TESOL Reading Methodologies

Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: ______Ye Ran (Pearl) _________

Skill:___Reading Skills____________
Date: ___12/02/2014__________

Activity: _Anticipation, Previewing, Checking comprehension, Building vocabulary,

and identifying topic and main idea.________Length _50 minutes__________
Students: number __8__; Level: Intermediate____; gender _1m/7f___; ethnicity
_Chinese, American, and the Haitian_____
Objective: Students will be able to use a variety of reading skills to understand both
general and specific information of a text/article/passage. These skills include:
activating schema, predicting, previewing, comprehending basic information, scanning,
understanding vocabulary in context, and locating/understanding topics and main ideas.
Rationale: Reading skills are an essential part of a students overall success with English,
and they can potentially have a large social and economic impact on a students future
career. In order to thoroughly understand a reading, ESL/EFL students must be proficient
in numerous skills, and they need instruction in and practice with those skills in order to
be able to use them.
Materials: Maclntyre, Paul. Reading explorer 2: Dogs in a human world. Canada: 2009
print

Procedure:
Anticipation (3 minutes)
1. T greets students, and then gives students a quick survey: How do you guys feel about
dogs? Students may answer: I like dogs or I dislike dogs (T assumes some students
like dogs) T goes on to say: Why do some people love dogs? T will give students one
minute to talk to their partner about the reasons people love dogs. Meanwhile, T shows a
few pictures of dogs to each group in order to help them think about the answers, related
to the article.
2. After a short discussion, T will ask some volunteers (3 or 4) to share their ideas. T
asks: Can you describe one of the pictures you like and tell the reason why people love

dogs? When students answer the question, T writes down their answers on the board.
(Students may come up with some words or phrases related to the article)
3. After students brainstorm, T concludes: Since people love dogs for different reasons,
lets see some examples of dogs lives in the human world.
Previewing (10minutes)
1. T hands out the copy of the articledogs life in the human world and asks students:
Class, before reading the whole passage word by word, what will you do? T goes
go to ask: What should you check first? And what will you read next? Then
students will be required to work with a neighbor and discuss the steps of reading
before checking all the details. T will help students to come up with the steps of
previewing. But in the process, T will not mention the key world-previewing.
2. After listing the steps in previewing, T asks: Does anyone know what we call the
whole activity here? If someone says preview T writes it o board. If not, T will
elicit the answer by going over the steps of previewing such as Do we need to read
the article completely?
3. T asks: Students, have you ever used previewing to read some article, picture books
or course books? If students answers are yes, T will go further to ask students to do
pair work to discuss the advantages of previewing. If someone says no, T will have
students recall the process of reading news and invite them to join the group work to
discuss what the merits of previewing are.
4. After a few minutes, students share their ideas about the advantages of previewing. T
can add some ideas and help students realize the importance of previewing activity.
5. Then T has students preview the article dogs life in the human world within three
minutes.
6. After three minutes, T asks: What is the article about? students talk to their partners
and answer the question. Hopefully students respond that the article is about the good
relationship between dogs and human beings.

Checking comprehension (10 minutes)

1. After students finish the previewing activity, T tells students to read the article word
by word within 3 minutes.
2. Three minutes later, T hands out the comprehension questions to everyone. T asks
students to close the book and answer those questions by recalling what they read. T
first explains the directions of the comprehension questions, and goes through the
first question together with students as an example.
3. After all the students have finished the questions, T will tell students to discuss the
answer with their partners. Also, students are supposed to find the right clues for the
answers of each question. T gives students two minutes to talk to each other and to
check answers.
4. T checks the comprehension questions one by one and students respond by explaining
where they found the answer. If the answer and the clues for the answer are right, T
will move on to the next one until all the questions are finished. If a student gives a
wrong answer, T will ask other students to help he or she answer it. If students
responses are incorrect, T will illustrate the clue and explain why the answer is
correct.
(Handout)

Reading Comprehension
PART A
Directions: Choose the correct answer based on the information in the text.
1. The author mentions three examples of a dogs life in the human world.
Match these details with the three names of the dogs.
a.

has a good sense of smell.

b.

is treated like a queen

c. takes care of the unhealthy boy

d. works to keep their country safe.
e. works at the National Institutes of Health.
Place the letters of the choices in the proper boxes.
Jacques

Tiffy

Jessie

2. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true

a. Tiffy eats human food
b. Not all the beagles who work for people are from animal shelters.
c. Dogs develop their special talents by themselves
d. The reason why domestic dogs continue to grow in number is because they are
humans partners.
Part B Direction: Complete the sentences, according to the passage.
3. The

between humans and dogs began perhaps 14,000 years ago.

4. Whether as

or

, dogs have certainly proven themselves to be beneficial to

humans in many ways.

5. Dogs special place as mans best

has allowed dogs to survive in a human

world.

Answer keys:
Part A: 1 Jacques: a, d. Tiffy: b. Jessie: c, e. 2, C
Part B: 3, relationship 4, workers, objects of affection. 5, friends
Building Vocabulary (7 minutes)
1. T poses a question: Class, what can you do if you see some words you dont
understand while reading? Students will share their own ways to deal with new
vocabulary. Then T affirms that students strategies are useful and T will introduce
a new skill of using contrasts to guess the meaning of words.
2. T defines contrast by giving students some examples, such as black-white, uglybeautiful, and high-low.
3. T shows one example of a signal word of contrast, such as unlike. Then T
allows students to brainstorm other signal words of contrast and the more the
better.

4. After checking the signal words of contrast, T hands out the vocabulary exercise
and asks one of the students to read the directions. Students are supposed to finish
the exercise within 3 minutes.
5. After finishing the exercise, students are allowed to discuss their answers with
their partner and prepare to answer Ts questions about the exercise, such as why
do you think A is correct or incorrect?
6. T calls time and checks the answers of the exercise. If students give a right
answer, T asks students why they choose this answer. If not, T leads students to
identify the signal words of contrast and the opposite of a certain word to help
students to find the meaning of words.

Multiple Choice.
Direction: Dead each sentence carefully and choose the correct definition of the bold
words. Please circle the signal of contrasts and underline the antonyms of the bold
words.
1. While wolves and wild dogs have nearly disappeared from the earth, domestic dogs
continue to grow in number, thanks to their special relationship with humans.
a. Living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame.
b. Living in a compact community.
c. Living in a good place where wolves and wild dogs will not come.
d. Living near or about human habitations.
2. Contrary to Jack who acts like an incompliant stranger, his brother James is very
respectful at home and obedient to their parents.
a. Willing to pay the money.
b. Willing to ask questions.
c. Willing to obey or to follow.
d. Willing to be a stranger.
3. Jessie, a lovely dog, brightens patients days with love. On the other hand, the
patients face darkens when we tell them that Jessie will leave soon.
a.
b.
c.
d.

To become brighter or more cheerful.

To make (someone or something) less happy.
To make dark.
To live under control.

4. Anger, hatred and jealousy never solve problems, but affection, concern and respect

do.
a.
b.
c.
d.

A feeling of anxiety.
A feeling of dislike.
A feeling of excitement.
A feeling of love and caring

a.
b.
c.
d.

Polly altered the class schedule but the dean asked her to keep the original plan.
To make stable and keep from fluctuating
To make different.
To add more information
To stop

5.

Answer keys:
1. D 2. C 3. A 4. D 5. B

Identifying Topic and Main Idea (8 minutes)

1. T reviews what students learnt last week and introduces the new topic in this class,
which is identifying topics and main ideas in text.
2. T helps students to define the topic and main idea in text. Firstly, students can talk to
each other about the definitions of the topic and main idea. Hopefully, students will
give a correct definition of them. If not, T will lead students to figure out the issue by
asking students questions, such as Could the topic be a complete sentence?
Students can talk to each other and answer the questions. Finally T writes some key
words for the definition of the topic and main idea on the board.
3. T hands out the exercise and goes through the first one as an example. T clarifies the
right answer for the first exercise, but T also asks why the other options are wrong.
Students may have a discussion and explain that the other options are too general or
too specific. At that time, T gives a vivid definition of the concept of too general

and too specific. T would draw a graphic to illustrate the differences between too
general and too specific.
4. The rest of the exercises should be finished within 3 minutes. T will check the
answers one by one and clarify the right answers and explanations to students. If
necessary, students will be asked to explain why he or she chose a certain answer.

Identifying topic and main idea

Multiple Choices: Chose the correct answer based on the passage.
1. Choose the topic of the whole passage.

a. The partnership between dogs and humans.

b. Three dogs who work for humans
c. Three dogs with different names.
2. What is the main idea of the whole passage?

a. Dogs working ability is better than humans.

b. Dogs are beneficial to humans in many ways.
c. Dogs have changed a lot over many years.
3. What is paragraph 2 about?

a. Dogs life.
b. The working beagles
c. Jacques.
4. What is the main idea of the paragraph 2?

a. Beagles like Jacques are good workers at smelling things because their powerful
noses.
b. Beagles do jobs far better than humans could alone.
c. Jacques is the only one of many beagles that works for people.
5. What is the topic of paragraph 4?

a. A pet dog.
b. Tiffy who eats human food.
c. A dog treated like a queen.
6. What is the main topic of paragraph 4?

a. Tiffy is a beautiful Maltese.

b. Tiffy is treated like a queen.
c.

The dog needs the owner, Nancy Jane Loewy.

7. What is paragraph 6 about?

a. The animal carer.

b. Jessie.
c. Young Lukas stays strong.
8. What is the main idea of paragraph 6?

a. Dogs like Jessie visit and help young patients.

b. Jessie helps young Lukas to stay strong.
c. Dogs take care of every patient in hospital.

Answer keys:
1. A 2. B 3.B 4.A 5. C 6. B 7.A 8. A

Notes: __________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________