READING
" A SET OF GRADED READING EXTRACTS TAKEN FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES WITH ACCOMPANYING EXERCISES
Note: Items marked with a * are suitable for students to produce.
These are suitable sources: magazines, newspapers, want ads, cata-logues, indexes, advice columns, maps with directions, cookbooks, filled-in forms, postcards with messages, letters, etc. If you want your students to generate this kind of material, provide a variety of maga-zines, newspapers, etc. and task them with finding an article that
interests them and writing 5-10 comprehension questions on it.
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186 PEACE CORPS MANUAL
SETS OF PICTURES, MAPS Beginning level OR CHARTS WITH
ACCOMPANYING QUESTIONS
45 5 15
3 13 10
20 3o 75 j
Questions
Which number is in the middle?
Which number is in the top left corner?
Which number is in the bottom right corner?
Which number is in the middle of the bottom line?
Intermediate Level
COUNTRY CAPITAL POPULATION AREA INDUSTRIES
NEPAL KATHMANDU 170111.000 56,134
SUGAR JUTE MILLS TOURISM
HONDURAS71GUOGALIPA 4,448,000 43,277
CLOTHING TEXTILES
CEMENT
WOOD PRODUCTS
THAILAND Dsme.scou 51438,000 198 ,454
TEXTILES MINING
WOOD RODUCTS
True/False Questions
a. The capital of Thailand is Kathmandu.
b. There are more people in Thailand than in Nepal.
t.
Nepal is a smaller country than Honduras is.d. Thailand and Honduras both produce textiles.
MATCHING EXERCISES In these exercises students match cues and responses as in the self-correction jigsaw activities described earlier. The materials can he easily varied to accommodate different levels. For example, at an ele-mentary level, students may he matchingthe parts of cut-up
proverbs, while at a more advanced level they may he trying to match headlines cut from newspapers to their accompanying articles or advice
column letters to their responses. In many cases these activities can be used as preparation for national exams. For example, literary
fig-ures or references can be incorporated intothe materials.
' CUT-UP STORIES OR In these exercises, a reading passage, set of instructions, or dialogue INSTRUCTIONS iscut up into parts, and the student's task is to reconstructit by
putting the parts in the right order. This is a very intensive reading exercise and can be used with simple new texts or as a way of recy-cling texts the students familiar with. If the idea of keeping track of all the bits of paper is too much for you, another way to do the
exercise is simply to write out the sentences in a different order and ask the students to number them in the correct order. A set of instructions that can be used in this way is given below. As you can see, any simple task could be used toproduce such a set of instruc-tions, but it is very important to use a task with which your students are familiar. For this reason it maybe best to use student-generated
material.
Washing Your Hands
a. Take your hands out of the water.
b. Rub your hands together.
c. Turn off the faucet.
d. Put your hands in the water.
e. Pick up the soap.
f. Rub your hands together with the soap.
g. Turn on the faucet.
h. Put the soap down.
i. Put your hands back in the water.
j. Put in the plug.
k. Turn off the faucet.
1. Dry your hands.
' CLOZE PASSAGES The words that are omitted from these reading passages may be done on a simple count basis, for example, taking out every seventh word. However, if the students themselves are producing them, it will be more thought provoking if they are tasked with taking out
words of a certain type, such as prepositions, verbs, etc.
' READING MAZES These are stories in which the student has some choice in whathap-pens. As an exercise, students canbe asked to write out their version of the story, or to add their own choices CO an existing story, or to
make another story.
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188
PEACE CORPS MANUALROY MELTS GIRL
,...1
THEY FALL IN LOVE
THEIR PARENTS FORBID 'THEM TO MEET
7.
THEY DISLIKE EACH OTHER
THEY OBEY THEIR PARENTS
THEY NEVER MELT AGAIN
THEY MEET SECRETLY THEY ARE DISCOVERED
THE GIRL FALLS ILL
THE BOY GOES TOME HOSPITAL TO SEE HER
THEIR PARENTS FIND THEM TOGETHER -& FORGIVE THEM THEY ARE MARRIED
THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER
THEY LIVE MISERABLY EVER AFTER
QUESTIONNAIRES These can take the form of general knowledge quizzes and can include: At what temperature does water freeze? Where does the sun set? You can also ask questions connected to content area studies, which could be another opportunity to prepare for national exams in literature, etc. Or the questionnaire can take the form of the per-sonality quizzes often found in women's magazines in the United
States. An example of this type of Questionnaire is given below:
How Passive Are You?
I. Do you often start arguments?
2. Do you hnd it difficult to forgive?
3. If someone is rude to you are you immediately rude back?
4. Do you get angry with someone who pushes in front of you in a line?
5. Will you do just about anything to win an argument?
6. Do you like to give orders?
7. If you thought your boyfriend/girlfriend was cheating on you, would you immediately ask him/her about it?
8. If you thought someone was lying to you would you accuse them?
If you answered YES to four questions or more, you are able to stand up for yourself.
If you answered YES to all eight questions, you will never have trouble sticking up for yourself but some people might find you very bossy.
If you answered YES to fewer than four questions you are a passive person. You probably have difficulty dealing withunpleasant situa-tions. You need to practice sticking up for yourself.
Since the value we place on personal characteristics varies culturally, such questionnaires can provide a useful entry into a discussion of differences among cultures.
PROBLEM SOLVING In these exercises students are asked to read and solve puzzles. Sev-eral examples of this type of puzzle were given in the chapter on group work. Another example is given below;