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ESOL Online. Every child literate - a shared responsibility.
Ministry of Education.

Learning task 2

Reading Goldfish

Prepare the students to read the story Goldfish (PM Readers, Orange 2).

Bring a goldfish to the classroom if possible. Ask students:

  • Do children in your home country have fish as pets?
  • What are they like?
  • What is on the front of this book?
  • What does this fish looks like?

Build on the students' vocabulary, for example fins, gills, tail, goldfish tank, goldfish pool, fish tank, snails, air, colours.

Model descriptive sentence structure, such as generic nouns and simple present tense verbs (goldfish have/ do not have - note that 'goldfish' does not follow the general rule for forming plurals). Do a KWLchart (Word 34KB) exercise on goldfish, writing the knowledge and questions on a chart, or on the board for students to copy.

Read the story. Model how to answer the questions at the bottom of the pages before turning the page to find the answer. If the students answer incorrectly, direct them back to where they can find the answer. During the reading refer to the questions on the KWL chart and confirm their prior knowledge. After reading, together write the answers to any questions on the chart that were answered.

Give the students a picture of a goldfish with four boxes around it. Put a fact about goldfish in each box, as you do this explain what a 'fact' is. Do this together as a model for more independent work. In pairs label the parts of a fish.

Describe what the term labelling means.

Gathering and recording information

Review the facts about goldfish. Read a big book such as Spiders by Colin Walker (Wonderland). Photocopy a short part of the text (remember copyright laws) and give the students practice in highlighting the facts. The students read the text again and record their facts, completing the reading tasks:

  1. Read the book 2 times and write the name of the book on your reading chart.
  2. Write 5 things you have learned about this animal.
  3. Draw a picture of the animal in his home.
  4. Label the parts of the animal.

Provide a wealth of other reading material appropriate to the ESOL students' reading level. It is very useful to play an audio version of the books, especially the more difficult texts. For example:

  • Living Together and That's Us by Jo Windsor (Heinemann Sails Early 2). PM animal books (orange level).
  • What is a Monkey? What is a Butterfly? What is a Bee? (Sunshine books, orange 3).

Further activities

  • Create and play the game What am I (Word 1MB) .
  • Complete an InteractiveCloze (Word 31KB) .
  • Draw the animal in its home/enclosure (refer to the technology unit Animal Shelters).
  • Answer questions:
    • Where does this animal live?
    • What does the animal eat?
  • Listen to listening post stories with tapes and activities.
  • Make a papier-mache animal.

Published on: 09 Jan 2018




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