---
title: "Transforming English For You into Headway"
subtitle: "Organizing Reading Tasks in Large Multilevel Classes Within a Strict Curriculum and With Limited Resources"
author: "Dominik Lukes"
affiliation: "Peace Corps"
outline_version: 2
auto_title_slide: false
auto_thanks_slide: false
---

## Transforming *English For You* into *Headway*: Organizing **Reading** Tasks in Large Multilevel Classes Within a Strict Curriculum and With Limited Resources
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Dominik Lukes

Peace Corps

## Nothing new
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How to do the things you already know…

…and not to lesson plan yourself to death.

## Teacher Complaints
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- Students of many levels in one class
- Too many students in classrooms
- Textbooks inappropriate to the level of students
- Not enough time for creative lesson planning
- Strict inspections

## Teaching Reading (All the theory in under 30 seconds)
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- Two goals for teachers
  - Learn language (vocabulary, functional grammar, phrases)
  - Learn how to work with texts (acquire additional learning skills)
- Two purposes for students
  - For enjoyment
  - For information
- Two cognitive modes
  - For detail
  - For gist

## Reading Steps
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- *Pre-Reading*
- **While-Reading**
- Post-Reading

## Sample Reading Lesson
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- Using text from *English for You 1*
- Headway-like reading lesson
- No photocopier necessary
- No supplementary materials necessary
- Reusable exercises
- No students need to leave their seats
- Discipline can be maintained easily (for most of the lesson)
- Students of all levels can learn something

## Blackboard Exercise 1
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| People | Computers | Good/Bad |
|---|---|---|
|  |  |  |

## Blackboard Exercise 2
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- **Paragraph 2:**
  - a) People are great;
  - b) Why are people unique?;
  - c) Why are computers bad?
- **Paragraph 5:**
  - 1. Some people are afraid that computers will replace people.
  - 2. In the future, doctors and journalists will use computers a lot.
  - 3. Computers will replace doctors and journalists.

## Lesson Debriefing
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- Aims of the lesson
- Steps of the lesson
- How can this activity be modified for different levels, students, texts

## Lesson Aims
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- Language skills: vocabulary
- Reading skills: summarizing, searching for specific information
- Other skills: critical thinking (predictions, personalization, preferences)

## Step 1: Warm up
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- **Activity:**
  - Ask students about computers
- **Purpose:**
  - Engage students’ interest
  - Activate appropriate vocabulary
- **Alternatives:** Have this discussion in Albanian; Review homework with relevant materials; Teach computer-related vocabulary; Do a vocab game

## Step 2: Text prep
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- **Activity:**
  - Number paragraphs
- **Purpose:**
  - Make text easier to refer to for all students
  - Give students their first encounter with the text in an easy task
- **Notes:** Use pencil if necessary

## Step 3: Getting to gist through prediction
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- **Activity:**
  - Guess what text is about from title
  - Search for the number of words used to refer to computers and people; write down things said about people and computers in a chart
- **Purpose:**
  - Summarize the text
  - Show Ss a strategy for discovering gist
- **Alternatives:** Ask Ss (if more advanced) to write a subtitle to the text; Ask Ss to predict what the text will say based on certain key words; If resources allow – use scrambled text

## Step 4: New vocabulary
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- **Activity:**
  - Find one new word in each of the selected paragraphs
- **Purpose:**
  - Make it easier for Ss to do the upcoming exercises
  - Allow lower level Ss to do different activity than higher level Ss
- **Alternatives:** Teach selected new words (based on what you know about Ss) and have Ss find them in text

## Step 5: Summarizing the text
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- **Activity:**
  - Summarize  paragraphs 2-5 in different ways
- **Purpose:**
  - Help Ss understand the main idea of the text
  - Show Ss different strategies for summarizing
- **Alternatives:** With different texts or more advanced Ss: Ask Ss to break text into sections with subtitles, draw a chart of the argument, or plot and characters for stories

## Step 6: More vocabulary
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- **Activity:**
  - Play a game with synonyms
- **Purpose:**
  - Engage Ss with text some more and give them a fun activity to do
  - Teach Ss new words
  - Prepare Ss for difficult exercise on p. 91 (homework)

## Step 7: Making connections
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- **Activity:**
  - Talk about the context of the text and the Ss views on the subject matter
- **Purpose:**
  - Help Ss understand the author and his or her intentions
  - Allow Ss to express personal opinions on the text
  - Help Ss discover statements made by texts
- **Alternatives:** Use more questions from page 90.

## Step 8: Post-reading activities
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- **Activity:**
  - Have Ss write a story about a part of the text
- **Purpose:**
  - Employ additional language not in the text
  - Show Ss understanding of the contents of the text
  - Allow different level students to do an activity at their own level
- **Alternatives:** Write about Ss own experiences with computers (e.g. some questions on p. 90)

## Summary through questions
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- Why reading skills?
- Why not reading out loud?
- Why not read the whole text at once (or why not at all)?
- Why/when/how (not) translation?
- Where else could these types of exercises be used?
- What should have come before and what comes next?

## Contact
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- dlukes@al.peacecorps.gov
- me@dominiklukes.net
- www.bohemica.com
- www.dominiklukes.net