Teacher’s Notes - Macmillan English

1 S NotesAdvanced (CAE): READINGU ntil students take exams reading tasks are often set as homework or as an end of lesson activity. effective reading takes time to learn and the skills of skimming and scanning for information have to be developed followed by in-depth reading . Most course books are written chapter by chapter on a given topic. At the end of a reading passage, get students to record any new words alphabetically and by way they will be able to find words in the future, S = Sport. Encouraging students to develop a pre- reading approach to every task should be : Ask the students to read the questions and think about the areas of impact the author may mention for one minute. Brainstorm the ideas on the board then read the passage and see if their ideas are : Do the same activity, but get them to read the first and last sentence of each paragraph, brainstorm their ideas on the board then read the passage and see if their ideas are : Give students a timed reading passage and see how quickly they are able to read; get them to put an X where they were able to read to.

2 As they are reading watch how they are reading , some students may use a finger or a pencil as they read ( a good reading device for less able readers). Others may spend a long time on one sentence and poor readers may get slowed down by a specific word. Good readers will skip unknown words and try to figure out the meaning from the context, this is the most important skill that hopefully by the end of the course all the students will have developed. Task: Give one or two students a passage on the same theme and get them to prepare a pr cis/plan for a presentation of the text. On their plan they should have at the top words I do not know, words I know but do not use and they should also put discourse markers on their plan. This is good for topic development and a vocabulary learning exercise. When giving their presentation they should try to mention the words that they put under the headings of don t know/ know but do not return to the topic a couple of weeks later for review so that it doesn t become out of sight out of mind.

3 Have students study a little bit each day, not just before tests.