Speaker A
There's a nice bit of theatrical teacher running there.
Teacher trainer Allan demonstrates a reading lesson focusing on personalisation, vocabulary pre-teaching, and activating schemata for learner engagement.
Key Takeaways
- Personalisation helps learners connect with reading content and increases engagement.
- Pre-teaching vocabulary reduces reading difficulties and supports comprehension.
- Activating schemata primes learners to better understand and relate to the text.
- Integrating pronunciation and peer teaching enriches language learning in reading lessons.
- Contextualising reading materials clarifies purpose and relevance for learners.
Summary
- Allan begins the reading lesson by personalising the topic, discussing phone usage to engage learners.
- He activates students' schemata by encouraging them to relate the lesson content to their own experiences.
- The lesson includes pre-teaching challenging vocabulary such as addicted, attention span, distracted, and memory.
- Peer teaching is used effectively as students explain vocabulary meanings to each other.
- Pronunciation practice is integrated into the vocabulary teaching segment.
- Allan contextualises the reading material by explaining it is a blog related to a TV program.
- Students predict reasons why the Internet might be 'killing our brains' to build interest and investment.
- The lesson balances language development, comprehension, and critical thinking skills.
- Allan uses group discussions and questions to encourage student interaction and engagement.
- The reading text and related comments are introduced after activating prior knowledge and vocabulary.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker B
I don't think so.
Speaker A
They're still referring to the article, but now they're expressing their own ideas.
Speaker C
Three.
Speaker B
Addicted? No.
Speaker A
So there's a little bit of focus on pronunciation, and also language development.
Speaker B
What are people often addicted to?
Speaker A
which you might not automatically think of as being a key part of a reading lesson.
Speaker A
We're going to watch Allan do a reading class, and I'd like you to watch out for the different ways that Allan personalises the content in the article for the learners and the different activities that he uses to get the learners engaged in this text.
Speaker B
Do you remember my name?
Speaker C
Allan.
Speaker B
Oh yeah, this is me. My name is Allan's iPhone. Yes. Hello.
Speaker B
What is this? What does this picture show?
Speaker C
The... For the... I use... How... How... How long... How much you use in the iPhone.
Speaker B
Ah, good, very good.
Speaker B
Every day, I use my phone for 5 hours and 40 minutes.
Speaker C
Oh.
Speaker D
Too much.
Speaker B
Too much?
Speaker D
Too much.
Speaker B
Raj, you think it's too much?
Speaker D
It's too much.
Speaker A
Yeah, I agree, it's too much, yeah.
Speaker B
I saw this, and I don't feel very good.
Speaker C
For me it's a short time.
Speaker B
Ah.
Speaker C
More than, yeah.
Speaker D
I almost, err, 20 hours.
Speaker A
They're quite interested, you can see they're all looking, they're all speaking and reacting.
Speaker A
So again, a really nice use of personalisation at the beginning of a reading lesson.
Speaker B
So you think actually, I'm a good person. I'm not addicted to my phone.
Speaker B
I... I just use it when I'm sleeping.
Speaker B
Yeah?
Speaker B
Okay.
Speaker B
Um, I don't like this. I use my phone too much.
Speaker B
I'm not very happy.
Speaker B
When I saw this, it didn't make me happy.
Speaker B
Um, what do I do on my phone?
Speaker B
What do I use it for?
Speaker C
Entertainment.
Speaker B
Entertainment, yeah.
Speaker B
Okay, two questions for you to discuss together.
Speaker B
So let's have Raj and Lavender, Yasuko, Madina, Lisa and Wendy, Camay and Ling.
Speaker B
Two questions.
Speaker B
One, "How much do you use your phone?"
Speaker B
Okay.
Speaker B
Is it more than me?
Speaker B
Is it less than me?
Speaker B
"How much do you use your phone?"
Speaker B
Question one.
Speaker B
Number two, "What do you use your phone for?"
Speaker C
How much?
Speaker D
Question.
Speaker C
Question.
Speaker E
Every day.
Speaker C
Every day.
Speaker A
So that's quite nice.
Speaker A
Allan started with an "Engage question", so he's got the learners relating the lesson content to their own lives.
Speaker A
And he's getting them to think about the topic first.
Speaker A
We call this "Activating the students' schemata" because they'll start to think about things related to that topic and use language related to that topic.
Speaker A
So they're talking about whether they're happy with their own screen time before they actually go on to read a related article.
Speaker A
And you'll see that Allan hasn't actually mentioned anything at all about reading so far.
Speaker B
Thank you, Raj.
Speaker C
Thank you.
Speaker B
Camay, thank you.
Speaker C
Thank you.
Speaker B
Madina, Thank you very much.
Speaker B
Okay.
Speaker B
I heard lots of people saying they use their phone a lot.
Speaker B
Right? Camay 6 hours a day?
Speaker C
Yeah, over.
Speaker B
Over 6 hours a day.
Speaker B
Wow, That's so much.
Speaker B
And Madina, I heard you say something, the phone makes you sick.
Speaker B
Is that?
Speaker C
Yeah, because.
Speaker C
When it's I think too much, reading or watching.
Speaker B
Today we're going to read about this topic.
Speaker B
We're going to read about how the Internet, not just the phones, but the Internet is hurting, is killing our brain.
Speaker A
Now, finally, Allan has mentioned that they're going to read an article today, and the title of the article is also quite sensationalist.
Speaker A
So you can hear a gasp from the student when he says that the title is 'How the Internet is Killing Our Brains'.
Speaker A
Let's see what he does next.
Speaker B
So first, before we read,
Speaker B
we need to understand four words.
Speaker B
Four very important words.
Speaker B
Okay?
Speaker B
Those are here.
Speaker B
Addicted, attention span, distracted and memory.
Speaker A
Sometimes it's a really good idea to pre-teach some of the more challenging or difficult lexis within the article that you're going to be teaching.
Speaker A
So that when the students come across these words, when they start to read the article, they don't become so hung up on the difficult vocabulary.
Speaker B
So, again.
Speaker B
Raj and Lavendar, Yasuko and Madina, Lisa and Wendy, Camay and Ling.
Speaker B
Can you match these four words to the definitions?
Speaker C
You think it's that one?
Speaker C
Span is like the length.
Speaker B
So, often for birds we can talk about the wingspan.
Speaker B
Like how long?
Speaker C
It means it's like.
Speaker D
I think.
Speaker C
It's like.
Speaker D
Distracted, I think.
Speaker C
Addicted.
Speaker D
Distracted it means that feeling and worry about something.
Speaker D
So it cannot meet some things because the feeling is too much.
Speaker A
There's some really nice examples of peer teaching here and peer explanation.
Speaker A
So you can hear one student explaining to the other student the meaning of the vocabulary.
Speaker B
Okay, let's do it together.
Speaker B
Erm, well, maybe you can tell me.
Speaker B
Someone from this table.
Speaker B
What about the first one? "The length of time that you can pay attention to one thing without becoming bored or thinking about something else."
Speaker B
Which word do you think that is?
Speaker C
Attention span.
Speaker B
Yasuko?
Speaker C
Yeah, attention span.
Speaker B
Very good.
Speaker B
Number three, "Not able to concentrate on something."
Speaker C
Distract.
Speaker B
Lisa?
Speaker C
Distract.
Speaker B
You're right.
Speaker B
Can we say the whole word?
Speaker C
Distract.
Speaker B
Distracted.
Speaker C
Distracted.
Speaker B
Three syllables.
Speaker B
Okay, listen.
Speaker C
Distracted.
Speaker B
Listen.
Speaker B
Distracted.
Speaker C
Distracted.
Speaker B
Distracted.
Speaker C
Distracted.
Speaker B
Where is the stress? One, two or three?
Speaker C
Three.
Speaker B
Addicted? No.
Speaker C
The second one.
Speaker B
It's the same as distracted.
Speaker B
Addicted.
Speaker B
Okay?
Speaker B
Addicted.
Speaker B
Um, what are people often addicted to?
Speaker C
Computers.
Speaker B
Computers, yeah.
Speaker B
Easily distracted.
Speaker C
Easily distracted.
Speaker B
Nice, much better.
Speaker B
Um, long attention span.
Speaker C
Long attention span.
Speaker B
Good, and, uh, addicted to.
Speaker B
What can you be addicted to?
Speaker B
Computers.
Speaker B
Addicted to computers.
Speaker C
Addicted to computers.
Speaker A
So he's actually integrating lots of different skills into this reading lesson.
Speaker A
So there's a little bit of focus on pronunciation and also language development.
Speaker B
What are people often addicted to?
Speaker A
Which you might not automatically think of as being a key part of a reading lesson?
Speaker B
We're going to read a TV blog.
Speaker B
Blog.
Speaker B
Do you know what a blog is?
Speaker C
An article.
Speaker C
In the site.
Speaker A
He's eliciting from them, first of all, that they're going to be reading a blog.
Speaker B
Now, maybe if you just give the learners a piece of writing which isn't contextualised,
Speaker A
the learners might be a bit confused about where does this piece of writing come from?
Speaker A
Why am I reading this?
Speaker B
This blog is about a TV program.
Speaker B
And the TV program is called, "Is the Internet Killing Our Brains?"
Speaker B
Is the Internet killing Our Brains?
Speaker B
What do you think is in the blog?
Speaker B
What do you think?
Speaker B
Why is the Internet killing our brains?
Speaker B
Why do you think?
Speaker B
Madina?
Speaker C
Because too much information.
Speaker C
Maybe you're tired.
Speaker B
Okay, so maybe one reason is the Internet gives us too much information, and this makes us tired.
Speaker B
One very good reason.
Speaker B
What else?
Speaker B
Any other reasons?
Speaker C
Play, game.
Speaker B
Ah, You play too many games on the internet.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker B
Very nice.
Speaker C
Addicted.
Speaker B
Ah, addicted to.
Speaker C
Play game.
Speaker A
Ah, addicted to playing games.
Speaker C
Lost the time.
Speaker B
Waste time, okay.
Speaker B
We're starting to have some good reasons, we're wasting time, we're addicted to games, there's too much information.
Speaker B
Okay, in your, on your table, so four people here, four people and four people, can you think of three reasons?
Speaker B
Okay, three reasons.
Speaker B
The Internet is killing our brains.
Speaker A
He's actually sharing the question, which is also the title of the article, with the learners and actually eliciting from them their responses.
Speaker A
So why do they think, or what do they think are the reasons why the Internet is killing people's brains?
Speaker A
So he's getting them to predict what the article's going to be about.
Speaker A
So why is this useful?
Speaker A
Again, going back to what I was saying earlier about activating the students' schemata, and also it gets the learners more invested in the content of the article that they're going to read.
Speaker B
So you get, it's easy to be confused or tricked, right?
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker B
Very nice.
Speaker B
Very nice.
Speaker B
Good.
Speaker B
Okay, let's stop there, please.
Speaker B
Um, I heard these three reasons.
Speaker B
I really like Lisa's reason that we might get confused or tricked by fake news.
Speaker B
Okay, so finally we can read.
Speaker B
Hooray!
Speaker B
Good.
Speaker B
I have an article for you.
Speaker B
This is the blog.
Speaker B
And these are comments.
Speaker B
Comments.
Speaker B
What other people think.
Speaker B
Right now, you don't need to read the comments.
Speaker B
Okay, you just read this part.
Speaker A
He's giving the instructions first before he gives out the article to the students.
Speaker A
If a teacher gives out the article to the students first before they finish giving instructions, the students will just immediately start reading the article.
Speaker B
What are we looking for?
Speaker C
Article.
Speaker C
Reasons.
Speaker B
These reasons.
Speaker B
Yes, were you correct or not?
Speaker B
All right?
Speaker B
And finally, do you read the comments?
Speaker C
No.
Speaker B
Yay!
Speaker B
Very good.
Speaker B
All right, one minute.
Speaker B
Ready, go!
Speaker A
So the students now need to read through and scan the article to see if their predictions were correct.
Speaker A
This is a nice way to get the learners invested in what they're going to read and make it a bit more relatable.
Speaker B
One minute is going.
Speaker B
It's already gone.
Speaker B
Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker B
Excellent skimming.
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker B
3, 2, 1.
Speaker B
Stop, please.
Speaker B
Stop reading.
Speaker B
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Speaker A
There's a nice bit of theatrical teacher running there.
Speaker A
And you can see that Allan is sticking to the timing that he's given the students.
Speaker A
Sometimes, something that we see in classes is that the teacher will say something like, oh, you have one minute or 30 seconds to scan the article.
Speaker A
And then the teacher will actually give them much longer than that, so actually they can read the whole article, which isn't really practicing any scanning or skimming skills.
Speaker B
With your partner.
Speaker B
Were the reasons in the article?
Speaker B
Yes or no?
Speaker B
Yes or no?
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker B
Maybe.
Speaker B
Which ones?
Speaker B
Tell Lavendar.
Speaker C
But I think this also does not say that.
Speaker C
Not number four, no.
Speaker C
Affecting our attention spans and our ability to concentrate.
Speaker B
Beautiful.
Speaker B
Very nice.
Speaker A
So it's nice to see that the students are able, in just one minute, to get the gist of the article.
Speaker A
And they can quite clearly work out whether the reasons that they predicted are present in the article or not.
Speaker B
What are these things here?
Speaker B
Don't read yet.
Speaker B
Just tell me.
Speaker B
We can see three faces and names.
Speaker B
So what is this section?
Speaker C
Comments.
Speaker B
Nice, these are the comments.
Speaker B
Okay?
Speaker B
In the comments, people might say that they agree or they disagree.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker B
So.
Speaker B
We have three people.
Speaker B
Tom6, JennyH and Sue123.
Speaker B
You need to read their comments and find out who says what.
Speaker B
Who says what?
Speaker B
Okay?
Speaker B
Is it Tom?
Speaker B
Is it Jenny or is it Sue?
Speaker B
Where can you find the comments?
Speaker B
Where are the comments in the article?
Speaker C
Yeah, you got it, Ling.
Speaker C
Lavendar's got it.
Speaker C
Beautiful.
Speaker C
Okay.
Speaker B
So work on your own first and then you can help each other.
Speaker C
You've already started.
Speaker B
So let's work together now.
Speaker B
So can I change slightly?
Speaker B
Madina, could you swap with Lisa, please?
Speaker B
So Madina and Lisa, you can swap that would be very nice.
Speaker B
And Raj, could you swap with Ling?
Speaker B
Okay, so we have new partners.
Speaker C
I think it's Jenny.
Speaker C
Yes, because she has definite opinion.
Speaker D
Number two.
Speaker C
Number two is Tom.
Speaker C
Tom is kind of not sure, he's doubting.
Speaker A
This is really nice to see.
Speaker A
So the learners have done a little bit of work on their own first.
Speaker A
And now they're working in pairs and they're actually confirming their answers with each other.
Speaker A
Referring back to the text.
Speaker A
So this is a really nice collaborative peer feedback activity.
Speaker C
What about number one?
Speaker C
And Jenny.
Speaker C
The losing is.
Speaker B
Which one are we stuck on?
Speaker B
Number three?
Speaker C
Number three, maybe this one?
Speaker C
Thinks the Internet has many negative effects.
Speaker C
So bad effects, right?
Speaker C
Yeah, number three.
Speaker C
Well many means more than one, okay?
Speaker C
So we need to find someone saying at least two or three or four problems.
Speaker B
Ah, so here "as well as" means, um, in the past, her memory was good and now it's not as good.
Speaker B
JennyH, yeah?
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker C
But as well.
Speaker B
Oh, I know what you mean, that this means similar sometimes, but it's a comparison.
Speaker B
Yeah, so, so here it means that the past was better.
Speaker B
So let's, let's find out together where we are.
Speaker B
So number one, I think we all got this one, maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker B
Who doesn't think the Internet is a negative thing?
Speaker C
Jenny.
Speaker B
Jenny, yeah, good, we all got that one.
Speaker B
Fantastic, let's, let's move on to some of the others.
Speaker B
Who is losing the ability to concentrate?
Speaker B
Okay.
Speaker B
And then number five, who thinks it's normal to change how we use our memory?
Speaker B
Yeah, we think it's Jenny.
Speaker B
And Madina, what does, what does Jenny say about this?
Speaker B
We have a few more minutes.
Speaker B
So let's talk about this.
Speaker B
Um, in your groups, let's have a four here and a four.
Speaker B
Who do you agree with the most?
Speaker B
Do you agree with Tom?
Speaker B
Do you agree with Jenny or do you agree with Sue?
Speaker C
I do not agree with Jenny.
Speaker C
Why?
Speaker C
Because she said it's no problem.
Speaker C
She said she cannot see the problem, but it is a problem.
Speaker C
Yeah, she says books and the Internet is the same.
Speaker C
The same?
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker C
I don't think so.
Speaker C
Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker A
They're still referring to the article, but now they're expressing their own ideas about whether they agree or disagree with the opinions expressed in the comments section.
Speaker A
So this is a really good thing to do because it solidifies the learning.
Speaker A
It's actually more likely to stick in your mind what you've read compared to if you just read it, do some exercises and then move on to talk about something else.
Speaker A
What I see in a lot of teachers reading lessons is that the teacher says, Right, okay, now we're done with the reading.
Speaker A
And then they move on to something completely different.
Speaker B
Remember my screen time?
Speaker B
Maybe I am addicted to the Internet, addicted to social media.
Speaker B
How can we be less addicted?
Speaker B
What can we do better?
Speaker B
Right.
Speaker B
What do you think?
Speaker B
Can you give me some advice?
Speaker A
Even though they've just done something which could be considered quite passive, a reading exercise, it's ending with a communicative question or a communicative task.
Speaker A
Where the learners actually have to give the teacher some advice about how to improve his own screen time.
Speaker A
So just to summarise.
Speaker A
First of all, you need to engage the learners in the topic or the context of the lesson.
Speaker A
Then you need to pre-teach some of the vocabulary.
Speaker A
Then Allan did a prediction task where he got the learners to predict the content of the article based on the title.
Speaker A
Then there was a scanning activity where the learners compared their predictions to what was actually in the article.
Speaker A
Then there was a reading for detail task where the learners had to search through the article in more detail to be able to understand the opinions of the people that had commented on the article.
Speaker A
And then the learners were able to respond to the text and express their own opinions about the comments raised in the article.
Speaker A
So that way the learners are able to reflect on the things that they've been reading and use these very important 21st century skills like media literacy and critical thinking.
Speaker A
So this also says something about the choice of material as well.
Speaker A
I think the material is highly relevant to this group of learners and perhaps to any group of learners, because something like the Internet is so prevalent in all of our lives.
Topics:reading lessonteacher trainingpersonalisationvocabulary pre-teachingactivating schematapeer teachingpronunciation practicelearner engagementreading comprehensionEnglish language teaching
