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THE BLACK CAT SERIES OF READERS
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D R A M A READING & TRAININGREADINGSHAKESPEARE
READING & TRAINING
ProfessionalREADING CLASSICS
Green Apple
READING & TRAINING
Discovery INTERACTWITH
LITERATURE
THE LEVELS OF BLACK CAT READERSBlack Cat readers are linked to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (often abbreviated to ‘theFramework’ or ‘the CEFR’, as in the second column of the table below) and to the levels required by internationally accreditedexamination boards, particularly the Cambridge ESOL suite and Trinity graded examinations in spoken English.In the table below, the descriptions in the Cambridge ESOL column mean the following: ‘exam level’ means that the level ofthe text and activities is at the level required by the exam; ‘exam preparation’ means that the text and activities are at a levelslightly lower than the level of the exam (more study is still required) but the activities are in the style of the Cambridge ESOLexam indicated, and so provide valuable exam preparation. The linking of the levels to the exam scores of IELTS, the Internet-based TOEFL exam (TOEFL iBT) and the TOEIC exam arefor guidance only and do not attempt to represent an exact equivalence, which would not be possible.
Black Cat Readers CEFR External Examination Boards
Cambridge ESOL Trinity City and Guilds IELTS TOEFL TOEICiBT
EarlyreadsLevels 1-5 A1 Starters and Movers 1, 2 Young Learners: Basic
For more detailed information on the grading of Earlyreads, see pages 32-33.
EasyreadsLevel 1 A 2 Exam preparation: KET 3 Access
Level 2 A 2 Exam level: KET 4 Access
Green Apple Readers and Green Apple DramaStarter A1 Exam preparation: Flyers and/or KET 1, 2 Preliminary
Verb forms and patternsAffirmative, negative, interrogativeShort answersImperative: 2nd person; let’sInfinitives after some very common verbs (e.g. want)Gerunds (verb + -ing) after some very common verbs (e.g. like, hate)
Types of clauseCo-ordination: but, and, or, and thenSubordination (in the Present Simple or Present Continuous) after
verbs such as: to be sure, to know, to think, to believe, to hope,to say, to tell
Subordination after: because, when
OtherZero, definite and indefinite articlesPossessive ’s and s’Countable and uncountable nouns Some, any; much, many, a lot; (a) little, (a) few; all, every; etc.Order of adjectives
Step 1All the structures used in the previous step, plus the following:
Verb tensesPast SimplePast ContinuousFuture reference: will
Verb forms and patternsRegular and common irregular verbs
Passive forms: Present Simple and Past Simple with very commonverbs (e.g. made, called, born)
Gerunds (verb + -ing) after some prepositions (e.g. before, after)
Modal verbsCould: ability; requestsWill: future reference; offers; promises; predictionsMay (present and future reference): possibilityMustn’t: prohibitionHave (got) to: external obligation
Types of clauseSubordination after if (zero and 1st conditionals)Defining relative clauses with: who, where
OtherComparative and superlative of adjectives (regular and irregular)Formation of adverbs (regular and irregular)
Step 2All the structures used in the previous steps, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Perfect Simple: indefinite past with ever, never (for
experience); indefinite past with yet, already, still; recent pastwith just; past action leading to present situation; unfinishedpast with for or since (duration form)
Verb forms and patternsSo / neither / nor + auxiliaries in short answersQuestion tags (in verb tenses used so far)Gerunds (verb + -ing) as subjects Verb + object + full infinitive (e.g. I want you to help)
Modal verbsShould (present and future reference): adviceMight (present and future reference): possibility; permissionDon’t have to / haven’t got to: lack of obligationDon’t need to / needn’t: lack of necessity
Types of clauseDefining relative clauses with: which, that, zero pronounTime clauses introduced by when, while, until, before, after, as
soon asClauses of purpose: (in order) to (infinitive of purpose)
OtherComparative and superlative of adverbs (regular and irregular)
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HOW BLACK CAT READERS ARE GRADEDThe main criteria used for grading readers involve grammatical structures and vocabulary.
StructuresThe grammar in Graded Readers is controlled and limited to structures that will be familiar to learners at each level.Grammatical structures at each level – in particular verb tenses – correspond to the syllabuses of most major course booksand the CEFR. This enables teachers, when choosing a reader, to compare the levels of readers with their course books.It also makes comparison with the syllabuses of examining boards more obvious. Sentence structure is also carefully graded moving from short simple sentences at lower levels to longer, more complexsentences as students move further up the levels.You will find the detailed list of structures for the Green Apple and Reading and Training series below. For detailedinformation about Earlyread grading, see pages 32-33. The structures used in the Easyread series are those listed underGreen Apple Step 1, but distributed as follows: Easyread Level 1 uses only the present simple and continuous and doesnot use the past simple and continuous, which are introduced at Level 2.
Green Apple
Step OneVerb tensesPresent Simple / Present Continuous / Past Simple / Past Continuous /Future reference: Present Continuous; going to; will; Present Simple /Present Perfect Simple: indefinite past with ever, never (forexperience)Verb forms and patternsRegular and common irregular verbs / Affirmative, negative,interrogative / Imperative: 2nd person; let’s / Passive forms: PresentSimple; Past Simple / Short answers / Infinitives after verbs andadjectives / Gerunds (verb + -ing) after prepositions and commonverbs / Gerunds (verb + -ing) as subjects and objectsModal verbsCan: ability; requests; permission / Could: ability; requests / Will:future reference; offers; promises; predictions / Would … like: offers,requests / Shall: suggestions; offers / Should (present and futurereference): advice / May (present and future reference): possibility /Must: personal obligation / Mustn’t: prohibition / Have (got) to:external obligation / Need: necessityTypes of clauseCo-ordination: but; and; or; and then / Subordination (in the PresentSimple or Present Continuous) after verbs such as: to be sure, toknow, to think, to believe, to hope, to say, to tell / Subordination after:because, when, if (zero and 1st conditionals) / Defining relative clauseswith: who, which, that, zero pronoun, whereOtherZero, definite and indefinite articles / Possessive ’s and s’ / Countableand uncountable nouns / Some, any; much, many, a lot; (a) little, (a)few; all, every; etc. / Order of adjectives / Comparative and superlativeof adjectives (regular and irregular) / Formation andcomparative/superlative of adverbs (regular and irregular)
Step TwoAll the structures used in the previous level, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Perfect Simple: indefinite past with yet, already, still; recentpast with just; past action leading to present situation / Past PerfectSimple: in reported speechVerb forms and patternsRegular verbs and most irregular verbs / Passive forms with going toand will / So; neither; nor + auxiliaries in short answers / Question tags(in verb tenses used so far) / Verb + object + full infinitive (e.g. I wantyou to help) / Reported statements with say and tellModal verbsCan’t: logical necessity / Could: possibility / May: permission / Might(present and future reference): possibility; permission / Must: logicalnecessity / Don’t have to; haven’t got to: lack of obligation / Don’tneed to; needn’t: lack of necessityTypes of clauseTime clauses introduced by when, while, until, before, after, as soonas / Clauses of purpose: so that; (in order) to (infinitive of purpose)
Step ThreeAll the structures used in the previous levels, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Perfect Simple: unfinished past with for or since (durationform) / Past Perfect Simple: narrativeVerb forms and patternsRegular verbs and all irregular verbs in current English Causative: have / get + object + past participle Reported questions and orders with ask and tell
Modal verbsWould: hypothesis / Would rather: preference / Should (present andfuture reference): moral obligation / Ought to (present and futurereference): moral obligation / Used to: past habits and statesTypes of clause2nd Conditional: if + past, would(n’t) / Zero, 1st and 2nd conditionalswith unless / Non-defining relative clauses with who and where /Clauses of result: so; so... that; such... that / Clauses of concession:although, thoughOtherComparison: (not) as / so... as; (not)... enough to; too... to
Step FourAll the structures used in the previous levels, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Perfect Simple: the first; second etc. time that... / PresentPerfect Continuous: unfinished past with for or since (duration form)Verb forms and patternsPassive forms: Present Perfect Simple / Reported speech introduced byprecise reporting verbs (e.g. suggest, promise, apologise)Modal verbsBe; get used to + -ing: habit formation / Had better: duty and warningTypes of clause3rd Conditional: if + Past Perfect, would(n’t) have / Conditionals withmay; might / Non-defining relative clauses with: which, whose /Clauses of concession: even though; in spite of; despite
Step FiveAll the structures used in the previous levels, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Perfect and Past Perfect Simple: negative duration(haven’t/hadn’t... for ages) / Present Perfect Continuous: recentactivities leading to present situation / Past Perfect ContinuousVerb forms and patternsPassive forms: Past Perfect Simple; with modal verbs Reported speech introduced by more examples of precise reportingverbs (e.g. threaten, insist, complain) Wish and if only + past tense / It’s time + past tenseModal verbsShould(n’t) have, ought (not) to have: duty in the past Must have, can’t have, may have, might have, could have: deductionand probability in the pastTypes of clause3rd conditionals with unless / Mixed conditional sentences / Complexsentences with more than one subordinate clause
Step SixAll the structures used in the previous levels, plus the following:Verb tensesPresent Continuous: criticism Future reference: Future Continuous; Future PerfectVerb forms and patternsPassive in continuous forms / Wish and if only + Past Perfect; + wouldModal verbsWill to describe characteristic behaviour Would: past habits / Didn’t need to v. needn’t haveTypes of clauseInversion of had in 2nd and 3rd conditional sentences without if /Inversion of word order after initial negative adverbs (No sooner...;Hardly...; etc.) / Non-finite -ing clauses / Complex sentences with norestriction on the number of subordinate clauses
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How Black Cat readers are graded
Reading & Training (including Reading Shakespeare, Reading & Training Discovery and Reading & Training Professional)
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How Black Cat readers are graded
VocabularyIt is possible to make levels of readers conform to lists ofheadwords taken from well-established languagecorpora. In the Easyread series, for example, 300headwords are used at level 1 and 400 at level 2, with theaddition of some specific lexis inherent in the subjectmatter of the reader in question, which is glossed eitherduring or at the end of the reader.In the Green Apple and Reading and Training series,however, the attitude to lexis is more flexible. Widelyknown word lists are certainly a point of reference, butthese are not followed dogmatically. This occasionallymeans that words commonly associated with a higherlevel may occur at a lower level. This is explained both bycommon sense and good methodological practice. In classic texts, set in a particular time and place, andtexts about particular topics (for example, Easyreads andReading and Training Discovery books) there will naturallybe words which are essential and high-frequency in thosetexts, but which are usually far less frequent. Forexample, in Gulliver’s Travels (Reading and Training, StepThree) we need to include swords, cannons, wasps,eagles, dwarves, and so on, which are not very commonlexis! Yet they are an integral part of the texture andfascination of the story.An attitude of good sense towards vocabulary issupported by the use of a sensible criterion. The texts ofall Green Apple readers and the texts of Steps 1 to 3 ofthe Reading and Training series have been checkedagainst the word lists for the Cambridge ESOL Flyers,KET and PET exams. Words which are not on those listsbut are essential for the text are pre-taught in pre-readingor glossed. In the case of vocabulary that the learner is not familiarwith, it must be said that guessing the meaning ofunknown words in context is an extremely valuable sub-skill of reading, which should be encouraged. Theimportance of this skill is stressed continuouslythroughout the Common European Framework ofReference, as the following quotations show:• ‘...learners will have to use interpretation strategies
such as... making use of clues such as titles,illustrations, paragraphing...’ (A2 and B1 levels of theCommon European Framework of Reference)
• ‘When a learner can use “compensation strategies”there is no point in trying to specify the limits of thevocabulary content that the learners may be supposedto be able to deal with.’ (A2 and B1 levels)
• ‘The learners are aware of the potential of learningthrough exposure to foreign language use and knowhow various compensation strategies may enablethem to cope with texts containing unknown words.’(a ‘learning-to-learn’ objective from the B1 level)
In the case of essential vocabulary which may be beyondthe level of the learner, help is always given through oneor more of these strategies: • ‘before you read activities’ before each chapter (see
page 15), which pre-teach vocabulary;• simple monolingual glosses at the foot of the page,
which are sometimes accompanied by an illustration;• high-quality illustrations: the learner naturally ‘reads’
the illustration before reading or listening to the text,and comprehension is greatly facilitated;
• picture dictionaries at lower levels.
Some ways of exploiting the reading texts for activevocabulary enrichment are shown in the ‘Word Box’activity (page 16) and in the ‘Vocabulary Notes’ page ofthe Reading Diary (page 41).
Text-type and task-typeTwo further criteria for grading readers are according totext-type and task-type.The general principle for the selection of text-type meansthat at Green Apple level there are many readers involvingadventure, legend and fable, mystery and suspense, andso on: that is, subject matter familiar and interesting tothe younger learner. The Reading and Training readersreflect the older age group of the learners, and containnarratives which are not only exciting, but also morepsychologically intriguing.One aspect of progress in reading skills is the gradualdevelopment from simply being able to find and extractinformation to also being able to interpret more subtleelements such as opinions, points of view and motivation(see the scales from the Framework on pages 42-3 and45). For this reason, a general distinction in task-types is:• at lower levels the emphasis is more on fact-finding
activities of the ‘closed’ type, which require littlelanguage production from the learners in theirresponses;
• at higher levels interpretative activities of the ‘open’type involving inference and opinion are included.Such activities require more language production fromthe learners in their responses.
Black Cat readers adopt an exciting new approach whichwe call ‘expansive reading’. Our objectives includeexpanding students’ learning in all kinds of directions andin all kinds of ways and expanding their cultural horizons,as well as expanding the range of activities that teacherscan do with their students. The term ‘expansive reading’also distinguishes our approach from both intensivereading and extensive reading. Expansive reading aims to use the text that the studentsread as a springboard to explore all kinds of areas –linguistic, cultural and other – as we will now demonstrate.Activities which surround reading texts (both followingand preceding texts) can focus on any of the ten areaslisted below, and in the expansive approach all of themwill receive attention during the course of a completereader.
Ten areas that a reading text can lead usto explore• Comprehension • Interpretation and evaluation • Listening, speaking and writing• Grammar• Vocabulary• Cross-curricularity• Culture and interculturality• Intertextuality• Using the Internet• External certification practice
Comprehension, interpretation andevaluationComprehension tasks have been rather controversial inrecent times, with some practitioners of reading evenclaiming that they are useless. We maintain, however, that– in our methodology which gives so much space toactivities – before proceeding to more ‘exciting’ activitiesthat follow a text it is merely sensible to check thateveryone in class has no problems with the ‘surfacemeaning’ of the text that has been read and anymisunderstanding of explicit meaning has been clearedup. Interpretation (e.g. ‘I think he/she did that because…’)and evaluation (e.g. ‘I liked/didn’t like that part/characterbecause…’) activities involve productive skills as well asreading skills, and the importance of these is discussedimmediately below.
Listening, speaking and writingReading leads quite naturally to the practice of the otherlanguage skills, and the presence of all four skills in BlackCat readers means that teachers in some parts of theworld have opted to use a selection of Black Cat readersthroughout the school year instead of a course book.
Regarding the skills of speaking and writing, it may seemobvious but it is still worth pointing out this fact: in orderto practise speaking and writing one must havesomething to speak and write about – and good readingtexts provide this in a way that is difficult to better.
Grammar and vocabularyThe grammatical structures and lexical items that arechosen for practise in the while-reading activities of BlackCat readers are always suggested by exponents in thetext that has just been read.The grammar activities generally attempt to practise thestructures either in tasks that are to do with the events ofthe story or that involve the students’ own world.Vocabulary is generally practised by encouraging thestudents to create relationships such as antonymy orword fields. Games-based activities are common too: justone example among many is crosswords, found at alllevels and popular with students and teachers alike,which check and recycle new vocabulary introduced.
Cross-curricularityOver 35 terms are used around the world to refer toteaching school subjects in a foreign or second language.The two most common terms are CLIL (Content andLanguage Integrated Learning), used in Europeanmethodology, and CBI (Content Based Instruction), used inAmerican methodology. CLIL or CBI in its ‘strongest’ forminvolves teaching a school subject for a whole year in aforeign language, although in ‘weaker’ forms it is also usedto refer to teaching a subject in a foreign language for 50%of a school year or slightly less – both teaching contextsand terminology differ around the world. At the lower endof the spectrum in terms of quantity, modules of 20 hoursor so where a project involving a non-language subject isconducted in a foreign language are common. The expansive reading approach of Black Cat readersmeans that information and activities which connect withsubjects such as history, geography, science, art, socialstudies and so on feature in each volume, providinginteresting examples of cross-curricular connections.Opportunities for cross-curricular connections occurregularly in fictional texts, and particularly in the case ofhistory and geography: stories are always set in time andplace, so history and geography are always areas that wecan explore. Indeed, giving students information aboutthe setting of a story and the social background againstwhich it was written might well be seen as necessaryrather than just optional: why should we assume that ayoung learner not from Britain who is about to read, say,Oliver Twist already knows where and when the story isset, and what Victorian London was like? Furthermore,the young learner might be interested in learning aboutDickens’s role as a social campaigner.
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EXPANSIVE READING
The view quoted below is very much in favour of providingbackground information:“… Do editors suppose learners of all cultures are equallyfamiliar with varieties of background, place and time, andliterary techniques found in fiction of their culture, let aloneof all other cultures? […] We urge series editors to see theirtask as that of ensuring that learners understand as muchas possible and enjoy all aspects of a story as they read it.”From the citation for the 2005 Language LearnerLiterature Awards, awarded by the Extensive ReadingFoundation (www.erfoundation.org). Information and activities relating to background andcross-curricular connections can be found in four placesin Black Cat readers: • in the introductions to each reader• in the dossiers – the factual, informative chapters in
the fictional readers (between two and four per readeris the usual number) which explore features of setting,background or any topic which is interestingly relatedto the story
• in the Internet projects (between two and four is theusual number per reader)
• during the while-reading and after-reading activities.
As we have seen, connections with history andgeography are always present. Connections with othersubjects – science, social studies, art, music and so on –depend on the contents of the reader in question. Oneexample among many must suffice. In The Lost World bySir Arthur Conan Doyle (Reading and Training, Step Two)information and activities include: dinosaurs andpalaeontology; social geography and biology whenstudents find out about Amazonia; the history of literatureand art when students learn about the early film version ofThe Lost World and its connection with King Kong, andhow Conan Doyle’s novel started the genre which leadsus to Jurassic Park!
‘By presenting information clearly and attractively,Black Cats widen learners’ horizons. …Black Cat have led the way … in increasing [graded readers’] educational value by providingextensive background material.’
“Survey Review: Graded Readers in English”, D. R. Hill, ELT Journal Volume 62/2 (April, 2008).
Culture & intercultural awarenessA story always has a setting which is defined in terms ofplace and time, and this already constitutes part of thecultural background that is contained in a text. But thecultural background of a text also contains all kinds ofsociocultural features, knowledge of which is calledsociocultural knowledge. According to the CommonEuropean Framework of Reference: ‘… knowledge of the society and culture of thecommunity or communities in which a language is spoken… is of sufficient importance to the language learner to
merit special attention, especially since … it is likely to lieoutside the learner’s previous experience and may well bedistorted by stereotypes.’ (CEFR: 5.1.1.2)The CEFR then goes on to list some examples of featurescharacteristic of societies and their cultures. The list isworth quoting in full, as it provides an extremely usefulchecklist.
1. Everyday living, such as: food & drink; meal times;table manners; public holidays; working hours andpractices; leisure activities (such as hobbies, sports,reading habits, the media).
2. Living conditions, such as: living standards (withregional, class & ethnic variations); housing conditions;welfare arrangements.
3. Interpersonal relations (including relations of powerand society), for example with respect to: classstructure of society; relations between sexes; familystructures; relations between generations; relations inwork situations; relations between public and police,officials, etc.; race and community relations; relationsamong political and religious groupings.
4. Values, beliefs & attitudes, in relation to such factorsas: social class; occupational groups; wealth; regionalcultures; security; institutions; tradition and socialchange; history (especially iconic people and events);minorities; national identity; foreign countries, statespeople; politics; arts; religion; humour.
5. Body language (knowledge of such behaviour is anexample of sociocultural competence).
6. Social conventions, for example with regard to givingand receiving hospitality, such as: punctuality; presents,dress, refreshments, drinks, meals; behaviouralconventions and taboos; length of stay; leave-taking.
7. Ritual behaviour in such areas as: religiousobservances and rites; birth, marriage, death;audience and spectator activity at performances;celebrations, festivals, dances, discos, etc.
It is interesting to observe how many of these featuresoccur naturally in fiction: quite apart from its setting,which may be more or less prominent, a work of fictionwill to certain extent embody the behaviours and valuesof the culture it comes from. Indeed, it would be difficultto imagine a work of fiction that was not culturally specificin any way! When using a reader we have three basic choices abouthow to deal with the cultural features:
1 We can leave all the cultural features simplyembedded in the story and not focus on them at all.But this ignores the possibility of students needinghelp in understanding and/or being curious andwanting to know more.
2 We can point out all the cultural features to ourlearners. But this is too demanding for the teacher. Italso overlooks the fact that students can acquireknowledge of a foreign culture without conscious study.
3 We can focus attention on some of the culturalfeatures and leave others simply embedded. There aregood reasons for this approach:
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Expansive reading
‘’
– learners will often need information to understand the plot of a story;
– we can take the opportunity to teach some sociocultural knowledge, a valid aim in itself;
– we can develop the learners’ attitudes to ‘otherness’, the awareness of and appreciation fordifferences among human beings and human groups, as Howard Gardner defines ‘the respectful mind’ in his Five Minds for the Future. (This book is discussed in more detail on page 31.) Cultural features of the society in a story can – indeed should – be compared with the culture(s) represented by the class. As the Common European Framework of Reference puts it:‘Knowledge, awareness and understanding of therelation (similarities and distinctive differences)between the ‘world of origin’ and the ‘world of thetarget community’ produce an interculturalawareness. … In addition to objective knowledge,intercultural awareness covers an awareness of howeach community appears from the perspective ofthe other, often in the form of national stereotypes.’(CEFR 5.1.1.3)
Both sociocultural knowledge and intercultural awarenessare catered for in information and activities in the dossiersand the Internet projects, and are sometimes also foundduring the while-reading and after-reading activities.
IntertextualityThe academic term ‘intertextuality’ – the relationshipbetween texts – was introduced into literary theory in thelate 1960s by Julia Kristeva. The term has been used inmany ways. It can refer to deliberate allusions to aprevious text by an author (as in T. S. Eliot’s The WasteLand, or in the ‘sampling’ in those modern pop songswhich contain ‘quotes’ from previous songs). Whether aperson reading a text recognises the allusions or not is aquestion of knowledge (often literary knowledge) and thismeaning of intertextuality is not really relevant to us in thelanguage classroom. Intertextuality also refers to the connection to other textsmade by reader her/himself while reading the text inquestion, and it is this kind of intertextuality which isextremely useful in the language classroom. By other textswe mean other works of fiction, but also other genres suchas films, musicals, poetry, songs, drama, artworks, and soon, and the texts can be many and various according tothe culture of the reader who is reading the text.Encouraging and enabling learners to make theseconnections is clearly useful for wider educational aims,and the usefulness of these connections as the basis forlanguage activities lies in the fact that they automaticallyprovide something – and almost always somethingmotivating – to talk and/or write about. Just one exampleis how often film versions of classic stories are exploitedin Black Cat readers (see page 29.)Intertextuality, under the name text-to-text connection, isone of the connection-making strategies suggested by
Susan Zimmermann and Ellin Keene in their influentialbook on reading comprehension, Mosaic of Thought(2007). They identify three kinds of personal connectionthat can be made when we read:
• Text-to-Self Connection: readers make personalconnections with events or characters in the text;people they know, things they have done, places theyhave been, experiences they have had, etc.
• Text-to-Text Connection: readers connect events,characters or plot in the text with other texts andother genres of text (this can be considered asintertextuality).
• Text-to-World Connection: readers connect events,characters or themes in the text with real-life events,people or issues.
In Black Cat readers, learners are sometimes told whatthe text-to-text and text-to-world connections of a storyare: this is done mainly in the introductions and dossiers.Sometimes the approach is inductive, and students areguided into discovering text-to-text and text-to-worldconnections by themselves: this kind of activity can befound in Internet projects, in activities following thedossiers, in the after-reading activities at the end of thereaders, and occasionally during the while-readingactivities.Such kinds of activity are not restricted to higher levels.The amusing plot of E. Nesbit’s children’s classic FiveChildren and It (Green Apple, Step 1) hinges on acreature, the ‘sand fairy’, who grants a group of childrentheir – often reckless! – wishes. Events go disastrouslywrong until order is restored and a happy ending ensues.In a dossier called ‘Making Wishes’, the young learnersare told about some stories from around the world whichinvolve wishes: about what kind of person or creaturegrants wishes; about how wishes can be made and howmany can be made; about how long they last; aboutwhether there is a ‘catch’ to the wish (that is, whetherthey can turn out badly). All this information is an exampleof intertextuality. Our young learners are then invited tothink of the circumstances in which people can expresswishes in their own cultures (intercultural awareness).They then continue to explore intertextuality in the genreof film by doing an Internet project where they find outmore about the films Aladdin and Cinderella.
Internet projects Internet projects are ideal for making cross-curricularconnections, researching sociocultural knowledge,facilitating intercultural comparisons, and exploring text-to-text and text-to-world connections. They aredescribed on page 31.
External certification practiceInteresting material which also provides examinationpractice can be integrated into the expansive readingapproach, as described on page 28.
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Expansive reading
There are three important criteria in choosing a reader, allinterconnected: the level, age and interests of thelearners. The following comments refer principally tochoosing a class reader.
The level of the learnersTo help choose an appropriate level of reader use thechart on page 3 of this guide. Maybe you already knowhow to describe the level of your class according to thelevels of the CEFR, or perhaps you have an idea of whatexternal exam your students might be potentialcandidates for. If not, the course book you already usewill give an indication of its level: find this on the chart,and see which Black Cat readers are appropriate at thislevel. Then make a further check by comparing thestructural syllabus of your course book with the structuralcontents of the level of the reader you are thinking ofadopting (pages 4-5). If you are in doubt between twolevels, choose the lower one – particularly if it is your firstexperience. It is discouraging to read a book which is toodifficult. On the other hand, if the book seems slightlyeasy it can be read more quickly, and more attention canbe given to the activities, which can be done in a morechallenging way (more quickly, or by requiring moreinterpretation). Then the next reader can be chosen fromthe higher level. After finishing the reader you can askyour learners how they coped with it, maybe by givingthem a 5-level multiple choice questionnaire, and seeingwhat the average class response is.
Too easy
A little below my level
Right for my level
A little above my level
Too difficult
This will help the teacher in choosing the next reader, andwill also help individual learners in establishing their ownlevel for eventual autonomous reading.
The age of the learnersThe important consideration here is not to choose areader which does not seem sophisticated enough for theage of the learners, both in its content and appearance.The general Black Cat guidelines are that Green Applereaders are for younger learners while Reading andTraining readers are for young adolescents to youngadults. Yet the level of sophistication among youngteenagers can vary widely. Ultimately it is you, theteacher, who knows your class best.
The interests of the class1 Learner-based choiceInterests can be defined in terms of content (what is in thebook) and genre (is it a thriller? a love story? a mystery?non-fiction?). You might consider asking your learnerswhat their interests are, using a questionnaire, but thismay not be very useful: the responses might be toodisparate, too vague, or too ambitious for you to use. Beconcrete rather than abstract. The best idea is for theteacher to make a shortlist (but not necessarily too short!)and ask the class to choose. This can be done by bringinginto class the Black Cat catalogue and/or copies of thebooks on the teacher’s shortlist. Ask your book distributorto give you extra copies of the catalogue. The catalogue,written with both teachers and learners in mind, is apleasure to browse through. It is illustrated in full colour,and the descriptions of the readers are both accurate and‘appetising’. If you have copies of the readers themselves(perhaps copies you have used on previous courses, orfrom a school library or other resource centre), lay themdown on a table and let the learners browse throughthem. Let them behave like customers in a bookshop.That is, let them look at the covers (the designs will surelyattract them), read the blurb on the back covers (translateany words if asked), and leaf through the books (theillustrations are bound to excite curiosity and interest).While learners are doing this, be enthusiastic if you areasked any questions: Has there been a film version? Haveyou read it? What is it about? If you show interestyourself, you will transmit it to your learners. After this,the class can then vote on the reader they want to adopt.
2 Teacher-based choice or curriculum-based choiceAlternatively, it may be the case that the teacher wants toexplore a particular historical period, or a particular themein her/his teaching, or has an idea for a project, perhapsthe 19th century, or young people, or travel, or drama,and so on. Or there may be an idea for collaborationbetween the English teacher and the teacher of art orscience or another school subject. In these cases theteacher can certainly take responsibility for making thechoice. Whether the choice is made by learners or the teacher,one factor that might be important is whether there is afilm version (this is very likely in the case of classicfiction). An indispensable tool to research this is theInternational Movie Database (www.imdb.com), whereyou will find lists of all the film versions of all classic titles.For suggestions about using films, see page 29.
10
CHOOSING A READER
In this section you will find a description of a standardway of fitting readers into your teaching, followed byvariations. Eventually each teacher will find a way of usingreaders that is most suitable in her/his context, but therewill always be moments when it is stimulating to surpriselearners with a different procedure. In this section only general procedures are described:subsequent sections of the guide will go into details onthe use of particular kinds of activities.
The ‘standard’ model: class readersThe most common use of readers is when all the learnershave the same reader (known as a ‘class reader’) and thereading is done mostly in class (but not necessarily: seebelow). The teacher will probably find it best to presentthe reader in ‘episodes’, in different reading sessions. So,if the reader is a narrative (a novel or a long story) at alower level it will be done one chapter at a time, like aserial. This creates interest and suspense. At higherlevels, where the chapters might sometimes seem toolong, it is easy enough to find a convenient breaksomewhere near the middle of a chapter. In the case ofcollections of short stories or non-fiction, it will be doneone story or one chapter at a time (or breaking at aconvenient mid-way point).
Timing • Set a time limit on how long you want to use a reader.
A maximum time would be one school term: takingany longer would lose the learners’ interest.
• It is possible to insert a reading session at the end ofevery lesson, although teachers who have 2-4 lessonsa week often have their reading session once a week.If once a week, a good time is during the last lessonof the week, which gives a ‘special’ feeling to thereading session. Indeed, an entire school lesson canbe dedicated to using a reader (this may even be morepractical: students have only to bring one book toschool).
• The time needed for a reading session can range fromabout 10 minutes to the entire lesson, depending onhow many of the activities are done in class. After afew sessions the teacher will have an idea of theamount of time the class is comfortable with.However, as the class becomes more used to readingtogether, the learners will be able to handle more timespent on reading.
ProcedureAfter a brief warm-up (see the Pre-reading activitiessection, page 15) the reading starts. A commonprocedure is that learners listen while they follow the textsin their readers. The teacher can pause at intervals andask a few very simple factual WH- questions or true/falsequestions to make sure that everybody in classunderstands what is happening. Without interrupting themomentum, the teacher might also ask what the learnersthink might happen next (but if no answers areimmediately forthcoming, go on with the reading).However, if the class seems absorbed by the readingand/or irritated by the pauses and questions, then allowthe class to read the entire chapter uninterrupted. Thiswill be more likely when the class becomes used toreading together.Two possibilities for presenting the text for reading are:• The teacher reads, expressively and dramatically (an
advantage is that the learners know the teacher’svoice, and the teacher can adjust the speed of readingto suit the language level of the class).
• The teacher plays the recording. An advantage is thatit is recorded by professional actors who read veryexpressively, and it may have special sound effects.(Further information on using the recordings is foundon page 30.)
Both procedures ensure that all the learners are exposedto a good model of pronunciation and read at the samespeed. They cannot pause at words they do not know,and so reading fluency is fostered. In addition, theexpressivity of the reading aids comprehension. To shift the emphasis a little more onto listening, the classcan listen once with their books closed, and onlyafterwards open their books and read (with or withoutlistening the second time). Only do this if you know thatthe language level of the class is high in comparison withthe reader you are using, otherwise you run the risk ofdiscouraging your learners.
Two things not to do• Do not go around the class asking the learners to take
it in turn to read aloud. The student who is readingbecomes anxious, the others are either preparing theirpassage to read or not listening any more if they havealready read. Furthermore, imperfect pronunciationmight be transmitted to the class. Any eventual oralreadings or dramatising activities (see pages 36-7)should come later: at this stage learners are focusingon understanding meaning, not producing language.
11
FITTING READERS INTO YOUR TEACHING
• Do not let learners use dictionaries (which will in anycase be impossible if they are following the recordingor the teacher). The use of dictionaries at this stagediscourages two vital sub-skills of fluent reading:ignoring unknown words and guessing meaning incontext. Learners should only use dictionaries later(during the activities, or during rereading at home),and then only if they are in real difficulty. Encouragelearners to use the glosses, the illustrative support,and to make guesses in context, using knowledge ofwhat comes before and after. At higher levels learnersmay want to use dictionaries during interpretativeactivities to refine meaning (for example, to findconnotations of words) but they should not use themwhen reading a chapter for the first time.
ActivitiesEach chapter in the Black Cat readers is followed by anumber of activities of different types. The first is alwaysa comprehension check, although the format might vary(true/false, multiple choice, matching, WH- questions,etc). The subsequent activities include languageactivities, various ways of reacting to the text – involvingvarious skills – and ‘expansive reading’ activities. Afterreading, the teacher has two main options:• Do all or most of the activities in class (with the class
working individually, in pairs or groups). If pressed fortime, any activities not done can be set as homework.
• Do just the first activity in class (the comprehensioncheck), and perhaps one or two others. Then lookthrough the rest of the activities with the class andexplain them. Set some or all of them as homework.
Note that in both cases the teacher does not need to doall of the activities, although the comprehension check isalways advisable: this activity enables the teacher toensure that everyone has the same basic understandingof what has been read, and to discuss and clear upeventual misunderstandings. As for the subsequentactivities, it is perfectly possible to leave some of themout. For example, the teacher might only want to focus onthe language activities, or limit the work to just a creativewriting task. Treat the activities as a ‘menu’ of possibletasks. But you can always remind the learners that theythemselves can do the activities as self-study – althoughyou should bear in mind that you would need tocheck/correct what they do.
Variations on the ‘standard’ model• If the learners keep their readers in class, now and
again change the moment when you have yourreading session. You might want to do a chapter as asurprise change of activity (for example, when thelearners are finding their text book rather heavy going,or they are bored, or whenever you think it might beappreciated!).
• You might sometimes ask the class to read and/orlisten to a chapter at home (after about 5 minutes ofbrief pre-reading activities in class). Then, in thesubsequent session in class, you can focus on theactivities (for example, at higher levels, an extendedinterpretation-type activity involving debate anddiscussion).
• Instead of listening to the recording or the teacher,you might occasionally ask the learners to read achapter silently, to encourage learning autonomy andgood reading habits outside the classroom.
• You might occasionally ask learners which of theactivities they would like to do. Ask them, for example,to choose one, two or three from the selection offered.The debate in class might be interesting!
The dossier sectionsThere are generally between two and four ‘dossier’sections in each Black Cat reader. This stimulatingbackground material – exploring social, historical andcultural perspectives – is inserted into the readers atmoments when it is suggested by events ordevelopments in the texts. To enhance the cross-curricular approach, you can tell your colleagues whoteach other subjects about the dossiers: perhaps theymight give some related input in their classes. There are different ways of fitting the dossiers into yourteaching:
When• read them in the order in which they occur in the
reader;• defer them until a moment you choose – which might
be after finishing the reader. In this option, you mighteven ask groups of students to read different dossiersand then deliver a report to the rest of the class.
How• read them in class, in the order in which they occur,
just as if they were a chapter of the book;• ask learners to do them as homework;• ask learners to do them during school holidays.
‘Green Apple are beautiful, full of activities andhave fascinating dossiers: perfect for my lessons!’
Eylem Coklu, Teacher, Turkey
Holiday readingReaders are a great idea for study and pleasure duringschool holidays. If the teacher is following a theme-basedsyllabus, holiday reading is ideal material either forpreparatory work or follow-up study. But even if thereading is not related to a thematic syllabus, and the
12
Fitting readers into your teaching
‘ ’
teacher’s syllabus is exclusively language-based, thelinguistic benefits are sufficient reward on their own.
During holidays, the class can be asked to: • read the same book (or maybe the same two or three
books if your summer holidays are long);• read books of their own individual choice. In this case
the teacher should establish a list of readers at theappropriate level, and then follow the proceduredescribed in the section on learner-based choice(page 10). Learners can then order the books throughthe teacher or get them from a bookshop.
The recommended procedures are:• If the class is going to read the same book, then the
teacher can set a number of activities from the readerthat all the class should do. The teacher can also setthe learners one or more post-reading activities forfeedback and comparison in class. (See the sectionon post-reading activities on pages 26-7.)
• If the class is going to read different books, then theteacher might only set the learners one or more post-reading activities for feedback and comparison inclass. (See the section on post-reading activities onpages 26-7.)
In both cases:• Encourage learners to listen to the recording as often
as possible, even without reading. Stress that all thesituations in which they would normally listen to musicare possible, useful and enjoyable! (e.g. waiting for thebus/train, on the bus/train, in bed, etc.).
• Encourage them to exchange their readingexperiences when they meet friends from their class.Reading itself is a ‘solitary’ pleasure, but talking aboutour reading with others is a natural human activity.
Autonomous reading: the class libraryIdeally, books should be available for learners to take awayand read whenever they want. This can be entirelyvoluntary and unmonitored, or as part of an individualreading programme, where the teacher requires that eachlearner reads a certain number of books during a schoolyear. In both cases the ideal resource is a class library. Ifyou decide to set one up, be enthusiastic about it! The class library could be an entire shelf or more, orsimply a box of books. The books can come from avariety of sources: those used on previous courses;
bought by the school; donated by learners or theirparents (if the parents of each student buy just one bookand donate it to the class library, then there are already20+ books in the library!). In any case, it should grow overtime. It will quite possibly contain some readers one levelbelow and above the average level of the class, to caterfor individual needs. Regarding organisation, for psychological motives ofinvolvement it is a good idea if a student is appointed aslibrarian, who will keep a record of who has borrowed abook. This responsibility can rotate, and a new librarianbe appointed each term.For this autonomous use of readers, the aim is extensivereading and/or self-study, so the teacher should not insiston any activities for the learners to do: they simply borrowthe books and read them in any way they like. Youngerlearners can even involve their parents, if they knowEnglish.The only support suggested by the teacher might be oneor more of the following:• ‘Review cards’. Put a card inside each reader, on
which learners can write a comment – a word, aphrase or at most a sentence – which can beanonymous or signed, as the learner wishes. In thisway learners can recommend books to other learners.
• The ‘reading board’. Put a board on the wallsomewhere near the books. The board has the samefunction as the review card: it is a table with names ofthe students down the side and names of the booksacross the top. This will also reveal who has readbooks and who hasn’t: the teacher should decidewhether she/he thinks this is a good or bad idea.
• ‘Personal reading cards’. Learners can be encouragedto keep their own reading cards. On these they writedown the title, author, main plot, themes, and theirown comments. They can keep these cards in a file ora box. It may be useful in some state exams forlearners to be able to list and talk about all the booksthey have read. If you teach in a European context,such a record would also be useful for the ‘biography’section of a European Language Portfolio (ELP).
• ‘Reading diaries’. These are more extended pieces ofwork than reading cards. They are described in thesection on while-reading activities on pages 16-17,and photocopiable pages are found on 38-41. A reallywell-kept reading diary could find a place in the‘dossier’ section of an ELP.
13
Fitting readers into your teaching
After you have chosen a class reader it is worth spendingsome time on preparatory activities before reading thefirst chapter. The aims are:1 to raise awareness of the subject and activate what
the learners already know2 to motivate reading by providing reasons to read3 to elicit or pre-teach a few items of key vocabulary
that will be important.
The first two aims are fundamental: the first activates thelearners’ ‘schemata’ (knowledge of the world which isrelevant to the subject matter of the book) and the secondencourages learners to make some kind of predictions aboutthe book which they will confirm or not when they read.Here are some common ‘start up’ activities to choosefrom, most of which require very little preparation. If thelearners are obviously enthusiastic about beginning theirreader, don’t make them wait too long! And try to finish offthe ‘start up’ session with some reading.
Covers and CharactersThe covers of Black Cat readers are all beautifullyillustrated, so asking learners to make predictions aboutthe contents based on the cover and title is both easy andproductive. Most of the readers also have a single ordouble page just after the introduction called ‘TheCharacters’, where the major characters and most of theminor characters are illustrated. Focus learners’ attentionon this page, and ask them to suggest adjectives todescribe each character. You can also ask them – as aprediction activity – to group them into ‘positive’, ‘negative’and ‘neutral’ characters. Some readers also have a pageafter ‘The Characters’ called ‘The Setting’, where learnersare given key vocabulary related to the setting.
IllustrationsThe full-colour illustrations in each chapter are alsoextremely ‘appetising’. Here are some suggestions forexploiting them. • The teacher looks through the reader first, and
chooses some of the most intriguing full-pageillustrations (between four and six is a good number).Then the class turns to the relevant pages, one at atime, and the teacher asks questions such as ‘Whatcan you see here?’ ‘What is happening?’ ‘Who arethese people?’ and so on. As you go through thesuccessive illustrations, encourage learners to predicthow the plot might develop.
• Photocopy some of the illustrations which show keynarrative moments and give them to the learners outof order. Ask them to put them in the order they thinkthey will occur in the text, and explain their reasons.
• Ask learners to look through the books, choose theirfavourite picture and describe it to each other in pairsor groups (this is also good practice for the speakingparts of many external exams).
• The teacher says ‘Find a picture containing / whichshows...’ and the learners race through the book tofind the illustration described.
Chapter HeadingsMost readers have chapter headings. In those that do,open the reader at the contents page and look at thechapter headings: what predictions can the class makeabout the contents of each chapter? This activity worksmuch better with just a little more preparation: photocopythe contents pages, cut out the chapter headings andstick them on a piece of paper in scrambled order;photocopy this and give it to the learners. (Alternatively,simply write the chapter headings out of order on theboard.) Ask them to put them in the order they think theywill occur in the text, and explain their reasons.
TrailersFilm trailers never include the beginnings of films! Theyalways include the most exciting parts. Similarly, theteacher can present a key scene from any part of thebook (by reading it or playing the recording) in order tostimulate interest. With a little more preparation the teacher can make aposter, a collage of some of the most intriguing illustrationsand some key moments from the text (sentences, briefexchanges of dialogue). Encourage the learners to makepredictions. Ideally, such posters should have been madeby learners who have read the book (as suggested in thesection on after-reading activities on page 26).
What do you know?If the learners have heard of the book (which is verypossible with well-known titles such as Peter Pan, RobinHood, Oliver Twist, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll andMr Hyde, Dracula, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein,etc.), ask the class to write down – individually – 3 thingsthey are sure they know, 3 things they think they know, and3 things they want to find out. (You can stipulate 1 thing, or2 things, instead of 3.) Learners then compare their lists ingroups, and then the teacher conducts feedback with thewhole class, collecting ideas and writing them on theboard. It will be interesting to see what the most commonpoints are. Tell the learners that during their reading theywill be able to confirm – or not! – their ideas.
IntroductionsAll the readers which are adapted classics have anintroduction about the author. Original readers have aninitial chapter about the setting or some other element ofinterest. The teacher can decide to do this chapter at thispoint or defer it till later. Before reading this chapter itmight be an idea to use the What do you know?procedure described above, but only if the teacher thinksthat students might have some idea of the contents.
14
GETTING STARTED
These are the activities that the teacher will do once theclass has started the reader, before every readingsession. The aims are:1 to check comprehension so far, and make sure that
no-one has ‘got lost’2 to elicit or pre-teach vocabulary that will be important3 to encourage learners to predict what might happen
next.
Not too much time should be dedicated to this, as themain aim is to start reading the next chapter. Green Appleand Reading and Training readers already contain pre-reading activities which realise the second two aimsabove. As usual, the teacher may adapt or substitute orskip the activities in the book according to the needs ofthe class.Here are some additional techniques to help realise thethree aims stated above.
1 A minute or two should be enough for any of theseactivities which check comprehension so far.• Simply ask the class some WH- questions. • A more entertaining procedure is a true/false activity:
the teacher makes a variety of statements about theprevious chapter, some of which are true and some ofwhich are false. Learners call out ‘true’ or ‘false’: inthe case of false statements the teacher can invite theclass – collectively, or by asking individuals – tocorrect them.
• Very similar to the above, but even more entertaining,is when the teacher gives a brief oral summary of theprevious chapter, but including some deliberatemistakes. Younger learners in particular enjoy spottingthe mistakes and calling out the correct words orphrases.
• Invite the class to narrate the previous chapter in theform of a chain story: one learner says one sentence,another learner is invited to make up a furthersentence, and so on. In this case, try not to make theprocedure seem like a ‘test’: we want a positiveattitude to reading the next chapter!
2 There are those who maintain that pre-teachingvocabulary has little effect in aiding subsequentcomprehension, while others consider it a standardprocedure. Black Cat readers are of the second opinion,and often contain activities before each chapter whichpre-teach or revise vocabulary.These often take the form of matching words andpictures, with learners encouraged to use theirdictionaries if necessary. After the learners have done thematching activity, ask them to use the words in some way(e.g. by making up sentences using the words).
3 Everyone in the field of reading agrees that goodreaders are readers who make predictions about whatthey are going to read. The following activities are allcommon; depending on the text being read, some will bemore useful than others. The first ones need hardly anypreparation time. Whatever activity you use, the aim is tomotivate: be careful not to spoil any of the suspense byyour choice of activity. • Simply ask the question ‘What do you think is going to
happen next?’ The class can think about answers inpairs or small groups, and then the class can vote onthe most likely.
• Use the illustrations in the chapter to stimulateprediction. Standard questions such as ‘Who can yousee?’, ‘What are they doing?’, ‘How are they feeling?’,‘What do you think has just happened?’ are all useful.Learners can even think of questions themselves inpairs or groups to ask each other.
• Encourage predictions from the chapter title.• Play the beginning of the recording for the chapter.
What important information has the class understood?How does the class think things will develop?
• Make some explicit predictions about what willhappen. Do the learners think they are true or false?
• Extract a significant sentence from the chapter andask learners ‘What do you think happens to lead up tothis?’ The sentence chosen can even be the lastsentence of the chapter.
• Extract some significant sentences from the chapter,write them on the board in scrambled order, and askthe class to suggest the order in which they will occur.
• Write some significant words on the board. Learnerspredict in what context they will occur (e.g. in relationto which character, or to what possible event). This isalso a good opportunity to pre-teach any lexis thatmight be unknown.
• Extract a passage and eliminate some of the words(gap-filling procedure). This is a prediction activity, nota language test, so eliminate words to do with the plotdevelopment. Learners fill in the gaps and then checktheir answers when they read.
A common pre-reading activity is based on listening.Learners answer multiple choice or true/false questionsor complete sentences with notes while listening to therecording of the beginning of a chapter. They then read tocheck their answers. With these activities it is advisableto examine the questions thoroughly before listening,even making predictions where possible.
15
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
These are the activities which are found after eachchapter. The aims are:• to check comprehension of the chapter just read• in fiction, to reflect on character and plot, and respond
to the story so far• in non-fiction, to respond to the events, facts or ideas
presented• to practise language recently encountered (structures
and lexis), and practise the skills of speaking, writingand listening
• to extend exploration of themes/issues into thelearners’ own world
• to provide stimulating sociocultural and historicalbackground.
Black Cat readers have a really wide variety of while-reading activities. Teachers are, quite frankly, spoilt forchoice, and it is unlikely that there will be any need toinvent further activities! No fixed kind of activity has beenapplied to each and every chapter: ‘whatever kind ofactivity best suits the needs of the chapter’ is thecriterion. This both exploits each chapter in the mostappropriate way and keeps the learners interested. Thefollowing represents just some of the main activity-types:• Objective questions for comprehension such as:
• ‘Who said what?’ questions (matching characters toquotations) for comprehension.
• Matching halves of sentences (a ‘why’ half with a‘because’ half) for comprehension.
• Gap filling for comprehension and language practice(e.g. gapped summaries).
• Sentence completion and transformation for languagepractice.
• Game-based methodology for language practice (e.g.word squares, anagrams, crosswords, puzzles, etc.).
• Guided and free writing tasks.• Discussion/debate topics for speaking skills.• Cambridge ESOL exam-style tasks.• Trinity exam-style tasks.• Cross-curricular activities.• Internet projects (see page 31).
For the teacher who wants to supplement the activitiesalready present, the following activities require practicallyno preparation and can be used at any level and with anyreader.
The Word BoxThis is a way of facilitating vocabulary acquisition. Foreach reader, the teacher keeps a box in class (which canbe made attractive by covering it with pictures from thereader). After each chapter individual learners, or pairs orgroups, can write down new expressions (words, orphrases or idioms) on slips of paper and put them in thebox. The teacher stipulates how many words (from one tofive per chapter) but the choice is up to the learners: theychoose lexis that they want to learn, or that they simplyfind attractive or intriguing. Every couple of weeks or sovocabulary from the box can be revised. This can be donein any lesson, not just the reading sessions, and need notlast more than a few minutes. The teacher ‘fishes’ someslips of paper out of the box one at a time (not all of them,only a few) and can:• say the word and ask for a translation into the mother
tongue• give a translation in the mother tongue and ask what
the English word is• give a definition – in the mother tongue or English –
and ask students what the word is• make up and say a sentence which involves the word,
but leaving a gap (or saying a nonsense word) insteadof saying the word
• say the word and ask for an explanation/paraphrase• say the word and ask for a synonym or antonym • ask for the spelling of the word• write the word scrambled on the board• ask students to make a sentence using the word• ask students in what context the expression occurred
(e.g. when? who said it?)• the teacher writes four or five words from the box on
the board, and asks groups to invent a sentence(demanding!) or simple narrative of about 25-30 wordsusing all of them.
The teacher can ask the questions to the whole class, orthe procedure can easily be adapted to a game betweentwo teams. Younger learners might enjoy taking it in turnsto fish the slips of paper out of the box.
Pictures and BalloonsThis is a way of exploiting the lavish illustrations thatdistinguish Black Cat readers. From a chapter thestudents have read choose a picture with one or morecharacters. Invent a sentence that one character might besaying or thinking, or for two characters invent twosentences (maybe a spoken exchange between them, ortheir different thoughts). Do not tell the class the
16
WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
sentence(s). Make a photocopy of the illustration anddraw the speech balloon(s) and/or thought cloud(s)emanating from the character(s), and inside of them put anumber of lines equal to the number of words in thesentence(s) you have invented. Show any apostrophes forpossession or contraction, full stops, question orexclamation marks. Divide the class into two teams, andappoint a spokesperson for each. Ask each team in turnto suggest a word – though the spokesperson – thatmight be in the balloon(s)/cloud(s). They can guess thewords in any order. When a team suggests a word that isthere (it must be in the correct form, e.g. plural, with a 3rdperson singular ‘s’, etc.), write in the word and award apoint to the team. If a word occurs more than once, writeit in for all occurrences, but award only one point. Thewinning team is the team that gets most points, not thatgets the last word. If the teams get stuck during the gameand for many turns no word is guessed, write in the firstor last letters of a word they are stuck on, and/or indicatethe number of letters in the word. This activity is apowerful and fun way of getting students to practise –unconsciously – their knowledge of syntax and textcohesion. At higher levels you can focus more onvocabulary.
Hot Seating (or Questioning in Role)This speaking activity derives from drama training, butrequires no dramatic flair. A chair is placed at the front ofthe class, and the class is told that whoever sits in thatchair ‘becomes’, as long as she/he is sitting there, acharacter in the story. A learner is invited to sit in thechair, and is told that she/he is a certain character in thestory. The rest of the class interviews her/him. At lowerlevels the questions can simply be about facts, and havethe function of comprehension questions (e.g. ‘Where doyou live, Juliet?’). At higher levels the questions caninvolve inference (e.g. ‘Why were you attracted to Romeo,Juliet?’ – Shakespeare never tells us) and interpretation(e.g. ‘What is your favourite colour, Juliet?’). Students atall levels can be reluctant to start questioning, or ask sillyquestions, so the teacher can provide some initialquestions and/or invite students to first brainstorm somequestions in groups before the student is nominated forthe ‘hot seat’. This activity works just as well with minor characters inthe ‘hot seat’. The author may not have given them animportant role in the narrative, but they will certainly havesomething to say if asked! Like many activities, itbecomes much more successful when the class has doneit once or twice and got used to it.
Diaries and Letters (or Writing in Role)Writing in role focuses on interpretation and free writingskills. At many points in a story it would be natural for oneof the characters to write a letter either to someone elsein the story, or – and perhaps more likely – to a characteroutside the story (a relative or friend). And any of thecharacters might keep a diary for their own private use!The teacher can simply ask the learners to write a diaryentry for certain characters, or a letter to another person(specify who it is). The results can be extremelyinteresting as learners ‘get under the skin’ of a character,and explain motivations and feelings not made explicit inthe text. Assess such work as examples of writing forfluency, not writing for correctness.
Reading DiariesThis is an individual, outside class activity. It will probablyappeal only to certain types of learner, and should not beimposed on anyone very unwilling to do it. The readingdiary is not intended as a written record of the activitiesdone in class. Rather, it simply encourages learners torecord what happens in a book and how they feel aboutit. So, for each chapter, learners record factualinformation in a notebook, such as the answers to thefollowing:• Who are the characters?• Where are they?• What happens?
Apart from factual information, learners also record theirown reactions and feelings, such as the answers to thefollowing:• Which character(s) do I sympathise with?• How do I feel about what has happened?• What do I think will happen next?• What else do I imagine about a particular character
(apart from what is explicit in the book)?
When the reader has been finished, the learner can showthe reading diary to the teacher (or to other learners).Some learners might be inspired to keep a diary as a kindof personal project, an extended piece of work whichmight be formally assessed by the teacher. This is adecision to be taken by the teacher, and probably in thecase of learners who have had some experience ofreading: it seems rather ambitious for learners with littleexperience of reading in a foreign language.Photocopiable pages for a reading diary can be found onpages 38-41. Make as many copies of the second pageas are necessary to cover all the chapters in the readerthat is being used. Make several copies of the last page(vocabulary notes). These pages can also be downloaded from the websiteswww.blackcat-cideb.com or www.cideb.it.
17
While-reading activities
In this section we will demonstrate a dozen activities, allof them based on summaries, which involve bothcomprehension and practice of language skills. All BlackCat readers published from 2009 onwards will haveresources of this type online: on the website you will findsummaries of sections of the fictional readers (or extrainformation in the case of non-fiction readers) togetherwith a battery of activities based on the summaries andthe relative answer keys.If you are interested in using these techniques withreaders published before 2009, all you need to do isinvent a summary for a section of a reader and follow theinstructions below for how to create the activities: there isa list of twelve types of activity, with explanations. Afterthe list there follows a series of examples based on asummary of Part One of Jane Eyre (Reading and Training,Step Three).
1 Modified Cloze Procedure1.a Scrambled word cloze1.b Scrambled word cloze with distractors 1.c Multiple choice cloze1.d Open cloze1.e Verb cloze
2 Put the sentences in order3 Correct the mistakes!4 Rub out5 Dictogloss 6 Cut it down!7 Build it up!8 Rewrite it!
1 Modified Cloze ProcedureFocus: reading comprehension; grammar; lexisThis procedure is based on creating gaps in the summarywhich students are then invited to fill in with single words.In the classic cloze procedure, which aims to measurereading comprehension, words are removed from apassage at regular intervals (for example, every 7th or 8th
word). Rather more common nowadays, however, is the‘modified cloze procedure’, sometimes called just ‘gapfilling’. In this procedure it is not considered necessary tomaintain a regular number of words between the spaces:the teacher chooses which words to remove. In this way,reading comprehension is still evaluated, but the teachercan also evaluate language skills. Which skills are evaluated depends on which words arechosen for removal, but in general terms• reading comprehension is always involved.• knowledge of word order in a sentence is always
involved, as students need to recognise, consciouslyor unconsciously, which part of speech (noun,preposition, article, auxiliary verb, etc.) is required in agap.
• vocabulary control and vocabulary range isevaluated when the word removed is a ‘content’ word(sometimes called a ‘lexical’ word). Such words arenouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. However, in thecase of verbs, morphology and syntax is alsoinvolved when students must choose an appropriatetense or form.
• grammatical control and syntax is evaluated whenthe word removed is a ‘function’ word (sometimescalled a ‘structure’ or ‘grammatical’ word). Suchwords are pronouns, articles, conjunctions,prepositions, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, etc.
• lexico-grammar is evaluated when, for example, thegap represents the particle that follows a verb in aphrasal verb.
• recognising text coherence and cohesion, whichgoes beyond the sentence, is evaluated by theremoval of discourse markers (words like secondly,eventually, however, nevertheless, etc.)
• the removal of factual information such as propernouns, dates, etc. focuses on non-linguisticknowledge (knowledge of a text that has beenstudied, of a school subject, of the world, etc.).
The way the gapped summary is presented to studentsaffects how demanding the activity is. The procedures 1.a– 1.d described below range from less demanding tomore demanding. The procedure described in 1.e focusesonly on verbs, and becomes more demanding the moreverb tenses and patterns the students know.
1.a Scrambled word clozeThe words removed are put above or beside the gappedsummary (often in a box) in scrambled order. Studentschoose from these words when they fill in the spaces inthe summary.
1.b Scrambled word cloze with distractorsAs above, but in addition to the words taken from thesummary there are also words that need not be used (called‘distractors’). The distractors can be half the number ofwords again or double: for example, if there are ten spacesto fill in, the number of words in the box might be 15 or 20(the ten words to use plus either five or ten distractors).
1.c Multiple choice clozeThe words removed are presented in the form of multiplechoice: the correct answer plus two distractors (chooseA, B or C) or, more demanding, the correct answer plusthree distractors (choose A, B, C or D).
1.d Open clozeStudents fill in the spaces without any choice of wordsbeing given to them.
1.e Verb clozeThe words removed are all verbs and are put in theinfinitive form above or beside the gapped summary(often in a box) in scrambled order. For each space,
18
SUMMARY-BASED ACTIVITIES
students need to choose the right verb and put it in theright tense or form.
These five cloze procedures require different markingprocedures. 1.a – 1.c For these ways, EWS (‘exact word scoring’)applies, because the students choose the correctresponse from a choice of responses. There is only onepossible answer.1.d The scoring is AWS (‘acceptable word scoring’ or‘appropriate word scoring’) because there may be morethan one word which acceptably fills a particular space.This is particularly so in the case of content words, muchless so in the case of function words. Studentssometimes suggest words which the teacher had notthought of when gapping the text. The teacher mustdecide which alternatives are acceptable.1.e Usually the scoring is EWS, but it may be the casethat alternative tenses or forms of verbs are possible forsome spaces. The teacher must decide if any alternativessuggested by students are acceptable.
2 Put the sentences in orderFocus: reading comprehension; text coherence andcohesionIn this classic activity, the order of the sentences in thesummary is scrambled, and students are asked to put thesentences in the right order. Students must use understanding of the chapter theyhave read, of course, but in recognising the correctsequence of the sentences students will also –consciously or unconsciously – identify features of textcoherence and cohesion, such as the use of discoursemarkers and pronouns.When they have reassembled the summary, students canbe invited to give a title to the summary: this involvesfurther practice of comprehension.
3 Correct the mistakes!Focus: reading comprehension; memoryThis is a fun activity particularly successful with youngerlearners (for whom it can also be called ‘Correct theteacher!’). The teacher reads the summary, regularly makingdeliberate mistakes in the content (not in the language,which must remain grammatically correct). The studentsthen call out the correct version. As the class is invited torespond chorally, any problems deriving from individuals’inhibitions and the anxiety of a formal test are avoided.At lower levels it is sufficient to make deliberate mistakesconcerning individual words (content words: nouns,adjectives, verbs and adverbs) while at higher levels it ischallenging to make deliberate mistakes concerningphrases (phrases with semantic content: noun phrases,verb phrases and adverbial phrases).
4 Rub outFocus: grammar; lexis; memoryThis is another fun activity particularly successful withyounger learners. Older learners might enjoy theintellectual challenge occasionally, but it is not an activityto use too often with more mature students.The teacher writes some sentences of the summary on theboard or interactive whiteboard. A minimum number orwords would be about 20 and a maximum about 80; theteacher knows the capabilities of his/her class. The teacherasks the students to read the text aloud. The teacher thengradually rubs out individual words and also two- andthree-word phrases; after each rubbing out the class readsout the text that remains, supplying the missing words fromtheir memory. It is a good idea to begin by rubbing outsome of the important content words. Eventually, theteacher will have rubbed out all the words but – amazingly!– the class will probably remember all the text in theirshort-term memory.The text used for the rub out activity need not be takenfrom the summary. It can be a part of the chapter,particularly an exciting part. The text of a dialogue alsoworks very well.
5 Dictogloss Focus: listening; writing; grammar; lexis; editing skillsThis is a motivating activity which involves collaborativewriting. The students sit in groups of two to five. At normal speed,the teacher reads out about five sentences of thesummary (fewer for lower levels). The students may takenotes, writing down key words. The teacher reads thesame text again, and again the students can note downwords or short phrases. In their groups, the students then work together to write atext which is grammatically and lexically correct but notnecessarily the same as the original: the aim isgrammatical and lexical correctness, not perfect memory.The students then compare their written texts with eachothers’. Groups should try to point out any errors in thetexts of other groups. Finally, the texts are compared withthe original, and differences pointed out and discussed.Note: younger learners will rise to the challenge of tryingto write a text just like the original, and this can be a fun,motivating element of the activity. With older students,however, ensure that they understand that an exact copyof the original is not necessary.
6 Cut it down!Focus: reading comprehension; interpretation; grammarIn this activity students are invited to remove words fromthe summary. This involves grammatical skills – theremoval of words must leave a text that is stillgrammatically correct – but it especially involvesinterpretation of the chapter that has been read, as thestudents must decide which are the least importantdetails to remove from the summary.
19
Summary-based activities
It is recommended that the activity is done in groups, asthis means that students must talk about and justify theirdecisions. It is not necessarily a bad thing if the studentsdo this in their own language, as they will be discussing atext (the summary) and a product (their shortened version)that are in English.As a rule of thumb, the teacher can ask the students tocut 10% of the summary; for example, he/she will ask theclass to cut 15 words form a 150-word summary.Punctuation may be changed, but no words must beadded. Give each group a copy of the summary and a redpen or highlighter (or they can work on an electronic copyof the summary). When the students have finished, theyshould compare their shortened versions and decidewhich are the best cuts, and why.A possible next step is to ask students to cut a further10% of the summary (or, if this seems too ambitious, theteacher can choose what seems a reasonable number ofwords (e.g. 5, 10).A real challenge is then to cut yet another 10% of thesummary!
7 Build it up!Focus: reading comprehension; interpretation; writing;grammar; lexisThis activity is the reverse of the previous activity,because students are invited to add a detail, or details, tothe summary. This involves grammatical skills – theaddition of details must produce a text that is stillgrammatically correct – and lexical range – the addeddetail(s) will generally involve content words. It alsoinvolves considerable interpretation of the chapter thathas been read, as the students must decide which is/arethe most important detail(s) missing from the summarygiven to them.It is recommended that the activity is done in groups, asthis means that students must talk about and justify theirdecisions. It is not necessarily a bad thing if the studentsdo this in their own language, as they will be discussing atext (the summary) and a product (their additions) that arein English.The teacher invites each group to add either one detail ortwo details to the summary. Such additions can be words,phrases or even sentences. It is not necessary to stipulatea number of words, but some suggestions are givenbelow. When the students have finished, they should comparetheir versions and, in a ranking activity, decide which are
the most interesting additions (perhaps numbering them1st, 2nd, etc.), and why. As a secondary point – remember that the primary focushere is on content rather than form – groups should pointout any language errors in the work of other groups.If the teacher wants to suggest numbers of words to add(but do try the activity first without suggesting a numberof words), here are some tentative suggestions. • For lower levels (CEFR A1 and A2: Green Apple
Starter and Step 1; Reading and Training Step One): – Add a detail using between 2 and 8 words.– Add two details using between 4 and 16 words.– Add three details using between 12 and 25 words.
• For higher levels (CEFR B1 and above: Green AppleStep 2; Reading and Training Step Two, Three, Four,Five and Six): – Add a detail using between 3 and 12 words.– Add two details using between 6 and 25 words.– Add three details using between 10 and 50 words.
As individual written work, perhaps as homework,students could be invited to rewrite the summary with theaddition of 3 or more details.
8 Rewrite it! Focus: reading comprehension; interpretation; writing;grammar; lexisThis activity, for learners at higher levels, encouragescreative writing and an awareness of important elementsof narrative technique, such as point of view and tone.The activity can be done individually at home, or ingroups in class.The students should make additions to the summary,which can be words, phrases or even sentences, and/orremove elements, in order to do one of the following(either the teacher or the student can choose which one):• give more prominence to a character who is not very
prominent• narrate the summary from the point of view of one of
the characters (including his/her attitudes, sympathies,feelings and his/her knowledge of the events, whichmay be more or less than in the summary given). Thecharacter chosen could be a major or a minorcharacter, or even just a bystander or eyewitness whowas not even in the chapter or even in the story.
• Make the tone of the summary more sad, happy,funny, dramatic, suspenseful, mysterious, etc.
20
Summary-based activities
21
Exam
ples
bas
ed o
n a
sum
mar
y of
Par
t On
e of
Jan
e Ey
reT
he
foll
ow
ing
is a
su
mm
ary
of
Par
t O
ne
of
Jan
e Ey
re(R
ead
ing
and
Tra
inin
g,S
tep
Th
ree)
, w
hic
h w
ill
be
use
d a
s th
e b
asis
fo
r al
l th
e ex
amp
les
wh
ich
foll
ow
.
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, s
he
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rs R
eed
,w
ho
had
th
ree
child
ren
of
her
ow
n. A
lth
ou
gh t
he
ho
use
was
ver
y n
ice,
Jan
e w
asn
’t h
app
y b
ecau
se h
er c
ou
sin
s, e
spec
ially
Jo
hn
, tre
ated
her
bad
ly.
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a b
oo
k fr
om
th
e lib
rary
, Jo
hn
an
d h
issi
ster
Eliz
a ca
me
loo
kin
g fo
r h
er. F
irst
Jo
hn
hit
her
, an
d t
hen
he
thre
w a
bo
ok
at h
er. J
ane
fou
ght
wit
h J
oh
n, b
ut
wh
en M
rs R
eed
arr
ived
sh
e d
idn
’tlis
ten
to
Jan
e. J
ane
was
lock
ed in
th
e re
d r
oo
m, w
her
e sh
e w
as s
o t
erri
fied
that
sh
e fa
inte
d.
Sh
e w
as t
aken
to
her
bed
an
d a
do
cto
r w
as c
alle
d. S
he
told
him
ab
ou
t h
ow
she
was
tre
ated
an
d t
he
do
cto
r as
ked
her
if s
he
wo
uld
like
to
go
to
sch
oo
l.Ja
ne
said
yes
an
d t
he
do
cto
r p
ersu
aded
Mrs
Ree
d t
o a
gree
. So,
wh
en s
he
was
ten
yea
rs o
ld, J
ane
wen
t to
sch
oo
l.
(153
wo
rds)
AS
cra
mb
led
wo
rd c
loze
Rea
d t
he
sum
mar
y o
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
bel
ow
.C
ho
ose
on
e o
f th
e w
ord
s fr
om
th
e b
ox t
o w
rite
in
eac
h s
pac
e. T
he
firs
t o
ne
has
bee
n d
on
e as
an
exa
mp
le.
at
lo
ok
ing
S
o
lis
ten
w
ou
ld
wh
o
h
ow
i
n
Alt
ho
ugh
f
ain
ted
e
spec
iall
y
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, s
he
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rsR
eed
, (0
) ...
......
......
had
th
ree
child
ren
of
her
ow
n. (
1) ..
......
......
. th
eh
ou
se w
as v
ery
nic
e, J
ane
was
n’t
hap
py
bec
ause
her
co
usi
ns,
(2)
......
......
... J
oh
n, t
reat
ed h
er b
adly
.
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a b
oo
k fr
om
th
e lib
rary
, Jo
hn
an
dh
is s
iste
r E
liza
cam
e (3
)...
......
......
fo
r h
er.
Firs
t Jo
hn
hit
her
, an
dth
en h
e th
rew
a b
oo
k (4
) ...
......
......
her
. Jan
e fo
ugh
t w
ith
Jo
hn
, bu
tw
hen
Mrs
Ree
d a
rriv
ed s
he
did
n’t
(5)
……
……
to
Jan
e. J
ane
was
lock
ed (
6)
......
......
... t
he
red
ro
om
, wh
ere
she
was
so
ter
rifi
ed t
hat
she
(7)
......
......
... .
Sh
e w
as t
aken
to
her
bed
an
d a
do
cto
r w
as c
alle
d.
Sh
e to
ld h
imab
ou
t (8
) ...
......
......
sh
e w
as t
reat
ed a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
aske
d h
er if
sh
e(9
)...
......
......
like
to
go
to
sch
oo
l. J
ane
said
yes
an
d t
he
do
cto
rp
ersu
aded
Mrs
Ree
d t
o a
gree
. (10
) ...
......
......
, wh
en s
he
was
ten
year
s o
ld, J
ane
wen
t to
sch
oo
l.
KE
Y:
0w
ho
(g
iven
as
an
exa
mpl
e)
1A
lth
ou
gh
2es
pec
ially
3lo
oki
ng
4at
5
liste
n
6in
7
fain
ted
8
ho
w
9w
ou
ld
10S
o
BS
cra
mb
led
wo
rd c
loze
wit
h d
istr
ac
tors
(i)
(15
wor
ds in
the
box
: the
10
wor
ds r
emov
ed p
lus
5 di
stra
ctor
s)
Rea
d t
he
sum
mar
y o
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
abo
ve.
Fill
eac
h s
pac
e w
ith
a w
ord
fro
m t
he
box
. Th
ere
are
five
wo
rds
you
do
no
t n
eed
to
use
. Th
e fi
rst
on
e, 0
, has
bee
n d
on
e as
an
exa
mp
le.
at
Ho
wev
er
lo
ok
ing
S
o
lis
ten
wo
uld
w
ho
w
ill
h
ow
i
n
als
o
to
Alt
ho
ugh
f
ain
ted
B
ut
e
spec
iall
y
Th
e sa
me
text
as
in 1
.a a
bove
. K
EY
: as
for
1.a
abo
ve.
1
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
Summary-based activities
who
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
22
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
Summary-based activities
DO
pe
n C
loze
Co
mp
lete
th
e su
mm
ary
of
Par
t O
ne
of
Jan
e Ey
reo
n p
age
21.
Wri
te O
NE
wo
rd f
or
each
sp
ace.
Th
e fi
rst
on
e h
as b
een
do
ne
as a
nex
amp
le.
Th
e sa
me
text
as
in 1
.a o
n p
ag
e 21
. K
EY
: as
for
1.a
on
pa
ge
21.
EV
erb
Clo
ze
(n.b
. a
diffe
rent
gap
ped
vers
ion
of t
he s
umm
ary
from
tha
t us
ed in
1.a
to
1.d
is n
eces
sary
)
Rea
d t
he
sum
mar
y o
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
bel
ow
. C
ho
ose
on
e o
f th
e ve
rbs
fro
m t
he
box
wh
ich
mak
es s
ense
fo
r ea
chsp
ace.
Wri
te t
he
verb
s in
th
e sp
aces
in
an
ap
pro
pri
ate
ten
se o
rfo
rm (
e.g
. in
fin
itiv
e, p
ast
ten
se,
-in
gfo
rm,
be
+ -i
ng
, et
c.).
So
met
imes
yo
u m
igh
t n
eed
to
use
tw
o w
ord
s (a
n a
uxi
liar
y ve
rbp
lus
the
full
ver
b).
Th
e fi
rst
on
e, 0
, has
bee
n d
on
e as
an
exa
mp
le.
thro
w
agr
ee
liv
e
fig
ht
d
ie
fai
nt
r
ead
trea
t (i
n p
ass
ive)
l
oo
k
no
t li
sten
l
ike
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
(0
) ...
......
......
, sh
e w
ent
to (
1) ..
......
......
.w
ith
her
au
nt,
Mrs
Ree
d, w
ho
had
th
ree
child
ren
of
her
ow
n.
Alt
ho
ugh
th
e h
ou
se w
as v
ery
nic
e, J
ane
was
n’t
hap
py
bec
ause
her
cou
sin
s, e
spec
ially
Jo
hn
, tre
ated
her
bad
ly.
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e (2
) ...
......
......
a b
oo
k fr
om
th
e lib
rary
, Jo
hn
an
dh
is s
iste
r E
liza
cam
e (3
)...
......
......
fo
r h
er. F
irst
Jo
hn
hit
her
, an
dth
en h
e (4
) ...
......
......
a b
oo
k at
her
. Jan
e (5
) ...
......
......
wit
h J
oh
n, b
ut
wh
en M
rs R
eed
arr
ived
sh
e (6
)...
......
......
to
Jan
e. J
ane
was
lock
ed in
the
red
ro
om
, wh
ere
she
was
so
ter
rifi
ed t
hat
sh
e (7
)...
......
......
.
Sh
e w
as t
aken
to
her
bed
an
d a
do
cto
r w
as c
alle
d. S
he
told
him
abo
ut
ho
w s
he
(8)
......
......
... a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
aske
d h
er if
sh
e w
ou
ld(9
)...
......
......
to
go
to
sch
oo
l. Ja
ne
said
yes
an
d t
he
do
cto
rp
ersu
aded
Mrs
Ree
d t
o (
10)
......
......
.... S
o, w
hen
sh
e w
as t
en y
ears
old
, Jan
e w
ent
to s
cho
ol.
KE
Y:
0d
ied
(g
iven
as
an
exa
mpl
e)
1liv
e 2
was
rea
din
g 3
loo
kin
g
4th
rew
5
fou
ght
6d
idn
’t li
sten
7
fain
ted
8
was
tre
ated
9
like
10ag
ree
BS
cra
mb
led
wo
rd c
loze
wit
h d
istr
ac
tors
(ii)
(20
wor
ds in
the
box
: the
10
wor
ds r
emov
ed p
lus
10 d
istr
acto
rs)
Rea
d t
he
sum
mar
y o
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
on
pag
e 21
.Fi
ll e
ach
sp
ace
wit
h a
wo
rd f
rom
th
e b
ox. T
her
e ar
e te
n w
ord
s yo
ud
o n
ot
nee
d t
o u
se. T
he
firs
t o
ne
has
bee
n d
on
e as
an
exa
mp
le.
bad
ly
Ho
wev
er
in
to
lo
ok
ing
S
o
lis
ten
a
t
w
ou
ld
wh
o
wil
l
ho
w
hea
r
in
als
o
to
Alt
ho
ugh
f
ain
ted
l
oo
k
Bu
t
fel
l
esp
ecia
lly
Th
e sa
me
text
as
in 1
.a o
n p
ag
e 21
. K
EY
: as
for
1.a
on
pa
ge
21.
CM
ult
iple
ch
oic
e c
loze
Rea
d t
he
sum
mar
y o
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
on
pag
e 21
.C
ho
ose
th
e b
est
wo
rd (
A, B
, C o
r D
) fo
r ea
ch s
pac
e. T
he
firs
t o
ne,
0,
has
bee
n d
on
e as
an
exa
mp
le.
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wh
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ich
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ore
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erD
Aft
er
Th
e sa
me
text
as
in 1
.a o
n p
ag
e 21
. K
EY
: as
for
1.a
on
pa
ge
21, b
utfo
r fe
edba
ck p
urpo
ses
you
coul
d a
lso
giv
e th
e le
tter
A, B
, C o
r D
.
0A
wh
o (
giv
en a
s a
n e
xam
ple)
1
AA
lth
ou
gh
2D
esp
ecia
lly
3D
loo
kin
g 4
Bat
5
Blis
ten
6
Cin
7
Afa
inte
d
8D
ho
w
9C
wo
uld
10
BS
o
died
23
Pu
t th
e s
en
ten
ce
s i
n o
rde
r
Th
e se
nte
nce
s A
-J o
f th
e su
mm
ary
of
Par
t O
ne
of
Jan
e Ey
reb
elo
w a
rein
th
e w
ron
g o
rder
. Pu
t th
em in
th
e ri
ght
ord
er a
nd
nu
mb
er t
hem
1-1
0.
AO
ne
day
, wh
ile J
ane
was
rea
din
g a
boo
k fr
om t
he
libra
ry, J
oh
nan
d h
is s
iste
r E
liza
cam
e lo
oki
ng
for
her
.
BS
he
was
tak
en t
o h
er b
ed a
nd
a d
oct
or
was
cal
led
.
CJa
ne
said
yes
an
d t
he
do
cto
r p
ersu
aded
Mrs
Ree
d t
o a
gree
.
DJa
ne
fou
ght
wit
h J
oh
n, b
ut
wh
en M
rs R
eed
arr
ived
sh
e d
idn
’tlis
ten
to
Jan
e.
EA
fter
Jan
e E
yre’
s p
aren
ts d
ied
, sh
e w
ent
to li
ve w
ith
her
au
nt,
Mrs
Ree
d, w
ho
had
th
ree
child
ren
of
her
ow
n.
FS
o, w
hen
sh
e w
as t
en y
ears
old
, Jan
e w
ent
to s
cho
ol.
GS
he
told
him
ab
ou
t h
ow
sh
e w
as t
reat
ed a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
aske
dh
er if
sh
e w
ou
ld li
ke t
o g
o t
o s
cho
ol.
HJa
ne
was
lock
ed in
th
e re
d r
oo
m, w
her
e sh
e w
as s
o t
erri
fied
that
sh
e fa
inte
d.
IA
lth
ou
gh t
he
ho
use
was
ver
y n
ice,
Jan
e w
asn
’t h
app
y b
ecau
seh
er c
ou
sin
s, e
spec
ially
Jo
hn
, tre
ated
her
bad
ly.
JFi
rst
Joh
n h
it h
er, a
nd
th
en h
e th
rew
a b
oo
k at
her
.
KE
Y:
1 E
; 2
I; 3
A;
4 J
; 5
D;
6 H
; 7
B;
8 G
; 9
C;
10 F
.
Co
rre
ct
the
mis
tak
es!
Th
is i
s an
ora
l ac
tivi
ty,
so d
o n
ot
give
th
e st
ud
ents
an
y p
ho
toco
pie
s.Te
ll t
hem
th
e fo
llo
win
g in
stru
ctio
ns
(or
sim
ilar
): “
I am
go
ing
to t
ell y
ou
a su
mm
ary
of
Par
t O
ne
of
Jan
e Ey
re,
bu
t I
am g
oin
g to
mak
e so
me
mis
tak
es in
th
e su
mm
ary.
Wh
en y
ou
hea
r a
mis
tak
e p
leas
e ca
ll o
ut
the
righ
t w
ord
or
wo
rds.
” T
hen
rea
d o
ut
the
sum
mar
y, m
akin
g d
elib
erat
em
ista
kes
. As
an e
xam
ple
, in
th
e ve
rsio
n o
f th
e su
mm
ary
bel
ow
th
ere
are
16 m
ista
kes
to
rea
d o
ut,
all
wri
tten
in it
ali
cs. A
s a
qu
ick
rem
ind
erto
yo
u,
the
corr
ect
vers
ion
is
give
n i
mm
edia
tely
aft
erw
ard
s in
bra
cket
s: t
his
is w
hat
th
e cl
ass
sho
uld
sh
ou
t o
ut
to y
ou
!
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, s
he
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rsR
hod
es(R
eed
), w
ho
had
fou
r(t
hre
e) c
hild
ren
of
her
ow
n. A
lth
ou
gh t
he
ho
use
wa
sn’t
(was
) ve
ry n
ice,
Jan
e w
asn
’t h
app
y b
ecau
se h
er f
rien
ds
(co
usi
ns)
, esp
ecia
lly J
oh
n, t
reat
ed h
er k
ind
ly(b
adly
).
2 3
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a m
ap
(bo
ok)
fro
m t
he
libra
ry, J
oh
nan
d h
is s
iste
r G
eorg
ina
(Eliz
a) c
ame
loo
kin
g fo
r h
er. F
irst
Jo
hn
hit
her
,an
d t
hen
he
thre
w a
ch
air
(bo
ok)
at
her
. Jan
e sh
oute
d a
t El
iza
(fo
ugh
tw
ith
Jo
hn
), b
ut
wh
en M
rs R
eed
arr
ived
sh
e lis
ten
ed t
o(d
idn
’t li
sten
to
)Ja
ne.
Jan
e w
as lo
cked
in t
he
gre
en r
oom
(red
ro
om
), w
her
e sh
e w
as s
oti
red
th
at
she
slep
t(s
o t
erri
fied
th
at s
he
fain
ted
).S
he
was
tak
en t
o h
ospi
tal(
her
bed
) an
d a
nur
se(d
oct
or)
was
cal
led
.S
he
told
him
ab
ou
t h
ow
sh
e w
as t
reat
ed a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
aske
d h
er if
she
wo
uld
like
to
go
back
hom
e w
ith
him
(to
go
to
sch
oo
l). J
ane
said
yes
and
th
e d
oct
or
per
suad
ed M
rs R
eed
to
agr
ee. S
o, w
hen
sh
e w
asel
even
(ten
) ye
ars
old
, Jan
e w
ent
to s
cho
ol.
Ru
b o
ut
On
th
e b
oar
d /
th
e in
tera
ctiv
e w
hit
ebo
ard
, w
rite
eit
her
th
e fi
rst
par
agra
ph
of
the
sum
mar
y:
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, …
tre
ated
her
bad
ly.
or
the
seco
nd
par
agra
ph
:
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
… w
her
e sh
e w
as s
o t
erri
fied
th
at s
he
fain
ted
.
Gra
du
ally
, ru
b o
ut
ind
ivid
ual
wo
rds
and
eve
n t
wo
- an
d t
hre
e-w
ord
ph
rase
s. B
egin
by
rub
bin
g o
ut
som
e o
f th
e im
po
rtan
t co
nte
nt
wo
rds.
Aft
er e
ach
tim
e yo
u r
ub
ou
t so
me
wo
rds
get
the
wh
ole
cla
ss t
o r
ead
ou
t th
e te
xt,
su
pp
lyin
g th
e m
issi
ng
wo
rds
fro
m t
hei
r m
emo
ry.
Eve
ntu
ally
, wh
en a
ll t
he
wo
rds
on
th
e b
oar
d h
ave
bee
n r
ub
bed
ou
t, t
he
clas
s w
ill –
am
azin
gly!
– r
emem
ber
all
th
e te
xt.
The
text
use
d f
or t
he
rub
out
acti
vity
nee
d n
ot b
e ta
ken
fro
m t
he
sum
mar
y. A
ver
y d
ram
atic
ext
ract
from
Par
t O
ne,
wit
h p
len
ty o
f lin
guis
tic
vari
ety,
is o
n p
age
14 o
f th
e re
ader
, th
e pr
e-pe
nu
ltim
ate
and
pen
ult
imat
epa
ragr
aph
s:
‘Yo
u w
icke
d a
nd
cru
el b
oy,
’ I s
ho
ute
d. ‘
Wh
y d
o y
ou
wan
t to
hu
rt m
e?’
I to
uch
ed m
y h
ead
. Th
ere
was
blo
od
on
it. ‘
Loo
k w
hat
yo
u h
ave
do
ne!
’I
crie
d.
My
wo
rds
just
mad
e Jo
hn
Ree
d a
ngr
ier.
He
ran
acr
oss
th
e ro
om
tow
ard
s m
e, a
nd
beg
an t
o h
it m
e ag
ain
an
d a
gain
. I w
as v
ery
frig
hte
ned
, so
I h
it h
im b
ack
.
4
Summary-based activitiesA
CT
IV
IT
IE
SA
CT
IV
IT
IE
S
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
Dic
tog
loss
Sit
th
e st
ud
ents
in g
rou
ps
of
two
to
fiv
e. M
ake
sure
th
at e
ach
stu
den
th
as p
en a
nd
pap
er. T
ell t
hem
th
at y
ou
are
go
ing
to r
ead
ou
t a
sum
mar
yo
f P
art
On
e o
f Ja
ne
Eyre
twic
e, a
nd
th
at t
hey
may
no
te d
ow
n k
ey w
ord
so
r sh
ort
ph
rase
s. R
ead
th
e te
xt o
nce
at
no
rmal
sp
eed
, p
ause
fo
r a
min
ute
, th
en r
ead
it
agai
n. T
he
firs
t tw
o p
arag
rap
hs
of
the
sum
mar
yar
e su
ffic
ien
t.
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, …
wh
ere
she
was
so
ter
rifi
ed t
hat
sh
efa
inte
d.
Tell
th
e st
ud
ents
to
wo
rk t
oge
ther
in t
hei
r gr
ou
ps
and
use
th
eir
no
tes
to w
rite
a t
ext
wh
ich
is g
ram
mat
ical
ly a
nd
lexi
call
y co
rrec
t b
ut
wh
ich
do
esn
’t h
ave
to b
e th
e sa
me
as t
he
ori
gin
al: t
he
aim
of
thei
r w
riti
ng
isto
pro
du
ce a
co
rrec
t te
xt,
no
t to
sh
ow
th
ey h
ave
per
fect
mem
ori
es!
Five
min
ute
s sh
ou
ld b
e en
ou
gh.
Th
en s
tud
ents
co
mp
are
thei
r w
ritt
en t
exts
wit
h e
ach
oth
ers’
. Th
is c
anb
e d
on
e b
y re
adin
g al
ou
d, b
ut
it is
bet
ter
if t
he
text
s ar
e p
asse
d a
rou
nd
or
stu
ck o
n a
wal
l (o
r co
mp
ared
in e
lect
ron
ic f
orm
). G
rou
ps
sho
uld
try
to p
oin
t o
ut
any
erro
rs in
th
e te
xts
of
oth
er g
rou
ps.
Fi
nal
ly,
sho
w o
r gi
ve t
he
stu
den
ts t
he
ori
gin
al t
ext;
ask
th
em t
oid
enti
fy a
ny
dif
fere
nce
s w
ith
th
eir
ow
n t
exts
, an
d a
sk t
hem
if
they
thin
k t
he
dif
fere
nce
s ar
e im
po
rtan
t.
5
24
Cu
t it
do
wn
!
Pu
t th
e st
ud
ents
in g
rou
ps o
f tw
o to
fiv
e. M
ake
sure
th
at e
ach
gro
up
has
aco
py o
f th
e su
mm
ary
and
a r
ed p
en/h
igh
ligh
ter
or a
cces
s to
com
pute
r. T
ell
them
th
at t
hey
mu
st c
ut
15 w
ord
s fr
om t
he
sum
mar
y: t
hei
r sh
orte
ned
vers
ion
mu
st s
till
be g
ram
mat
ical
ly c
orre
ct. T
hey
can
ch
ange
pu
nct
uat
ion
,bu
t th
ey m
ust
n’t
add
an
y w
ord
s.W
hen
th
ey h
ave
fin
ish
ed,
they
sh
ou
ld c
om
par
e th
eir
sho
rten
edve
rsio
ns.
It is
bet
ter
if t
he
text
s ar
e st
uck
on
a w
all o
r p
asse
d a
rou
nd
(or
com
par
ed i
n e
lect
ron
ic f
orm
). T
hey
sh
ould
dec
ide
wh
ich
are
th
e b
est
cuts
, an
d w
hy.
Nex
t, a
sk s
tud
ents
to
cu
t an
oth
er 1
5 w
ord
s o
f th
e su
mm
ary,
an
dp
roce
ed a
s ab
ove
.A
s a
fin
al c
hal
len
ge, a
sk t
he
stu
den
ts t
o c
ut
yet
ano
ther
15
wo
rds.
Th
e fo
llo
win
g ve
rsio
n o
f th
e su
mm
ary
give
s an
idea
of
wh
at c
an b
e cu
t:4
9 w
ord
s ar
e in
dic
ated
as
po
ten
tial
ly d
isp
ensa
ble
.
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, s
he
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rs
Ree
d ,
wh
o h
ad t
hre
e ch
ildre
n o
f h
er o
wn
. Alt
ho
ugh
th
e h
ou
se w
as
very
nic
e,Ja
ne
was
n’t
hap
py
bec
ause
her
co
usi
ns
, esp
ecia
lly J
oh
n,
trea
ted
her
bad
ly.
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a b
oo
k fr
om
th
e lib
rary
, Jo
hn
an
d h
is
sist
erE
liza
cam
e lo
oki
ng
for
her
.
Firs
tJo
hn
hit
her
,an
d t
hen
he
thre
w a
bo
ok
at h
er. J
ane
fou
ght
wit
h
Joh
n, b
ut
wh
en M
rs R
eed
arr
ived
sh
e d
idn
’t li
sten
to
Jan
e. J
ane
was
lock
ed in
th
e re
d r
oo
m, w
her
e sh
e w
as s
o t
erri
fied
th
atsh
e fa
inte
d.
Sh
e w
as t
aken
to
her
bed
an
d a
A d
oct
or
was
cal
led
. Sh
e to
ld h
im
abo
ut
ho
w s
he
was
tre
ated
an
d t
he
do
cto
r as
ked
her
if s
he
wo
uld
like
to g
o t
o s
cho
ol.
Jan
e sa
id y
es a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
per
suad
ed M
rs R
eed
to
agre
e.
So
Jan
e w
ent
to s
cho
ol w
hen
she
was
ten
yea
rs o
ld.
6
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
Summary-based activities
25
Bu
ild
it
up
!
Pu
t th
e st
ud
ents
in
gro
up
s o
f tw
o t
o f
ive.
Mak
e su
re t
hat
eac
h g
rou
ph
as a
co
py
of
the
sum
mar
y an
d a
red
pen
or
acce
ss t
o c
om
pu
ter.
Tel
lth
em t
hat
th
ey m
ust
ad
d t
o t
he
sum
mar
y tw
o d
etai
ls, w
hic
h t
hey
mu
stch
oo
se t
hem
selv
es. T
ell
them
th
at t
he
det
ails
th
ey a
dd
can
be
wo
rds,
ph
rase
s o
r ev
en s
ente
nce
s. T
ell t
hem
th
ey s
ho
uld
n’t
wri
te f
ewer
th
an5
five
wo
rds,
an
d t
hat
th
ere
is n
o u
pp
er li
mit
, bu
t th
ey p
rob
ably
wo
n’t
nee
d m
ore
th
an a
bo
ut
25 w
ord
s.W
hen
th
ey h
ave
fin
ish
ed,
they
sh
ou
ld c
om
par
e th
eir
vers
ion
s. I
t is
bet
ter
if t
he
text
s ar
e st
uck
on
a w
all o
r p
asse
d a
rou
nd
(o
r co
mp
ared
in e
lect
ron
ic f
orm
). T
hey
sh
ou
ld d
ecid
e w
hic
h a
re t
he
mo
st in
tere
stin
gad
ded
det
ails
, an
d w
hy.
Th
e fo
llo
win
g ex
pan
ded
ver
sio
n o
f th
e su
mm
ary
give
s an
idea
of
wh
atca
n b
e ad
ded
: 10
det
ails
are
ind
icat
ed, a
lth
ou
gh m
ore
are
po
ssib
le.
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, s
he
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rs
Ree
d, w
ho
was
ver
y ri
ch a
nd
had
th
ree
child
ren
of
her
ow
n. A
lth
ou
gh
the
ho
use
was
ver
y n
ice,
Jan
e w
asn
’t h
app
y b
ecau
se h
er c
ou
sin
s,
esp
ecia
lly J
oh
n, t
reat
ed h
er b
adly
.
Sh
e w
as a
frai
d o
f Jo
hn
an
d h
id f
rom
him
. Sh
e lik
ed lo
oki
ng
at t
he
pic
ture
s in
th
e b
oo
ks in
th
e lib
rary
.On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a
bo
ok
fro
m t
he
libra
ry, J
oh
n a
nd
his
sis
ter
Eliz
a ca
me
loo
kin
g fo
r h
er.
Firs
t Jo
hn
hit
her
an
d a
ccu
sed
her
of
taki
ng
thei
r b
oo
ks, a
nd
th
en h
e
thre
w a
bo
ok
at h
er, w
hic
h c
ut
her
hea
d. S
he
sho
ute
d a
t Jo
hn
, bu
t h
e
con
tin
ued
to
hit
her
.
Jan
e fo
ugh
t w
ith
Jo
hn
an
d h
urt
him
, bu
t w
hen
Mrs
Ree
d a
rriv
ed s
he
did
n’t
list
en t
o J
ane.
Jan
e w
as lo
cked
in t
he
red
ro
om
, wh
ere
Mrs
Ree
d’s
hu
sban
d h
ad d
ied
,wh
ere
she
was
so
ter
rifi
ed t
hat
sh
e fa
inte
d.
Sh
e w
as t
aken
to
her
bed
an
d a
do
cto
r w
as c
alle
d. S
he
told
him
ab
ou
t
ho
w s
he
was
tre
ated
an
d t
he
do
cto
r as
ked
her
if s
he
wo
uld
like
to
go
to s
cho
ol.
Jan
e sa
id y
es a
nd
th
e d
oct
or
per
suad
ed M
rs R
eed
to
agr
ee.
So,
wh
en s
he
was
ten
yea
rs o
ld, J
ane
wen
t to
sch
oo
l. S
he
loo
ked
forw
ard
to
mak
ing
som
e fr
ien
ds
at s
cho
ol.
7R
ew
rite
it!
Tell
th
e st
ud
ents
to
rew
rite
th
e su
mm
ary
to m
ake
Jan
e’s
situ
atio
nse
em m
ore
pat
het
ic a
nd
th
e b
ehav
iou
r o
f th
e R
eed
s m
ore
cru
el. T
hey
sho
uld
use
th
eir
imag
inat
ion
to
ad
d d
etai
ls –
wh
ich
can
be
wo
rds,
ph
rase
s o
r se
nte
nce
s –
an
d c
han
ge s
om
e o
f th
e w
ord
s an
d p
hra
ses
that
are
alr
ead
y th
ere.
Th
e fo
llo
win
g ve
rsio
n o
f th
e su
mm
ary
give
s an
id
ea o
f w
hat
can
be
add
ed a
nd
so
me
chan
ges
that
can
be
mad
e.
Aft
er J
ane
Eyr
e’s
par
ents
die
d, J
ane
was
left
all
alo
ne
, so
she
wen
t to
live
wit
h h
er a
un
t, M
rs R
eed
, wh
o h
ad t
hre
e ch
ildre
n o
f h
er o
wn
.
Alt
ho
ugh
th
e h
ou
se w
as v
ery
nic
e, J
ane
was
ver
y u
nh
app
y (i
nst
ead
of
was
n’t
hap
py)
bec
ause
her
co
usi
ns,
esp
ecia
lly J
oh
n, t
reat
ed h
er c
ruel
ly
(in
stea
d o
fb
adly
).
On
e d
ay, w
hile
Jan
e w
as r
ead
ing
a b
oo
k fr
om
th
e lib
rary
, th
e o
nly
acti
vity
th
at g
ave
her
an
y p
leas
ure
,Jo
hn
an
d h
is s
iste
r E
liza
cam
e
loo
kin
g fo
r h
er t
o t
orm
ent
her
. Fir
st J
oh
n m
ade
her
sta
nd
in f
ron
t o
f
him
an
dh
it h
er, a
nd
th
en h
e th
rew
a h
eavy
bo
ok
at h
er, c
utt
ing
po
or
Jan
e’s
hea
d. J
ane
trie
d t
o m
ake
him
fee
l ash
amed
, bu
t h
e co
nti
nu
ed t
o
hit
her
.Jan
e fo
ugh
t w
ith
Jo
hn
in s
elf-
def
ence
, bu
t w
hen
Mrs
Ree
d
arri
ved
sh
e d
idn
’t li
sten
to
Jan
e –
sh
e n
ever
bel
ieve
d p
oo
r Ja
ne
– a
nd
she
cho
se n
ot
to s
ee t
he
blo
od
on
Jan
e’s
face
.No
t fo
r th
e fi
rst
tim
e,
Jan
e w
as lo
cked
in t
he
red
ro
om
, wh
ere
Mr
Ree
d h
ad d
ied
,an
d w
her
e
she
was
so
ter
rifi
ed t
hat
sh
e fa
inte
d.
Eve
ntu
ally
she
was
tak
en t
o h
er b
ed a
nd
a d
oct
or
was
fin
ally
calle
d.
Th
e se
rvan
t lie
d a
bo
ut
the
cau
se o
f Ja
ne’
s ill
nes
s, b
ut
Jan
e to
ld h
im
the
tru
th.S
he
told
him
ab
ou
t h
ow
ter
rib
lysh
e w
as t
reat
ed a
nd
ho
w
mu
ch s
he
crie
d b
ecau
se s
he
was
mis
erab
lean
d t
he
do
cto
r, t
he
on
ly
per
son
wh
o h
ad b
een
kin
d t
o h
er s
ince
her
par
ents
die
d,a
sked
her
if
she
wo
uld
like
to
go
to
sch
oo
l. Ja
ne
said
yes
an
d t
he
do
cto
r p
ersu
aded
Mrs
Ree
d t
o a
gree
, wh
ich
sh
e ev
entu
ally
did
, rel
uct
antl
y. S
o, w
hen
she
was
ten
yea
rs o
ld, J
ane
wen
t to
sch
oo
l. P
erh
aps
she
was
go
ing
to
fin
d s
om
e h
app
ines
s fo
r th
e fi
rst
tim
e in
her
life
.
8
AC
TI
VI
TI
ES
Summary-based activitiesA
CT
IV
IT
IE
S
These are the activities which can be done when thereader has been completed. The aims include:• to encourage and enable the learners to feel a sense
of achievement• in fiction, to respond to the story as a whole• in non-fiction, to respond to the events, facts or ideas
presented in the book as a whole• to use new language acquired (structures and lexis) in
the skills of speaking and writing• to explore further the themes and issues of the reader • to explore intertextuality by comparing the content,
themes and issues of the reader with other texts suchas stories, films, artworks, etc.
All Black Cat readers have after-reading activities at theend of the book. In the most recent readers there is asection entitled ‘After Reading’, containing a variety ofstimulating activities and often an Internet project, and inaddition an ‘Exit Test’ on the website, which has tasks inthe format of Cambridge ESOL and Trinity test items.Less recent readers have an ‘Exit Test’ at the end of thereader. Such activities might take up a complete lesson,or provide material for autonomous study with feedbackin class (the ‘Exit Test’ could also be holiday work). In addition there are other activities a teacher can create,whose use depends on the genre and subject-matter ofthe reader, and the age, ability and personality of thelearners. They involve speaking, writing and artisticcreativity, and include:
The Word BoxThis activity was described in the section on while-reading activities (page 16). All of the variations describedthere are also useful in this phase. In addition, youngerlearners can use the words collected in the Word Box tomake their own word squares, word snakes, bingo boardsetc. Older learners can be challenged to use the wordscollected in the Word Box to make pattern poems, wherewords are arranged in a shape which suggests thesubject of a poem. They can also be challenged to takeout a number of words (between 5 and 10) and write amini-saga (50 words); this could be connected to the plotof the reader, or completely different.
Hot SeatingThis activity was described in the section on while-reading activities (page 16). For a ‘grand finale’ you canorganise a press conference. All the characters of afiction reader – even the most minor – are in the hot seats.Other class members are journalists. A variation on this isa trial or enquiry: very often in a work of fiction one of thecharacters (or more) can be ‘accused’ of something.Apart from the ‘accused’ in the hot seat, the rest of theclass can be groups of prosecution and defence lawyers,witnesses (other characters) and a jury.
Diaries and LettersThis activity was described in the section on while-reading activities (page 16). In the after-reading phase,writing tasks will focus on final diary entries, or letterssumming up the events of a book, from the point of viewof different characters, maybe including a justification ofactions and behaviour and/or resolutions or predictionsfor the future. In some cases the writing task will even bea last will and testament!
Graphic NovelsThe activity Pictures and Balloons, described in thesection on while-reading activities (page 16), focussed onthe use of just one illustration. On a larger scale, learnerscan photocopy all the illustrations in a reader and addspeech bubbles, thought clouds and captions in order tomake a graphic novel. Note that the bubbles and cloudswill contain 1st, 2nd and 3rd person references, while thecaptions will be exclusively in the 3rd person. It is theconvention in English that the captions are written in thepresent tense, although the teacher can request the useof the past tense if he/she wants particularly to practisethis form.
PostersPosters can be created by individuals or groups, in class orat home (as homework or during holidays). Display theposters on the classroom walls and encourage the learnersto view them as if they were in an art gallery (and leavethem up for as long as possible). The teacher may choose:• to give no instructions or indications which might
restrict learners’ creativity• to stipulate the size of the poster (a constraint can be
a challenge, and all the posters will be comparable inthis respect, which would make it more fair if a prizefor best poster is awarded)
• to tell learners to either ‘Design a poster showing howyou felt about the book’ or ‘Design a poster to interestsomeone who hasn’t read the book’.
The posters can be collages of illustrations (from the bookand other sources), quotations (sentences, briefexchanges of dialogue), comments, realia, hypertextuallinks, etc.: the only limit is the learners’ imagination. Variations of the poster activity are designing a new coverfor the book or a poster for a film version.
QuizzesThe teacher can make up a quiz based on WH- questionsabout any of the contents of the reader. Set a short timelimit and let groups of learners compete against eachother. Alternatively, learners can make up quizzes to ‘test’each other – but be careful: there is the risk that theymight ask about the most trivial of things in order to beatthe other team!
26
AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES
Character BuildingThis activity derives from a method used by some actorsto ‘get under the skin’ of a character. Learners decide ona character’s preferences in the following categories. Thelearners do not need to be restricted to the historicalsetting of a story: they should imagine the characterswere alive today.• Food and drink. What does the character like? For
breakfast? For dinner? What does she/he drink?• Music. What does the character like listening to? What
instrument does she/he play?• Clothes. What does the character wear every day? On
special occasions?• House and furniture. What kind of house does the
character live in? How is it decorated? What is her/hisfavourite room?
• Sports. What does the character like playing? Whatdoes she/he like watching?
• Hobbies. What does the character do in her/his freetime?
• Transport. How does the character like to travel? Ifshe/he has a car, what kind?
This activity can also be used as a while-reading activity.
AlternativesIn these writing or speaking activities learners cansuggest: • alternative titles. The class can then vote on the best
new title.• alternative endings. For example, by
– changing a happy ending into a sad ending, or vice versa
– adding an extra chapter– inventing the beginning of a sequel, which takes
place 5 or 10 or more years later.For more advanced learners, key episodes can berewritten:
– from the point of view of a character in the story– from the point of view of an uninvolved bystander– by a police officer– by a journalist (for either a sober or sensational
newspaper)– to make it sadder, happier, comic, more mysterious,
etc.
Haikus Writing a haiku can be a simple but effective way ofresponding to a story as a whole, or to one character inparticular. A haiku is a three-line poem: the first line hasfive syllables, the second has seven, and the third hasfive. The lines do not rhyme. It is easy enough to produceeven at lower levels: the following, for example, isinspired by Romeo and Juliet:
Impossible dream.Their love ended in death, butThey live forever.
Learners’ haikus can then be displayed on a wall. Notethat haikus can also be one of the elements of a poster.
DramatisationIn most of the Reading Shakespeare readers there is aplayscript provided at the end of the book, andplayscripts are found at the end of a few other readers,too, such as The Canterville Ghost. If the teacher wants todramatise all or parts of another reader, learners can workin groups on writing mini-playscripts for key episodes andthen acting them out. The ideas for creating playscriptsand performing in the Dramatisation section on pages36-37 are as useful for older learners as they are foryounger learners.
27
After-reading activities
As national educational systems seek to become morecomparable with each other (and often award credits attertiary level for external certification) and as employersincreasingly look for proof of foreign languagecompetence, learners are becoming more attracted toobtaining some kind of internationally recognisedcertification. Another attraction is that exams such asthose offered by Cambridge ESOL, Trinity and City andGuilds are linked to the levels of the Common EuropeanFramework of Reference; they therefore provide concrete,reliable evidence of language level and so motivate thoselearners who want tangible proof of their level andprogress. The levels of Black Cat readers are certainlylinked to the exam levels of internationally accreditedexamination boards (see page 3), but how can usingreaders actually help towards success in exams?It has been claimed, by Elley and Krashen among others,that reading for pleasure and reading a lot not onlyincreases vocabulary but actually leads to animprovement in all four language skills. Learners whointend to take an exam, however, also feel thepsychological need to practise the same kind of activity-types that they will need to face in the exam. Indeed,familiarity with the activity-types of a certain examcontributes to ‘test wiseness’. This is a definition of ‘testwiseness’:“A test-taking skill which enables a person to do well oncertain kinds of test by using their familiarity with thecharacteristics and formats of tests to help them guessthe correct answer. For example, in taking a readingcomprehension test based upon multiple choicequestions, a student may analyze the alternatives,eliminating unlikely choices till only one remains, and thenchoose this as the correct answer. “ (from the LongmanDictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics,1999.)Candidates for an exam consequently tend to want topractise with past papers, but although in this way theymight be testing themselves they are not necessarilylearning anything about language: teachers who haveused only past papers for exam preparation know fromexperience that ‘teaching the test’ rather than ‘teachingthe material’ is no guarantee of improving a candidate’scompetence. Furthermore, the more bland kind ofpractice material is liable to contain material of little or nointellectual interest.Black Cat readers contain activities in the pre- and while-reading phases which are in the style of the tasks in theCambridge ESOL and Trinity exams. In this way learnersmake predictions, check their comprehension, practise
using structures and vocabulary and so on, at the sametime as becoming familiar with exam-style tasks:language improvement and exam practice are catered forsimultaneously. A third element is also catered for, apartfrom language improvement and test-wiseness, and thisis fundamental to the ‘expansive reading’ approach: thecontent of the activities may well be extra informationregarding the contents of the reader, socioculturalbackground, a cross-curricular extension, details of theauthor’s life or even an extra story by the author. In thisway, learners are intellectually stimulated and also learnsomething about the world. All readers also have an exit test in the after-readingphase, which has some Cambridge ESOL and Trinity-style activities. In the most recent readers the exit test isfound on the website, while less recent readers have theexit test at the end of the reader. As a last point, it should be pointed out that the task-types of the Cambridge ESOL and Trinity exams provideperfectly valid and orthodox activities even for thoselearners not interested in taking an exam.
28
EXAM PREPARATION
Many Black Cat readers are adaptations of classic fiction,so most have been filmed, often several times. Toencourage intertextuality (see page 9) dossiers andInternet projects often focus on film versions.To check if and how often a story has been filmed, use theInternational Movie Database (www.imdb.com): you willfind lists of film versions of all classic titles. For each filmyou will also find – after the cast list, at the beginning of‘additional details’ – guidance on suitability (whether thefilm contains bad language, nudity, sex or violence).Clearly, it is always advisable to watch any film beforeusing it in class.Bear in mind that films are authentic texts, and there willbe a huge gap between the language of a reader and thelanguage of a film. DVD technology, however, offerschoices: the film in English only; the film in English withsubtitles in English or in the learners’ language; the film inthe learners’ language. The last choice is certainly apossibility if :• the learners’ level is low, and/or • the task focuses on reading or speaking in English,
and/or • the aim is enjoyment and motivation.
Using film versionsLet us begin with three standard techniques for usingshort clips of a few minutes maximum. Silent viewing (i.e. turn the volume down completely).Learners describe what they can see and/or predict whatthe characters are saying. Sound only (i.e. turn the brightness or contrast downcompletely). Learners guess what is happening (who,where and what?) from what they hear.Freeze frame (i.e. press the pause button). Learnersdescribe what they can see and hypothesise what hasjust happened and what is going to happen next.All three techniques are rather in conflict with watching afilm for pleasure. They can, however, be used asstimulating pre-reading activities to elicit vocabulary andpredictions (make sure that the clip represents a scene inthe reader!).
There are other uses during the while-reading and after-reading phases. For while-reading, choose film clips of about five to tenminutes which represent what happens in a chapter of thereader (they might last longer for higher level readers). Inthis way, you can watch the film in instalments, afterreading each chapter, like a serial. Learners’ attention canbe focused with questions like these:• Is the setting of this scene/these scenes as you
imagined when you read the chapter?
• Is character X in this scene as you imagined when youread the chapter? Think of: his/her appearance; whathe/she does; what he/she says.
• Is the action in this scene/these scenes the same ordifferent as in the chapter?
• Did anything happen in the film that didn’t happen inthe chapter? Did anything happen in the chapter thatdidn’t happen in the film?
For after-reading, you can use the whole film. Someteachers show the film in the learners’ language. Thisshouldn’t shock you too much: learners find it enjoyable,it motivates them for the next reader, and there islanguage work if the learners do some task(s) in English.You can ask questions like these:• What was your favourite scene and why? What was
your least favourite scene and why?• Which characters did you like most and least?• Did you like the beginning and ending? Were they the
same as in the reader?• What was in the film that wasn’t in the reader? What
was in the reader that wasn’t in the film?• How could the film be improved?• Write a review of the film.
Film-based activitiesHigher level learners in particular can also do activitieswhich are not about a film already scene but aboutmaking a new film version. Here are some ideas.• Invent another setting in time and place for a new film
version. Film-makers regularly create different settingsfor Shakespeare’s plays, and resetting can be done forall classic stories. Students should think of how majordetails will be adapted (e.g. places, clothes,accommodation, transport, weapons, etc.) andsuggest locations. It is often interesting to focus onthe opening of a film – before, during and after thecredits.
• Suggest a cast for a new film version. Actors from allnationalities can be included. At higher levels, learnerscan explain and justify their choices, and then debateand vote in class for the best cast.
• Suggest the soundtrack for all the film or for keyscenes. Famous film directors have used classicalmusic (e.g. Stanley Kubrick) and popular music (e.g.Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino), so learners cansuggest any kind of music they think is suitable.
• Suggest changes to a film script: what episodesand/or characters would be cut from or reduced in afilm? What might be increased or added?
• Plan a trailer or design a poster for a new filmversion.
29
FILMS AND FILM-BASED ACTIVITIES
All Green Apple and Reading and Training readers comewith an audio recording, an audio CD. The recordings areperformed dramatically, often with sound effects. Texts byBritish authors are recorded by British actors, texts byAmerican authors by American actors. Some recordings,e.g. The Canterville Ghost, contain both British andAmerican accents.Several Green Apple and Reading and Training readerscome with an audio CD-ROM, containing not only theaudio recording but extra activities in addition to thosealready in the printed book (see the Black Cat cataloguefor the titles accompanied by audio CD-ROMs.). Therecordings of the Easyread titles and of the recentEarlyreads are downloadable free of charge from theBlack Cat website.
How audio recordings helpRecordings support comprehension in several ways.Firstly, the words on the page are divided into meaningfulsyntactic units (sometimes known as ‘chunking’ or‘parsing’). What might appear to the learner as a sea ofwords on the page, e.g. “Once upon a time there was alittle boy called John who lived with his mum and dad ona farm in England”, is easier to understand when heard,e.g. “Once upon a time / there was a little boy / calledJohn / who lived / with his mum and dad / on a farm / inEngland”. Secondly, intonation makes it clear whetheraffirming, questioning, expressing doubt/surprise etc. ishappening. Thirdly, the dramatised recording shows theage and gender of speakers of dialogue, as well emotionssuch as anger, sorrow, fear, etc. In addition, recognition of the written form is helpedwhen the text is seen and heard at the same time:English, with its 44 phonemes but only 26 letters of thealphabet, can present notorious problems of lack of fitbetween spelling and pronunciation! For less ablelearners, reading fluency is practised: if learners followthe written text while listening then they must read at thepace of the recording and cannot stop at unknown wordsor go back. Without listening to the recording (or theteacher), there may be the temptation to read too slowlyand without fluency: this means that comprehensionsuffers (e.g. forgetting the beginning of a sentence) andthe fluency skill of ignoring unknown words is notpractised.Many teachers prefer to read aloud the texts themselves(after all, they know their students) but the recording isvaluable support for teachers who are not confident intheir pronunciation, and in any case it brings differentnative accents into the classroom. Exposure to different
varieties of English (including British and Americanvarieties) prepares learners for the real world.
Using audio recordingsOccasionally, there are listening comprehensionactivities as a pre-reading task: learners listen to thebeginning of the chapter, do the task, and then read tocheck their answers. But apart from these activitiesalready found in the book, playing some of the recordingbefore listening is always an option: it can be used forprediction, to listen for gist (ask WH- questions like ‘Whois speaking?’, Where/When does this take place?’, ‘Whathappens?’), or just as a change of procedure. When learners are familiar with the text, encourage themto listen again, several times, outside the classroom, topractise extensive listening and to facilitate languageacquisition. In the case of an entire class finding a readerrather easy, they can listen to a complete chapter and trythe comprehension tasks before reading, a far moredemanding procedure. A final, rather eccentric activity! To help with readingspeed some teachers do ‘shadowing’ in class. All thelearners look at the text and read aloud at the same timeas the recording, maintaining the same speed as therecording: noisy, but it can be fun!
Audio CD-ROMsIf you don’t yet know the Audio CD-ROMs, you must tryone to see how much fun they are! On each audio CD-ROM there are activities which focus on accuracy in areassuch as spelling, word order, tenses and morphology,prepositions, etc. There are also vocabulary activitiesinvolving word fields, opposites, etc. Technology meansthat language drills are presented as entertainingcomputer games. This is an advantage because youngpeople, as Marc Prensky has amusingly defined them, are‘digital natives’, willing and able to learn throughcomputer games, unlike their older teachers, the ‘digitalimmigrants’! Audio CD-ROMs can contain more thandrills, however: further reading and listening, oftenproviding cultural or cross-curricular information, iscommon. Audio CD-ROMs can be used with the whole class in thecomputer lab or in the classroom on an interactivewhiteboard, where entertainment and language practicewill go hand in glove. They can also be used for self-study at home, where almost certainly family memberswill be curious about what the learner is doing, thuscreating a link between school and home.
30
AUDIO CDs and AUDIO CD-ROMs
If audio CD-ROMs represent one use of technology thattoday’s learners, the ‘digital natives’, will enjoy and learnfrom, then another is represented by projects on the web(as they are called in the Green Apple series), or Internetprojects (as they are called in the Reading and Trainingseries), or webquests (as named by Bernie Dodge,Professor of Educational Technology at San Diego StateUniversity). In keeping with the ‘expansive reading’ approach, theseprojects direct learners to websites where they will findextra information regarding the contents of the reader,sociocultural background, cross-curricular extensions,details of the author’s life, artworks inspired by thecontents of the reader, … there are many directions.Typically, learners are given an information-finding taskand/or the instruction to find something interesting andtell the class about it. On average, there are between twoand four such projects in each reader.
Technical instructionsWhen you want to undertake a project on the web,connect to the Internet and go to www.blackcat-cideb.com. Insert the title or part of the title of the readerinto the search engine on the home page. Open the pagefor the title of the reader. Click on the Internet project link.Go down the page until you find the title of the readeragain and click on the link for the project you want to do.
Features of Internet projects On the website(s) in question the learners will usually belooking for specific information and so practising the skillof scanning, a vital skill to confront the huge amount ofinformation on the Internet. Learners often consult more than one website, whichreflects real-life use of the Internet. Whether in the computer lab or at home, learners mightwell work in pairs or small groups, so that cooperativelearning and interaction will take place. Learners are often invited to tell other members of theclass about their findings, so skills ofsummarising/synthesising are involved in an oralpresentation.
Other advantages of using the InternetThe Internet allows materials creators to go to placeswhere you can’t go in a book. All the resources ofmuseums, art galleries, film archives, national media etc.are available. Many of such sites also have educationalresources with wonderful activities already there, justwaiting to be used. The fact that all the websites to be used are accessedthrough the Black Cat website means that teachers andlearners will not waste their time with tedious searchingnor will they come across poor or undesirable material.
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USING THE INTERNET
The Earlyreads series is for young learners at primary level. Not only is the language content carefully graded, but thesubject matter and narrative styles of the readers are also suited to children. Naturally, the marvellous illustrations aredesigned to arouse children’s curiosity – and therefore guarantee interest in the story! – but they also help children tounderstand by providing support for the written text: one can follow and understand the story by looking at the pictures.The language activities are usually in the form of games – often for more than one participant – and each reader isaccompanied by a recording of the whole text, either on audio CD or downloadable at no charge from our website.There are five levels of Earlyreads, graded according to the suitability of subject matter to age group as well as by structuraland lexical criteria. The grading according to age is important: while a difference in age of four years has little meaningwhen considering the cognitive development of an adult learner, the space of four years between a five-year-old and anine-year-old involves an enormous increase in knowledge of the world and in sophistication of feeling and thought. Level 1 can be used with children who are well into their first year of English, while Level 5 represents a good elementaryability (comparable to level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference). In addition, Earlyreads can also berelated to the levels required by internationally accredited examination boards (shown in figure 2), although it should bestressed that external examination with young learners should be used for motivation, not for formal testing. Many younglearners enjoy measuring their language level against an external exam as long as the exam is presented in a non-threatening, fun form; if the result shows that they are at the level, it gives them an incentive to try to get to the next level.
StructuresSimple sentence structure is a vital consideration with young learners. Words or verb forms which are normally considered‘advanced’ can be perfectly comprehensible in context, where both the narrative and the illustrations help; reception is fareasier than production. Complex syntax, however, will always pose problems. Consequently, sentences at level 1 are simple,following the subject-verb-object form. Only at level 2 is elementary co-ordination introduced to make compound sentences,while subordination only appears at levels 4 and 5. Verb forms and other structures for each level are listed in figure 1.
32
EARLYREADS: GRADING
LEVEL 1to behave gotPresent SimpleImperativesQuestions with WH- wordsSubject and object pronounsPrepositions of place
LEVEL 2All the structures of the previous level, plus:Present Continuouscan/can’tSentence connectors and, or, butPossessive forms ’s and s’
LEVEL 3All the structures of previous levels, plus:must/mustn’tshall in interrogativeswould/wouldn’t likeAdverbs of mannerAdverbs of frequencySentence connector because
LEVEL 4All the structures of previous levels, plus:going to for future referenceComparison of adjectivesComparison of adverbsSentence connector for purpose
LEVEL 5All the structures of previous levels, plus:Past Simple of to bePast Simple of common verbswill for future referenceDefining relative clauses with who, which,
that
Another consideration, particularly relevant with young readers, is that some expressions which would be complicated ifone – foolishly! – tried to explain them using grammatical terminology are so common and obvious that they should simplybe considered as formulaic lexical items, introduced as vocabulary from an early stage. As the lexical approach has shownus, they are ‘chunks’ of language which easily make sense in context and do not need to be broken down into smallerconstituents. Some examples are ‘How are you?, ‘Don’t do that!’, ‘Here you are!’, ‘Just a moment!’, right up to completesentences such as the greeting ‘We wish you a merry Christmas!’.
Figure 1
Earlyread Suitable for University of Cambridge Trinity City & GuildsLevel age group Young Learners English Spoken English ESOL and SESOL for Young Learners
1 4-6 years Exam preparation: Starters 1 Exam preparation: Basic
2 6-8 years Exam preparation: Starters 1 Exam preparation: Basic
VocabularyThe considerations that were made about vocabulary and grading regarding the Green Apple and Reading and Trainingseries (page 6) can also be made about the vocabulary in Earlyreads. Common sense leads to the adoption of restrictedvocabulary, while still allowing the inclusion of some language which is the most colourful choice in the context of a certainreader – and which involves fun because children will relish the expression. Examples are: the use of ‘spell’ (as in ‘magicspell’) and the word ‘wicked’ in Bugaboo the Wicked Witch; ‘fang’ instead of the everyday word ‘tooth’ in Dracula and hisFamily; the expression ‘space invaders’ in Space Monsters, and the name ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in the story of the samename! Furthermore, it is important to stress that the full-colour illustrations support or ‘scaffold’ the text that is on the same page:the young learner naturally scans and ‘reads’ the illustration before listening to or reading the text, and so the expectationsof what will be in the text reduce considerably any eventual difficulties of unknown words.Numbers of headwords used in each reader have been applied in the latest generation of Earlyreads: Dorothy, The EnormousTurnip, A Trip to the Safari Park, The Ugly Duckling, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Snow White andthe Seven Dwarfs, Aesop’s Fables, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Nasreddin – TenStories. Both the numbers of words per volume and the numbers of words per page are shown in figure 3.In these readers there is a picture dictionary at the end of the book. These pages group the most significant vocabularyused in the reader into word fields. Children should not use these pages while reading the reader. They are to be used asa memory game later, when the story has been read several times.
LEVEL HEADWORDS WORDS WORDS per PAGE
Level 1 Up to 100 headwords Up to 550 Up to 50
Level 2 Up to 150 headwords Up to 700 Up to 70
Level 3 Up to 200 headwords Up to 850 Up to 85
Level 4 Up to 250 headwords Up to 1000 Up to 100
Level 5 Up to 300 headwords Up to 1200 Up to 120
Figure 3
Frequency of useMuch of the advice given on pages 11 to 13 (Fittingreaders into your teaching) is also valid for younglearners, but some variations and specific considera tionsfor this age group should be taken into account.Some of the Earlyreads are divided into chapters or parts,while others leave the stories undivided. This choicedepends on the style of the narrative. Some stories haveclear moments of climax, which obviously suggest breaksin order to create suspense, or have obvious momentswhich signal ‘end of the episode’, moments which involveconclusions such as the exit of the characters and/or theend of a period of time (e.g. the end of the day): these arethe stories that have already been divided into chaptersor parts. In the case of the readers not divided intochapters or parts, however, the teacher will easily be ableto identify moments where it is satisfactory from anarrative point of view to ‘break’ the story; a break whichwill first of all depend on how much the linguistic ability ofthe learners will allow them to manage and/or the amountof time the teacher wishes to dedicate to the reader perlesson.There are no hard and fast rules about how many lessonsa reader should take. The most important factor to takeinto consideration should be the attention span of thelearners – how long they will be interested in and enjoythe moments of reading. Clearly this will be longer if theirlanguage level is comfortably at, or higher than, the levelof the reader chosen, or shorter if their language level is alittle lower than the reader. However, not too much time(no more than a week) should pass between the use of areader, or learners will forget the plot. Many teachers allocate about 15-20 minutes of a lessonto a reader. Either they dedicate a regular appointment toa reader in one lesson per week, or – if they want greatercontact with a reader – dedicate a period of every lessonto the reader until it is finished. It is even possible to havethe children listen to a complete story in one lesson if theyare at a suitable language level and they have donesufficient preparatory activities. The performances on therecordings from Level 1 to 4 last about 9-10 minutes; atLevel 5 they last from 10 to 15 minutes.
MethodologyThe three phases of activities – pre-reading (page 15),while-reading (pages 16-17) and after-reading (pages 26-27) – are still valid for young learners, although the type ofactivity and the emphasis will differ.
Pre-reading activities with young learners areessential for arousing interest and for motivating them towant to read/listen to the story. A simple but effectivestrategy is to elicit ideas about the cover illustration andto use this illustration to input some key vocabulary. Other
illustrations from inside the reader can be used in this wayas well. The teacher can, indeed, look through all of theillustrations in the reader together with the children.
The first telling of the story can take place in one oftwo main ways. One will involve the learners following the illustrations inthe readers while they listen to the text: the focus isexclusively on understanding meaning (never onproduction or on language work at this stage) and so theyoung learners should listen to the story andsimultaneously ‘read’ the pictures. Playing the recordingsto the children while they follow the illustrations is anattractive procedure: the recordings are dramaticreadings of the story, and often sound effects areincluded as well. However, a teacher who is confident ofher/his pronunciation and intonation may prefer to readthe story aloud, as in this way the reading pace can beadjusted perfectly to the children’s level. In this case,she/he should use different voices for different charactersand a normal voice for the narrative, and use gestures toemphasise meaning. In either case, the teacher willmonitor that pupils are looking at the right illustrations,making sure they turn over the pages when necessary.The other way is for a teacher who has dramatic abilitynot to use the book the first time. She/he dramatises thestory for the children, using different voices for differentcharacters, gestures to emphasise meaning and mime toact out events in the story. As the story progresses,children should be encouraged to imitate the gestures foractions and events that are repeated.
While-reading activities should be kept short andsimple with young learners: we do not want too muchdelay before going on with an exciting story. Often one ortwo specific prediction questions asked spontaneouslyby the teacher are enough. Some of the readers that are divided into chapters orparts have while-reading activities, which generallyinclude a brief comprehension check on what hashappened so far, as well as ‘pictionaries’ (i.e. picturedictionaries) of relevant vocabulary before the nextchapter/part.
After-reading activities are important because theyallow children to react to what they have read and topractise using the language presented in the reader. All theEarlyreads have a selection of activities at the back of thebook, all of which are lavishly illustrated. There are someactivities that check comprehension of the story, but mostof the activities are language games featuring charactersor elements in the story, which the children have alreadybecome familiar with. The game-based methodologyadopted in all of the primary readers makes use of triedand tested activity types, popular with children andteachers alike, which are listed on the next page. You willsurely recognise your favourites among them!
34
EARLYREADS: GUIDELINES FOR USE
• crosswords with visual and/or verbal clues• word squares• word mazes• colouring by numbers• reordering scrambled letters, words and sentences• matching and ordering based on listening input• finding characters and/or things in pictures• spot the differences between two pictures• illustrations to label• joining the dots• board games• following instructions to make things (e.g. puppets, etc.)• picture clozes• decoding the hidden message• songs and rhymes.
Games to be played again and again, such as boardgames, are particularly useful as they entice children toreturn to the book.Picture dictionaries at the back of the readers can beexploited in a couple of ways. Children or teachers orparents can simply put their fingers over the words anduse the pictures as a prompt to remember the words. Thepages can also be photocopied, stuck on card, and cutup so that separate tiles for words and pictures arecreated. Children can then use the tiles to play thevocabulary game of ‘memory’.In addition to the language-based activities alreadyprovided, making a drawing of an event or favouritecharacter in the reader and labelling it/her/him, or evenmaking a larger illustration or poster representing thecomplete story, is an enjoyable creative activity. It can bedone by every pupil after finishing any reader, and thisentirely personal reaction involves artistic and fine motorskills. If the teacher wants the pupils to express a personalopinion on each of the readers used in class, use can bemade of ‘smiley faces’ A. Each pupil can assign frombetween 1 to 5 ‘smiley faces’ to each reader. This can bedone either by the children drawing the faces themselvesor by using stickers prepared by the teacher. The facescan be put next to the title of each reader either onindividual record cards kept by each pupil, or on a wallchart that shows the opinion of whole class. The wallchart should have the names of the children down theleft-hand vertical axis and the names of the readers alongthe top horizontal axis.
Subsequent readings increase the linguistic benefitsof using readers, as the children subconsciously acquirethe new language and make it their own. Further readingscan take place in class, with the teacher; in class,individually; outside the class, individually; outside theclass, with parents.
There are various ways of rereading books with theteacher. With those readers where there is both narrativeand speech bubbles the teacher can read the narrativepart and the children can read aloud, chorally, the speechbubbles. With other kinds of readers the teacher caninvite the learners to repeat, chorally, instances of directspeech. Dramatisation is dealt with on pages 36-37. Quiet periods when the pupils all read silently andindividually (sometimes known as ERIC, ‘everyonereading in class’) means that each child can read ather/his own pace, and has the advantage of varying therhythm of the class, providing a quieter moment in theclassroom.Children should be encouraged to read books on theirown, outside school time. They can listen to the audiorecordings while they follow the story. They can simplylisten or listen and speak along with the recording; thischoice can be left to each individual child.If children want to share their enjoyment of reading withparents, this should be encouraged. Where one or bothparents know English the situation is ideal, but this is notoften the case. Parents who do not know English shouldexpress interest if their children want to tell them a story,and praise them. Something parents should not do – eventhough it is a great temptation – is to ask the children totranslate the story. This is counter productive to thecommunicative approach promoted by the readers, andalso seems too much like ‘testing’.
35
Earlyreads: guidelines for use
The following guidelines refer to dramatisation at primaryschool, but they are applicable also to secondary andhigher contexts.As an alternative to dramatisation – or a preparation for it– the teacher has the option of getting the class to do oralreading. This procedure, which presupposes that thelearners are able to read words on the page, involves thelearners reading expressively a playscript of the story (forplayscripts, see below). The benefits of oral reading arethat it is fun and that, because the reading must beexpressive, it favours comprehension. It is different fromdramatisation because physical gestures and use ofcostumes, props and so on are not required. It does,however, work better if the learners are standing togetherrather than sitting in their places. By dramatisation we mean anything from a 10-minuteactivity in class to a full-scale performance on stagebefore an audience of other pupils and parents. Beforeproceeding to a full-scale performance it is necessary tointroduce drama to the pupils in short doses. It goeswithout saying that pupils should be very familiar with astory – or part of a story – before dramatising it. Manyteachers will be happy with just doing short dramaactivities, as a performance requires considerably morepreparation. However, as the preparation for aperformance involves a lot of cross-curricular work (artand handicraft, music, motor activities) it can be a verysatisfying project.Bear in mind that many drama activities – and manymoments in a full-scale performance – do not necessarilyinvolve words. Young learners can mime practically anyaction that is described in a story: walking, running,sleeping, getting up, tasting, eating, drinking, dancing,swimming, and so on. Physical states and states of mindand feelings can also be mimed: being tired, surprised,afraid, bored, happy or sad, and so on. If you combineactions with physical and emotional states a lot of mimingcan take place, which dramatises the story but does notrequire the children to speak. For example, all the actionsand feelings of the pupils in The Mad Teacher can bemimed.
For dramatisation with speaking, you need to create aplayscript: what lines will the children speak? Somereaders are already in the form of scripts: The CantervilleGhost, Dracula and his Family, Frankenstein at School,Freddy Finds the Thief and The Jungle Book. In otherreaders the lines of direct speech (or the speech bubblesfrom the pictures) can be used for the parts of characters,while the narrative can be distributed among variousnarrators. The latest generation of Earlyreads, such asDorothy, The Enormous Turnip, A Trip to the Safari Park,The Ugly Duckling, Little Red Riding Hood; Cinderella,The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,Aesop’s Fables, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin,
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Nasreddin – Ten Stories,are accompanied by playscripts downloadable free fromthe Black Cat website. These playscripts are in WORDformat, so that the teacher can edit them and customisethem for her/his class. If there are not enough roles foreveryone, decide if any roles could be spoken by a chorusof children, or if the numbers of minor characters could beincreased. But, in any case, when it comes to theperforming of the playscript, try to act out the same pieceseveral times, changing the actors so that everyone has aturn.
Stories and parts of stories can also be dramatised usingpuppets. It is easy for children to make finger puppetswith washable felt-tip pens, strips of paper, scissors andsticky tape. They draw the face of a character on theirforefingers, and with the strips of paper can add a hat ora skirt. (There are instructions on page 20 of Frankensteinat School.) More elaborately, puppets can be made out ofmaterials such as toilet roll tubes or empty drink cartons.The use of puppets makes it easy for the class to split intosmall groups, with each pupil a character, and do theirdramatisation while the teacher moves around monitoringthem.If the pupils themselves are the characters, rather thanpuppets, then an extra dramatic touch can be added byusing masks and costumes. There are instructions andmaterials for making a double mask on the cut-out pagesin the middle of Two Monsters, but a mask is easily made.A simple strip of paper around the head with the additionof paper ears is often enough to create animals ormonsters. To this can be added a false nose (cardboardand a strip of elastic to go around the back of the head).A full face mask involves only a piece of face-shapedcardboard, appropriately coloured and with holes for themouth and eyes, held in place by a strip of elastic goingaround the back of the head. Costumes do not need to beelaborate or complete: a scarf, a hat, a piece of materialthat represents a cloak or a skirt or some such garment isoften enough to distinguish a character. Props are the objects that characters in the drama use.They could be everyday objects (e.g. a pen, a knife andfork, etc.) or unusual objects (e.g. a magic wand, a sword,etc.), but all of them can either be found at home orschool or can easily be made.The scenery is the representation of an environment thatwe imagine on the stage area. Scenery may not benecessary at all – very often an empty space is the mostsuitable option. Or, at its very simplest, it will probably besome classroom chairs and desks, which may be quiteliterally somewhere to sit or put things on, or mightrepresent houses, trees, river banks, and so on. Only inthe most elaborate performance would it be necessary tocreate a backdrop (a painted background), which wouldbe a long-term art and handicraft project in itself.
36
DRAMATISATION
Sound effects both make a performance more dramaticand are a way of involving all of the children. There arefive kinds. • Sounds we make to express feelings and reactions,
such as: – gasps of surprise (Oh!) or horror (Aagh!)– sighs expressing sadness or ‘romance’– cheers (Hurray!) expressing exultation or approval– the sounds yum yum! or mmm! to express
appreciation of food– the sound ha ha ha! for laughter.
Sounds such as these can be made by individuals or by achorus commenting on the action. • Sounds we make with our mouths to imitate noises in
the world, which are written down as onomatopoeicwords, such as: – bang, boom, crash, pop, splash, glug glug (liquid
pouring, or greedy drinking!), slurp (drinking noisily),screech (e.g. the sudden application of brakes),swish (e.g. the noise grass makes in the wind),squelch (e.g. walking in mud), crunch (e.g. biting orbreaking biscuits or crisps... or even breakingbones!), etc.
– the noises made by animals, including bow wow! orwoof woof! (dog), miaow! (cat), moo (cow), cock-a-doodle do! (cockerel), etc.
– Children are often interested in onomatopoeic words(they find them all the time in comics!), and thedifferent spellings from language to language(particularly for animal noises) arouse curiosity.
• Sounds we can make with objects or parts of ourbodies to imitate other sounds, for example shaking asheet of metal to imitate thunder, or drumming ourfingers rhythmically to imitate a horse galloping.
• ‘Real life’ sounds that we can replicate, for example adoor slamming or a plate breaking. Even though theseare the most realistic, they are possibly the ones weuse least – both for practical reasons and because theother ways are more ‘fun’!
• Music, either played live by the children or recorded.
For staging a full-scale performance the followingchecklist will be useful.• Is the script suitable? (Not too long, not too short, not
too difficult, not too easy.)• Who is going to play which part?• Are there enough parts (characters, narrators, non-
speaking extras) for everyone? If not, can other non-speaking roles be created? (Inmany stories there could be a number of extracharacters – children, animals, passers-by, etc. – whodo not speak but are involved in the action.)
• Define the stage and audience area. Can all the audience see and hear?
• Where do actors come in and go out? • Where do they wait when they are not on stage? • Where is the audience? Are they sitting or standing?
Can they all see and hear?• What costumes (and masks) and props are needed?• What scenery is needed? Will some things have to be
made? Who will make them?• Do you want any sound effects?• Is it possible to include singing or dancing?
This gives everybody something to do. Songs and dances also provide moments that can beappreciated by any non-English speakers in theaudience (e.g. parents).
• Do you want to advertise the performance? If so,design posters, invitations, etc.
• Do you want to record the performance? If so, who will do this?
• If you have recorded the performance, do you want topost it anywhere (e.g. on the school website or on asocial networking site)?
• If there are any non-English speakers in the audience(e.g. parents, teachers of other classes) you may wantto create a short ‘Prologue’ in the learners’ mothertongue explaining the plot, so that everyone can followthe action. (In a tri- or plurilingual context, there couldeven be several prologues in more than one language.)
37
Dramatisation
READING DIARY
Title of book: .......................................................................................... Author: ...........................................................
What is the setting: where and when do the events take place?
Who seems to be the main character? What can you say about him/her? For example, age, job, position in society,character, etc.
Are there any other characters? What can you say about them? What is the relationship between the characters? Forexample, are they family, friends, enemies, etc.?
What happens? And, why and how does it happen? For example, do the characters choose to do something, or doessomething happen outside the control of the characters?
What is your reaction so far? For example, are you interested, surprised, bored, intrigued? Do you like or dislike thecharacter(s)?
What do you think will happen next?
Chapter / Part 2
Is the setting the same, or has it changed?
Are any other characters introduced? If so, who are they, and what are they like? Do they seem more important thanthe previous character(s)?
Have the previous characters changed in any way? Do we learn anything new about them?
What happens? And, why and how does it happen?
What is your reaction so far? For example, are you interested, surprised, bored, intrigued? Do you still have the sameopinion about the main character and other characters?
How does the book end? What happens to bring about the ending?
What is your reaction? Do you think the ending is satisfactory, surprising, exciting, predictable, disappointing, etc.?Have your opinions about the characters and events changed in any way?
Can you think of an alternative ending?
40
Review
What happens in the book? Write a short summary in about 50 words.
Which character(s) did you like best? Why?
Which part of the book (a chapter or a short episode) did you like best? Why?
Which illustration in the book did you like best? Why?
For a film version of this book, which actors would you choose?
Is the book similar to any other books you have read, or films you have seen?
Were there dossier sections in the book? What is the most interesting thing you learnt?
I would / wouldn’t recommend this book to a friend because…
I can understand familiar wordsand very basic phrasesconcerning myself, my family andimmediate concrete surroundingswhen people speak slowly andclearly.
I can understand familiar names,words and very simplesentences, for example onnotices and posters or incatalogues.
I can interact in a simple wayprovided the other person isprepared to repeat or rephrasethings at a slower rate of speechand help me formulate what I’mtrying to say. I can ask andanswer simple questions in areasof immediate need or on veryfamiliar topics.
I can use simple phrases andsentences to describe where Ilive and people I know.
I can write a short, simplepostcard, for example sendingholiday greetings. I can fill informs with personal details, forexample entering my name,nationality and address on a hotelregistration form.
A2
I can understand phrases and thehighest frequency vocabularyrelated to areas of mostimmediate personal relevance(e.g. very basic personal andfamily information, shopping,local area, employment). I cancatch the main point in short,clear, simple messages andannouncements.
I can read very short, simple texts.I can find specific, predictableinformation in simple everydaymaterial such as advertisements,prospectuses, menus andtimetables and I can understandshort simple personal letters.
I can communicate in simple androutine tasks requiring a simpleand direct exchange ofinformation on familiar topics andactivities. I can handle very shortsocial exchanges, even though Ican’t usually understand enoughto keep the conversation goingmyself.
I can use a series of phrases andsentences to describe in simpleterms my family and otherpeople, living conditions, myeducational background and mypresent or most recent job.
I can write short, simple notesand messages. I can write a verysimple personal letter, forexample thanking someone forsomething.
B1
I can understand the main pointsof clear standard speech onfamiliar matters regularlyencountered in work, school,leisure, etc. I can understand themain point of many radio or TVprogrammes on current affairs ortopics of personal or professionalinterest when the delivery isrelatively slow and clear.
I can understand texts thatconsist mainly of high frequencyeveryday or job-related language.I can understand the descriptionof events, feelings and wishes inpersonal letters.
I can deal with most situationslikely to arise whilst travelling inan area where the language isspoken. I can enter unpreparedinto conversation on topics thatare familiar, of personal interestor pertinent to everyday life (e.g.family, hobbies, work, travel andcurrent events).
I can connect phrases in a simpleway in order to describeexperiences and events, mydreams, hopes and ambitions. Ican briefly give reasons andexplanations for opinions andplans. I can narrate a story orrelate the plot of a book or filmand describe my reactions.
I can write simple connected texton topics which are familiar or ofpersonal interest. I can writepersonal letters describingexperiences and impressions.
42
THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCESELF-ASSESSMENT GRID
Listening
Reading
SpokenInteraction
SpokenProduction
Writing
UNDERSTANDING
SPEAKING
WRITING
B2
I can understand extended speech andlectures and follow even complex lines ofargument provided the topic isreasonably familiar. I can understandmost TV news and current affairsprogrammes. I can understand themajority of films in standard dialect.
I can read articles and reportsconcerned with contemporaryproblems in which the writers adoptparticular attitudes or viewpoints. I canunderstand contemporary literaryprose.
I can interact with a degree of fluencyand spontaneity that makes regularinteraction with native speakers quitepossible. I can take an active part indiscussion in familiar contexts,accounting for and sustaining myviews.
I can present clear, detaileddescriptions on a wide range ofsubjects related to my field of interest.I can explain a viewpoint on a topicalissue giving the advantages anddisadvantages of various options.
I can write clear, detailed text on awide range of subjects related to myinterests. I can write an essay orreport, passing on information orgiving reasons in support of or againsta particular point of view. I can writeletters highlighting the personalsignificance of events andexperiences.
C1
I can understand extended speecheven when it is not clearly structuredand when relationships are onlyimplied and not signalled explicitly. Ican understand television programmesand films without too much effort.
I can understand long and complexfactual and literary texts, appreciatingdistinctions of style. I can understandspecialised articles and longertechnical instructions, even when theydo not relate to my field.
I can express myself fluently andspontaneously without much obvioussearching for expressions. I can uselanguage flexibly and effectively forsocial and professional purposes. I canformulate ideas and opinions withprecision and relate my contributionskilfully to those of other speakers.
I can present clear, detaileddescriptions of complex subjectsintegrating sub-themes, developingparticular points and rounding off withan appropriate conclusion.
I can express myself in clear, well-structured text, expressing points ofview at some length. I can write aboutcomplex subjects in a letter, an essayor a report, underlining what I considerto be the salient issues. I can select astyle appropriate to the reader in mind.
C2
I have no difficulty in understandingany kind of spoken language, whetherlive or broadcast, even when deliveredat fast native speed, provided I havesome time to get familiar with theaccent.
I can read with ease virtually all formsof the written language, includingabstract, structurally or linguisticallycomplex texts such as manuals,specialised articles and literary works.
I can take part effortlessly in anyconversation or discussion and have agood familiarity with idiomaticexpressions and colloquialisms. I canexpress myself fluently and convey finershades of meaning precisely. If I do havea problem I can backtrack and restructurearound the difficulty so smoothly thatother people are hardly aware of it.
I can present a clear, smoothly-flowingdescription or argument in a styleappropriate to the context and with aneffective logical structure which helpsthe recipient to notice and remembersignificant points.
I can write clear, smoothly-flowing textin an appropriate style. I can writecomplex letters, reports or articleswhich present a case with an effectivelogical structure which helps therecipient to notice and remembersignificant points. I can writesummaries and reviews of professionalor literary works.
43
The Common European Framework of Reference
UNDERSTANDING
SPEAKING
WRITING
C2 Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summariseinformation from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing argumentsand accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously,very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in morecomplex situations.
C1 Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicitmeaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without muchobvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively forsocial, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured,detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisationalpatterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
B2 Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstracttopics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interactwith a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with nativespeakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailedtext on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue givingthe advantages and disadvantages of various options.
B1 Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularlyencountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely toarise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simpleconnected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describeexperiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons andexplanations for opinions and plans.
A2 Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas ofmost immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information,shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routinetasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routinematters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediateenvironment and matters in areas of immediate need.
A1 Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrasesaimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herselfand others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as wherehe/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simpleway provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
44
The Common European Framework of Reference
GLOBAL SCALE
Proficient User
Independent User
Basic User
OVERALL READING COMPREHENSION
C2 Can understand and interpret critically virtually all forms of the written language including abstract,structurally complex, or highly colloquial literary and non-literary writings.Can understand a wide range of long and complex texts, appreciating subtle distinctions of style andimplicit as well as explicit meaning.
C1 Can understand in detail lengthy, complex texts, whether or not they relate to his/her own area of speciality,provided he she can reread difficult sections.
B2 Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts andpurposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively. Has a broad active reading vocabulary, butmay experience some difficulty with low-frequency idioms.
B1 Can read straightforward factual texts on subjects related to his/her field and interest with a satisfactorylevel of comprehension.
A2 Can understand short, simple texts on familiar matters of a concrete type which consists of high frequencyeveryday or job-related language.Can understand short, simple texts containing the highest frequency vocabulary, including a proportion ofshared international vocabulary items.
A1 Can understand very short, simple texts a single phrase at a time, picking up familiar names, words andbasic phrases and rereading as required.
READING FOR ORIENTATION
C2 As B2
C1 As B2
B2 Can scan quickly through long and complex texts, locating relevant details.Can quickly identify the content and relevance of news items, articles and reports on a wide range ofprofessional topics, deciding whether close study is worthwhile.
B1 Can scan longer texts in order to locate desired information, and gather information from different parts ofa text, or from different texts in order to fulfil a specific task.Can find and understand relevant information in everyday material, such as letters, brochures and shortofficial documents.
A2 Can find specific, predictable information in simple everyday material such as advertisements,prospectuses, menus, reference lists and timetables.Can locate specific information in lists and isolate the information required (e.g. use the Yellow Pages to finda service or a tradesman).Can understand everyday signs and notices: in public places, such as streets, restaurants, railway stations;in workplaces, such as directions, instructions, hazard warnings.
A1 Can recognise familiar names, words and very basic phrases on simple notices in the most commoneveryday situations.
45
The Common European Framework of Reference
EARLYREADS
Level 1DorothyThe Enormous TurnipA Trip to the Safari ParkThe Ugly Duckling
Level 2Little Red Riding HoodThe Mad TeacherMowgli Learns to Swim
Level 3Bugaboo the Wicked WitchCinderellaThe Jungle BookThe Little MermaidMonster in the Box
Level 4Aesop’s FablesDracula and his FamilyFrankenstein at SchoolFreddy Finds the ThiefThe Magic Computer MousePuss in BootsSleeping BeautySpace MonstersChristmas FunFestivals!A Halloween Party
Level 5AladdinAli Baba and the Forty ThievesThe Canterville GhostNasreddin: Ten StoriesSnow White and the Seven DwarfsTwo MonstersZed the Magician
EASYREADS
Level 1Castles and KnightsThe Story of ChocolateThe Story of CoffeeThe Story of FootballWolves
Level 2The Life and Times of Captain CookThe Life and Times of ShakespeareThe Story of Big CitiesThe Story of Moving PicturesThe Story of Popular MusicThe Story of TeaThe Story of the Olympic GamesVikings
GREEN APPLE
StarterAlice’s Adventures in WonderlandBathsheba the WitchBeauty and the BeastBlack BeautyFive Children and ItThe Ghost Ship of Bodega BayHalloween HorrorHappy Prince
and The Selfish Giant (The)The Jungle BookThe NutcrackerPeter PanSandokanThe Secret GardenSecret of the Stones (The)Tempest (The)Wind in the Willows (The)
Wonderful Wizard of Oz (The)Zorro!
Step 1Adventures of Tom Sawyer (The)American Folk TalesAmerican West (The)Black Arrow (The)Bottle Imp (The)British and American FestivitiesDavy CrockettGhastly Ghosts!Great ExpectationsHalloween… Magic, Witches
and VampiresJason and the ArgonautsLegends from the British IslesLittle WomenMystery in San FranciscoPrince and the Pauper (The)Railway Children (The)Red Pony (The)Rip Van Winkle
and The Legend of Sleepy HollowRobinson CrusoeSherlock Holmes and the Red CircleTrue Story of Pocahontas (The)
Step 2Adventures of Huckleberry FinnCall of the Wild (The)David CopperfieldGreat English Monarchs and their TimesKing Arthur and his KnightsOliver TwistOscar Wilde’s Short StoriesRobin HoodTreasure IslandWhite Fang
46
INDEX OF BLACK CAT TITLES
GREEN APPLE Drama
Step 2MacbethRomeo and Juliet
READING AND TRAINING
Step OneAlien Alert in SeattleHome for ChristmasMiami Police File: the O’Nell CaseMissing in SydneySherlock Holmes StoriesTales from the Thousand
and One NightsTristan and Isolde
Step TwoAlice’s Adventures in WonderlandAnimal TalesAround the World in Eighty DaysA Dream Come TrueFisherman and his Soul (The)HamletJumping Frog (The)KidnappedLost World (The)Magical Tales from the South SeasMurder at Coyote CanyonMutiny on the Bounty (The)Rajah’s Diamond (The)Ransom of Red Chief
and Other Stories (The)Secret Garden (The)Stories of Ghosts and Mysteries
Step Three£ 1,000,000 Bank Note (The)Canterville Ghost (The)
Classic Detective StoriesDiamond as Big as The Ritz (The)Great Mysteries of Our WorldGulliver’s TravelsHound of the Baskervilles (The)Jane EyreJulius CaesarKimLord Arthur Savile’s Crime
and Other StoriesMoonfleetOf Mice and MenPearl (The)Phantom of the Opera (The)Prisoner of Zenda (The)Return of Sherlock Holmes (The)Romeo and JulietScarlet Pimpernel (The)Sherlock Holmes InvestigatesStories of SuspenseStrange Case of Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde (The)Tales of the SupernaturalThree Men in a BoatTreasure IslandTrue Adventure StoriesTwelfth Night
Step FourAmerican HorrorBeowulfCanterbury Tales (The)Christmas Carol (A)Daisy MillerDraculaFamous British CriminalsHouse of Seven Gables (The)Jack the Ripper
Last of the Mohicans (The)MacbethMerchant of Venice (The)Midsummer Night’s Dream (A)Moby DickMoonstone (The)Morte d’Arthur (Le)Much Ado About NothingOthelloSecret Agent (The)Sign of Four (The)Study in Scarlet (A)Tom JonesTragedy of Dr Faustus (The)Turn of the Screw (The)Valley of Fear (The)Washington SquareWicked and Humorous TalesWoman in White (The)
Step FiveAge of Innocence (The)EmmaFrankensteinGothic Short StoriesGrapes of Wrath (The)Great ExpectationsGreat Gatsby (The)Heart of DarknessJane EyreMiddlemarchMurders in the Rue Morgue
and The Purloined Letter (The)PamelaPassage to India (A)PersuasionPicture of Dorian Gray (The)Portrait of a Lady (The)
47
Index of Black Cat titles
Pride and PrejudiceProblem of Cell 13 (The)Robinson CrusoeScarlet Letter (The)Sense and SensibilitySons and LoversTale of Two Cities (A)Taming of the Shrew (The)Tess of the D’UrbervillesVanity FairWuthering Heights
Step SixMill on the Floss (The)Silas MarnerWuthering Heights
READING & TRAININGDiscoveryStep OneGreat British Writers
Step TwoNatural Environments
Step ThreeAmerican Cities
READING & TRAININGProfessionalStep TwoBusiness Communication
Step ThreeBusiness Issues
Step FourBusiness Environment
INTERACT WITH LITERATUREAmazing CharactersBonds of LoveIdeal Husband (An)Importance of Being Earnest (The)Mind the CharactersRelationshipsSplintering Frame (The)Stranger than FictionSweet and SourTales to Talk AboutTen Women Ten StoriesVoices from InsideWidening HorizonsWorld of Difference (A)Worlds Apart
READING CLASSICSBrave New WorldChristmas Carol (A)Detective StoriesDublinersDubliners – A selection fromEmpire TalesFour ContinentsFox (The)FrankensteinGood Soldier (The)Great Gatsby (The)Heart of DarknessImportance of Being Earnest (The)Look Back in AngerMrs DallowayPassage to India (A)Picture of Dorian Gray (The)PygmalionRoom with a View (A)Selected Stories (Poe)
Seven Short Stories (Mansfield)Short Stories
(Dickens, Stevenson et al.)Short Stories (Wilde)Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde (The)To the LighthouseTurn of the Screw (The)Waiting for Godot
