1. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
Saturday, 19th October 2013

2. You’re about to start planning your lesson, you open the course book and
there’s a reading text in the bit you want to teach.
Do you:
(a) Skip it.
(b) Set it for homework
(c) Sigh with a heavy heart and decide to do it in class.
Having decided to do it in class – what, generally, is your approach to using
a reading text?
(a) TAVI
(b) TALO
(c) TASP
(d) Whatever it says in the teachers’ book.
(e) None of the above – I do something different.
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

3. Does your “standard” reading lesson look something like this:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
Pre-teach any vocabulary from the text you think they need.
Gist reading task – make the students read the text in a ridiculously short amount of time
and then answer a question.
Detailed reading – let the students take the next 30 minutes to read the text one word at
a time and then ask them to answer 6 comprehension questions which demonstrate (a)
they read the text (b) limited understanding of six aspects of the text as given in the
questions.
A reactive focus on any words the students had problems with or didn’t understand.
Move on to the inevitable grammar point that’s lurking on the next page with dodgy
examples of the form lifted straight out of the text.
If not – how does your lesson differ from this ?
Why has this general structure been arrived at for “reading lessons”? How
effective do you think it is?
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

4. What do
we read?
Using the picture
on the right for
inspiration, how
many different
text types can you
come up with?
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

5. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

6. Different texts obviously require different reading skills.
Where on this diagram would you place some of the texts from the previous slide?
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

7. The ant sees the pebbles, soil, roots, stems, leaves and petals.
The eagle sees all of the flowers, the field and the landscape around it.
Both of them are looking at the same thing – just from different perspectives.
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

8. Read the following text.
The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things in different groups. Of course, one pile may
be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities
that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better
to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications
can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.
Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for
this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges
the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they
will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
02/12/2011

9. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie 19/10/2013

10. using background
knowledge and expectations
about what is being said or
written to understand a
message
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013
processing using
phonological and verbal
cues from the input to
attend to micro-features of a
text

11. Reading Sub Skills & Strategies
1 Prediction
Definitions
A
Reading to get detailed information from the text
B
Reading a text to locate a specific piece of information
such as a word or a number or a time. It is not necessary
to understand the whole text in order to do this.
3 Gist reading
C
Either guessing the meaning of new vocabulary in a text or
understanding meaning or a message in the text that is not
immediately obvious.
4 Scan reading
D
Reading to get a general but not detailed understanding of
the text
5 Intensive reading
E
Also reading to get an overall but not detailed
understanding of the text.
6 Inferring meaning
F
Reading longer texts frequently over a period of time. This
is usually done independently and not in the classroom
7 Extensive reading
G
Looking at headlines, pictures, typeface and layout to
guess what you think a text will be about
2 Skim reading
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

12. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

13. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

14. Prediction Skimming
• Wordle Text
Creation
• Flashcard /
picture
sequencing
• Abstract Matching
• Personal Reactions
• Who, who for & why?
• Find me a job
• Realia
predictions
The Reading Teacher
19/10/2013
Scanning
• Words
beginning
with X
• Wholesome
scattering
David Petrie
Gist
Reading
• Find all the
___ that are
mentioned
Intensive
Reading
Inferring
Meaning
Extensive
Reading
• Question
Makers
• What does
karink mean?
• Steve’s
Starters
• What
happens
next?
• Decontextual
ised vocab.
• Reader
diaries /
reviews
• Random quick
readings
(fast
finishers)

15. Sources & Further Reading
Scott Thornbury: “G is for Gist” - https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/g-is-for-gist/
Languages International: “ESOL Teaching Skills Taskbook (Reading 1)” http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-4/n2449-esol-teaching-skills-taskbook-unit-3-c---reading-1--knowing-about-strategies-and-sub-skills.pdf
Grellet, F. (1981) Developing reading skills Cambridge: CUP
Nuttall, C. (1996) Teaching reading skills in a foregin language Heinemann
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

16. IHWO workshops
Live Online Workshops
http://ihworld.com/ih/next_online_worksh
op
Chris Ozog
7 Reading and Listening
Lesson Musts... and Why
They're Maybes
IH Dubai
Tuesday 22nd & Friday 25th October
The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013

17. The Reading Teacher
David Petrie
19/10/2013