cohesive ties and anaphoric relations
relate personal experiences to new knowledge and practice extensive reading
3.3 The text
The text is “About the Tower…” (online) and it is a history of the Tower of
London (see appendix VI). It is an authentic text which aims at giving children a brief
history of the Tower. It is chosen because there was a text with a similar topic in the
students’ textbook and they could approach it with more knowledge and interest. The
story is given in a humorous way which arouses interest and increases motivation. It
consists of three paragraphs and it follows a chronological order which helps the
reader follow the sequence of events. Although there is a certain terminology used,
the terms are usually explained quite cleverly within the text. Finally, there is a
painting of William the Conquerer and a plan of the Tower which accompany the text.
3.4. Description and justification
The lesson is organized in pre, while and post-reading activities (see lesson
plan ,appendixV). Their role is analysed below.
3.4.1 Pre reading activities
Task 1 (see appendix VI) is a brainstorming activity which asks students to
recall what they know about the Tower of London. Then, with the help of some
photos, the students are helped to activate relevant schemata so that they approach the
text positively and make guesses about the content of the text
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