Part One:

Authentic Material :

I chose Yas Island : Fun for family article [no:581591] as an authentic reading material
from Arab news website. I will concentrate mainly on the rst three paragraphs as the
whole text will be too long for my elementary group.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/581591

Rationale for the text:

This news website is popular and widely read in Saudi Arabia. The learners can easily
relate to it. I decided to use this article as I think it is appropriate for my elementary English
language level learners, their age and gender because my TP group are all adult female
learners.This article is informative and entertaining to them as it also has some
photographs of the Yas Island which can contribute to the hobby or passion of collecting
photos for some adults learners. It is also describing the main attractions in Yas Island
which may thrill the adult learners.

Part Two:
Receptive skill task design:

My receptive skill task design is to help the learner to skim read the passage. Jim
Scrivener says skimming : reading quickly and get gist of a passage. I would remind the
learners that gist reading is a skill which needs quick reading and to pick relevant
information.A typical skimming task would be a general question from the teacher,
[Scrivener: 2005:185].So my gist reading activity will be as follows:


Rationale of the task:

This task is suitable as the learners can understand the overall idea without reading the
whole passage. The practice of skim reading skill will be very helpful for them when they
read news papers ,magazines etc in their daily lives. Jim Scrivener says One test for
useful reading might be to check how far tasks reect real life uses of same text. If a text is
used in class in ways that are reasonably similar to real life, it is likely that the task will be
effective [Scrivener:2005:186]. This material has other real life relevances also, as it is
about tourism,spending holidays and people like that. My TP group also like to travel and
Answer the questions with yes or no.

Is this passage about wild life?
Is this passage about skydiving ?
Is this passage about tourism?
Is this passage about any Arab country?
Is this passage about tourist attractions ?
visit different countries because during various discussion activities, I have noted that they
talk about their dreams of visiting different places like Spain,Italy,London etc.

Above all, this task is perfect for a reading activity as they can practice speed-reading and
nd main ideas. The learners would attempt to nd the answer quickly,without reading
every word of the passage, by speed-reading through some portions of the text.
Skimming is mainly concerned with nding key topics,main ideas,overall time,basic
structure, etc. [Scrivener:2005:185]

My elementary TP group can be divided into two groups: strong learners and weak
learners. So I will give the strong learner group a task to give a headline to each section
of the article and to the weak learners, I will give them the task to match given headlines
with the [sections] paragraphs. [Scrivener:2005:188]

Importance of Yas Island.
Attractions in Yas Island.
Location of Yas Island.

For the above two reading activities, I would prefer a peer check between the strong and
weak learners groups by exchanging their tasks and answers, as that will help each group
to identify the answers of their tasks. If needed, I will do a feedback on the same. I would
write the answers on the white board.

Part 3.
Follow up productive skill task design:

After the reading passage with the above skimming activity, I would like to choose a writing
task as a productive skill which will help to personalise the whole concept.That will be like
a guided task on the topic .[Scrivener:2005:187]

Have you ever had an experience of visiting a place like this?

If yes then write about that experience [mention the place, where is it located and
what is the major attractions there?]

A. Mention the name of the place.
B. Where is it located?
C. What is the major attractions there?

If no, then write about Yas Island as a place of fun for the family.

A. Importance of Yas Island.
B. Attractions in Yas Island.
C. Location of Yas Island.

At the end of the activity , I will ask the students to choose best one in their group of four
and paste that writing on the walls of the class room . All students will do a gallery walk
and vote for the best write-up. Simultaneously , I will collect the rest of the learners written
task to go through it personally and to give individual feedback and appreciation for the
same.

Rationale for the task:

I chose writing as a productive sub skill because writing is often considered as a waste of
time by many teachers and the need for longer formal written work seems to have
lessened over the years , and this is reected in many classrooms where writing activities
are perhaps less often found than those for other skills . But when it comes to a real life,
writing has an important role.Moreover,this task has a communicative purpose because
learners can write an email to a friend describing the place they visited in their real life. I
also agree with Jim Scrivener when he says writing involves a different kind of mental
process. There is more time to think , to reect , to prepare , to rehearse , to make
mistakes and to nd alternative and better solutions[Scrivener:2005:192].

References:

Scrivener,J.(2005),Learning Teaching,Macmillan.

Website:

www.arabnews.com/node/581591


Attachments:

Three task sheets.