1. There’s a reading passage, on the left some pre-reading tasks, comprehension questions following a chronological order of the text, and some more detailed comprehension questions.

2. On the next page, there’s Grammar practice. Verb practice, some pronunciation practice and a gapped text.

Then, James refers to Scott Thornbury‘s Unpacking a Text, where he describes a text is like an onion, because of the layers. The real challenge is how we unpack a reading text. Tyson Seburn, added in the chat box: “Many teachers worry that dealing with a text over a series of classes will be too boring for students. I disagree“. I agree with Tyson, it’s always the question of dealing with balance, and how teachers can provoke motivation. 

Scott’s video is here:

James, then shares how we can present a reading text in a more challenging, motivating and creative way.

1. He shows an image to introduce the text. 

a. Imagine Toby is here with us. What would you like to ask him?

Great questions came up in the chat box: How did the bear react?, Why did you punch him?, Where did this happen?, Did the bear punch you back?, Did the bear smell?, Were you frightened?

b. Write the questions on the board

c. Divide the text into parts and ask students to answer the questions they can, and they won’t be able to answer all the questions, so then they can work in pairs to answer all questions. So, they would be answering their own comprehension questions, which hopefully will trigger curiosity.

Given my own teaching scenario, I teach one2one, my idea is I could divide the text but I wouldn’t provide totally different parts, so my student and I can work on answering questions and then share the questions we could answer and ask each other to complete all the questions.  

d. The article he presented is an adaptation of the article I Punched a Bear. He adapted it to fit Intermediate level.

e. What vocabulary might students be curious about or might have trouble with?

f. What language can we teach? (Simple Past, Time clauses, Direct Speech, -ing forms, Prepositions of place and movement) 

g. Discussion questions: How would you have reacted in this situation? Have you ever experienced danger? What did it feel like? How did you feel when you read that the bear had been shot? Do you think Toby Burke is a hero? How do you define a hero?

h. Find out what students know about the subject (bears for ex.)

i. Role-play: Journalist and Toby

j. Writing: They can write an article about the story, they can create their own story about about a moment they were frightened to death.

Thanks James, I found your presentation so interesting and inspiring.  I specially loved how you integrated the 4 skills, and it’s a great example of a teacher as a facilitator, a guide, someone leading the students to generate their content. 

I would also like to thank the attendees, who contributed by posting comments and giving their own insight.