Reading can serve many
different purposes: spotting some information we are looking for, catching up on
the latest news, pleasure, summarising a long text for someone, translating for
someone and so on. I am a firm believer in reading extensively as it is the
best way of reinforcing words and grammatical or syntactical patterns.
But where would we be if
we didn’t focus from time to time? Our students need to be slowed down while
reading and be challenged about how much they retain which they would be able
to produce in the course of time.
There are, of course,
various ways of slowing the students down, and here is one I would like to
elaborate on this time.
I sometimes give my
students extracts from fiction and if this means a few pages, it is not
practically possible or even desirable to parse every single sentence in the
extract. However, if or when this applies we could pick out some descriptive
pieces and draw or find some images corresponding to them.
I am not artistic myself,
which means I have to rely on what is available on the internet or toil on
PowerPoint! But for the lucky ones who are gifted, this could be done on the
board or on a flip chart as the reading takes place and would feel more
authentic than providing a ready image on the computer screen.
One could even
begin to draw part of it and gradually add to it as the need arises, making the
task even more demanding.
I suggest that the teacher
assigns the reading of a couple of pages and asks the students at the end of
their reading to underline the line(s) or phrase which is depicted in the
image.
For the sake of
illustration, I will provide some examples from sundry sources.
The first extract is from
Wilkie Collins The Woman in White:
… two or
three passengers who were late were clustering round the small opening through
which the tickets were issued. …
The second extract is from
Christopher Paolini’s The Eldest:
Inside the
workshop was lit by a single candle which cast a trembling glow over the ring
of faces that hovered about it in the surrounding darkness.
And the third one comes
from Eduardo Mendoza’s An Englishman in Madrid:
… The
signature was a florid scrawl …
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