SESSION VII (31 January 2006)

During the sessions trainees were invited to organize into groups and prepare the outline of a reading lesson selecting some strategies they considered suitable to promote effective skills.
The task was rather detailed: Write an outline of a reading lesson of your own and send the report of the lesson you negotiated in your group to your trainer. Trainees were handed out an extract to be used during the planning and assigned precise guidelines:

Make sure the following is covered in your outline:
  • three stages: pre-reading
  • while-reading
  • post-reading
  • the specific aims of each activity
  • logical transitions from one stage of the lesson to the next.
  Some group work samples:
The second part of the session was devouted to experiment some microteaching practice in the class context. The less shy trainees in the groups put themseves to test and delivered a learning segment to their collegues on the basis of the guidelines that follow. Use the short reading passage you were handed over to teach.

Devise a 10 minute while-reading activity to use with the text. Be clear about the aim(s) of your activity. The group that will be taught your lesson will give you a feedback considering:

  • Did the teacher motivate you to want to read?
  • How effectively did the activity helpyou to comprehend the entire reading text?
  • How would you improve the activity?
  • Which reading skills were practised?
  • Are the reading skills in the activityuseful in real life?
  • Any further comments on the teaching.
 
Some Trainees' Feedback:
Well, now trainees are ready to implement their reading strategies during their practice training!